Issues
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Cover image
Cover Image
Cover: Non-human primates, such as the mongoose lemur (Eulemur mongoz) pictured here, are renowned for their ability to climb vertical supports, despite their lack of claws. However, little is known about the actual forces involved in such movement. Hanna et al. (pp. 3039–3052) explored limbloading patterns during climbing compared with horizontal quadrupedalism in a broad range of body sizes of non-human primates. Their results show that some unusual locomotor patterns exhibited during horizontal quadrupedalism by primates are maintained during vertical climbing, and suggest that the origin of primates is associated with small body size. Photo credit: David Haring, Duke Lemur Center, Durham, NC, USA.
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INSIDE JEB
OUTSIDE JEB
COMMENTARY
Considering aspects of the 3Rs principles within experimental animal biology
Summary: The 3Rs – Reduction, Replacement and Refinement – are embedded into the legislation and guidelines governing ethical rigour of animal use in experiments; we consider the advantages of adopting key aspects of the 3Rs into experimental biology.
SHORT COMMUNICATIONS
Genetic editing of the androgen receptor contributes to impaired male courtship behavior in zebrafish
Summary: Modification of a gene implicated in male reproductive behavior using genetic editing tools results in the impairment of courtship behavior in a vertebrate model.
Blue petrels recognize the odor of their egg
Summary: Behavioral choice tests reveal that blue petrels can recognize their own egg over a conspecific egg using odor cues.
RESEARCH ARTICLES
Pharmacological effects of cannabinoids on learning and memory in Lymnaea
Highlighted Article: Putative cannabinoid receptors are present in a mollusc and mediate stressful stimuli that alter learning and memory formation.
The evolution of vertical climbing in primates: evidence from reaction forces
Summary: A comparison of force profiles during walking and climbing across a range of body sizes in primates indicates that as body size increases, a greater functional differentiation of the limbs is exhibited.
The tendinopathic Achilles tendon does not remain iso-volumetric upon repeated loading: insights from 3D ultrasound
Summary: The tendinopathic free Achilles tendon core experiences a rapid volume loss following the onset of repeated loading, which is followed by an exaggerated longitudinal strain response.
Performance, morphology and control of power-amplified mandibles in the trap-jaw ant Myrmoteras (Hymenoptera: Formicidae)
Summary: The kinematics, anatomy and power-amplification mechanism for trap-jaw ants in the genus Myrmoteras, one of four convergent ant lineages with spring-loaded mandibles, are described.
The role of stochastic thermal environments in modulating the thermal physiology of an intertidal limpet, Lottia digitalis
Editors' Choice: Aerial exposure and recent thermal history, paired with relief from high low-tide temperatures, are important factors modulating the capacity of limpets to deal with repeated thermal stress in an intertidal environment.
High peripheral temperatures in king penguins while resting at sea: thermoregulation versus fat deposition
Summary: Periodic peripheral rewarming occurs when king penguins rest at night in a shallow seawater tank, probably reflecting perfusion changes required for the deposition of subcutaneous fat.
Entraining to the polar day: circadian rhythms in arctic ground squirrels
Summary: Arctic ground squirrels will rapidly entrain to the polar day, yet they are relatively insensitive to entrainment by abrupt light–dark transitions, which they generate naturally as a consequence of their semi-fossorial behavior.
The thermal background determines how the infrared and visual systems interact in pit vipers
Highlighted Article: The snake infrared system can accomplish a ‘brightness constancy’ computation reflecting temperature, much as the visual system compares the luminance of a figure and the background.
Titin force enhancement following active stretch of skinned skeletal muscle fibres
Summary: Titin force is differentially enhanced in skinned skeletal muscle fibres from control and titin-mutant mice.
Early exposure to chronic hypoxia induces short- and long-term regulation of hemoglobin gene expression in European sea bass (Dicentrarchus labrax)
Summary: Insights into hemoglobin gene regulation by chronic moderate hypoxia at different ontogenetic stages in European sea bass (Dicentrarchus labrax).
Feeding on ripening and over-ripening fruit: interactions between sugar, ethanol and polyphenol contents in a tropical butterfly
Summary: Bicyclus anynana butterflies benefit from feeding solutions mimicking ripe and over-ripe fruit similarly in terms of fecundity. However, their survival depends on the interaction between ripening stage and polyphenol content.
Monoaminergic integration of diet and social signals in the brains of juvenile spadefoot toads
Summary: Early effects of diet modify monoamine levels and the monoamine response to social signals in the brain of plains spadefoot toads, a species in which diet and body condition influence social preferences.
Estimation of distance and electric impedance of capacitive objects in the weakly electric fish Gnathonemus petersii
Summary: Electrosensory strategies of electric fish for unequivocal estimation of object distance and impedance indicate the use of static image parameters and motion-related cues.
Melatonin attenuates phenotypic flexibility of energy metabolism in a photoresponsive mammal, the Siberian hamster
Summary: Perception of stress in photoresponsive mammals exposed to short days is reduced, and although they secrete more stress hormones in the cold, their flexibility of energy metabolism is attenuated.
Passive regeneration of glutathione: glutathione reductase regulation in the freeze-tolerant North American wood frog, Rana sylvatica
Summary: Improved glutathione recycling may result from passive regulation of glutathione reductase by naturally rising levels of glucose during freezing in the wood frog, Rana sylvatica.
Effects of rearing salinity on expression and function of ion-motive ATPases and ion transport across the gastric caecum of Aedes aegypti larvae
Summary: Vacuolar H+-ATPase-rich and Na+/K+-ATPase-rich cells along the gastric caecum may play an important role in osmoregulation and uptake of nutrients.
Rib kinematics during lung ventilation in the American alligator (Alligator mississippiensis): an XROMM analysis
Summary: Using XROMM to test how well joint anatomy predicts rib motion during breathing in crocodylians, our best living model for the earliest archosaurs.
CORRESPONDENCE
New funding schemes for junior faculty staff

In celebration of our 100th anniversary, JEB has launched two new grants to support junior faculty staff working in animal comparative physiology and biomechanics who are within five years of setting up their first lab/research group. Check out our ECR Visiting Fellowships and Research Partnership Kickstart Travel Grants.
JEB@100: an interview with Monitoring Editor Stuart Egginton

Stuart Egginton reveals how he overcame the challenges of being a comparative physiologist in a medical school and how he would tell his younger self to trust his instincts when pursuing new ideas.
Mapping Neuromodulator expression in Octopus vulgaris – a Travelling Fellowship story

To develop her understanding of neural mapping, Federica Pizzulli, a PhD student from the Biology and Evolution of Marine Organisms Department of the Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn in Naples, used a Travelling Fellowship from Journal of Experimental Biology to visit the Seuntjens lab at KU Leuven, Belgium – the first lab to adapt in-situ Hybridization Chain Reaction (HCR) to Octopus vulgaris. Read more about our Travelling Fellowships here.
Revealing the secrets of sleep

Research spanning 20 years has illuminated the universal nature of sleep across species, from mammals to cnidaria. Rhea Lakhiani and colleagues explore sleep phenomenology, physiology and function through the lens of comparative physiology.
Thirsty snakes want to keep cool

Even though cooling down to digest dinner is a risky strategy - it takes longer leaving reptiles vulnerable to attack - thirsty Children's pythons find a cooler spot and now Jill Azzolini & co have discovered that the parched reptiles choose to keep cool to conserve water.