Parents defend their young in many ways, including provisioning chemical defences. Recent work in a poison frog system offers the first example of an animal that provisions its young with alkaloids after hatching or birth rather than before. But it is not yet known whether maternally derived alkaloids are an effective defence against offspring predators. We identified the predators of Oophaga p...

UNLABELLED PREMISE OF THE STUDY Phenolic compounds exuded by roots have been implicated in allelopathic interactions among plants. Root enzymes that destroy phenolics may protect plants against allelopathic inhibition and thus may aid in invasiveness. Phenolic-degrading enzymes are chiefly found in aboveground plant parts, but have also been previously reported in root tissues where the enzy...

Effects of photophase illuminance (1, 10, 100 and 330 lx of white incandescent lighting) on daily rhythms of locomotor activity, urine production and 6-sulfatoxymelatonin (6-SMT; 10 versus 330 lx) were studied in nocturnal Namaqua rock mice (Micaelamys namaquensis) and diurnal four-striped field mice (Rhabdomys pumilio). Micaelamys namaquensis was consistently nocturnal (∼90-94% nocturnal activ...

PUF proteins are potent repressors that serve important roles in stem cell maintenance, neurological processes, and embryonic development. These functions are driven by PUF protein recognition of specific binding sites within the 3' untranslated regions of target mRNAs. In this study, we investigated mechanisms of repression by the founding PUF, Drosophila Pumilio, and its human orthologs. Here...

Limnocassis compacta sp. nov. and L. regularis sp. nov. are described from South Africa. They are well distinguished from Limnocassis pumilio (Boheman, 1854), the only known species in the genus, in fine and mostly regular elytral punctation. Colour photographs of all species and new distribution data for L. pumilio are given.

The minute pirate bugs, Orius insidiosus (Say) and Orius pumilio (Champion) (Hemiptera: Heteroptera: Anthocoridae), are closely related species known to be sympatric in north Florida. Here, male and female genitalia, DNA sequences, and the effects of within- and between-species pairings on egg production and egg development were examined to develop a better understanding of the relationship bet...

SUMMARY Translational activation of dormant cyclin B1 mRNA stored in oocytes is a prerequisite for the initiation or promotion of oocyte maturation in many vertebrates. Using a monoclonal antibody against the domain highly homologous to that of Drosophila Pumilio, we have shown for the first time in any vertebrate that a homolog of Pumilio is expressed in Xenopus oocytes. This 137-kDa protein b...

Response gene to complement-32 (RGC-32) activates cyclin-dependent kinase 1, regulates the cell cycle and is deregulated in many human tumours. We previously showed that RGC-32 expression is upregulated by the cancer-associated Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) in latently infected B cells through the relief of translational repression. We now show that EBV infection of naïve primary B cells also induce...