Issues
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Cover image
Cover Image
Cover: Corals have diverse colony morphologies ranging from elaborate branching structures to thin crusts molded to the reef. This image shows a large branching coral colony in the centre, with column-shaped, encrusting and foliose corals beneath. Hoogenboom et al. (pp. 3866-3877) investigated how the productivity of coral assemblages depends on the types of species present on the reef by measuring multiple physiological traits of common species. They found that estimated carbon uptake varied >20-fold between assemblages of species, but this variation was driven by differences in the tissue area of different morphologies, rather than differences in area-specific physiological rates. Photo credit: Mia Hoogenboom.
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INSIDE JEB
RESEARCH ARTICLES
Among-species variation in the energy budgets of reef-building corals: scaling from coral polyps to communities
Summary: Coral species vary in their reliance on particulate food sources but food availability affects only certain aspects of coral physiology. Changes in species composition of reefs are likely to affect the fluxes of organic matter between reefs and the open ocean.
Skeletal muscle contractile function predicts activity and behaviour in zebrafish
Highlighted Article: Muscle contractile properties determine voluntary movement speed and activity of animals, and thereby influence risk-taking behaviour, providing a functional explanation for differences in behavioural phenotypes between individuals.
Acute cold and exercise training up-regulate similar aspects of fatty acid transport and catabolism in house sparrows (Passer domesticus)
Summary: Cold and exercise training in house sparrows increase trans-sarcolemmal and intramyocyte lipid transport capacities and cellular metabolic intensities associated with elevated shivering thermogenesis and exercise capacities.
Three-dimensional morphology and strain of the human Achilles free tendon immediately following eccentric heel drop exercise
Summary: Eccentric exercise induces immediate changes in biaxial transverse strain of the human Achilles free tendon in vivo that appear to be linked to corresponding creep-dependent changes in longitudinal strain.
Reproduction is not costly in terms of oxidative stress
Summary: Oxidative damage does not increase in female bank voles rearing four enlarged litters, which undermines the hypothesis linking oxidative stress with the trade-off between current and future reproductive effort.
Experimental evidence that litter size imposes an oxidative challenge to offspring
Summary: Experimental manipulation of litter size in wild-derived mice increases oxidative challenges in large litters and influences investment in sexual signalling, indicating long-term effects of rearing environment.
Fear is the mother of invention: anuran embryos exposed to predator cues alter life-history traits, post-hatching behaviour and neuronal activity patterns
Summary: Predator kairomones perceived by anuran embryos induce life-history and behavioural changes in tadpoles, and result in a long-term increase in neuronal activity and response to predator cues.
The water channel aquaporin-1a1 facilitates movement of CO2 and ammonia in zebrafish (Danio rerio) larvae
Highlighted Article: The water channel aquaporin-1a1 contributes to CO2 and ammonia excretion in zebrafish larvae, indicating that it serves in vivo as a gas channel for CO2 and ammonia movement across biological membranes.
Morphology does not predict performance: jaw curvature and prey crushing in durophagous stingrays
Summary: Disparate jaw morphologies are functionally equivalent in a diverse family of hard-prey-feeding stingrays, despite their prey spanning a continuum of shell structural and material properties.
Sources and range of long-term variability of rhythmic motor patterns in vivo
Summary: Light-driven activity patterns exist in vivo for pyloric and gastric mill rhythms, but are overshadowed by substantial variability and occluded by sensory influences, which alter motor pattern structure.
Infection with schistosome parasites in snails leads to increased predation by prawns: implications for human schistosomiasis control
Highlighted Article: Prawns consume more schistosome-infected snails than uninfected snails; infected snails exhibit altered behavior that may contribute to this preference.
Auditory modulation of wind-elicited walking behavior in the cricket Gryllus bimaculatus
Summary: Crickets alter the orientation of their wind-elicited walking behavior and response threshold after exposure to a 10 kHz sound stimulus, suggesting a multisensory interaction between the auditory and cercal sensory systems.
Why arboreal snakes should not be cylindrical: body shape, incline and surface roughness have interactive effects on locomotion
Highlighted Article: For snake locomotion, the effects of surface roughness and steepness are interactive and species dependent, partly because some species have specialized non-cylindrical shapes that facilitate catching small surface protrusions.
On doing two things at once: dolphin brain and nose coordinate sonar clicks, buzzes and emotional squeals with social sounds during fish capture
Summary: Dolphins use sonar to hunt fish; they make different sounds and different decisions simultaneously.
The kinematics of directional control in the fast start of zebrafish larvae
Summary: The 3D direction of an escape response by a larval zebrafish is correlated with the degree of body rotation in yaw and pitch.
Diet and endocrine effects on behavioral maturation-related gene expression in the pars intercerebralis of the honey bee brain
Summary: Transcriptomic profiling of the pars intercerebralis in the honey bee brain provides mechanistic insights into how neurosecretory signals mediate social behavior.
Special Issue: The Integrative Biology of the Heart
Our latest Special Issue – The integrative Biology of the Heart – collates Research Articles, Reviews and Commentaries that consider cardiac biology at all levels of organisation. Guest edited by William Joyce and Holly Shiels, the papers address questions regarding cardiac plasticity, development and evolution in both vertebrates and invertebrates.
Sensory perception in a changing world – join us in Liverpool in March 2025
We are excited to invite you to a unique scientific conference, celebrating the 100-year anniversary of The Company of Biologists, and bringing together our different communities. The conference will incorporate the JEB Symposium Sensory Perception in a Changing World and the SEB satellite meeting. Find out more and register to join us in March 2025 in Liverpool, UK. Submit your abstract by 13 December 2024. Early-bird registration ends on 17 January 2025.
Extraordinary creatures: raptors
In our new Conversation focusing on extraordinary creatures, Simon Potier tells us about raptors, from peregrine falcons and eagles to vultures and owls, discussing their lifestyles, incredible sensory abilities and conservation successes.
Creating more realistic conditions for in vitro research on the fish GI
In this Commentary, Carol Bucking and colleagues discuss the issues associated with replicating in vivo conditions of the teleost gastrointestinal (GI) tract in in vitro work, and identify solutions and areas of improvement. Mimicking realistic GI conditions has the potential to greatly improve our knowledge on basic fish gut physiology.
Crude oil destroys sea otter buoyancy
The sight of animals slathered in crude oil is immensely distressing and now Kate Riordan & colleagues reveal that oil pollution decimates sea otter buoyancy and how cleaning them with detergent only partially restores the otters' ability to float.