Issues

Summary: Here, we review some aspects of cardiovascular performance and associated biochemical and molecular processes that display thermal plasticity in Antarctic fishes, and consider how these will affect their survival in a warming climate.

Summary: We highlight current and emerging questions about the role of the microbiome in mediating social behaviour and discuss novel mechanisms that may mediate these effects. Non-model organisms are well suited to address these questions.

Editor's choice: A cooperatively breeding passerine bird in the Kalahari Desert experiences very hot days as stressors, with concentrations of faecal glucocorticoid metabolites increasing with daily maximum air temperatures above 38°C.

Summary: The increased passive tension in muscles of older individuals is partly due to fascicle length decreases caused by reductions in serial sarcomere number, whereas sarcomere length remains unchanged.

Summary: Analysis of pyramidal neurons of anoxia-tolerant goldfish reveals that a decrease in reactive oxygen species (ROS) concentration triggers the anoxic response, indicating a role for ROS as a low-oxygen signal.

Summary: Non-shivering thermogenesis shows phenotypic plasticity with chronic cold hypoxia in highland deer mice, but not in lowland conspecifics. Differences in brown adipose tissue mitochondrial function partially explain these changes.

Summary: Hummingbird hawkmoths hover with an inclined stroke plane, which generates a highly complicated wake. The wake topology differs from idealized vortex ring models assumed in aerodynamic models, as well as derived induced power requirements.

Highlighted Article: Architecturally dimorphic Hyalophora cocoons constructed by conspecifics reflect the existence of two distinct architectural syndromes, with each providing a selective advantage for specific cocoon morphology under different environmental conditions.

Summary: Signalling in aggregation benefits katydid prey by delaying their capture by bat predators, giving them a window of opportunity to escape predation.

Summary: Transparency is a fascinating, yet poorly studied, optical property in living organisms. We elucidated the developmental processes underlying scale and nanostructure formation in glasswing butterflies, and their roles in generating anti-reflective properties.

Summary: Elevated maternal glucocorticoids have minimal effects on offspring personality or HPA axis dynamics in North American red squirrels. Regardless of maternal glucocorticoid treatment, more active and aggressive squirrels exhibited lower adrenal reactivity.

Summary: 18S ribosomal DNA data support anatomical, kinematic and electrophysiological evidence that identifies the phylogenetic branch point giving rise to giant-axon-based fast and slow swimming in the Rhopalonematidae.

Summary: A functional crustacean cardioactive signaling system with potential roles in reproduction and hyposaline acclimation was characterized in a euryhaline mollusk.

Highlighted Article: Description of a novel behavioral algorithm that drives phototaxis in larval zebrafish: fish exhibit homeostatic control over the luminance of their surroundings with a shifting set point.

Summary: The disease vector mosquito Culex pipiens form molestus retains exogenously influenced circadian rhythms, but lacks the ability to diapause, possibly due to a deletion in its Helicase domino gene.

Summary: A new temporal conditioning paradigm using electric shock and time–frequency analysis of fly behavioral responses shows they can precisely reproduce seconds-range time intervals.

Highlighted Article: Myonuclear number per unit fibre length correlates with basal muscle protein synthesis in individual rat muscle fibres, but not under conditions of elevated muscle protein synthesis following intense muscle contraction.

Summary: Cycling ambient temperatures extends lifespan in Drosophilamelanogaster and induces robust cycling in a stress-response gene in both sexes, but affects clock gene expression differently in male and female flies.

Summary: The diuretic hormone serotonin triggers active Na⁺ transport across the crop of Rhodnius prolixus through amiloride-sensitive Na⁺ channels and Na⁺/K⁺-ATPases and is modulated by the neuropeptide RhoprCCHamide2.

Summary: Despite limb loss, ghost crabs can run at fast running speeds by altering kinematics and limb couplings.

Summary: Knifefish use alternate gaits depending on the dynamics of the flow perturbation. In particular, vortex-induced vibration has marked effects on locomotor performance of swimmers when compared with Kármán vortex streets.

Summary: Exposure to artificial light at night changes aspects of baseline innate immunity and the response towards an immune challenge in wild great tit nestlings, which is probably mediated by reduced levels of melatonin.