Could the elongate yellow-orange nostrils of Anguilla bicolor McClelland, 1844 function as fishing lures?

The shortfin eel Anguilla bicolor has elongate, yellow nostrils tipped with orange that protrude forward above the mouth. They are a striking, highly visible feature and it is hypothesised that they function as lures to attract prey, analogous to the illicium and esca of anglerfishes and frogfishes and the lingual appendage of the alligator snapping turtle. Another possible function is as an intraspecific signalling device. The first hypothesis is favoured here.     

Phytochrome A regulates red-light induction of phototropic enhancement in Arabidopsis.

Phytochrome A (phyA) and phytochrome B photoreceptors have distinct roles in the regulation of plant growth and development. Studies using specific photomorphogenic mutants and transgenic plants overexpressing phytochrome have supported an evolving picture in which phyA and phytochrome B are responsive to continuous far-red and red light, respectively. Photomorphogenic mutants of Arabidopsis thaliana that had been selected for their inability to respond to continuous irradiance conditions were tested for their ability to carry out red-light-induced enhancement of phototropism, which is an inductive phytochrome response. We conclude that phyA is the primary photoreceptor regulating this response and provide evidence suggesting that a common regulatory domain in the phyA polypeptide functions for both high-irradiance and inductive phytochrome responses.     

Trees on networks: resolving statistical patterns of phylogenetic similarities among interacting proteins

Background  

Phylogenies capture the evolutionary ancestry linking extant species. Correlations and similarities among a set of species are mediated by and need to be understood in terms of the phylogenic tree. In a similar way it has been argued that biological networks also induce correlations among sets of interacting genes or their protein products.