INSIDE JEB
COMMENTARY
- The utility and determination of Pcrit in fishes
Summary: We outline why Pcrit is a useful and informative comparator of hypoxia tolerance in fishes, provided it is determined using standardized respirometry methods and sound statistical approaches.
RESEARCH ARTICLES
- Predator chemical cues decrease attack time and increase metabolic rate in an orb-web spider
Summary: Female orb-web spiders, Argiope keyserlingi, elevate their metabolic rate under the risk of predation, allowing them to respond quicker and spend less time on foraging, reducing their exposure to predators.
- On sarcomere length stability during isometric contractions before and after active stretching
Summary: Sarcomere lengths are more stable in the force-enhanced than the isometric reference state and sarcomere length instability does not necessarily correlate with sarcomere length non-uniformity and should therefore not be treated as the same phenomenon.
- Cardiac mitochondrial function, nitric oxide sensitivity and lipid composition following hypoxia acclimation in sablefish
Summary: Chronic hypoxia does not affect sablefish cardiac steady state mitochondrial respiration or ROS release, but alters mitochondrial lipid composition and nitric oxide sensitivity, and improves respiration and reduces ROS release post-anoxia.
- The Caenorhabditis elegans cysteine-string protein homologue DNJ-14 is dispensable for neuromuscular junction maintenance across ageing
Summary: Despite the cysteine-string protein (CSP) being important for synapse health in flies and mammals, the C. elegans CSP homologue DNJ-14 is not required for neuromuscular junction maintenance across ageing.
- Lower-limb joint mechanics during maximum acceleration sprinting
Summary: An inverse-dynamics-based analysis of the mechanical function of the human major lower-limb joints reveals that the hip and especially the ankle represent key sources of positive work during the stance phase of maximum acceleration sprinting.
- Slowing down the metabolic engine: impact of early-life corticosterone exposure on adult metabolism in house sparrows (Passer domesticus)
Highlighted Article: Developmental corticosterone exposure can orient the phenotype towards an energy-saving strategy in adult sparrows and there are both benefits and costs that could be associated with this reduced metabolism.
- High concentrations of trimethylamines in slime glands inhibit skein unraveling in Pacific hagfish
Highlighted Article: High levels of trimethylamines in slime glands of the Pacific hagfish stabilize the skeins and prevent their unraveling by stabilizing adhesive proteins.
- Intra-oropharyngeal food transport and swallowing in white-spotted bamboo sharks
Summary: White-spotted bamboo sharks transport food through their long oropharynx in step-wise motions by elevating their hyoid, which is likely to generate water flows.
- Naked mole-rats reduce the expression of ATP-dependent but not ATP-independent heat shock proteins in acute hypoxia
Summary: In acute hypoxia, the regulation of heat shock proteins in naked mole-rats indicates prioritization of energy conservation over proteostasis.
- Quantifying the acid–base status of dragonflies across their transition from breathing water to breathing air
Summary: Dragonflies show a moderate rise in hemolymph bicarbonate as they transition from water breathing to air breathing, while the non-bicarbonate buffer capacity of their hemolymph is low relative to that of other insects.
- Exposure to fluctuating temperatures leads to reduced immunity and to stress response in rattlesnakes
Summary: An acute change from a constant to a fluctuating thermal regime triggers a stress response in rattlesnakes. Additionally, exposure to a fluctuating thermal regime is associated with reduced immunity in rattlesnakes.
- Species- and tissue-specific differences in ROS metabolism during exposure to hypoxia and hyperoxia plus recovery in marine sculpins
Summary: Our comparison of two intertidal sculpin fish species, which differ in hypoxia tolerance, show species- and tissue-specific responses in ROS metabolism after exposure to hypoxia and hyperoxia with normoxic recovery.
- Activation of oxygen-responsive pathways is associated with altered protein metabolism in Arctic char exposed to hypoxia
Summary: Arctic char, a hypoxia-sensitive species, regulates protein metabolism in a tissue-specific fashion during hypoxia.
- Malpighian tubules of caterpillars: blending RNAseq and physiology to reveal regional functional diversity and novel epithelial ion transport control mechanisms
Summary: Malpighian tubules of caterpillars consist of several distinct regions that differ in structure and function and are regulated by complex mechanisms.
- Hearing in caterpillars of the monarch butterfly (Danaus plexippus)
Highlighted Article: Monarch butterfly caterpillars use specialized hairs on their thorax to detect sounds, and respond by freezing and flicking – behaviours that are thought to prevent attacks by flying insect predators.
- Thrust generation during steady swimming and acceleration from rest in anguilliform swimmers
Summary: During early acceleration from rest, sea lampreys employ distinctive, high-amplitude kinematics that produce thrust through the creation of a high-pressure region just posterior to the head.
- Dynamics of electroencephalogram oscillations underlie right-eye preferences in predatory behavior of the music frog
Summary: Predatory responses in the music frog (Nidirana daunchina) indicate that EEG oscillations at higher frequency may play important roles in right-eye preference.
- Multiple functions of ion transport by the nuchal organ in embryos and neonates of the freshwater branchiopod crustacean Daphnia magna
Summary: Measurements with the scanning ion-selective microelectrode technique reveal roles of the nuchal organ in ionoregulation, pH regulation and nitrogenous waste excretion by Daphnia magna.
- Path minimization in a tandem running Indian ant in the context of colony relocation
Summary: Ants choose the shortest path when they are tandem running nestmates to their new nest.
- Variation in developmental temperature alters adulthood plasticity of thermal tolerance in Tigriopus californicus
Summary: Developmental temperatures affect thermal limit plasticity in adults of a marine ectotherm, and changes in these limits are paralleled by differences in ATP synthesis rate and heat shock protein expression.
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.