Adult red-eyed treefrogs are the postcard-perfect mascot of tropical biology, but their eye-catching embryos get the cover of the November 2008 issue of the Journal of Experimental Biology. Credit: Karen Warkentin, Boston University and STRI Boston University undergraduate Jessica Rogge and associate professor Karen Warkentin, working at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute's laboratories in Gamboa, Panama, discovered that frog embryos at a very early developmental stage actively respond to oxygen levels in the egg—as reported in the Nov. 7, 2008 issue of the Journal of Experimental Biology. These initial responses to the environment may be critical to the frogs' long-term survival.

The overlooked and undervalued protein, sarcospan, just got its moment in the spotlight. Peter et al. now show that adding it to muscle cells might ameliorate the most severe form of muscular dystrophy.

Reston, Va.—Using single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT), researchers in France were able to detect functional abnormalities in certain regions in the brains of patients diagnosed with fibromyalgia, reinforcing the idea that symptoms of the disorder are related to a dysfunction in those parts of the brain where pain is processed.

The fight against climate warming has an unexpected ally in mushrooms growing in dry spruce forests covering Alaska, Canada, Scandinavia and other northern regions, a new UC Irvine study finds.

In September 2007, a phase II HIV-1 vaccine trial was abruptly halted when researchers found that the vaccine may have promoted, rather than prevented, HIV infection. A new study by a team of researchers at the Montpellier Institute of Molecular Genetics in France shows how the vaccine could have enhanced HIV infection. The study, lead by Matthieu Perreau, will be published online on November 3 of the Journal of Experimental Medicine.