The desert frog Neobatrachus pelobatoides reduced its resting metabolism in vivo by 60–70% during 5–7 weeks of aestivation (summer dormancy). The rate ofoxygen consumption (V·OO2) of isolated and intact skeletal muscle, measured in vitro, was 70% lower for aestivating frogs compared with non-aestivating frogs. The cause of the reduced V·OO2 of aestivating frog muscle must lie in the tissue itself rather than being induced by external factors such as oxygen supply or bloodborne metabolites (because these were identical in the in vitro assay conditions), by any short-term effects produced by hormones (as these would have been washed out of the tissues during incubation) or by tissue dehydration (as the tissues from aestivating frogs had rehydrated to non-aestivating levels). The reduced in vitro muscle V·OO2 accounted for 60–77% of the frogs in vivo metabolic depression that accompanied aestivation. Other tissues of the aestivating frog, namely intestine, liver, skin and fat, did not have a reduced in vitro V·OO2. We suggest that metabolic depression is initiated by reduced energy demand in cells and this consequently leads to reduced energy production.
In the field: an interview with Martha Muñoz
Martha Muñoz is an Assistant Professor at Yale University, investigating the evolutionary biology of anole lizards and lungless salamanders. In our new Conversation, she talks about her fieldwork in Indonesia, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic and the Appalachian Mountains, including a death-defying dash to the top of a mountain through an approaching hurricane.
Call for new preLighters
(update)-CallForPreLighters.png?versionId=3981)
preLights is the preprint highlighting community supported by The Company of Biologists. At the heart of preLights are our preLighters: early-career researchers who select and write about interesting new preprints for the research community. We are currently looking for new preLighters to join our team. Find out more and apply here.
Graham Scott in conversation with Big Biology
Graham Scott talks to Big Biology about the oxygen cascade in mice living on mountaintops, extreme environments for such small organisms. In this JEB-sponsored episode, they discuss the concept of symmorphosis and the evolution of the oxygen cascade.
Trap-jaw ants coordinate tendon and exoskeleton for perfect mandible arc
-AntJaws.png?versionId=3981)
Trap-jaw ants run the risk of tearing themselves apart when they fire off their mandibles, but Greg Sutton & co have discovered that the ants simultaneously push and pull the mandibles using energy stored in a head tendon and their exoskeleton to drive the jaws in a perfect arc.
Hearing without a tympanic ear
-Review.png?versionId=3981)
In their Review, Grace Capshaw, Jakob Christensen-Dalsgaard and Catherine Carr explore the mechanisms of hearing in extant atympanate vertebrates and the implications for the early evolution of tympanate hearing.
Social media
