Issues

Summary: The pleurodire turtle Emydura subglobosa can swim using a bounding gait, potentially facilitated by longer muscle fascicle lengths than in other species, and this may have implications for the locomotor evolution of the lineage.

Summary: Adaptive increases in thermogenic capacity in high-altitude deer mice involve integrated functional changes across the O₂ cascade that augment O₂ circulation and extraction from the blood.

Highlighted Article: Did weight responsiveness evolve during the tetrapod invasion of land or is it ubiquitous among vertebrates? Skeletal stiffening in amphibious fish out of water supports the latter hypothesis.

Summary: Six species of elongate fishes from three different habitats twist their bodies along the long axis as they swim, and the pattern and degree of twisting are correlated with the habitat.

Summary: The large sexually selected claw of male fiddler crabs has no effect on the metabolic cost of locomotion during sustainable activity but may increase cost during strenuous, non-sustainable activity.

Summary: Asymmetric wing damage in hawkmoths is approximately twice as costly as symmetric damage.

Summary: A first look at TJ-associated MARVEL proteins in a basal vertebrate (agnathan) supports a role for Ocln, Ocln-a and Tric in the regulation of salt and water balance in freshwater.

Summary: Double-stranded ribonucleic acid (dsRNA) injection in the Pacific oyster induced an anti-viral state controlling ostreid herpesvirus 1 replication and precluding the understanding of the role of the inhibitor of nuclear factor-κB, Cg-IκB2.

Summary: Embryonic hypoxia and dietary stimuli can affect growth performance and the mRNA levels of glucose-metabolism-related genes in juvenile rainbow trout.

Summary: The neonicotinoid thiacloprid as an active substance and as a formulation (Calypso^®) negatively affects honey bees by reducing their learning and memory performance, which endangers their survival in natural conditions.

Highlighted Article: Lizards run fastest on granular substrates of irregularly shaped, intermediate particle sizes by increasing their stride frequency. This corresponds with high-density, coarse sand substrates.

Summary: Whale tracking tags often penetrate to muscle. Modeling blubber/muscle shearing in dolphin cadavers shows tags para-sagittal and anterior to the dorsal fin cause the least trauma, but pain remains a concern.

Summary: Phenotypic plasticity of life history traits in a nematode can be an effective mechanism to adapt to intestinal inflammation.

Summary: Although regular low-intensity physical activity may be beneficial in offsetting age-related decline in skeletal muscle contractility, future work is needed to clarify the mechanisms causing the improved contractile performance in trained dynapenic skeletal muscle.

Summary: GnIH is an important part of the mechanism by which photoperiod regulates seasonal reproduction in birds.

Highlighted Article: Malaria mosquitoes have a specialized take-off strategy that is both fast and extremely stealthy; they can use this strategy to successfully escape from a host after blood-feeding.

Summary: Cholinergic tone originates earlier than previously suggested in the development of tadpoles. The use of a successfully non-invasive methodology for measuring heart rate and buccal frequency is essential to assess the autonomic tonus.

Summary: Myelinated medial giant fibers in the shrimp nerve cord are functionally interconnected, and have fast conduction velocities and fast synaptic transfer to motor giant fibers, with properties that suggest an ephaptic mechanism.

Summary: Upper thermal tolerance limits and metabolic traits of a heavily exploited, tropical freshwater fish (the Nile perch) have high thermal plasticity without incurring major energetic costs.

Summary: Understanding reproductive physiology in solitary bees provides insight regarding the evolution of social insect castes. Reproductive maturity in alkali bees is influenced by endocrine, but not nutritional or social treatments.

Highlighted Article: High diving metabolic rate indicated by high-speed transit to depth and negative buoyancy of long-finned pilot whales implies a costly diving strategy compared with that in other deep-diving toothed whales.

Summary: Parasitoid wasps use three strategies to take off: propulsion by rapid leg movements, propulsion by flapping wing movements and a combination of the two. Leg movements provide the most energy-efficient mechanism.

Summary: Eye and heart morphogenesis are modulated by the melatonin content of embryonated chicken eggs. Melatonin signals by calmodulin and melatonin membrane receptors (Mel1a, Mel1b and Mel1c).