Issues

Summary: Mitochondria are often considered to be a source of harmful reactive oxygen species. Here, we explain how they may behave as regulators of hydrogen peroxide, an important ROS in cellular function.

Summary: Persistent neuromotor activity of respiratory muscles in bullfrogs during aquatic overwintering is unlikely to underlie normal respiratory motor function after months without lung breathing, despite having respiratory mechanics that operate underwater.

Summary: A genetic circuit involving the metabolic sensor Sir2/Sirt1 and the cytokine upd2 distantly controls secretion of the endocrine factor dILP5 from insulinogenic cells to maintain glucose homeostasis and intestinal insulin signaling in Drosophila.

Summary: Algal symbionts in Symbiodinium clade D may reduce cnidarian bleaching susceptibility not by resisting temperature stress, but by resisting expulsion.

Summary: A primary cell culture technique that facilitates the cellular analysis of ctenophore development, physiology and organogenesis.

Highlighted Article: The magnetic compass of zebra finches depends on the wavelength and intensity of light, as for the magnetic compass of migratory birds, suggesting common properties for all birds.

Summary: Measures of immune function (blood lymphocytes) but not body condition or reproductive investment are associated with individual variation in glucocorticoid hormones in free-living salamanders.

Summary: Multivariate female response space in a tree cricket elucidated through statistical modelling explains reproductive isolation with respect to a sympatric heterospecific.

Summary: Distinct properties of synapses between the same motor neuron and multiple target muscles result in divergent responses to bursting activity across a physiological activity range.

Summary: Selective pressures favour low temporal resolution and high contrast sensitivity in the visual systems of Mordacia mordax and Mordacia praecox to enhance visual function in their light-limited environments.

Summary: Nervous systems process and integrate information from multiple components of complex signals. Frogs process acoustic signals in two different frequency channels, which vary in their temporal sensitivity.

Highlighted Article: Heliconius butterflies use a co-opted yellow pigment for conspecific communication, which predators find similarly aposematic compared with the ancestral yellow pigments used by non-Heliconius mimics.

Summary: Exposure to stressful salinity improves desiccation resistance under subsequent desiccation stress in aquatic beetles, but the inverse stress sequence has negative effects on water and ionic balance, decreasing performance.

Summary: Differences in dynamic muscle–tendon interaction between children and adults may play a role in movement efficiency alongside neuromuscular and physiological differences.

Summary: The changes in clock gene expression induced by ghrelin in the goldfish liver suggest a novel role for this peptide in the entrainment of the circadian system.

Summary: Host species identity significantly impacts leg segment asymmetry in a host-specialist flea, but not a host-opportunistic flea; thus, generalist fleas may better compensate for developmental instability when exploiting novel hosts.

Highlighted Article: Changes in orb spider adhesive thread performance with humidity translate into differences in prey retention times, allowing natural selection to tune a species' web to the humidity of its habitat.

Summary: Joint dynamics of grizzly bears in the sagittal plane are similar to those of other species, and they produce little net work in the frontal plane despite relatively high forces.

Summary: Under common garden conditions, comparison of migratory and resident white-crowned sparrows identifies distinctions in their respective responses to environmental cues, primarily photoperiod, leading to diverse life histories.

Highlighted Article: Low BMR, communal roosting and insulation of the roost nest enable white-browed babblers to survive winter without resorting to torpor, suggesting heterothermia is not a common thermoregulatory strategy for passerine birds.

Summary: The lateral, dorsal and medial regions of the lamprey olfactory bulb differ based on sensory input and neural responses to amino acid, bile acid and pheromone odorants.

Summary: The level of independence between the eyes of mantis shrimps (stomatopods) is task dependent, suggesting variability in neural processing of visual information.