Insights into the Karyotype Evolution of Charinidae, the Early-Diverging Clade of Whip Spiders (Arachnida: Amblypygi).

Whip spiders (Amblypygi) represent an ancient order of tetrapulmonate arachnids with a low diversity. Their cytogenetic data are confined to only a few reports. Here, we analyzed the family Charinidae, a lineage almost at the base of the amblypygids, providing an insight into the ancestral traits and basic trajectories of amblypygid karyotype evolution.

Patterns of Sex Chromosome Differentiation in Spiders: Insights from Comparative Genomic Hybridisation.

Spiders are an intriguing model to analyse sex chromosome evolution because of their peculiar multiple X chromosome systems. Y chromosomes were considered rare in this group, arising after neo-sex chromosome formation by X chromosome-autosome rearrangements. However, recent findings suggest that Y chromosomes are more common in spiders than previously thought.

[Evaluation of neoadjuvant chemo-radiotherapy with locally advanced rectal cancer by comparing tumour volume before and after treatment].

Background: Neoadjuvant chemotherapy is a standard preoperative therapeutical procedure with locally advanced rectal adenocarcinoma. The aim of the study was to compare the tumour volume reduction before and after the oncological therapy in relation to the change in the CEA value and to the outcome of the histopathological evaluation of response to the treatment.

Patients And Methods: In the years 2004-2008, 274 rectal cancer patients were evaluated, of which 64 underwent neoadjuvant CRT with subsequent surgery and had also completed other inclusion criteria.