The story of life on Earth is one of both ancient and ongoing evolution. All species on the planet today have in different ways evolved adaptations that promote fitness sufficiently well enough to sustain different metapopulations over long periods of time relative to the pace of environmental change. Indeed, species’ lifespans are estimated to be on the order of millions of years (Barnosky et ...

Not to be confused with.. Tribolium castaneum, the red flour beetle, is often confused with Tenebrio molitor, the common ‘meal worm’ found in pet shops. Although morphologically similar to Tenebrio, Tribolium is much smaller and even easier to breed. That’s why this beetle was used by population geneticists for decades before it was rediscovered as a system in which embryonic development, and o...

The mode of action of pesticides is extremely fascinating because the subject covers so many fields of biology and chemistry and has many practical implications. To understand how pesticides work (their mode of action), it is necessary to understand how the pests’ targeted systems normally function. It is also helpful to understand how human systems function in order to see similarities and dif...

‘‘Nothing in biology makes sense except in the light of evolution’’ Theodosius Dobzhansky (1973) History plays a fundamental role in biology. Theodosius Dobzhansky’s now famous quote can be viewed not only as a claim for the explanatory power of the evolutionary process, but also as a proclamation of the importance of recognizing the deep history of life itself. But history plays another, emine...

Mating system plays a determinant role in the maintenance and distribution of genetic variation. Difficulties in applying standard methods of indirect inferences onto parasitic life-cycles partly explain the current lack of knowledge on parasite mating systems. The present study develops a combination of direct and indirect inference methods circumventing such difficulties, and illustrates in p...

B lymphocytes (B cells) become increasingly resistant to apoptosis induction during their differentiation in the microenvironment of the germinal center of lymphoid follicles. This is due to increases in the levels of Bcl-2 protein as well as survival signals generated through B-cell binding to follicular dendritic cells (FDC). However, it is not known whether this cellular resistance may be by...

BACKGROUND Human are confronted on a daily basis with contaminant pesticide residues in food, water and other components of the environment. Although the digestive system is the first organ to come into contact with food contaminants, very few data are available on the impact of low-dose pesticide exposure during the in utero and postnatal periods on intestinal bacterial translocation (BT). Pre...

Insecticide resistance has been known to be prevalent in several insect species including mosquito. It has become a major problem in vector control programs due to pesticide resistance through detoxification enzymes. The present study aimed to compare between the larvicidal action of some organophosphorus insecticides (fenitrothion, malathion and temephos) commonly used in larval control progra...

OBJECTIVE Despite the rapid industrialisation and urbanisation over the past 30 years, agriculture is one of the largest economic sectors in China and the unregulated use of pesticides result in extensive pesticide poisoning. The objective of this study was to analyse pesticide poisoning cases registration received by Zhejiang Provincial Center for Disease Control and Prevention, China. DESIG...

Correspondence to Dr Guangdi Chen; [email protected] and Dr Hua Zou; [email protected] ABSTRACT Objective: Despite the rapid industrialisation and urbanisation over the past 30 years, agriculture is one of the largest economic sectors in China and the unregulated use of pesticides result in extensive pesticide poisoning. The objective of this study was to analyse pesticide poisoning cases regi...