The origin of mantle hotspots is a controversial topic. Only seven (‘primary’) out of 49 hotspots meet criteria aimed at detecting a very deep origin (three in the Pacific, four in the Indo-Atlantic hemisphere). In each hemisphere these move slowly, whereas there has been up to 50 mm/a motion between the two hemispheres prior to 50 Ma ago. This correlates with latitudinal shifts in the Hawaiian...

Hotspots regulate the position and frequency of Spo11 (Rec12)-initiated meiotic recombination, but paradoxically they are suicidal and are somehow resurrected elsewhere in the genome. After the DNA sequence-dependent activation of hotspots was discovered in fission yeast, nearly two decades elapsed before the key realizations that (A) DNA site-dependent regulation is broadly conserved and (B) i...

In the northeastern United States, pitch pine ( Pinus rigida Mill.)–scrub oak (Quercus ilicifolia Wang.) communities are increasingly threatened by development and fire suppression, and prioritization of these habitats for conservation is of critical importance. As a basis for local conservation planning in a pitch pine–scrub oak community in southeastern Massachusetts, we developed logistic-re...

Most recombination takes place in numerous, localized regions called hotspots. However, empirical evidence indicates that nascent hotspots are susceptible to removal due to biased gene conversion, so it is paradoxical that they should be so widespread. Previous modeling work has shown that hotspots can evolve due to genetic drift overpowering their intrinsic disadvantage. Here we synthesize rec...

Crime tends to cluster geographically. This has led to the wide usage of hotspot analysis to identify and visualize crime. Accurately identified crime hotspots can greatly benefit the public by creating accurate threat visualizations, more efficiently allocating police resources, and predicting crime. Yet existing mapping methods usually identify hotspots without considering the underlying corr...

Hotspots of high species diversity are a prominent feature of modern global biodiversity patterns. Fossil and molecular evidence is starting to reveal the history of these hotspots. There have been at least three marine biodiversity hotspots during the past 50 million years. They have moved across almost half the globe, with their timing and locations coinciding with major tectonic events. The ...

PRDM9 is a major specifier of human meiotic recombination hotspots, probably via binding of its zinc-finger repeat array to a DNA sequence motif associated with hotspots. However, our view of PRDM9 regulation, in terms of motifs defined and hotspots studied, has a strong bias toward the PRDM9 A variant particularly common in Europeans. We show that population diversity can reveal a second class...

Animal-derived nutrients play an important role in structuring nutrient regimes within and between ecosystems. When animals undergo repetitive, aggregating behavior through time, they can create nutrient hotspots where rates of biogeochemical activity are higher than those found in the surrounding environment. In turn, these hotspots can influence ecosystem processes and community structure. We...

Meiotic recombination is required for the orderly segregation of chromosomes during meiosis and for providing genetic diversity among offspring. Among mammals, as well as yeast and higher plants, recombination preferentially occurs at highly delimited chromosomal sites 1-2 kb long known as hotspots. Although considerable progress has been made in understanding the roles various proteins play in...

Quantitative trait loci (QTL) hotspots (genomic locations affecting many traits) are a common feature in genetical genomics studies and are biologically interesting since they may harbor critical regulators. Therefore, statistical procedures to assess the significance of hotspots are of key importance. One approach, randomly allocating observed QTL across the genomic locations separately by tra...