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.