INSIDE JEB
OUTSIDE JEB
EDITORIAL
COMMENTARY
- The stalk-eyed fly as a model for aggression – is there a conserved role for 5-HT between vertebrates and invertebrates?
Summary: We propose that the role of 5-HT in modulating invertebrate aggression is more nuanced than previously appreciated; there is evidence for distinct roles of 5-HT receptor subtypes in stalk-eyed flies, similar to the situation in vertebrates.
SHORT COMMUNICATIONS
- The energetics of ‘airtime’: estimating swim power from breaching behaviour in fishes and cetaceans
Highlighted Article: Analyses of 14 fish and cetaceans during breaches indicates that the universal upper boundary of power production is ∼200 W kg−1 muscle, which matches maximum power recorded by animals under any other circumstances.
- Why do muscles lose torque potential when activated within their agonistic group?
Summary: Muscles lose torque potential when activated with their agonistic group and this deficit is not associated with smaller moment arms, changes in inter-muscular pressure or inter-muscular force transfer.
- A selfish genetic element linked to increased lifespan impacts metabolism in female house mice
Summary: Female mice carrying a selfish genetic element have a longer lifespan; these females have lower metabolic rates as they increase in size, which may arise through gene expression differences in the liver.
RESEARCH ARTICLES
- A new method for mapping spatial resolution in compound eyes suggests two visual streaks in fiddler crabs
Summary: A new method for estimating the spatial and optical resolution of compound eyes, using the 3D micro-CT images of preserved animals.
- History-dependent perturbation response in limb muscle
Summary: Muscle response to rapid, identical strain perturbations is history dependent, but is captured by a viscoelastic model with memory; the data and model show that the muscle perturbation response depends on locomotor frequency.
- Maternal glucocorticoids promote offspring growth without inducing oxidative stress or shortening telomeres in wild red squirrels
Summary: Experimental increases in glucocorticoids in breeding female North American red squirrels affects offspring postnatal growth but not levels of oxidative damage and antioxidants or telomere lengths.
- Establishment of correctly focused eyes may not require visual input in arthropods
Summary: Visual input appears not to be necessary to develop well-focused eyes in diverse arthropods, including camera-type eyes of beetle larvae and spiders, and compound eyes in flies.
- Experience-dependent tuning of early olfactory processing in the adult honey bee, Apis mellifera
Summary: Experience acquired during adulthood changes the morphology, physiology and behavioral output of the olfactory system in the honey bee.
- Whistling is metabolically cheap for communicating bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus)
Summary: Measurements of the costs of tonal sound production in bottlenose dolphins indicate that whistle communication is very cheap.
- Comparing perineuronal nets and parvalbumin development between blackbird species with differences in early developmental song exposure
Summary: Perineuronal net and parvalbumin comparisons in blackbird species with contrast in early exposure to song tutors reveals a similar pattern in song learning nuclei but not in a song production nucleus.
- Do the enlarged hind legs of male thick-legged flower beetles contribute to take-off or mating?
Highlighted Article: Male flower beetles have large hind legs that they use to grasp females securely during mating, acting like a vice grip; these legs do not enhance performance during take-off relative to females.
- A fitness cost resulting from Hamiltonella defensa infection is associated with altered probing and feeding behaviour in Rhopalosiphum padi
Summary: Reduced performance of aphids infected with a common facultative endosymbiont on poor quality plants may be explained by changes in aphid probing behaviour and decreased phloem sap ingestion.
- Tissue-specific expression of 11β-HSD and its effects on plasma corticosterone during the stress response
Summary: Peripheral enzymes are primarily responsible for enzymatic modulation of the glucocorticoid stress response in songbirds.
- How fast can raptors see?
Highlighted Article: The temporal resolution of vision differs between raptor species, with falcons having higher flicker fusion frequency than hawks.
This issue
Other journals from The Company of Biologists
Simon Hugh Piper Maddrell, ScD, FRS, 1937–2020
Professor Simon Maddrell’s distinguished career has long been intertwined with the history of The Company of Biologists and JEB. Helen Skaer, Mike O'Donnell and Julian Dow remember Simon in their affectionate Obituary.
Find out more about the breadth of his scientific contribution in a Special Issue dedicated to his work.
Sustainable Conferencing with The Company of Biologists
A new initiative spearheaded by Directors Sally Lowell, Kate Storey, Alastair Downey and Holly Shiels will provide information, technology and grants to help the community run conferences in a more sustainable way.
How hummingbirds cope with a sugar-charged lifestyle
Read how hummingbirds that dine on nectar have overcome the challenges of regulating their blood sugar levels with a suite of glucose transporters tailored to their sugar-charged lives.
Mitochondria and the thermal limits of ectotherms
In a new Review, Dillon Chung and Patricia Schulte evaluate the evidence that mitochondria play a role in shaping thermal limits at the organismal level.