PURPOSE In Ethiopia, trachoma is a major public health problem, accounting for 11.5% of all cases of blindness. In Gambella, one of the country's most remote regions, the 2005-2006 National Survey of Blindness, Low Vision and Trachoma estimated a region-level prevalence of active trachoma of 19.1% in those aged 1-9 years. Detailed district or sub-regional level estimates are required to impleme...

Signifi cant progress is being made in the fi ght against blinding trachoma. However, according to estimates, there are over 7.3 million people with trachomatous trichiasis (TT) in the world.1 Trachomatous trichiasis occurs when in-turned eyelashes scrape the cornea. Not only is this incredibly painful, it also causes damage to the cornea; sufferers will become irreversibly blind unless it is c...

Orchidaceae is a highly dependent group on the Rhizoctonia complex that includes Ceratorhiza, Moniliopsis, Epulorhiza and Rhizoctonia, for seed germination and the development of new orchid plants. Thus, the isolation and identification of orchid mycorrhizal fungi are important to understand the orchid-fungus relationship, which can lead to the development of efficient conservation strategies b...

0 0 1??? 4??? Letter Letters Letters Letters Is it better to give than to receive? A stable isotope perspective on orchid–fungal carbon transport in the green orchid species Goodyera repens and Goodyera oblongifolia In the field of orchid research, species within the tribe Crani-chideae have taken center stage as a result of the recent findings of Cameron et al. (2006, 2008), which demonstrated...

Since the late 1960’s, when it was realized that male orchid bees (Hymenoptera: Apidae: Euglossina) are strongly attracted to synthetic scents that mimic floral fragrances of at least six plant families (Vogel, 1966; Dodson et al., 1969; Dressler, 1982), the use of chemical baits has become a powerful tool in ecological studies involving this group of Neotropical bees (e.g. Ackerman, 1983; Oliv...

Characterizing the architecture of bipartite networks is increasingly used as a framework to study biotic interactions within their ecological context and to assess the extent to which evolutionary constraint shape them. Orchid mycorrhizal symbioses are particularly interesting as they are viewed as more beneficial for plants than for fungi, a situation expected to result in an asymmetry of bio...

UV-B radiation damage in leaves is prevented by epidermal UV-screening compounds that can be modulated throughout ontogeny. In epiphytic orchids, roots need to be protected against UV-B because they photosynthesize, sometimes even replacing the leaves. How orchid roots, which are covered by a dead tissue called velamen, avoid UV-B radiation is currently unknown. We tested for a UV-B protective ...