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
Meet the Editors at SICB Virtual 2021
Reserve your place to join some of the journal editors, including Editor-in-Chief Craig Franklin, at our Meet the Editor session on 17 February at 2pm (EST). Don’t forget to view our SICB Subject Collection, featuring relevant JEB papers relating to some of the symposia sessions.
2020 at The Company of Biologists
Despite 2020's challenges, we were able to bring a number of long-term projects and new ventures to fruition. As we enter a new year, join us as we reflect on the triumphs of the last 12 months.
Critical temperature window sends migratory black-headed buntings on their travels
The spring rise in temperature at black-headed bunting overwintering sites is essential for triggering the physical changes that they undergo before embarking on their spring migration – read more.
Developmental and reproductive physiology of small mammals at high altitude
Cayleih Robertson and Kathryn Wilsterman focus on high-altitude populations of the North American deer mouse in their review of the challenges and evolutionary innovations of pregnant and nursing small mammals at high altitude.
Read & Publish participation extends worldwide
“Being able to publish Open Access articles free of charge means that my article gets maximum exposure and has maximum impact, and that all my peers can read it regardless of the agreements that their universities have with publishers.”
Professor Roi Holzman (Tel Aviv University) shares his experience of publishing Open Access as part of our growing Read & Publish initiative. We now have over 60 institutions in 12 countries taking part – find out more and view our full list of participating institutions.