Highly read on plosgenetics.org 5 Feb–6 Mar

A recent paper identifies a cause for sperm with puzzlingly high rates of mutation that cause a particular thyroid cancer syndrome. But the Perspective that accompanied it was viewed more often than the work itself, perhaps because its author, James Crow, a distinguished geneticist at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, died in January, aged 95.

Those who read Crow's last paper found the cause of the high mutation rate summarized in his clear and pleasant prose. Rather than dividing asymmetrically — to produce one sperm and one proto-sperm cell like the parent — some cells 'cheat' and produce two proto-sperm cells instead. Each of these can divide asymmetrically, doubling the cheat's number of descendants and creating clusters of mutations linked to the effect.

PLoS Genet. 8, e1002535 (2012)