Asplenium nidus is an epiphytic fern with large simple leaves. Because A. nidus lacks the good taxonomic characters available for species recognition, multiple cryptic species may exist within A. nidus. In Mt. Halimun National Park, West Java, Indonesia, three rbcL sequence types of A. nidus were recorded. All plants regardless of rbcL sequence were 2n = 144. Crossing experiments among these rb...

Many cryptic species have been discovered in various taxonomic groups based on molecular phylogenetic analyses and mating experiments. Some sympatric cryptic species share equivalent resources, which contradicts the competitive exclusion principle. Two major theories have been proposed to explain the apparent lack of competitive exclusion, i.e. niche-based coexistence and neutral model, but a c...

Cryptic genetic variation accumulates under weakened selection and has been proposed as a source of evolutionary innovations. Weakened selection may, however, also lead to the accumulation of strongly deleterious or lethal alleles, swamping the effect of any potentially adaptive alleles when they are revealed. Here I model variation that is partially shielded from selection, assuming that uncon...

A new cryptic species of bush frog Raorchestes honnametti sp. nov. is described from the south-eastern part of the Western Ghats, India. This newly described species belongs to the Charius clade and is morphologically similar to other clade members--R. charius and R. griet. Therefore, an integrative taxonomic approach based on molecular and bioacoustic analysis along with morphology was used to...

It has been shown that osteopontin (OPN) plays a pivotal role in the pathogenesis of rheumatoid arthritis (RA). However, the molecular mechanism of OPN action is yet to be elucidated. Splenic monocytes obtained from arthritic mice exhibited a significant capacity for cell migration toward thrombin-cleaved OPN but not toward full-length OPN. Migratory monocytes expressed alpha9 and alpha4 integr...

Using carbohydrate microarrays, we explored potential natural ligands of antitumor monoclonal antibody HAE3. This antibody was raised against a murine mammary tumor antigen but was found to cross-react with a number of human epithelial tumors in tissues. Our carbohydrate microarray analysis reveals that HAE3 is specific for an O-glycan cryptic epitope that is normally hidden in the cores of blo...