The morphological characteristics of the neuroglial cells of invertebrates are reviewed, including the ultrastructural and enzyme cytochemical features of their cell bodies and attenuated cytoplasmic processes, the various ways they ensheath the nerve cells, including the loosely myelinated condition, their modifications due to intraganglionic localization and their interactions with other glial cells in the form of homocellular junctions. The spectrum of heterocellular axo-glial associations that occur in invertebrates is considered with particular reference to the different kinds of intramembranous organization they exhibit as revealed by freeze-fracture. Recent studies on glial cell development in a range of arthropods, during embryonic and pupal stages, reveal the importance of glial cell tight junctions in forming the tracer-excluding blood-brain barrier. These occluding junctions are now shown to be, in some cases, vertebrate-like in their complexity. The stages in their assembly, which may be concurrent with those of gap junction formation, reveal a number of differences from vertebrate glia. During metamorphosis, glial cells dissociate and the dynamics of the concomitant interglial junctional disruption and their intramembranous particle dispersal without apparent internalization, as well as their subsequent reassembly, are examined. The stimuli triggering these glial events and the physiological significance of the various glial modifications are considered.
In the field: an interview with Harald Wolf
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In our new Conversation, Harald Wolf talks about his fieldwork experiences working with desert ants in Tunisia to understand their navigation.
Propose a new Workshop
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Our Workshops bring together leading experts and early-career researchers from a range of scientific backgrounds. Applications are now open to propose Workshops for 2024, one of which will be held in a Global South country.
Julian Dow steps down and John Terblanche joins the JEB team
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After 15 years with the journal, Julian Dow from University of Glasgow, UK, is stepping down as a Monitoring Editor. We wish Julian all the best for the future and welcome John Terblanche, Stellenbosch University, South Africa, who is joining the team. Julian talks about his long association with The Company of Biologists and the journal and John tells us about his life and career in this News article.
The capture of crude oil droplets by filter feeders at high and low Reynolds numbers
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Researchers from the University of Montreal, Canada, reveal how tiny filter feeding barnacles and Daphnia entrap and consume minute droplets of crude oil, introducing the pollutant at the bottom of the food chain.
Patterns and processes in amphibious fish
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In their Review, Keegan Lutek, Cassandra Donatelli and Emily Standen discuss the biomechanics and neural control of terrestrial locomotion in amphibious fish. They explore how locomotor mode depends on body shape, physical constraints and phylogeny.
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