PALEONTOLOGY: Slipping Through the Cracks

Slipping through the middle

Tugging and pulling in asymmetric cell divisions n asymmetric divisions, the cell alters the normal process that centers the spindle in the mother cell, but how it regulates the timing of spindle movement is unclear. Now, on page 245, Labbé et al. describe a tethering system that resists premature movement of the mitotic spindle during asymmetric cell divisions in C. elegans embryogenesis. It w...

Slipping through the Cracks: Rubber Plantation Is Unsuitable Breeding Habitat for Frogs in Xishuangbanna, China

Conversion of tropical forests into agriculture may present a serious risk to amphibian diversity if amphibians are not able to use agricultural areas as habitat. Recently, in Xishuangbanna Prefecture, Yunnan Province - a hotspot of frog diversity within China - two-thirds of the native tropical rainforests have been converted into rubber plantation agriculture. We conducted surveys and experim...

Slipping through the Cracks: Linking Low Immune Function and Intestinal Bacterial Imbalance to the Etiology of Rheumatoid Arthritis

Autoimmune diseases (ADs) are considered to be caused by the host immune system which attacks and destroys its own tissue by mistake. A widely accepted hypothesis to explain the pathogenic mechanism of ADs is "molecular mimicry," which states that antibodies against an infectious agent cross-react with a self-antigen sharing an identical or similar antigenic epitope. However, this hypothesis wa...

Through the cracks.

Seeping Through the Regulatory Cracks

T management of toxic waste has become an increasingly global business. The worldwide generation of hazardous waste is currently around 440 million tons, of which an estimated 10 percent makes its way across international boundaries.1 A variety of industries generate toxic wastes, ranging from chemicals to electronics and from plastics to metal plating. These toxic wastes have adverse affects o...