[Raquel Tavares->https://lbbe.univ-lyon1.fr/-Tavares-Raquel-.html] (team "[Sexe and Evolution->https://lbbe.univ-lyon1.fr/-Equipe-Sexe-et-Evolution-.html]") last paper, entitled "Fungal Infection Induces Sex-Specific Transcriptional Changes and Alters Sexual Dimorphism in the Dioecious Plant Silene latifolia", and co-authored by Niklaus Zemp, Raquel Tavares, and Alex Widmer makes the [cover of PloS Genetics->http://www.plosgenetics.org/article/browse/issue#cover] this month.
Here is the article summary with the cover:
Sexual dimorphism, including differences in morphology, behavior and physiology between females and males, is shaped by gene expression differences between the sexes. These may also underlie sex-specific responses to pathogen infections, most notably when pathogens induce a sex change in infected hosts. The anther smut fungus Micobrotryum lychnidis-dioicae infects females and males of White Campion and induces a partial sex change in females such that they produce rudimentary stamen in which fungal spores develop. In this article, the authors report sex-specific transcriptomic changes upon smut infection and show that these changes also alter sexual dimorphism in White Campion.