INSIDE JEB
OUTSIDE JEB
REVIEW
- Evolutionary escalation: the bat–moth arms race
Summary: Bats and insects are ideal animals for investigating predator–prey interactions, both in real-time and over evolutionary time. Here, we review the evidence for adaptations and counter-adaptations in this system.
METHODS & TECHNIQUES
- Modeling observed animal performance using the Weibull distribution
Summary: Using the Weibull distribution to model observed animal performance data allows for more robust statistical analyses and estimates of maximum performance.
- Automated detection of feeding strikes by larval fish using continuous high-speed digital video: a novel method to extract quantitative data from fast, sparse kinematic events
Summary: Using machine vision algorithms originally developed to understand human actions in videos, we present a framework for automatic detection of feeding attempts of larval fishes, a fitness-determining behavior that is sparse and unpredictable in space and time.
- Using accelerometers to remotely and automatically characterize behavior in small animals
Summary: Validation of the use of accelerometers for automated collection of behavioral data from two species of small-bodied, free-living animals.
RESEARCH ARTICLES
- Energetic cost determines voluntary movement speed only in familiar environments
Highlighted Article: Metabolic investment into movement of animals changes with environmental novelty, thereby altering the metabolic dimension of ecological function.
- Biological activity of the enantiomers of 3-methylhentriacontane, a queen pheromone of the ant Lasius niger
Summary: The two enantiomers of the black garden ant queen pheromone 3-methylhentriacontane are both effective in suppressing worker ovarian development but the (S)-enantiomer more effectively reduces aggressive behavior.
- Whiteflies stabilize their take-off with closed wings
Summary: Take-off jumps send whiteflies into the air rotating forward. Air resistance on the wings, in resting position, slows down and even stops the rotation of the body, prior to wing deployment and flapping.
- Beyond body size: muscle biochemistry and body shape explain ontogenetic variation of anti-predatory behaviour in the lizard Salvator merianae
Summary: Juvenile and adult tegus exhibit different anti-predatory strategies at 22.5°C, which can be explained by differences in body size, limb proportions, jaw length and muscle biochemistry.
- Intermittent hypoxia leads to functional reorganization of mitochondria and affects cellular bioenergetics in marine molluscs
Highlighted Article: Mitochondrial reorganization during hypoxia–reoxygenation stress modulates oxidative phosphorylation capacity in a way that correlates with hypoxia tolerance in marine molluscs.
- Desiccation tolerance in Anopheles coluzzii: the effects of spiracle size and cuticular hydrocarbons
Summary: Seasonal variation in desiccation tolerance of malaria mosquitoes is shaped by cuticular hydrocarbon composition and quantity and possibly by smaller spiracles. Seasonal allometries indicate season-specific developmental programs, consistent with aestivation.
- When navigating wood ants use the centre of mass of a shape to extract directional information from a panoramic skyline
Summary: Ants can hold direction relative to a single shape in a panorama by learning the position of the shape's centre of mass on its retina when heading in the correct direction and thereafter keeping the shape's centre of mass in that desired retinal position.
- Phenotypic plasticity in three Daphnia genotypes in response to predator kairomone: evidence for an involvement of chitin deacetylases
Summary: Assessment of a clonal gradient of Daphnia reveals a high correlation between chitin deacetylase gene expression and neck-teeth induction.
- Effects of high temperatures on threatened estuarine fishes during periods of extreme drought
Highlighted Article: An integrative approach to assess the impact of elevated water temperature on fishes of immediate conservation concern highlights the vulnerability of longfin smelt relative to delta smelt.
- The magnetic orientation of the Antarctic amphipod Gondogeneia antarctica is cancelled by very weak radiofrequency fields
Summary: Antarctic crustaceans use a geomagnetic compass for orientation on the sea–land axis. This ability is lost after exposure to extraordinarily weak radiofrequency magnetic fields (2 nT).
- Intraspecific variation in physiological performance of a benthic elasmobranch challenged by ocean acidification and warming
Summary: Juvenile little skates from neighboring locations, developmentally acclimatized to varying levels of ocean acidification and warming, exhibit substantial differences in escape and aerobic performance.
- Programming of the hypothalamic-pituitary–interrenal axis by maternal social status in zebrafish (Danio rerio)
Summary: Maternal social status influences development of the stress axis and programmed stress axis function during early development in zebrafish.
- Developmental changes of cognitive vocal control in monkeys
Highlighted Article: Monkeys reliably vocalize on command during juvenile periods, but discontinue this behavior in adulthood. This greater vocal flexibility of monkeys early in ontogeny supports the neoteny hypothesis in human evolution.
- In vitro evidence supports the presence of glucokinase-independent glucosensing mechanisms in hypothalamus and hindbrain of rainbow trout
Summary: The presence and activity of glucokinase-independent glucosensing mechanisms in fish brain regions provide new and relevant information regarding metabolic regulation of food intake and counter-regulatory mechanisms to restore plasma levels of metabolites in fish.
- Recovery of locomotion after injury in Drosophila melanogaster depends on proprioception
Summary: Proprioception plays a key role in the success of long-term recovery of unbiased walking behavior after leg amputation in Drosophila melanogaster.
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.
Travelling Fellowship – Anti-ageing in the Greenland Shark
Find out how Pierre Delaroche’s Travelling Fellowship grant from the Journal of Experimental Biology took him to Greenland, where he gathered data to further understand the ageing process in the longest-living vertebrate known to science. Don’t miss the next application deadline for 2020 travel, coming up on 29 November. Where will your research take you?
Commentary – Yank: the time derivative of force is an important biomechanical variable in sensorimotor systems
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!
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.