Issues
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Cover image
Cover Image
Cover: The ability to make rapid changes in direction is a key part of animal locomotion. Turning performance may depend on the ability to successfully complete key challenges including: withstanding lateral forces, maintaining sufficient friction, lateral leaning during a turn and rotating the body to align with the new heading. Haagensen et al. (jeb244435) explored these among trained agility dogs. Medium-sized dogs had greater turning ability compared with smaller and larger bodied dogs. Additionally, longer forelimbs but shorter hindlimbs were associated with better turning ability. These results have significant implications for form and function relationships, but also for predicting the outcome of predator-prey encounters. Photo credit: Johanna Schultz.
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SHORT COMMUNICATIONS
Age-related decrease in appetitive associative memory in fruit flies
Summary:Drosophila melanogaster are known to exhibit age-related decreases in aversive memory. Appetitive memory likewise decreases, beginning in the first 2–3 weeks of adult life.
Force loss induced by inhibiting cross-bridge cycling is mitigated in eccentric contraction
Summary: Eccentric force is relatively preserved compared with isometric force when cross-bridge cycling is inhibited, possibly because of the contribution of the elastic force produced by titin.
RESEARCH ARTICLES
Fatty acid oxidation: a neglected factor in understanding the adjustment of mitochondrial function to cold temperatures
Summary:Dugesia tigrina increases its capacity to metabolize medium-chain fatty acids in response to cold acclimation, while long-chain fatty acid oxidation remains unchanged.
Feeling the heat: variation in thermal sensitivity within and among populations
Summary: Variation in thermal sensitivity of metabolism and thermal tolerance within and among Fundulus heteroclitus populations is wide and trait dependent, suggesting individuals have numerous adaptive strategies for dealing with temperature.
Landing manoeuvres predict roost-site preferences in bats
Summary: Spix's disc-winged bats prefer to roost in narrow leaves with a long apex, which may be related to costly manoeuvres during the approach and landing phases.
The role of ecdysteroid in the regulation of ovarian growth and oocyte maturation in Rhodnius prolixus, a vector of Chagas disease
Highlighted Article: Halloween genes, neverland and ecdysone receptor transcripts are found in the ovaries of Rhodnius prolixus, suggesting that ecdysteroid is involved in egg production and choriogenesis.
Ontogeny of the middle ear and auditory sensitivity in the Natterjack toad (Epidalea calamita)
Summary: Natterjack toads show slow development of auditory sensitivity and maturation of the middle ear, which occur around 500 days post-metamorphosis; development seems to depend more on animal size than on age.
Zebrafish parental progeny investment in response to cycling thermal stress and hypoxia: deposition of heat shock proteins but not cortisol
Summary: The endocrine and cellular stress responses make stressor-specific and distinct contributions to non-genetic inheritance in zebrafish following chronic exposure to cycling thermal stress and/or hypoxia.
Metabolic rate increases with acclimation temperature and is associated with mitochondrial function in some tissues of threespine stickleback
Summary: Metabolic remodeling in response to temperature varies among tissues, with some tissues contributing more than others to changes in the metabolic rate of threespine stickleback.
Exploring the limits to turning performance with size and shape variation in dogs
Summary: The ability to make rapid changes in direction is a central component of animal locomotion, and both body size and body shape can influence turning performance.
The role of carbonic anhydrase-mediated tissue oxygen extraction in a marine teleost acclimated to hypoxia
Summary: Hypoxia acclimation improves aerobic swim performance of red drum independent of maximum metabolic rate and tissue oxygen extraction mechanisms.
Effects of different modes of exercise on skeletal muscle mass and function and IGF-1 signaling during early aging in mice
Summary: Four modes of exercise improve skeletal muscle mass and exercise capacity, regulate the levels of protein synthesis and degradation, and metabolic enzyme activity, and inhibit apoptosis in mice undergoing early aging via activation of the IGF-1/IGF-1R–PI3K/Akt signaling pathway.
Cardiac performance and heat shock response variation related to shell colour morphs in the mudflat snail Batillaria attramentaria
Summary: The higher Arrhenius breakpoint temperature of cardiac thermal performance and ‘preparative defence’ strategies of Batillaria attramentaria snails may allow the dark shell morph to adapt to rapid and stronger thermal stress.
Endurance training does not affect maximum exertion/distance capacity in Anolis carolinensis lizards
Summary: Exertion capacity is often used as a proxy for endurance; however, evidence from endurance and exertion trials indicates that they are in fact not consistently related in lizards.
Shortened lifespan induced by a high-glucose diet is associated with intestinal immune dysfunction in Drosophila sechellia
Summary: In the specialist fruit fly Drosophila sechellia, a high-glucose diet impairs gut immune function, leading to a change in gut microbiota and the gut epithelial disorganization structure, and a shortened lifespan.
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.