Issues

Summary: Based on recent, convergent data from multiple animal species, including humans, we argue that some odour mixtures are spontaneously processed configurally, i.e. as odour objects, whereas others are not.

Summary: Mechanical experiments can be successfully performed on human micro-biopsy samples to determine passive and active muscle fiber properties.

Highlighted Article: Under experimental conditions where skinks could raise their body temperatures only by entering a wind tunnel, basking continued but thermoregulatory set-points were lowered in the presence of wind.

Summary: Hagfish ingest large meals (20% of body mass) by engulfment, swallowing rapidly through the velar chamber into the intestine, followed by elevated oxygen consumption and utilization, and complex changes in ventilation.

Summary: The use of neurotransmitter receptor antagonists indicates roles for the glycinergic, dopaminergic and adrenergic systems in the righting response of sea urchins, and additionally a role of the dopaminergic system in the neural processing of the righting response.

Summary: An individual honey bee's societal role determines the extent to which environmental stimuli are biologically embedded to influence social activity and brain gene expression.

Summary: Stomatopods are able to distinguish both high and low saturation colours from greys, but this ability decreases over time under artificial lighting, suggesting plasticity in their colour vision.

Summary: Octopus arm functional properties emerge from muscle contractile properties and limb anatomical organization and underpin behavioral ‘specialization’ of arm portions.

Summary: Balitorid loaches exhibit a variety of locomotor strategies on land, ranging from terrestrial swimming to tetrapod-like walking across morphotypes.

Summary: Analysis of expression and in vivo function of the TRPM2 channel in the model organism Nematostella vectensis shows that the physiological function of TRPM2 is similar between cnidarian and human orthologues.

Highlighted Article: Subtype-specific dopamine receptors are involved in the manipulation of host behavior by the parasitoid jewel wasp.

Highlighted Article: Developmental stage, not calendar age, determines thermal capabilities of Weddell seal pups. Molting pups spend more time in water despite incurring greater metabolic costs, suggesting early swimming behaviors are essential.

Highlighted Article: Boa constrictors can modulate the location of lung ventilation in response to hindered rib motions. This ability may have been an additional innovation of snakes that contributed to the evolution of constriction and large prey ingestion in the clade.

Summary: A novel method to measure equally preferred stepping patterns in human walking reveals that equally preferable gaits do not translate into energy minimization.

Summary: Different rates of temperature changes elicit different rates of reactive oxygen production, indicating that short-term thermal transients are an important aspect of habitat quality for zebrafish.

Summary:Arapaima gigas maintains aquatic CO₂ excretion in severely hypoxic water but can completely avoid oxygen loss.

Highlighted Article: Exposure of quail embryos to prenatal auditory stimulation causes juvenile quail to develop differently depending on the type of stimulation perceived.

Summary: In common waxbills, results suggest that dopaminergic effects on social behavior via the dopamine D2-like receptor family (D2R) involve different types of context or sex dependence.

Summary: A novel microinjection-based CRISPR/Cas9 method for Neocaridina heteropoda and Eriocheir sinensis embryos to introduce Nh-scarlet and Es-scarlet mutations changed their eye color and shape.