Table of Contents
INSIDE JEB
OUTSIDE JEB
REVIEWS
- Evolution of neuropeptide signalling systems
Summary: A review of the revolutionary advances in our knowledge of the evolution of neuropeptide signalling systems that have been enabled by comparative genomics and neuropeptide receptor deorphanisation.
- The long and the short of it – a perspective on peptidergic regulation of circuits and behaviour
Summary: Neuropeptides are the largest class of neuromodulators in nervous systems. Here we review the general principles and mechanistic insights that have emerged from studies of various animal models and discuss some of the outstanding major challenges.
- New techniques, applications and perspectives in neuropeptide research
Summary: This Review discusses a range of molecular aspects of neuropeptide biology and integrates techniques, model organisms and applications, highlighting new perspectives enabled by technical advancements in neuropeptide research.
RESEARCH ARTICLES
- Reducing gravity takes the bounce out of running
Highlighted Article: During running, humans take higher leaps in normal gravity than in reduced gravity, in order to optimally balance the competing costs of stance and leg-swing work.
- Honey bee (Apis mellifera) sociability and nestmate affiliation are dependent on the social environment experienced post-eclosion
Summary: Sociability and nestmate affiliation in honey bees are influenced by social experience and exposure to the hive environment in early adult life.
- Directionality of nose-emitted echolocation calls from bats without a nose leaf (Plecotus auritus)
Summary: Nose-emitting bats without an obvious means of emitting a narrow bio-sonar beam still emit a highly directional beam, potentially by emitting sound through the mouth as well as the nostrils.
- Exposure to CO2 influences metabolism, calcification and gene expression of the thecosome pteropod Limacina retroversa
Summary: Severity and duration of CO2 exposure influence calcification and respiration differentially in Limacina retroversa, as shown by organismal and gene expression responses, while captivity interactively influences respiration and gene expression.
- Eating when ill is risky: immune defense impairs food detoxification in the caterpillar Manduca sexta
Editors' Choice: Appetite loss during illness occurs in all animals. It may be an important protection against food toxins. Mobilizing immune defense depresses the ability to detoxify food (as shown in caterpillars).
- Visual associative learning in wood ants
Summary: Ants form an associative memory of a visual cue paired with a reward through classical conditioning. This allows visual associative learning to be studied in fixed rather than free-moving ants.
- GABAA receptors activate fish feeding behaviour via two distinct functional pathways
Summary: Behavioural tests combined with cellular and molecular electrophysiology clarify molecular mechanisms that control fish feeding, revealing two partially competitive mechanisms originating from the same neural receptor.
- Conversion efficiency of α-linolenic acid to omega-3 highly unsaturated fatty acids in aerial insectivore chicks
Highlighted Article: A stable-isotope-labeled tracer reveals the mechanism for omega-3 highly unsaturated fatty acid (HUFA) limitation in a wild avian insectivore, showing that HUFAs are an ecologically essential nutrient.
- Ontogeny and morphometrics of the gills and swim bladder of air-breathing striped catfish Pangasianodon hypophthalmus
Summary: The paradox of how an active tropical fish can meet its oxygen requirements using gills with an apparently small surface area is explained.
CORRECTIONS
This issue
Other journals from The Company of Biologists
Editors’ choice – Accurate archerfish calculate fly height in an instant
Our most recent Editors’ choice is a pair of articles that examine rapid depth perception in hunting archerfish from Caroline P. Reinel and Stefan Schuster (I. The predictive C-starts, II. An analysis of potential cues). Archerfish have an impressive ability to predict where the prey that they topple from perches will land and now it turns out that they are able to calculate the height that a victim will fall in the first 100 ms of the descent.
Featured article – Dragonfly haemolymph looks more like ancestors’
Animals that live in the air have high levels of CO2 in their bodies, while aquatic species have lower CO2 levels, but what about the internal CO2 levels of animals that evolved in air but returned to the water for part of their lives? Philip Matthews and colleagues have discovered that the CO2 in the haemolymph of aquatic dragonfly nymphs is high, like that of air breathers, even though they live in water.
Conversation – Erika Eliason
“So much of science is about things going wrong, failing epically, and I think you have to be able to pick yourself up and figure out what went wrong.”
Erika Eliason is an Assistant Professor at University of California, Santa Barbara, USA, where she studies ecological and evolutionary physiology. She shares how a childhood spent discovering the natural world in the woods where she grew up ignited her love for science and fieldwork, why conferences should be more family-friendly and the importance of being prepared for the unexpected.
Commentary – Mechanisms underpinning the beneficial effects of fluctuating thermal regimes in insect cold tolerance
Exposure to low temperature often results in death or injury for insects. However, repeated brief warm pulses during periods of low-temperature stress have been shown to confer some protection. Kendra J. Greenlee and colleagues provide an overview of the critical elements that underpin this phenomenon.
Meet the team
Are you going to the 2018 APS Comparative Physiology meeting in October? This meeting is supported by JEB and our Reviews Editor Charlotte Rutledge will be there - stop by and say hello! Advance registration is open until 24 September 2018.
preLights – Are Robofish accepted as a guppy conspecific?
Rasmus Ern highlights a preprint in which Jens Krause and colleagues use a magnet-controlled, 3D-printed fish replica to study social responsiveness in guppies.