INSIDE JEB
OUTSIDE JEB
SHORT COMMUNICATION
- Hypercapnia and low pH induce neuroepithelial cell proliferation and emersion behaviour in the amphibious fish Kryptolebias marmoratus
Summary: Amphibious fish may use oxygen-sensing neuroepithelial cells to sense and avoid high CO2 or low pH in the water.
RESEARCH ARTICLES
- Will jumping snails prevail? Influence of near-future CO2, temperature and hypoxia on respiratory performance in the tropical conch Gibberulus gibberulus gibbosus
Highlighted Article: The respiratory capacity of the humpbacked conch, a jumping snail, appears sufficient not only for today's needs but also for those in a warmer acidified future.
- Focal enhancement of the skeleton to exercise correlates with responsivity of bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells rather than peak external forces
Summary: The ability of the progenitor population to differentiate toward bone-forming cells may be a better correlate to bone structural adaptation than external forces generated by exercise.
- How do treadmill speed and terrain visibility influence neuromuscular control of guinea fowl locomotion?
Summary: Guinea fowl (Numida meleagris) show speed-dependent shifts in neuromuscular control during obstacle negotiation, characterized by a greater reliance on anticipatory modulation and stride-to-stride neural adjustments at slow speed, shifting towards feedforward activation and intrinsic mechanical stability at high speed.
- Physiological, pharmacological and behavioral evidence for a TRPA1 channel that can elicit defensive responses in the medicinal leech
Summary: Physiological and behavioral evidence indicates the presence of a TRPA1-like channel in the medicinal leech Hirudo verbana that responds to both reactive electrophiles and moderate cold.
- Lipid composition and molecular interactions change with depth in the avian stratum corneum to regulate cutaneous water loss
Highlighted Article: Lipid composition changes with depth in the avian skin, but these changes vary by season. This seasonal variation affects rates of cutaneous water loss.
- A novel acoustic-vibratory multimodal duet
Summary: Paleotropical false-leaf bushcrickets exhibit a novel multimodal duet with alternating male acoustic calls and female tremulation signals; this functions in mate localization and may have evolved under predator pressure.
- Forelimb kinematics during hopping and landing in toads
Summary: Toads alter forelimb kinematics in a distance-dependent manner and achieve more extended elbow configurations at impact in longer hops.
- Molecular and sensory mechanisms to mitigate sunlight-induced DNA damage in treefrog tadpoles
Highlighted Article: A UV-avoidance sensory mechanism complements the low DNA repair efficiency of treefrog tadpoles to mitigate the genotoxic effects of solar UV radiation.
- Physiological responses of ectotherms to daily temperature variation
Summary: When developing ectotherms cannot reduce the costs of daily temperature fluctuations through phenotypic plasticity, effects on the rate of development may determine fitness consequences.
- Building a dishonest signal: the functional basis of unreliable signals of strength in males of the two-toned fiddler crab, Uca vomeris
Summary: The frequencies of reliable and unreliable signals of strength in Uca vomeris are influenced by the structural and physiological mechanisms behind force production in the major claw.
- Effects of insulin and its related signaling pathways on lipid metabolism in the yellow catfish Pelteobagrus fulvidraco
Summary: Insulin plays a regulatory role in hepatic metabolism in yellow catfish, increasing lipid and triglyceride accumulation. These changes are mediated by the modulation of PPARα, PPARγ and PI3K signaling pathways.
- Amazon river dolphins (Inia geoffrensis) use a high-frequency short-range biosonar
Highlighted Article: Amazon river dolphins inhabit an acoustically complex habitat, where they employ a short-range biosonar with source parameters not predictable from body size alone, suggesting that habitat is an important evolutionary co-driver of toothed whale biosonar.
- Grizzly bear (Ursus arctos horribilis) locomotion: gaits and ground reaction forces
Summary: Grizzly bear locomotion has some similarities to that of previously studied animals, but they do not appear to trot and produce relatively high mediolateral forces.
- Circadian modulation of learning ability in a disease vector insect, Rhodnius prolixus
Summary: Kissing bugs learn well during the night but not during the day, as their ability to acquire information – but not to retrieve it – is modulated by time.
- Insects modify their behaviour depending on the feedback sensor used when walking on a trackball in virtual reality
Summary: Honeybees change their walking behaviour to improve fixation performance, depending on the sensor that is used to measure their behaviour in closed-loop virtual reality.
- Double-network gels and the toughness of terrestrial slug glue
Summary: The gel-based glue of Arion subfuscus combines two separate networks: a deformable proteoglycan network and a cross-linked protein network. These work together to achieve far greater toughness than each can produce separately.
- Identification and classification of silks using infrared spectroscopy
Summary: FTIR analysis performed on unspun silks and cocoons from 35 different species provides information regarding the biochemical diversity and evolution of this group of materials.
- Timing matters: tuning the mechanics of a muscle–tendon unit by adjusting stimulation phase during cyclic contractions
Summary: During cyclic contractions of a muscle–tendon unit, the timing of muscle stimulation onset determines whether the muscle acts like a force producing strut, energy generating motor or energy absorbing brake.
This issue
Other journals from The Company of Biologists
Editorial – The changing of the guard
In his Editorial, Hans Hoppeler announces that he will be stepping down as Editor-in-Chief of JEB in July 2020. He reflects on the history of JEB, why he has enjoyed his tenure as JEB’s Editor-in-Chief and the recent developments in the publishing world.
Big Biology podcast
JEB is partnering with the Big Biology podcast and in this sponsored episode, JEB Editor Michael Dickinson talks to the Big Biology team about the aerodynamic mechanisms of insect flight, how insects control flight with their tiny 100k neuron brain and his recent JEB paper showing how fruit flies navigate using the sun and polarized light as a compass.
Editors’ choice – An appetite for invasion: digestive physiology, thermal performance and food intake in lionfish (Pterois spp.)
Invasive lionfish are a colossal problem in the Mediterranean Sea and western Atlantic Ocean. Now it turns out that they are successful invaders because they invest more energy in digestion than moving about.
The derivative of force with respect to time does not have a standard term in physics. In their new Commentary, David C. Lin and his colleagues propose that the term ‘yank’ should be used to denote the time derivative of force.
Runners waste energy every time their legs stop swinging, but now a team of scientists from the US and Canada have shown that a springy ankle tether can reduce runners’ energy costs by 6.4%, which is nearly the entire cost of swinging the limbs. Read the full research article here.
Journal of Experimental Biology is pleased to announce a new partnership with Publons! This allows reviewers to easily track and verify every review by choosing to add the review to their Publons profile when completing the review submission form. Publons also makes it simple for reviewers to showcase their peer review contributions in a format that can be included in job and funding applications (without breaking reviewer anonymity). Read the official announcement here!
The Company of Biologists provides grants to fund scientific meetings, workshops and conferences in the fields covered by our journals. Typically, meetings with fewer than 100 people may be granted up to £2,000, increasing up to £6,000 for about 400 people. The next deadline to apply is 28 November 2019.
preLights – Oxygenation properties of hemoglobin and the evolutionary origins of isoform multiplicity in an amphibious air-breathing fish, the blue-spotted mudskipper (Boleophthalmus pectinirostris)
Charlotte Nelson highlights work in mudskippers suggesting that a diversity in expressed hemoglobin isoforms is not required for the switch between aquatic and aerial respiration.