Self-Determination in Hong Kong: A New Challenge to an Old Doctrine

This Comment examines the upcoming transition of Hong Kong as a special administrative region of the People\u27s Republic of China (PRC) in 1997. The author argues that, in addition to the economic freedoms that will be preserved in Hong Kong, the people of Hong Kong should be guaranteed the right of self-determination in order to increase the level of confidence with which the people of Hong Kong view this transition. The author examines the history of the sovereign claims to Hong Kong and the substance of the transition agreement between Great Britain and the PRC. The author concludes that the right of self-determination should be invoked on behalf of the people of Hong Kong to allow them to make a free and informed choice for the future

High-throughput tetrad analysis

Tetrad analysis has been a gold-standard genetic technique for several decades. Unfortunately, the need to manually isolate, disrupt and space tetrads has relegated its application to small-scale studies and limited its integration with high-throughput DNA sequencing technologies. We have developed a rapid, high-throughput method, called barcode-enabled sequencing of tetrads (BEST), that uses (i) a meiosis-specific GFP fusion protein to isolate tetrads by FACS and (ii) molecular barcodes that are read during genotyping to identify spores derived from the same tetrad. Maintaining tetrad information allows accurate inference of missing genetic markers and full genotypes of missing (and presumably nonviable) individuals. An individual researcher was able to isolate over 3,000 yeast tetrads in 3 h, an output equivalent to that of almost 1 month of manual dissection. BEST is transferable to other microorganisms for which meiotic mapping is significantly more laborious

Marine invasion genomics: Revealing ecological and evolutionary consequences of biological invasions

Genomic approaches are increasingly being used to study biological invasions. Here, we first analyse how high-throughput sequencing has aided our understanding of the mechanisms associated with biological invasions. These include the transport of propagules to pre-invaded areas, an exploration of the consequences of hybridisation during range expansions, and the pre- and post- invasion adaptation of colonising populations. We then explore how contemporary genomic methods have been used to probe and monitor the spread of non-indigenous species. More specifically, we focus on the detection of species richness from environmental samples, measures of quantitative traits that may promote invasive- ness, analysis of rapid adaptation, and the study of phenotypic plasticity. Finally, we look to the future, exploring how genomic approaches will assist future biodiversity conservationists in their efforts to mitigate the spread and effects of biological invasions. Ultimately, although the use of genomic tools to study non-indigenous species has so far been rather limited, studies to date indicate that genomic tools offer unparalleled research opportunities to continually improve our understanding of marine biological invasion