SHORT COMMUNICATIONS
- Daily energy expenditure in white storks is lower after fledging than in the nest
Summary: Continuous measurement of heart rate and fine-scale movements of free-living juvenile white storks (Ciconia ciconia) using on-board bio-loggers reveals individual and environmental factors relating to daily mean heart rate.
- Physiological and pharmacological characterization of a molluscan neuronal efflux transporter; evidence for age-related transporter impairment
Summary: This study provides functional and physiological evidence for the existence of ABCC-like efflux transporters in (gastropod) neurons and reports age-associated decline in the extrusion capacity of these transporters.
- Evidence for a rapid cold hardening response in cultured Drosophila S2 cells
Summary: Many insects quickly enhance their cold tolerance with a plastic response called rapid cold hardening, and here we demonstrate that cultured Drosophila cells are capable of this impressive phenotype.
RESEARCH ARTICLES
- Rainbow trout slow myoblast cell culture as a model to study slow skeletal muscle, and the characterization of mir-133 and mir-499 families as a case study
Summary: Fish slow myoblast cell culture allows for the investigation of slow muscle physiology and comparative studies with fast muscle, such as mir-133 and mir-499 families in muscle development.
- Mitochondrial thermo-sensitivity in invasive and native freshwater mussels
Summary: Contrary to previous beliefs, invasive aquatic ectotherms do not always possess more thermo-tolerant mitochondria than their endemic counterparts.
- The neuropeptide Drosulfakinin regulates social isolation-induced aggression in Drosophila
Summary: Drosulfakinin, the homologue of vertebrate neuropeptide cholecystokinin, has an evolutionarily conserved, U-shaped effect on social isolation-induced aggressive behavior in fruit flies.
- Energy compensation and received echo level dynamics in constant-frequency bats during active target approaches
Summary: Bats affected by high atmospheric absorption adjust their vocalizations in a non-logarithmic fashion to maximize echo-to-noise ratio at long ranges and to avoid high echo levels when close to a target.
- Odor coding of nestmate recognition in the eusocial ant Camponotus floridanus
Summary: Broad inhibition as well as activation of peripheral odorant receptor signaling decreases aggression between non-nestmate ants consistent with a ‘lock-and-key’ model that requires OR-based detection of unambiguous non-nestmate chemical labels.
- Extreme blood-boosting capacity of an Antarctic fish represents an adaptation to life in a sub-zero environment
Editors' Choice: Extreme splenic blood-boosting strategy provides bald notothens with an extraordinary facultative aerobic scope that enables an active lifestyle in sub-zero marine environments.
- The need for speed: functional specializations of locomotor and feeding muscles in Anolis lizards
Summary: Jaw and leg muscles are shown to consistently vary among five species of Anolis lizards, with each muscle expressing higher performance in different measures of muscle speed.
- Metabolic partitioning of sucrose and seasonal changes in fat turnover rate in ruby-throated hummingbirds (Archilochus colubris)
Summary: Hummingbirds alter fat turnover rates seasonally, with faster turnover during the summer, when they are lighter and have high daily energy expenditure. However, the preference for glucose as a substrate for fatty acid synthesis over fructose does not change seasonally.
- Effects of a titin mutation on force enhancement and force depression in mouse soleus muscles
Summary: Force enhancement and force depression are reduced in muscles from mice with a deletion in N2A titin, suggesting that titin plays a role in history-dependent muscle properties that contribute to natural movements.
- Mind the gap: natural cleft palates reduce biting performance in bats
Summary: Naturally occurring, non-pathological cleft palates are common in bats. Cleft dimensions are correlated with skull shape, and clefts reduce bite force, increase stress and increase strain in bat skulls.
- Variation in limb loading magnitude and timing in tetrapods
Summary: Variation in proprioceptive sensory systems across tetrapods influences loading behaviors of the limbs.
- Oxygenation properties of hemoglobin and the evolutionary origins of isoform multiplicity in an amphibious air-breathing fish, the blue-spotted mudskipper (Boleophthalmus pectinirostris)
Summary: The blue-spotted mudskipper routinely switches between aquatic and aerial respiration. This respiratory versatility is associated with properties of hemoglobin–oxygen transport that are similar to those found in hypoxia-adapted water-breathing fishes.
- Sexual dimorphism in human arm power and force: implications for sexual selection on fighting ability
Highlighted Article: Sexual dimorphism in arm cranking power in humans suggests that sexual selection has occurred on males using the fist as a weapon.
- Pectoral fin kinematics and motor patterns are shaped by fin ray mechanosensation during steady swimming in Scarus quoyi
Summary: In the absence of pectoral fin ray sensation, increased overlap in activity between antagonistic muscles likely acts to stiffen the fin system in order to enhance control and stability.
- The visual spectral sensitivity of the Chilean recluse spider Loxosceles laeta
Summary: Loxosceles laeta has monochromatic vision with a spectral range between the ultraviolet and green and no eye type- or sex-specific spectral specializations, evidenced using electroretinogram and behavioral assays.
- Reassessing the contribution of the Na+/H+ exchanger Nhe3b to Na+ uptake in zebrafish (Danio rerio) using CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing
Summary: CRISPR/Cas9 knockout of the Na+/H+ exchanger Nhe3b has no effect on Na+ uptake in larval zebrafish. H+-ATPase and Na+-Cl−-cotransporter are not responsible for maintaining Na+ uptake in nhe3b knockout mutants.
- Frogs seek hypoxic microhabitats that accentuate metabolic depression during dormancy
Summary: Frogs seek hypoxic microhabitats in response to habitat drying. This behaviour, in turn, accelerates and accentuates metabolic depression during aestivation.
- Hypoxia-seeking behavior, metabolic depression and skeletal muscle function in an amphibious fish out of water
Summary: Hypoxia-seeking behavior in an amphibious fish out of water can accentuate metabolic depression, which may consequently protect energy reserves, as well as skeletal muscle structure and function during seasonal droughts.
- Investigating the relationship between corticosterone and glucose in a reptile
Summary: In situ and manipulation experiments in wandering gartersnakes show plasma glucose is elevated during acute stress, but corticosterone concentrations are not tightly correlated with glucose concentrations.
- Suction adhesion in the gliding joint of a cephalopod
Summary: Suction adhesion plays an important role in the function of a gliding joint in squid, preventing the joint surfaces from being disarticulated yet allowing sliding motions with minimal resistance.
This issue
Other journals from The Company of Biologists
Predicting the Future: Species Survival in a Changing World
Read our new special issue exploring the significant role of experimental biology in assessing and predicting the susceptibility or resilience of species to future, human-induced environmental change.
Adam Hardy wins the 2020 Journal of Experimental Biology Outstanding Paper Prize
Congratulations to winner Adam Hardy for his work showing that goby fins are as touch sensitive as primate fingertips. Read Adam’s paper and find out more about the 12 papers nominated for the award.
Stark trade-offs and elegant solutions in arthropod visual systems
Many elegant eye specializations that evolved in response to visual challenges continue to be discovered. A new Review by Meece et al. summarises exciting solutions evolved by insects and other arthropods in response to specific visual challenges.
Head bobbing gives pigeons a sense of perspective
Pigeons might look goofy with their head-bobbing walk, but it turns out that the ungainly head manoeuvre allows the birds to judge distance.