Issues

Summary: Hedenström and Johansson review the way in which the bat's wing structure equips it for efficient and manoeuvrable flight.

Summary: Honeybees have an optimal hair-erection pattern to balance nectar intake and viscous drag.

Summary: The environment strongly influences early-life telomere attrition, suggesting that telomere dynamics may underlie cohort effects often observed in natural populations and may mechanistically link early-life stress and later-life performance.

Highlighted Article: Hypodermal ammonia excretion in the soil nematode C. elegans involves Na⁺/K⁺-ATPase, V-ATPase, carbonic anhydrase, the microtuble network and a functional Rh protein.

Summary: This study investigated the regulation of fish aquaporin function by the neurohormones vasotocin and isotocin.

Summary: Mice with a titin mutation have lower active muscle stiffness and lower shivering frequencies than predicted. Titin may provide the tuning of shivering frequency by affecting active muscle stiffness.

Summary: Coordination between connective tissue and muscles occurs via nerves in the sea-urchin spinal joint.

Summary: Running on uneven terrain leads to decreased positive ankle work and increased metabolic energy expenditure.

Highlighted Article: Penguin lung and air sac volumes are measured by 3D reconstruction from CT scans to evaluate mechanisms of baroprotection, and the effects of these volumes on oxygen storage and buoyancy.

Summary: This study characterizes the differences in osmoregulatory capacity among Mozambique tilapia, Oreochromis mossambicus, reared in freshwater (FW), seawater (SW), or under tidally driven changes in salinity.

Highlighted Article: Right ear advantage is demonstrated behaviorally in an anuran through an orientation task, which shows that differences in bio-significance induce variable responses, suggesting orientations are affected by mating strategy and emotion processing.

Summary: Aggregation of tilapia erythrophores in UV and short wavelengths and their dispersal in middle and long wavelengths is mediated by two antagonistic primary photopigments.

Summary: Measures of innate immune function vary with (1) handling stress over short time periods typical of field sample collection, and (2) the time of day that an individual is sampled.

Summary: Cold-acclimated juncos exhibit elevated thermogenic capacities and transcriptomic signatures indicating enhanced oxygen delivery and increased transport and β-oxidation of fatty acids.

Summary: A synthetic hexamer (6mer) peptide has been identified that enhanced fecundity in invertebrates (nematodes) and vertebrates (guppy fish), seemingly via antagonism of an unidentified endogenous reproductive inhibitor.

Summary: Fish exposed to streamwise vorticity increase energy consumption on average by 6%, likely due to spilling events and subsequent recovery, which were much more frequent under vorticity.

Summary: The essential amino acid profile of the bumblebee diet influences regulation of the amount of both protein and carbohydrate consumed.

Summary: Rainbow trout in Pemberton Freshwater Research Centre, Western Australia, demonstrated their impressive thermal performance in terms of cardiorespiratory function.