The last wild Spix's Macaw and an Illiger's Macaw produced a hybrid

The one remaining wild male Spix's macaw(Cyanopsitta spixii) chose a femaleIlliger's macaw (Propyrrhura maracana) asa mate. Eggs were found in the nest used by thecouple and one of them contained an embryo.Sequence variation in CHD1-Z and CHD1-W genesshowed that it was a natural hybrid.     

Evidence for a recent mutation giving rise to a truncated copy of a cysteine proteinase gene in Leishmania pifanoi

We have previously identified and characterized two amastigote-specific cysteine proteinases of Leishmania pifanoi. The slightly different isoforms of the more abundant proteinase are coded by a gene family of approximately 20 gene copies, that contain a C-terminal extension characteristic of cysteine proteinases of trypanosomatids. In this gene family, we have detected a copy that codes for a truncated form of this proteinase, lacking the C-terminal extension. Interestingly, when the deletion of a nucleotide that creates a stop codon causing this truncation is disregarded, the translated sequence gives rise to a divergent C-terminal extension that has many conserved amino acids when compared to Leishmania and Trypanosome, suggesting that a recent mutation led to the truncation.