Interlayer exciton formation, relaxation, and transport in TMD van der Waals heterostructures

Van der Waals (vdW) heterostructures based on transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) generally possess a type-II band alignment that facilitates the formation of interlayer excitons between constituent monolayers. Manipulation of the interlayer excitons in TMD vdW heterostructures holds great promise for the development of excitonic integrated circuits that serve as the counterpart of electronic integrated circuits, which allows the photons and excitons to transform into each other and thus bridges optical communication and signal processing at the integrated circuit. As a consequence, numerous studies have been carried out to obtain deep insight into the physical properties of interlayer excitons, including revealing their ultrafast formation, long population recombination lifetimes, and intriguing spin-valley dynamics. These outstanding properties ensure interlayer excitons with good transport characteristics, and may pave the way for their potential applications in efficient excitonic devices based on TMD vdW heterostructures. At present, a systematic and comprehensive overview of interlayer exciton formation, relaxation, transport, and potential applications is still lacking. In this review, we give a comprehensive description and discussion of these frontier topics for interlayer excitons in TMD vdW heterostructures to provide valuable guidance for researchers in this field.

Natural selection and the advantage of recombination

The ubiquity of recombination (and sex) in nature has defied explanation since the time of Darwin1–4. Conditions that promote the evolution of recombination, however, are well-understood and arise when genomes contain more selectively mismatched combinations of alleles across loci than can be explained by chance alone. Recombination remedies this across-loci imbalance by shuffling alleles across individuals. The great difficulty in explaining the ubiquity of recombination in nature lies in identifying a source of this imbalance that is comparably ubiquitous. Here, we look to natural selection itself as a possible source of pervasive imbalance, with the rationale that the ubiquity of natural selection approximates the ubiquity of sex and recombination in nature. Natural selection is fed by heritable variation which may be produced by any number of factors, such as drift, founder effects, migration and mutation. We ask how natural selection, acting on this variation, affects the across-loci imbalance and hence the evolutionary potential of recombination. Remarkably, we find that the effect of natural selection is to always promote the evolution of recombination, on average, independently of the source of the variation that feeds it. We show this is true for both across- and within-population recombination. Our findings suggest that recombination evolved and is maintained more as an unavoidable byproduct of natural selection than as a catalyst.

Pervasive prophage recombination occurs during evolution of spore-forming Bacilli

Phages are the main source of within-species bacterial diversity and drivers of horizontal gene transfer, but we know little about the mechanisms that drive genetic diversity of these mobile genetic elements (MGEs). Recently, we showed that a sporulation selection regime promotes evolutionary changes within SPβ prophage of Bacillus subtilis, leading to direct antagonistic interactions within the population. Herein, we reveal that under a sporulation selection regime, SPβ recombines with low copy number phi3Ts phage DNA present within the B. subtilis population. Recombination results in a new prophage occupying a different integration site, as well as the spontaneous release of virulent phage hybrids. Analysis of Bacillus sp. strains suggests that SPβ and phi3T belong to a distinct cluster of unusually large phages inserted into sporulation-related genes that are equipped with a spore-related genetic arsenal. Comparison of Bacillus sp. genomes indicates that similar diversification of SPβ-like phages takes place in nature. Our work is a stepping stone toward empirical studies on phage evolution, and understanding the eco-evolutionary relationships between bacteria and their phages. By capturing the first steps of new phage evolution, we reveal striking relationship between survival strategy of bacteria and evolution of their phages.

Recombination Disequilibrium in Ideal and Natural Populations

Following Hardy-Weinberg disequilibrium (HWD) occurring at a single locus and linkage disequilibrium (LD) between two loci in generations, we here proposed the third genetic disequilibrium in population: recombination disequilibrium (RD). RD is a measurement of crossover interference among multiple loci in a random mating population. In natural populations besides recombination interference, RD may also be due to selection, mutation, gene conversion, drift and/or migration. Therefore, similarly to LD, RD will also reflect the history of natural selection and mutation. In breeding populations, RD purely results from recombination interference and hence can be used to build or evaluate and correct a linkage map. Several practical examples from F2, testcross and human populations indeed demonstrate that RD is useful for measuring recombination interference between two short intervals and evaluating linkage maps. As with LD, RD will be important for studying genetic mapping, association of haplotypes with disease, plant breading and population history.

A glance at recombination hotspots in the domestic cat

Recombination has essential roles in increasing genetic variability within a population and in ensuring successful meiotic events. The objective of this study is to (i) infer the population scaled recombination rate (ρ), and (ii) identify and characterize localities of increased recombination rate for the domestic cat, Felis silvestris catus. SNPs (n = 701) were genotyped in twenty-two cats of Eastern random bred origin. The SNPs covered ten different chromosomal regions (A1, A2, B3, C2, D1, D2, D4, E2, F2, X) with an average region size of 850 Kb and an average SNP density of 70 SNPs/region. The Bayesian method in the program inferRho was used to infer regional population recombination rates and hotspots localities. The regions exhibited variable population recombination rates and four decisive recombination hotspots were identified on cat chromosome A2, D1, and E2 regions. No correlation was detected between the GC content and the locality of recombination spots. The hotspots enclosed L2 LINE elements and MIR and tRNA-Lys SINE elements in agreement with hotspots found in other mammals.