INSIDE JEB
OUTSIDE JEB
REVIEW
- The temperature dependence of electrical excitability in fish hearts
Summary: At the extremes of environmental temperature, electrical excitability of the heart and other excitable tissues may set limits to temperature tolerance of fishes and other ectotherms.
SHORT COMMUNICATIONS
- Lubricating the swordfish head
Highlighted Article: A newly discovered organ in the swordfish head, consisting of an oil-producing gland connected to capillaries with oil-excreting pores in the skin, may reduce streamwise friction drag and increase swimming efficiency.
- Tide-related biological rhythm in the oxygen consumption rate of ghost shrimp (Neotrypaea uncinata)
Summary: Oxygen consumption rate of the ghost shrimp Neotrypaea uncinata fluctuates with a period similar to that of the local semidiurnal tidal cycle.
- Incubation temperature causes skewed sex ratios in a precocial bird
Summary: Egg incubation may present an opportunity for sex ratio manipulation in birds.
- Plasticity of immunity in response to eating
Summary: Aspects of immunity can increase nearly 50% during digestion of a meal in snakes; thus, immune up-regulation may contribute to the energetic cost of digestion (specific dynamic action, SDA).
RESEARCH ARTICLES
- Eating increases oxidative damage in a reptile
Summary: Consuming and digesting a meal affects oxidative physiology to a surprising degree, and animals that consume large or meat-based meals may be particularly susceptible to increases in oxidative damage.
- Altitude matters: differences in cardiovascular and respiratory responses to hypoxia in bar-headed geese reared at high and low altitudes
Highlighted Article: When exposed to progressive hypoxia, bar-headed geese reared at altitude exhibit a reduced metabolism and modestly increased ventilatory response, and also initiated cardiac responses earlier than geese reared at low altitude.
- Impact of nest sanitation on the immune system of parents and nestlings in a passerine bird
Summary: Nest sanitation primes the adaptive immune response of adult birds, but not necessarily the immune response of their nestlings; adult constitutive immune response also decreases throughout nestling rearing.
- Embryonic common snapping turtles (Chelydra serpentina) preferentially regulate intracellular tissue pH during acid–base challenges
Summary: Embryonic turtles preferentially regulate tissue pH in the absence of blood pH regulation during acid–base disturbances. This pattern of acid–base regulation has never been observed before in amniotes.
- Control of lung ventilation following overwintering conditions in bullfrogs, Lithobates catesbeianus
Summary: Following ventilatory inactivity during winter submergence, bullfrogs can match breathing to metabolism and increase ventilation during hypoxia, but have reduced responses to hypercarbia when acutely transitioned to a warm-terrestrial environment.
- Jumping mechanisms and performance in beetles. I. Flea beetles (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae: Alticini)
Highlighted Article: Flea beetles use a resilin-based structure as an elastic energy store for the catapult jumping mechanism.
- Physiological responses to hypersalinity correspond to nursery ground usage in two inshore shark species (Mustelus antarcticus and Galeorhinus galeus)
Summary: In response to an environmentally relevant hypersaline event, juvenile school and gummy sharks both show signs of stress; however, the osmoregulatory and cellular effects are greater in gummy sharks.
- A role for acoustic distortion in novel rapid frequency modulation behaviour in free-flying male mosquitoes
Summary: Female mosquito flight tones elicit a novel, stereotypical, auditory behaviour from male mosquitoes, although the male hearing organ is actually tuned to the frequency difference between male and female flight tones.
- A biorobotic model of the suction-feeding system in largemouth bass: the roles of motor program speed and hyoid kinematics
Summary: Experiments using a biorobotic model of the suction feeding system of ray-finned fishes reveal that motor program speed and kinematic timing of key musculoskeletal components affect subambient pressure generation.
- The ability to survive intracellular freezing in nematodes is related to the pattern and distribution of ice formed
Summary: Nematodes that survive intracellular freezing have small, uniform ice spaces, whereas the ice spaces of poor survivors vary more, with large spaces that may cause cellular damage.
- The significance of respiration timing in the energetics estimates of free-ranging killer whales (Orcinus orca)
Highlighted Article: Longitudinal observations of respiration times and underwater activity level indicate that consideration of respiration timing, in addition to respiration rate, is critical for estimating metabolic rates of free-ranging cetaceans.