Issues
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Cover image
Cover Image
Cover: Dovekies rely on flying and diving to find and capture prey. At a breeding colony in East Greenland, Ste-Marie et al. (jeb243252) used accelerometers and the doubly labelled water method to model the energetic costs of both locomotory behaviours in this small Arctic seabird. Compared with the cost of flight, dive costs were found to be particularly high in this species, probably as a result of high non-mechanical costs such as those associated with thermoregulation. Photo credit: Eric Ste-Marie.
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INSIDE JEB
REVIEW
Hearing without a tympanic ear
Summary: We explore the mechanisms of hearing in extant atympanate vertebrates and the implications for the early evolution of tympanate hearing.
SHORT COMMUNICATIONS
Siberian hamsters nonresponding to short photoperiod use fasting-induced torpor
Summary: Photo-nonresponding hamsters use torpor or increase body temperature variability in response to fasting, which may allow them to cope with unpredictable, adverse environmental conditions.
Reproductive tradeoffs govern sexually dimorphic tubular lysosome induction in Caenorhabditis elegans
Highlighted Article: Male and hermaphrodite Caenorhabditis elegans induce intestinal tubular lysosomes by different mechanisms to accommodate their unique reproductive needs.
METHODS & TECHNIQUES
A brainstem preparation allowing simultaneous access to respiratory motor output and cellular properties of motoneurons in American bullfrogs
Summary: A brainstem preparation that allows recording of electrophysiological properties of motoneurons in the intact respiratory network as a new tool for mechanistic insights into breathing control across vertebrates.
RESEARCH ARTICLES
Chemical manipulation of mitochondrial function affects metabolism of red carotenoids in a marine copepod (Tigriopus californicus)
Highlighted Article: Copepods treated with the mitochondria-targeted chemical 2-4-dinitrophenol show an increase in respiration rate and ketolation of astaxanthin. This suggests a potential connection between mitochondrial function and carotenoid metabolism.
How does mitochondrial function relate to thermogenic capacity and basal metabolic rate in small birds?
Summary: Cold acclimation of black-capped chickadees increases overall aerobic capacity of the pectoralis muscle and liver but this does not occur by simply upregulating mitochondrial proton leak or oxidative phosphorylation.
Acute thermal stress elicits interactions between gene expression and alternative splicing in a fish of conservation concern
Summary: Gene expression and alternative splicing interact in response to thermal stress in an imperilled fish, with implications for conservation and mechanisms of thermal tolerance in vertebrate ectotherms.
Evidence of learning walks related to scorpion home burrow navigation
Highlighted Article: Evidence that sand scorpions perform looping walks immediately after establishing a burrow and the possible significance of these putative learning walks in terms of scorpion navigation.
Is vertebral shape variability in caecilians (Amphibia: Gymnophiona) constrained by forces experienced during burrowing?
Summary: Forces experienced during burrowing drive shape variation in mid-trunk to posterior trunk vertebrae in caecilians.
Exercise and emersion in air, and recovery in seawater in the green crab (Carcinus maenas): metabolic, acid–base, cardio-ventilatory and ionoregulatory responses
Summary: Amphibious green crabs can perform prolonged exercise at low speed in air, but exhibit slow recovery in seawater, with carapace buffering and hyperventilation mitigating profound acidosis and excess post-exercise O2 consumption.
Interindividual variation in maximum aerobic metabolism varies with gill morphology and myocardial bioenergetics in Gulf killifish
Summary: Interindividual variation in whole-animal aerobic metabolism correlates with variation in subordinate traits related to the O2 transport cascade in fish.
Specialized androgen synthesis in skeletal muscles that actuate elaborate social displays
Highlighted Article: Enhanced androgen synthesis capabilities were identified in muscle muscles that actuate rapid social displays. This signature was also found in non-display muscles that operate exceeding fast speeds.
Electrocommunication signals and aggressive behavior vary among male morphs in an apteronotid fish, Compsaraia samueli
Summary: Social context influences the use of agonistic electrocommunication signals during non-breeding aggression in a knifefish with extreme variation in jaw length.
Accelerating animal energetics: high dive costs in a small seabird disrupt the dynamic body acceleration–energy expenditure relationship
Summary: As an Arctic nesting species and one of the world's smallest marine endotherms, dovekies experience very high dive costs according to energy expenditure models using accelerometer-derived time budgets.
Activation of p53 in anoxic freshwater crayfish, Faxonius virilis
Summary: Analysis of p53 regulation and its effect on pro-survival pathways in crayfish reveals p53 activation in response to DNA damage during anoxia that promotes apoptosis.
A therian mammal with sprawling kinematics? Gait and 3D forelimb X-ray motion analysis in tamanduas
Summary: When tamanduas are walking and balancing, forelimb kinematics are comparable to other therian quadrupedal mammals, but lateral rotation of the spine in the pectoral region resembles the kinematics of sprawling (e.g., lizard-like) locomotion; tamanduas also increase diagonality on more challenging supports.
Cardiac mitochondrial energetics of the Australasian red spiny lobster, Jasus edwardsii, when exposed to isoeugenol within the commercial anaesthetic AQUI-S
Summary: The anaesthetic isoeugenol – used to manage aquatic animals – targets respiratory complex I in lobster cardiac mitochondria, but does not impact complex II.
Thermogenesis is supported by high rates of circulatory fatty acid and triglyceride delivery in highland deer mice
Highlighted Article: Highland and cold-hypoxia acclimated deer mice show greater capacities to deliver fatty acids and triglycerides to thermo-effector tissue during maximal cold challenge compared with lowlanders and warm normoxia-acclimated deer mice, respectively.
2023 JEB Outstanding Paper Prize shortlist and winner
The JEB Editors are delighted to announce the shortlisted authors for the 2023 JEB Outstanding Paper Prize. Read the winning paper - Tiny spies: mosquito antennae are sensitive sensors for eavesdropping on frog calls - by Hoover Pantoja-Sanchez and Brian Leavell from Ximena Bernal's lab at Purdue University, USA.
JEB Science Communication Workshop for ECRs
If you’re an early-career researcher interested in science communication and are attending the SEB Annual Conference in Prague this summer, come a day early and join the JEB Editors at a sci comm workshop to learn the key writing skills needed to promote your research to a broad audience beyond your peers (1 July at 14.30-17.30). Places are limited to 24 attendees, and applicants should apply through the SEB registration page by 30 April 2024.
Bridging the gap between controlled conditions and natural habitats in understanding behaviour
Novel technologies enable behavioural experiments with non-model species, in naturalistic habitats and with underexplored behaviours. In their Commentary, Scholz and colleagues discuss how to obtain a deeper understanding of the natural ecology and lifestyle of study animals.
How a macrourid fish remains buoyant at depths it should be unable to reach
Fish with swimbladders should not be capable of descending below 7200m, but when Alan Jamieson and Todd Bond spotted a macrourid fish at 7259m, they knew they had seen something miraculous. Working with Imantes Priede, they reveal that the swimbladder of a 1 kg fish could hold 37.9 g of oxygen, sufficient to offset the weight of the fish's bones, and take 221-440 days to fill, which is plausible because it takes years for the fish to descend to such depths.
ECR Workshop on Positive Peer Review
Are you an ECR looking for tips on how to write concise, astute and useful manuscript reviews? If so, join the JEB Editors at a 2-hour JEB-sponsored Workshop on Positive Peer Review at the Canadian Society of Zoologists annual meeting in Moncton on 9 May 2024 at 13.00-15.00. There are 25 spaces for ECRs and selection is first come, first serve. To sign up, check the ECR Workshop box when you register for the CSZ meeting.