Giant Cell Tumor of the Tendon Sheath of the Thumb: A Case Report.

The giant cell tumor of the tendon sheath (GCTTS) is a benign nodular tumor that is found on the tendon sheath of hands and feet. It is the second most common tumor of the hand, next only to ganglion cysts. Several hypotheses were formulated about the etiological factors of these tumors, but still, there is not a common opinion on etiology, prognostic factors, and recurrence rate. We report a case of GCTTS in a young male where a lesion was identified in his left thumb. Although marginal excision is the treatment of choice, it is often difficult to perform due to the location and the strict adherence of the tumor to the tendon or neurovascular bundles. The primary issue with the treatment lies in its elevated recurrence rates. Apart from cases of incomplete excision, there is a lack of consensus regarding the impact of other risk factors on the likelihood of recurrence.

Clinal variation as a tool to understand climate change.

Clines are observable gradients that reflect continuous change in biological traits of species across geographical ranges. Clinal gradients could vary at geographic scales (latitude and altitude). Since clinal variations represent active genomic responses at the population level they (clines) provide an immense power to address questions related to climatic change. With the fast pace of climate change i.e. warming, populations are also likely to exhibit rapid responses; at both the phenotypic and genotypic levels. We seek to understand how clinal variation could be used to anticipate climatic responses using Drosophila, a pervasively used inter-disciplinary model system owing to its molecular repertoire. The genomic information coupled with the phenotypic variation greatly facilitates our understanding of the Drosophilidae response to climate change. We discuss traits associated with clinal variation at the phenotypic level as well as their underlying genetic regulators. Given prevailing climatic conditions and future projections for climate change, clines could emerge as monitoring tools to track the cross-talk between climatic variables and organisms.