CLASSICS
REVIEW
- Sensing in a noisy world: lessons from auditory specialists, echolocating bats
Summary: Researchers use echolocating bats – with their adaptations for sound production and reception – as models for understanding how animals sense and communicate in noisy environments.
SHORT COMMUNICATIONS
- Characterizing the distribution of steroid sulfatase during embryonic development: when and where might metabolites of maternal steroids be reactivated?
Summary: Steroid sulfatase activity hydrolyzes steroid sulfates back to an active form. Here we demonstrate steroid sulfatase is present in various tissues during embryonic development.
- Respiratory consequences of targeted losses of Hoxa5 gene function in mice
Summary: HOXA5 is a transcription factor broadly expressed in the respiratory system; Hoxa5 expression in the mesenchyme and phrenic motor neurons controls distinct aspects of respiratory development.
- Head orientation of walking blowflies is controlled by visual and mechanical cues
Summary: Both mechanical and visual cues contribute to gaze orientation during free walking in blowflies, and when visual cues are lacking, more weight is given to gravity.
- Low glucose availability stimulates progesterone production by mouse ovaries in vitro
Summary: Mouse ovaries respond directly to low glucose availability by increasing progesterone production; this may contribute to homeostatic processes that positively regulate blood glucose.
RESEARCH ARTICLES
- Pharmacological analysis of the transmembrane action potential configuration in myoepithelial cells of the spontaneously beating heart of the ascidian Styela rustica in vitro
Summary: The key role in the automaticity of the ascidian heart is played by the outward K+ currents, Na+ currents, activated hyperpolarization current If, and a current of unknown nature IX.
- Thermal strategies of king penguins during prolonged fasting in water
Summary: Maintenance of near-normothermic temperatures in peripheral tissues of king penguins when fasting in cold water suggests maintained perfusion, presumably to mobilize free fatty acids from subcutaneous adipose tissue.
- The opercular mouth-opening mechanism of largemouth bass functions as a 3D four-bar linkage with three degrees of freedom
Editors’ Choice: Extension of the traditional 2D four-bar linkage to a high-mobility, 3D four-bar linkage accurately predicts the motion of a mouth-opening mechanism in the skull of ray-finned fishes.
- Fighting over burrows: the emergence of dominance hierarchies in the Norway lobster (Nephrops norvegicus)
Summary: Dominant Norway lobsters profit from their rank in a social hierarchy by gaining increased access to burrows and by reducing activity outside the shelters as the hierarchy emerges.
- Thermal tachypnea in avian embryos
Summary: Chicken embryos during the internal pipping phase (at a time when pulmonary ventilation initiates) are capable of responding to heat exposure by tachypnea.
- A new method to characterize function of the Drosophila heart by means of optical flow
Summary: The analysis of coherent movement in Drosophila is established as a suitable indicator of qualitative changes of the heart's beating characteristics, which improves the usefulness of Drosophila as model of cardiac diseases.
- Free-ranging dogs prefer petting over food in repeated interactions with unfamiliar humans
Summary: Free-ranging dogs are generally aversive towards making direct human contact for food. Interestingly, they show enhanced interactions with humans who provide them with positive social contact.
- Aversive learning of odor–heat associations in ants
Highlighted Article: A new protocol to study aversive conditioning in harnessed ants exploiting the natural aggressive mandible opening response shows that ants are capable of aversive learning.
- Myogenic activity and serotonergic inhibition in the chromatophore network of the squid Dosidicus gigas (family Ommastrephidae) and Doryteuthis opalescens (family Loliginidae)
Summary: A comparative physiological and immunohistochemical examination of coordinated activity among squid chromatophores in the absence of neural control and serotonin inhibition.
- Neuromuscular mechanisms of an elaborate wing display in the golden-collared manakin (Manacus vitellinus)
Summary: We pinpoint the main skeletal muscles associated with the production of an elaborate gestural courtship display in a tropical bird, the golden-collared manakin.
- Context-dependent chemosensory signaling, aggression and neural activation patterns in gravid female African cichlid fish
Summary: Gravid female cichlids show altered urine release and behavioral responses during inter- and intra-sexual social interactions. Brain activation patterns in socially relevant regions reveal context-dependent patterns.
- Durophagous biting in sea otters (Enhydra lutris) differs kinematically from raptorial biting of other marine mammals
Summary: Sea otters represent a transitional stage of aquatic adaptation and use a specialized durophagous raptorial biting mode characterized by large gapes, large gape angles and lack of lateral gape occlusion.
- Effects of food availability on metabolism, behaviour, growth and their relationships in a triploid carp
Summary: Food availability significantly affects physiological, behavioural and ecological processes in triploid carp by altering the trade-off between metabolism and growth.
- Functional classification of gill ionocytes and spatiotemporal changes in their distribution after transfer from seawater to freshwater in Japanese seabass
Summary: Gill ionocytes in Japanese seabass originate from undifferentiated cells in the filaments and expand their distribution to the lamellae during freshwater acclimation.
- The force-generation process in active muscle is strain sensitive and endothermic: a temperature-perturbation study
Summary: A temperature jump applied at the onset of ramp shortening enhanced force during the initial phase of force decline, indicating that cross-bridge force generation is both strain-sensitive and endothermic (absorbs heat).
CORRECTIONS
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Meet the Editors at SICB Virtual 2021
Reserve your place to join some of the journal editors, including Editor-in-Chief Craig Franklin, at our Meet the Editor session on 17 February at 2pm (EST). Don’t forget to view our SICB Subject Collection, featuring relevant JEB papers relating to some of the symposia sessions.
2020 at The Company of Biologists
Despite 2020's challenges, we were able to bring a number of long-term projects and new ventures to fruition. As we enter a new year, join us as we reflect on the triumphs of the last 12 months.
The Big Biology podcast
JEB author Christine Cooper talks to Big Biology about her research. In this fascinating JEB sponsored podcast she tells us how tough zebra finches adjust their physiology to cope with extreme climate events.
Developmental and reproductive physiology of small mammals at high altitude
Cayleih Robertson and Kathryn Wilsterman focus on high-altitude populations of the North American deer mouse in their review of the challenges and evolutionary innovations of pregnant and nursing small mammals at high altitude.
Read & Publish participation extends worldwide
“Being able to publish Open Access articles free of charge means that my article gets maximum exposure and has maximum impact, and that all my peers can read it regardless of the agreements that their universities have with publishers.”
Professor Roi Holzman (Tel Aviv University) shares his experience of publishing Open Access as part of our growing Read & Publish initiative. We now have over 60 institutions in 12 countries taking part – find out more and view our full list of participating institutions.