Go big or go fish: morphological specializations in carnivorous bats

Microexons Go Big

Microexons are frequently underestimated in transcriptome analyses. Two studies published in Cell and Genome Research now independently report the identification of hundreds of microexons. Alternative splicing of some microexons is regulated by neuronal-specific RNA-binding proteins and modifies the function of proteins involved in neurogenesis, with misregulation linked to autism.

Pedigree Go Fish†

Go big and go fast--vaccine refusal and disease eradication.

D eradication is an attractive public health goal. In addition to eliminating illnesses and deaths, eradication can lead to substantial cost savings. Eradication has been attempted for many human and animal diseases, such as smallpox, malaria, hookworm disease, polio, rinderpest, yaws, dracunculiasis (guinea worm disease), and yellow fever, and many tools have been employed in these efforts. Bu...

Go forth or multiply

A cell can move and reproduce, but it usually can't do both simultaneously. As Makagiansar et al. report on page 155, the pattern of phosphorylation on a membrane proteoglycan helps determine whether cells grow or go. The phosphory-lation differences direct the molecule to distinct parts of the cell membrane. Even cancer cells have to slow down before they can divide, as do normal progenitor ce...

Go big or … don't? A field-based diet evaluation of freshwater piscivore and prey fish size relationships

Body size governs predator-prey interactions, which in turn structure populations, communities, and food webs. Understanding predator-prey size relationships is valuable from a theoretical perspective, in basic research, and for management applications. However, predator-prey size data are limited and costly to acquire. We quantified predator-prey total length and mass relationships for several...