INSIDE JEB
OUTSIDE JEB
OBITUARY
REVIEW
- Mixing it up: the biological significance of hybrid skeletal muscle fibers
Summary: Hybrid muscle fibers co-expressing multiple myosin heavy chain isoforms are common components of skeletal muscles. This Review examines the prevalence of these fibers and the conditions under which they occur.
SHORT COMMUNICATIONS
- Nitrite-induced reductions in heat tolerance are independent of aerobic scope in a freshwater teleost
Summary: Nitrite is a pervasive pollutant in aquatic habitats, which affects both heat tolerance and aerobic scope in juvenile European carp (Cyprinus carpio).
- XROMM kinematics of ventilation in wild turkeys (Meleagris gallopavo)
Summary: XROMM analysis shows that the ribs in birds move in a constrained, predictable way during breathing, which is important for modelling the evolution of avian ventilation and respiratory physiology.
- Configural learning in freshly collected, smart, wild Lymnaea
Summary: Paired predator effluent and food odour exposure reveal that freshly collected, smart snails that experience a crayfish predator on an everyday basis are also capable of configural learning.
METHODS & TECHNIQUES
- Tunnel-tube and Fourier methods for measuring three-dimensional medium reaction force in burrowing animals
Summary: The digging forces generated by pocket gophers were successfully measured using a new ‘tunnel-tube’ apparatus and Fourier transforms.
- A low-cost, open-source inertial movement GPS logger for eco-physiology applications
Summary: Description of the Tapered Wings Logger (TWLogger), a new, low-cost, open-source, archival bio-logger that records high-resolution (e.g. 50 Hz) tri-axial accelerometry and magnetometry, temperature and GPS.
- Controlling and measuring dynamic odorant stimuli in the laboratory
Summary: The difficulty of controlling odorant signals in the laboratory hinders efforts to probe how animals encode and respond to odors. Here, we present methods to deliver dynamic, reproducible odorants precisely.
RESEARCH ARTICLES
- Experimental evidence that physical activity affects the multivariate associations among muscle attachments (entheses)
Summary: This study presents an experimental validation of a recently developed method of reconstructing physical activity based on multivariate analyses of muscle attachments on bone surfaces.
- Habitual foot strike pattern does not affect simulated triceps surae muscle metabolic energy consumption during running
Summary: Simulated triceps surae muscle or whole-body metabolic energy consumption is not different between midfoot/forefoot and rearfoot strikers.
- Photoresponses in the radiolar eyes of the fan worm Acromegalomma vesiculosum
Summary: Light responses from the unusual eyes on fan worm feeding tentacles reveal a high temporal resolution, broad dynamic range, and spectral tuning to blue-green light, making the eyes well suited for governing a startle response.
- Temporal integration of conflicting directional cues in sound localization
Summary: In grasshoppers, the localization of sounds with ambiguous or conflicting directional cues depends on the magnitude and temporal position of each cue. This gives insight into general principles of directional hearing.
- Load carrying with flexible bamboo poles: optimization of a coupled oscillator system
Highlighted Article: An optimization model predicts body–load interactions that compare to experienced rural Vietnamese farmworkers carrying substantial loads suspended on flexible bamboo poles. A work-minimizing strategy indicates energy-saving gait adaptations.
- Effects of environmental enrichment on forebrain neural plasticity and survival success of stocked Atlantic salmon
Summary: Structural enrichment increases the survival success of hatchery salmon in the wild.
- Communication versus waterproofing: the physics of insect cuticular hydrocarbons
Summary: Cuticular hydrocarbons protect insects from desiccation and allow chemical communication, and contain both liquid and solid parts. This complex phase behaviour appears vital to ensure biological functioning.
- Clutter negotiating ability in an ensemble of forest interior bats is driven by body mass
Summary: Rasch models of performance in obstacle courses show that the ability of forest-dwelling bats to fly through vegetatively cluttered habitats is best predicted by wing loading and body mass.
- Signal-specific amplitude adjustment to noise in common bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus)
Editors' Choice: Common bottlenose dolphins increase whistle amplitude as ambient noise increases, but not enough to maintain the same effective range in increasing noise and with a smaller degree of compensation for individually distinctive signature whistles compared with non-signature whistles.
- A critical role for Dop1-mediated dopaminergic signaling in the plasticity of behavioral and neuronal responses to sex pheromone in a moth
Summary: Dopamine exerts its modulatory actions on the olfactory system through the Dop1 receptor and thus acts as a mediator of behavioral plasticity in insects.
- Complementary effect of attachment devices in stick insects (Phasmatodea)
Summary: Quantitative data on the usage of various attachment devices obtained from whole-animal experiments indicate complementary functionality of different tarsal and pretarsal structures in stick insects.
- Nasal airflow in the pygmy slow loris (Nycticebus pygmaeus) based on a combined histological, computed tomographic and computational fluid dynamics methodology
Summary: Micro-computed tomography slices and histology sections of an adult loris co-registered for simulation of nasal airflow reveal that olfactory and respiratory airflow are segregated, but some olfactory areas may be reduced as a result of the enlarged, convergent eyes in this primate.
- Thermal stress causes DNA damage and mortality in a tropical insect
Highlighted Article: Experiments in a tropical cockroach, Gromphadorinha coquereliana, show that cold stress does not cause lethal DNA damage, in comparison to freeze stress. Thus this species can be classified as moderately freezing tolerant.
- An amino-acid mixture can be both rewarding and punishing to larval Drosophila melanogaster
Summary: A 20-amino-acid mixture can be both rewarding and punishing, suggesting that oppositely valenced parallel memories for it could be established in maggots.
This issue
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Other journals from The Company of Biologists
The Company of Biologists commits to the Transformative Journal approach
The Company of Biologists is the first not-for-profit publisher to commit to this approach. The Company's three hybrid journals - Development, Journal of Cell Science and Journal of Experimental Biology - have chosen the 'transformative' route towards Open Access. Find out more in this interview with Claire Moulton, Publisher at The Company of Biologists and on our dedicated Transformative Journals page.
Handing over the reins
The start of August signals a change for Journal of Experimental Biology as we say a fond farewell to Editor-in-Chief of 25 years Hans Hoppeler and extend a warm welcome to his successor, Craig Franklin.
Minute mecysmaucheniid spider triggers fastest trap-jaws
Research by Hannah Wood shows that Zearchaea spiders use a spring loaded catapult mechanism to slam closed the fastest spider jaws on the planet, at an astonishing speed of 18.2 m s−1.
In the field: an interview with Sandra Binning and Dominique Roche
Together, Sandra Binning and Dominique Roche investigate how animals respond to environmental stress. In an interview, they talk about taking their children into the field and keeping safe while working in marine locations.
Surviving anoxia: the maintenance of energy production and tissue integrity during anoxia and reoxygenation
In their Review, Georgina Cox and Todd Gillis use knowledge gained from studies of anoxia-tolerant species to identify common strategies and novel solutions for the challenges of anoxia exposure.