EDITORIALS
REVIEWS
- Adaptations of protein structure and function to temperature: there is more than one way to ‘skin a cat’
Summary: Studies over the past 40 years have shown that one to a few amino acid substitutions are sufficient to alter enzyme function in temperature-adaptive ways, but that these substitutions can occur in a variety of locations throughout the protein.
- The emerging role of RNA editing in plasticity
Summary: RNA editing can be used by organisms to regulate their physiological response to the environment. Recent studies show that it is used more frequently than previously suspected.
- The environmentally tuned transcriptomes of Mytilus mussels
Summary: Abiotic factors, such as temperature and the tidal cycle, drive patterns of gene expression in Mytilus mussels that underlie whole-organism physiological states, which, in turn, influence biogeographic distributions.
- Antarctic notothenioid fish: what are the future consequences of ‘losses’ and ‘gains’ acquired during long-term evolution at cold and stable temperatures?
Summary: Antarctic notothenioid fishes have undergone biochemical losses and gains during long-term adaptation to cold; the processes underlying thermal tolerance and acclimation capacity of these cold-specialized animals are examined in the context of climate change.
- Animal ice-binding (antifreeze) proteins and glycolipids: an overview with emphasis on physiological function
Summary: Ice-binding proteins and glycolipids evolved independently multiple times to assist subzero temperature survival in diverse organisms, both freeze-tolerant and freeze-avoiding. Their physiological functions in animals are reviewed.
- The effects of temperature on aerobic metabolism: towards a mechanistic understanding of the responses of ectotherms to a changing environment
Summary: A view of why current theories provide an inadequate mechanistic account of the effects of temperature on aerobic metabolic processes across levels of organization from individual proteins to intact animals.
- Proteomic responses to environmentally induced oxidative stress
Summary: This review covers the ROS-producing and -scavenging reactions of mitochondria, endoplasmic reticulum and peroxisome and compares these to the actual proteomic responses of marine organisms to environmentally induced oxidative stress.
- Co-evolution of proteins and solutions: protein adaptation versus cytoprotective micromolecules and their roles in marine organisms
Summary: Biochemical adaptation to environmental stressors involves not only evolution of changes in macromolecular structures, but also selection for protective cellular micromolecules such as osmolytes and piezolytes in the deep sea.
- Physiological strategies during animal diapause: lessons from brine shrimp and annual killifish
Summary: The apparent convergent evolution of diapause in brine shrimp and annual killifish has occurred at the physiological level, via unique molecular mechanisms. This review underscores the central importance of physiological, rather than molecular, responses to environmental stress.
- Physiological mechanisms used by fish to cope with salinity stress
Summary: Some fishes have evolved high salinity stress tolerance (euryhalinity), favoring adaptive radiation in a climate of rapidly changing and fluctuating salinity. The mechanisms underlying euryhalinity of fishes are outlined.
- Transcriptomic responses to environmental temperature in eurythermal and stenothermal fishes
Summary: Comparative transcriptomics is rapidly accelerating our understanding of how fish respond to thermal stress; this review summarizes and synthesizes gene expression patterns from stenothermal and eurythermal species responding to acute and long-term exposure to temperature.
- Considerations for the use of transcriptomics in identifying the ‘genes that matter’ for environmental adaptation
Summary: The ability of transcriptomics to identify genes that underlie environmental adaptation is explored in the context of recent systems-level experiments that provide new insights into the relationship between gene expression and fitness.
- Evolution of urea transporters in vertebrates: adaptation to urea's multiple roles and metabolic sources
Summary: The UT family experienced a dynamic evolutionary trajectory in vertebrates, and we propose that this phylogeny is intricately linked to the diverse physiological functions of urea and to the multiple ureogenic pathways in vertebrates.
- Biochemical adaptation to ocean acidification
Summary: Physiological adaptation to ocean acidification has been widely studied using comparative and experimental approaches, yet the biochemical bases for adaptation is not well characterized.
- Thermal variation, thermal extremes and the physiological performance of individuals
Summary: We review how temporal, spatial and physiological variation have potentially synergistic effects on the thermal performance of individuals and conclude that several challenges must be overcome to fully incorporate small-scale variation into predictions of climate change.
- Giving microbes their due – animal life in a microbially dominant world
Summary: Recent nucleic acid sequencing data provide compelling evidence that animals live in a microbial world and that microbes have shaped animal biology, including their biochemistry and physiology, over evolutionary time.
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In the field: an interview with Holly Shiels
Holly Shiels, The University of Manchester, UK, tells us about her first experience of fieldwork on the coast of New Brunswick, Canada, and describes the highs and lows of research on the ocean in the tropics and North Atlantic.
Stuart Egginton joins the JEB editorial team
Stuart Egginton, Chair of Exercise Sciences at the University of Leeds, first published in JEB 30 years ago. Now, he brings his expertise to the journal as a new Editor. Find out more about Stuart and his thoughts on this venture.
Author choices on JEB: how ‘open’ are we to Open Access?
Read our Editorial about JEB becoming a Transformative Journal and the changes we’re making to ensure that all authors can publish with us, irrespective of financial status or funder Open Access mandates.
Lesser long-nosed bats have a finely tuned sweet tooth
Hans-Ulrich Schnitzler’s team at the University of Tübingen show that lesser long-nosed bats can tell the difference between a 4.75% sugar syrup and a 5.25% syrup by taste.
Postnatal development of diving physiology
Shawn Noren’s new review explores how underdeveloped physiology makes immature marine animals vulnerable to disturbance.