Identifying ‘prime suspects’: symbioses and the evolution of multicellularity

The possible involvement of symbioses in the evolution of multicellularity is explored. Evidence is drawn principally from the biology of present day associations of plants and animals with prokaryotes. A particular emphasis is placed on future research opportunities in this area of biology that have been provided by the advent of specific molecular techniques and new model systems. With the application of new approaches that result from these advances, a more holistic understanding of the biology of the coevolved communities, composed of animals or plants and their associated prokaryotes, is within the reach of biologists over the next few decades.     

Equivocal locations: being ‘red’ in ‘Red Bologna’

This article addresses a classic ethnographic problem in the study of Italy: how is it that people can subscribe simultaneously to seemingly contradictory ideologies, such as Catholicism and Communism? It does so by describing examples from Italy's ‘showcase city’ of the left, ‘Red Bologna’, in which to be ‘red’ is ubiquitous but each person's ‘red’ is a different thing: being ‘red’ (differently) is the idiom in which real political distinctions are expressed over issues like religion or immigration. In parallel, I discuss the relationship between the ‘field’ as a location and the ‘field’ as a conceptual topic. My account replicates internal ethnographic differences at the analytical level by highlighting the differences between being left‐wing in Bologna and its meaning as a concept in anthropology. Hence the ‘equivocal location’: a field‐site that is productively different, from what an inexperienced ethnographer expected from it, from conceptual discussions in anthropology, and from itself.     

Cereal genome evolution: pastoral pursuits with ‘Lego’ genomes

The rapid progress in comparative analysis of cereal genomes reveals that they are composed of similar genomic building blocks. It seems that by simply rearranging these blocks and amplifying some of the repetitive sequences contained within them, it is possible to reconstitute the 56 different chromosomes found in wheat, rice, maize, sorghum, millet and sugarcane. Comparison of the orders of blocks in these reconstituted chromosomes reveals that the cleavage of a single chromosome formed from the blocks could give rise to all the combinations found in the chromosomes of the above species. A framework is now in place for collating all the information which has been generated from studying the individual cereals.     

‘Dancing the image’: materiality and spirituality in Andean religious ‘images’

In the Christian tradition, representing the divine has often been considered both an impossible and yet necessary endeavour rooted in the human need in certain moments of weakness to visualize God. In this article, based on research findings from fieldwork carried out with urban indigenous groups in La Paz, Bolivia, I suggest that the articulation of local and Catholic representational traditions and practices has produced an understanding of the religious image not so much as an object of detached contemplation or a reference to a religious symbol but rather as an energized element which physically shapes the relationship and exchange between the material and the spiritual world. I suggest that through a study of Andean religious images we may be able to produce an alternative ontological perspective on the relationship between the spiritual, material, and living worlds.

Résumé

Dans la tradition chrétienne, la représentation du divin est souvent considérée comme une gageure impossible et pourtant nécessaire, motivée par la nécessité humaine de visualiser Dieu dans les moments de faiblesse. À partir des matériaux de terrain obtenus auprès de groupes autochtones urbains à La Paz, en Bolivie, l'auteur suggère ici que l'articulation des traditions et pratiques de représentation locales et catholiques a conduit à concevoir l'image religieuse moins comme un objet de contemplation détachée ou une référence à un symbole religieux que comme un élément chargé d'énergie, qui donne physiquement forme à la relation et aux échanges entre le monde matériel et le monde spirituel. L'article suggère qu'à travers l'étude des images religieuses andines, on pourrait élaborer un autre point de vue ontologique sur la relation entre les mondes spirituel, matériel et vivant.     

Going to ‘Pentecost’: how to study Pentecostalism – in Melanesia,for example

In this article, I question regional context as primary context in anthropological analyses. I argue that the idea of historical continuity in a geographical locality/region might prevent us from understanding not only radical change, but also more gradually emerging social patterns that connect the ethnography to very different kinds of histories and places. Concretely, I focus on the global Charismatic and Pentecostal movements, and as an experiment, I ask whether it is possible to go to ‘Pentecost’, instead of going to Melanesia. With ‘going to Pentecost’ as a heuristic device, I suggest it is possible to overcome methodological challenges in the study of global religious movements. In this article, I thus trace the practices and articulations of my interlocutors as part of a wider Pentecostal universe. I show how notions of seeing, borders, separations, and protection are crucial in ‘Pentecost’, and I connect this to key Christian ideas and values.     

Complementary ‘bottom-up’ and ‘top-down’ approaches to basal ganglia function

Recently, two quite different approaches exemplifying ‘bottom-up’ and ‘top-down’ philosophies have shed new light on basal ganglia function. In vitro work using organotypic co-cultures has implicated the subthalamic nucleus (STN) and the external segment of the globus pallidus (GP_e) as pacemakers for low-frequency bursting that is reminiscent of the activity produced in Parkinsonian tremor. A circuit essential for avian song learning has been identified as part of the basal ganglia with surprisingly well conserved cellular details; investigation of this system may help to address general issues of basal ganglia function.     

Developmental evolution: going beyond the 'just so'

Two new protocols for infecting non-mammalian embryos with viruses, together with RNA inhibition, have provided evolutionary developmental biologists with the tools to study the effects of manipulating gene activity in a wide range of species, allowing them to test hypotheses rather than rely on inference from similarity.     

The ‘Orsten’—More than a Cambrian Konservat-Lagerstätte yielding exceptional preservation

In several areas of southern Sweden, limestone nodules, locally called Orsten occur within bituminous alum shales. These shales and nodules were deposited under dysoxic conditions at the bottom of what was most likely a shallow sea during the late Middle to Upper Cambrian (ca. 500 million years ago). Subsequently, the name ‘Orsten’ has been referred to particular, mainly arthropod, fossils from such nodules, and, in a wider sense, to the specific type of preservation of minute fossil through secondarily phosphatization. This preservation is exceptional in yielding uncompacted and diagenetically undeformed three-dimensional fossils. ‘Orsten’-type preservation resulted from incrustation of a thin external layer and also by impregnation by calcium phosphate and, therefore, mineralization of the surface of the former animals during early diagenesis. Primarily, this type of preservation seems to have affected only cuticle-bearing metazoans such as cycloneuralian nemathelminths and arthropods. ‘Orsten’ preservation in this sense seems to be limited by size, in having yielded no partial or complete animals larger than 2 mm. On the other end of the scale, even larvae 100 μm long are preserved, often more complete than larger specimens, and details such as setules and pores smaller than 1 μm can be observed. Fossils preserved in such a manner are almost exclusively hollow carcasses, but can be filled secondarily; less common are completely phosphatized compact specimens. The high quality of preservation makes the Swedish ‘Orsten’ a typical Konservat-Lagerstätte. Yet, its special type of preservation is more widespread in time and geographical distribution than assumed initially, and the origin of the phosphate is not necessarily restricted just to one source. Subsequent to the first discoveries of limb fragments of Cambrian arthropods in 1975, animals in this special preservational type have been discovered in several continents and across a broad stratigraphic range including even Proterozoic strata. The latter have yielded early cleavage and metazoan embryonic stages, expanding knowledge on the preservational capacities of the ‘Orsten’. Here, we report the recent status of our research on the ‘Orsten’ and give perspectives for future exploration on a worldwide scale, particularly in light of a recently formed international research group named Center of Orsten Research and Exploration (C.O.R.E.).     

‘Holy’ proteins I: ribonuclease inhibitor

The X-ray structure of the ribonuclease inhibitor from porcine pancreas shows a remarkable non-globular fold. It possesses a large central hole that forms part of the RNase A binding site.     

Cleaner Wrasses Keep Track of the ‘When’ and ‘What’ in a Foraging Task1

In recent years evidence has accumulated that at least some animals can remember the ‘what’, ‘where’ and ‘when’ of personal experiences. Currently, evidence for such ability is taxonomically restricted to birds and mammals. Here, we demonstrate for the first time that cleaner wrasses Labroides dimidiatus are able to remember when they interacted with what after a single event. In nature, cleaners remove ectoparasites from other reef fishes, so‐called clients. Clients are depleted, non‐stationary food patches at the end of an interaction and replenished only after a delay. In our experiments, we presented twelve cleaners every 2.5 min, a choice between two of a total of four plates with different colours and patterns. One plate was always accessible but contained a non‐preferred food item while the other three contained a preferred food item, but allowed a next feeding event only after 5, 10 or 15 min. Thus, to maximise food intake, cleaners had to remember for each choice when they had last interacted with which plate. When confronted with two plates offering preferred food, cleaners showed an overall significant preference for the plate that allowed access during the trial. For six cleaners, the preference was significant. Also, on trials involving the always accessible plate, cleaners discriminated between trials in which they had to eat the non‐preferred food and trials on which they could eat the preferred food. In conclusion, cleaners are able to track the ‘when’ and ‘what’ (or possibly ‘who’) within a biologically meaningful time period.     

DNA as a ‘Nanomaterial’

DNA is recognized as a nanomaterial, not as a biological material, in the research field of nanotechnology. This article reviews recent research on nanowires, nanoarchitectures, computing, aptamers, biocatalysts, devices, and machines using DNA. In these works, the characteristics of DNA including facile synthesis by the solid-phase method, self-assembly, electro-conductivity, information elements, amplification, switching, molecular recognition, and catalytic functions, were appropriately applied. Multiple functions of DNA could be used simultaneously, and activated independently, by molecular switching. Therefore, the combinations of functional sequences of DNA can produce unique materials. It is obvious that the DNA molecule is one of the most promising functional nanomaterials. However, the application of DNA molecules is still under study because of the big gap that exists between theory and practice. We eagerly anticipate a ‘coming out’ of DNA due to breakthroughs in nanobiotechnology.     

‘Black’ and ‘white’ death: burials in a time of Ebola in Freetown,Sierra Leone

The article examines experiences of the 2014‐15 Ebola crisis in Freetown, Sierra Leone, through an analysis of the performance of burials. While most of the city's residents had no contact with the virus, ‘Ebola’ was inescapable, owing to the onerous state of emergency regulations imposed by national and international authorities. All burials, regardless of the cause of death, were to be performed by newly established official teams operating according to unfamiliar biomedical and bureaucratic protocols. Burials became emblematic of the crisis through presenting a conflict between local practices and novel procedures, which was coded locally in a complex racial language of ‘black’ and ‘white’, recalling a long regional history of violent integration into the Atlantic World. Building on long‐standing anthropological discussion on the relationship between ‘good’ death and social order, the article explores how burials became sites around which opposing ‘orders’ were experienced, negotiated, and reconciled in locally meaningful ways.