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INSIDE JEB
OBITUARY
REVIEW
- The OxymiR response to oxygen limitation: a comparative microRNA perspective
Summary: A review of OxymiRs – oxygen-responsive microRNAs – in over 20 animal species, from squid to humans, reveals a lack of a universal microRNA strategy; instead, there are species-specific responses to oxygen deprivation.
METHODS & TECHNIQUES
- The aerodynamic force platform as an ergometer
Summary: An accurate method for measuring the time-resolved aerodynamic power generated during free flight using direct force measurements from an aerodynamic force platform and the measured 3D wing velocity.
- A fast and effective method for dissecting parasitic spores: myxozoans as an example
Summary: A fast and efficient method to dissect myxospores in a few steps, involving sonication and sucrose and Percoll density gradient ultracentrifugation.
- In vitro virtual reality: an anatomically explicit musculoskeletal simulation powered by in vitro muscle using closed-loop tissue–software interaction
Highlighted Article: In vitro-VR: a method enabling an in vitro muscle to ‘remotely control’ a musculoskeletal limb simulation via a closed-loop hardware–software interface.
RESEARCH ARTICLES
- Fly eyes are not still: a motion illusion in Drosophila flight supports parallel visual processing
Summary: In fly flight, self-motion can give rise to a visual motion illusion, driven by perceptual aliasing. Robust object tracking on illusory panoramas supports parallel visual motion processing in flight.
- The metabolic response to an immune challenge in a viviparous snake, Sistrurus miliarius
Summary: The response to an immune challenge in a viviparous reptile is metabolically costly and altered during pregnancy. Activation of the immune system during pregnancy may negatively impact offspring.
- Diving apart together: call propagation in diving long-finned pilot whales
Summary: Data from acoustic modelling and tagged pilot whale pairs show that pilot whale calls have the potential to reach spatially dispersed group members.
- Mechanical fatigue fractures bivalve shells
Highlighted Article: Chronic or repeated subcritical forces weaken and fracture mussel shells. The scale of this mechanical fatigue provides ecological insight into the forces that can break mussel shells.
- The effect of ecological factors on eye morphology in the western rainbowfish, Melanotaenia australis
Summary: The gross morphology and position of the eye in a freshwater fish differs among populations according to light availability and the complexity of the habitat.
- Limits to sustained energy intake. XXXI. Effect of graded levels of dietary fat on lactation performance in Swiss mice
Summary: Female Swiss mice enhance their lactation performance in line with a graded dietary fat content from 8.3 to 41.7% fat, but not at higher fat levels.
- Heat dissipation capacity influences reproductive performance in an aerial insectivore
Highlighted Article: Empirical evidence that the ability to dissipate body heat constrains offspring feeding behaviour in a breeding bird, the tree swallow.
- On the regeneration of fish scales: structure and mechanical behavior
Summary: Scales regenerated on fish that were maintained at high temperatures exhibited a substantial mineralized layer and mechanical behavior more akin to the ontogenetic scales than scales regenerated at a lower temperature.
- Both sexes produce sounds in vocal fish species: testing the hypothesis in the pygmy gourami (labyrinth fishes)
Summary: Female pygmy gouramis produce sounds during agonistic interactions similar to males despite having smaller sonic organs. This supports the hypothesis that both sexes signal acoustically during contests in vocal fish species.
- Flash and grab: deep-diving southern elephant seals trigger anti-predator flashes in bioluminescent prey
Highlighted Article: Description of a new measurement method and its successful application to deep-diving elephant seals, showing that these predators attempt to catch mesopelagic prey that react with bright anti-predator flashes.
- Learning of bimodal versus unimodal signals in restrained bumble bees
Summary: The performance of bumble bees varies broadly when trained to bimodal stimuli and the components within a bimodal stimulus are not used equivalently.
- Magnetoreception in fishes: the effect of magnetic pulses on orientation of juvenile Pacific salmon
Summary: A magnetic pulse alters the orientation of Pacific salmon, suggesting that the magnetic sense of fish might depend on particles of magnetite.
- An α7-related nicotinic acetylcholine receptor mediates the ciliary arrest response in pharyngeal gill slits of Ciona
Summary: Ciliary movement in the pharynx of marine filter feeding ascidians is arrested by mechanical stimuli on other body parts. This ciliary arrest is mediated by an α7-like cholinergic receptor.
- Effect of stimulus height on cockroach optomotor response
Summary: The vertically shortest wide-field stimulus that causes an optomotor response in the cockroach is about 1 deg high, corresponding to one or just a few rows of ommatidia.
This issue
Other journals from The Company of Biologists
JEB and COVID-19
We are aware that the COVID-19 pandemic is having an unprecedented impact on researchers worldwide. The Editors of all The Company of Biologists’ journals have been considering ways in which we can alleviate concerns that members of our community may have around publishing activities during this time. Read about the actions we are taking at this time.
Please don’t hesitate to contact the Editorial Office if you have any questions or concerns.
In the field: an interview with Craig Franklin
We are expanding the Conversation series to focus on the experiences of researchers out in the field. We’ll go behind the scenes as researchers tell us about their experiences on trawlers, in deserts, up mountains and in the remotest regions of the poles. Find out more about the series in our Editorial.
In the first interview, JEB author and editor Craig Franklin talks about the risks and challenges of working in remote areas with animals in their natural environment.
Do you have an idea for a Workshop?
Our Workshop programme may be on hold for now, but we are welcoming ideas for the 2022 line-up. The proposal deadline is 29 May 2020, so find out how to pitch your idea to the Workshop Committee in good time.
Seeing the rainbow
A new Review by Carleton et al. demonstrates the remarkable external differences in eye design of teleost fish, which hints at the astonishing variety of retinal diversity seen in fish from both freshwater and marine environments.
How to promote your research
Publishing your paper is just the start of communicating your research to the world. Some researchers feel uneasy about self-promotion, but chances are your existing network is interested in what you’re doing – you just need to tell them! Sharing your work is useful and professional. Follow our 10 tips to get started.