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
Editors' Choice: 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
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.