Issues

Summary: Polar animals are well adapted to the hardships of polar life.

Summary: The progressively decreased resting heart rate during warm acclimation in rainbow trout is primarily explained by elevated inhibitory cholinergic tone and results in a gradual increase in heart rate scope.

Highlighted Article: Adaptive neural plasticity of spinal locomotor-extraocular motor circuit coupling enables Xenopus frogs to continuously generate effective retinal image-stabilizing eye movements throughout the metamorphic transition from fish-like tadpole to quadrupedal adult.

Summary: We estimated an active space of 6 to 13 m in a vocal fish using physiological and sound propagation approaches. We considered signal information perception rather than simply energy detection.

Summary: Hypoxia acclimation reduces mitochondrial release of reactive oxygen species, without affecting mitochondrial respiration, in estuarine killifish.

Highlighted Article: Leeches (Hirudo verbana) refill their salivary gland reservoirs very soon after a blood meal to readily prepare for another act of feeding, confirming that haematophagous leeches are opportunistic ectoparasites.

Summary: Macroautophagy and chaperone-mediated autophagy occur in a sequential manner during the posterior silk gland histolysis of Bombyx mori.

Summary: Adequate perfusion of the sauropod dinosaur brain is explained by the siphon principle, and maximum neck length in the fossil record may therefore be due to the siphon height limit.

Summary: Body size and coloration influence heat exchange in Liolaemus lizards, suggesting complex thermoregulatory strategies that are probably regulated through physiology and behavior, which may enable these small lizards to inhabit the harsh Patagonian environment.

Highlighted Article: Crabs from an isolated population under high risk of predation show stronger neuronal and behavioural responses to visual threats than those from a population at low risk of predation.

Summary: Under climate change, the sea urchin Heliocidaris erythrogramma will be under a substantially increased energetic burden through the highly partitioned and independent effects of temperature, pH and body size on metabolism.

Summary: In lobster hearts, SGRNFLRFamide and GYSNRNYLRFamide had anisotropic, inotropic effects on the biaxial and uniaxial length–tension curves measured along the longitudinal and transverse axes of beating hearts in control and stimulated preparations.

Summary: Juvenile Antarctic emerald rockcod are robust to projected ocean acidification scenarios and may have the capacity to adjust for future increases in P_CO2 by increasing acid-base compensation through increased ventilation.

Summary: Noteworthy increases in cardiac ventricle mass and in skeletal and cardiac muscle oxidative phosphorylation capacity arise when Pekin ducks hatch and attain an endothermic metabolic phenotype.

Highlighted Article: North American wapitis produce extremely high-pitched bugles that are incompatible with the dimensions of their vocal folds. Anatomical and acoustic investigations suggest plausible mechanisms responsible for the production of this extraordinary vocalisation.

Summary: Stress and nutritional condition are key modulators of physiological condition and reproductive success in a parental teleost fish.

Summary: Expression of alternatively splices AQP2 is ubiquitous in cetaceans, and it may be one of the molecules important for cellular osmotic tolerance throughout the body.

Summary: CHHBP is identified in Eriocheir sinensis as a putative receptor for crustacean hyperglycemic hormone (CHH), a neurohormone found only in arthropods.