Issues

Summary: Cold-tolerant Drosophila species defend their muscle resting membrane potential at low temperatures and may enter chill coma as a result of different physiological mechanisms than those in less cold-tolerant species.

Summary: An accessible video method measures the 3D spatial behaviour of wild untagged animals, including birds in flight, at sub-second intervals and in large air volumes.

Summary: siRNA transfection using RNAfectin at both nauplius VI and cyprid stages is effective in knocking down gene expression in barnacles.

Highlighted Article: Comparative analysis of respiratory gas exchange in grasshoppers shows interspecific variation in DGC contribution to body water conservation, which is correlated with tracheal system dimensions.

Summary: Some birds exhibit an upstroke style that enhances aerodynamic force production during energetically expensive slow flight. This aerodynamic signature is closely linked with their wing motion.

Summary: Fly mechanosensory organs influence wing-steering responses to visual stimuli in a context-dependent way.

Summary: The unpredictable chronic stressor (UCS) paradigm, which mimics the effects of multiple stressors, causes dynamic changes at every level of the hypothalamic–pituitary gland–interrenal gland (HPI) axis of Atlantic salmon parr.

Highlighted Article: Simulations of rat whisking motions are used to quantify the probabilities of whisker–object contact in complex environments and to define the tactile natural scene.

Summary: Membrane unsaturation of cypriniform fish decreases with mass as predicted by the membrane pacemaker theory of metabolism, but the allometric patterns of changes in individual fatty acids depend on phylogeny.

Summary: XROMM (X-ray reconstruction of moving morphology) is used to test kinematic hypotheses based on skeletal and soft-tissue anatomy against actual kinematics observed during naturalistic feeding behaviors.

Highlighted Article: Computational modeling reveals energetic benefits for diurnal small mammals as predicted by the circadian thermo-energetics hypothesis.

Summary: Elevated hydrostatic pressure causes changes in gene expression, behaviour and respiration rate in a shallow-water shrimp at different time-scales during and after exposure, highlighting the need to assess more than a single aspect of the overall stress response (OSR) in future physiological studies.

Summary: The predatory mite Phytoseiulus persimilis produces few large female eggs under moderate food stress but many small eggs when food is abundant, suggesting a sex-specific trade-off exists between egg size and number.

Summary: Feeding rainbow trout with a lipid-enriched diet affects fatty acid sensing and intracellular signaling pathways in the hypothalamus, suggesting an interaction that controls food intake.

Highlighted Article: Nitrogen solubility in toothed whale mandibular fats and blubber is related to lipid composition; most tissues exceed the fat nitrogen solubility value traditionally used in marine mammal gas dynamics models.

Summary: Brain blood flow rate increases with brain size and body size much faster in primates than in marsupial mammals, correlating with differences in cognitive ability.

Summary: Choice behaviour of female crickets can be explained by a simple comparison between auditory input from both sides and is reliably predicted by a computational model based on pattern and intensity cues.

Summary: European starlings employ a unique oculomotor strategy that meets the visual demands of foraging and avoiding predators in open habitats.