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.
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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.
Editors’ choice – Parental stressor exposure simultaneously conveys both adaptive and maladaptive larval phenotypes through epigenetic inheritance in the zebrafish (Danio rerio)
An oil spill is never a good thing, but Naim Bautista and Warren Burggren have shown that zebrafish can pass on resistance to the damaging effects of an oil-spiked diet to their offspring.
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 – preLights reaches 500 posts!
The success of preLights is down to the hard work of our preLighters. Head over to the preLights website to find out more about our most active early-career-researchers.