Issues

Summary: The rich natural history of teleosts combined with variable aquatic habitats has produced numerous spectral tuning mechanisms. Although many of these may adaptively tune visual sensitivities, their effects on fitness remain somewhat elusive.

Highlighted Article: Adaptation to the thermally extreme and pathogenically pristine high Arctic may select for year-round energy conservation at the expense of permanently reduced innate immune function.

Summary: Human recreational activities affect maternal antibody deposition in birds but this depends on vegetation density and interspecific effects. This is a so far overlooked transgenerational effect of human disturbance on wildlife.

Summary: Evidence that diseases evoked by stress might be related to impairment in the habituation process upon repeated exposure to the same stressor.

Summary: Temperature directly affects avian breeding time; however, sensitivity to temperature did not differ between two lines genetically selected for breeding time, although early selection line birds laid earlier independent of environment.

Summary: Insulin does not directly modulate glucose- and fatty acid-sensing systems in the rainbow trout hypothalamus and hindbrain, but counteracts the changes elicited by nutrients.

Highlighted Article: An adhesion test designed to measure the pull-off force required to detach Drosophila pupae showed that Drosophila glue adheres similarly to various substrates of different chemical properties.

Summary: Seasonal sexual maturation in male bats results in low levels of torpor use regardless of food availability, but it is slowed down by limited food and the resulting lower body mass.

Summary: Evidence that wild and captive great tits reduce temperature of the bill in response to food restriction.

Summary: Asymptotic intake in lactation reflects a physiological/physical constraint in mice. This constraint is probably not defined by hypothalamic hunger signalling, being already maximally stimulated by lactation.

Summary: Energetic limitations of early juvenile development result in alterations to haemolymph buffering capacity in juvenile lobster exposed to elevated temperature and P_CO2.

Summary: Octopamine induces the release of lipids from tissue stores in many insects and can also induce lipid mobilization from honey bee hypopharyngeal glands.

Summary: Eisenia fetida express a novel lncRNA at the base of regenerating chaetae following amputation of posterior segments; this lncRNA is proposed to be a miRNA sponge that modulates chitin synthesis.

Summary: Exposure to the odor of a predator (ferret) markedly increases rat skeletal muscle temperature; this persists when physical activity is controlled. This is primarily modulated by sympathetic neural connections.

Summary: Facilitation of heat loss in blue tits allows increased female investment in innate immune function (self-maintenance) without compromising current reproduction.

Editors' Choice: Tropical forests along the Andes can greatly buffer climate. Butterflies inhabiting high elevations are less thermally tolerant but common-garden experiments suggest this is largely due to phenotypic plasticity.

Summary: Seasonal variation in humpback whale body condition is reflected in their body shape, but not in the fat content of their outer blubber layer.

Summary: Decades of experiments with coral nubbins reveal strong physiological responses to temperature and P_CO2. Similar effects do not occur in intact colonies (5–21 cm) of branching corals.

Summary: Oxidative stress appears to be closely matched to whole-animal physiology in cold-acclimated birds compared with transition birds, implying that changes to the oxidative stress system happen slowly.