Light-sheet fluorescence microscopy has emerged as a powerful platform for 3-D volumetric imaging in the life sciences. Here, we introduce an important step towards its use deep inside biological tissue. Our new technique, based on digital holography, enables delivery of the light-sheet through a multimode optical fibre--an optical element with extremely small footprint, yet permitting complex ...

Tropical coral reefs are among the most biologically diverse and economically important ecosystems on earth. Nevertheless, we found dramatic changes in coral communities on the reef slopes of Curaçao and Bonaire since 1973. Cover and abundance declined for virtually all coral species. The data show a shift from communities dominated by framework building species (e.g., Orbicella spp.) to commun...

Polymerase chain reaction(PCR)-ampliÞedmitochondrialDNA(mtDNA)assayshave been used in studies of the Africanization process in neotropical feral and managed honey bee populations. The approach has been adopted, in conjunction with morphometric analysis, to identify Africanized bees for regulatory purposes in the United States such as in California. In this study, 211 Old World colonies, represe...

Coral-associated invertebrates form a major part of the diversity on reefs, but their distribution and occurrence patterns are virtually unstudied. For associated taxa data are lacking on their distribution across shelves and environmental gradients, but also over various depths. Off Curaçao we studied the prevalence and density of coral-dwelling gall crabs (Cryptochiridae), obligate symbionts ...

TGF-β signalling plays a key role in the patterning of metazoan body plans and growth. It is widely regarded as a 'module' capable of co-option into novel functions. The TGF-β pathway arose in the Metazoan lineage, and while it is generally regarded as well conserved across evolutionary time, its components have been largely studied in the Ecdysozoa and Deuterostomia. The recent discovery of th...

Recent research has focused on the different types of compass cues available to ball-rolling beetles for orientation, but little is known about the relative precision of each of these cues and how they interact. In this study, we find that the absolute orientation error of the celestial compass of the day-active dung beetle Scarabaeus lamarcki doubles from 16° at solar elevations below 60° to a...