Issues
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Cover image
Cover Image
Cover: After their first year of life in the colony, juvenile king penguins (Aptenodytes patagonicus; right) depart to sea, where they disperse for an extended period. At sea, they have to develop effective prey search patterns and physiological capacities that enable them to capture sufficient prey at great depth. Enstipp et al. (jeb242512) used subcutaneously implanted data-loggers to investigate the ontogeny of juvenile dive capacity and foraging performance in comparison with adult breeders (left). While juveniles were able to dive to considerable depth at colony departure, physiological maturation and the refinement of foraging skills required an extensive period at sea. Photo credit: Manfred Enstipp.
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INSIDE JEB
COMMENTARY
Avian color expression and perception: is there a carotenoid link?
Summary: Carotenoid pigments color avian ornaments and organelles within the visual photoreceptors. We explore how shared carotenoid molecular genetics and physiology might link the production and perception of visual signals.
REVIEW
Cool your jets: biological jet propulsion in marine invertebrates
Summary: This Review is a comparative framework for the wide array of disparate taxa that are linked by the unique swimming strategy of jet propulsion.
SHORT COMMUNICATIONS
Metal pollutants have additive negative effects on honey bee cognition
Summary: Honey bees display reduced learning and memory performance following acute exposure to arsenic, copper or lead. Exposure to combinations of these metals has additive effects.
Telomerase activity can mediate the effects of growth on telomeres during post-natal development in a wild bird
Summary: Telomerase activity is not completely downregulated during postnatal development and may be a mechanism through which growth rates affect postnatal telomere dynamics.
Effects of 12 weeks of resistance training on rat gut microbiota composition
Summary: The resistance training enhances the gut microbiotas abundance and improves its biological functions in healthy rats.
Vacuolar H+-ATPase and Na+/K+-ATPase energize Na+ uptake mechanisms in the nuchal organ of the hyperregulating freshwater crustacean Daphnia magna
Summary: Analysis of Na+ transport across the Daphnia magna nuchal organ using the scanning ion-selective electrode technique and ion transport inhibitors indicates a role for Na+/K+-ATPase, vacuolar H+-ATPase, Na+/H+ and Na+/NH4+ exchangers and a basolateral Na+/Cl− cotransporter.
METHODS & TECHNIQUES
Evaluating tank acclimation and trial length for dynamic shuttle box temperature preference assays in aquatic animals
Summary: Examination of the trade-offs between total assay length and variation in temperature preference in thermal preference experimental design reveals no significant effect of length of acclimation time and trial length on thermal preference of juvenile lake whitefish.
RESEARCH ARTICLES
The influence of the post-pulmonary septum and submersion on the pulmonary mechanics of Trachemys scripta (Cryptodira: Emydidae)
Summary: Submersion significantly alters breathing mechanics in turtles, increasing minute work of breathing; the post-pulmonary septum aids ventilation by maintaining a constant volume within the animal's body cavity.
Does different activation between the medial and the lateral gastrocnemius during walking translate into different fascicle behavior?
Summary: Although the medial and the lateral gastrocnemius are often considered as equivalent muscles in humans, EMG and ultrasound measurements suggest that they may have distinct neuromechanical behavior during walking.
Derived loss of signal complexity and plasticity in a genus of weakly electric fish
Editor's Choice : In one electric fish genus, most species produce complex, plastic electric signals. One species that produces a simple signal shows reduced signal plasticity and retains vestigial mechanisms of signal complexity.
Bumblebees can detect floral humidity
Highlighted Article: Bumblebees show a preference for elevated floral humidity and can learn to distinguish flowers that differ in floral humidity levels.
Associative learning of non-sugar nectar components: amino acids modify nectar preference in a hawkmoth
Summary: Experienced hawkmoths prefer floral nectars containing amino acids and are able to learn floral cues associated with nectar composition in order to preferentially visit amino acid-containing flowers.
Transgenerational plasticity responses of oysters to ocean acidification differ with habitat
Summary: The nature of transgenerational plasticity responses of marine organisms to climate change differs depending on the organism's habitat.
Are individuals consistent? Endocrine reaction norms under different ecological challenges
Summary: Tests of consistency of individual endocrine responses to different environmental challenges show that although variation exists, the intercept and slope of the stress response are repeatable, suggesting selection can act upon endocrine plasticity.
Covariation among multimodal components in the courtship display of the túngara frog
Summary: Comparison of three components of frog calls (sound, vocal sac size and ripples) showed that integrating across these modalities improved the estimate of the frog's body size.
Can offsetting the energetic cost of hibernation restore an active season phenotype in grizzly bears (Ursus arctos horribilis)?
Highlighted Article: Feeding hibernating bears a single nutrient to replace up to 100% of the estimated daily energy lost in hibernation is insufficient to restore an active season phenotype.
Bearded dragons (Pogona vitticeps) with reduced scalation lose water faster but do not have substantially different thermal preferences
Highlighted Article: This study demonstrates adaptive function of lepidosaur scales in that they reduce cutaneous evaporative water loss in bearded dragons exhibiting reduced scalation phenotypes that are unique to captivity.
The early life of king penguins: ontogeny of dive capacity and foraging behaviour in an expert diver
Summary: While juvenile king penguins are readily able to dive to considerable depth when leaving their natal colony, physiological maturation and the refinement of foraging skills require an extensive period at sea.
Opposing effects of dopamine on agonistic behaviour in crayfish
Summary: Dopamine has opposing effects on crayfish agonistic behaviour: the dopamine system is downstream of octopamine for inhibition, whereas its facilitating effect is due to activation of mutual parallel pathways with serotonin.
Habituation in Aedes aegypti mosquito larvae is context specific
Summary:Aedes aegypti larvae habituated to a visual stimulus in a particular visual context react to the same stimulus presented in a different visual context, showing that habituation is context specific, i.e. there is an association between the context and the visual stimulus.
Disentangling the energetic costs of step time asymmetry and step length asymmetry in human walking
Summary: Isolation of the energetic costs of spatial and temporal asymmetries reveals that step time asymmetry plays a more dominant role than step length asymmetry in shaping gait energetics.
CORRECTION
New funding schemes for junior faculty staff

In celebration of our 100th anniversary, JEB has launched two new grants to support junior faculty staff working in animal comparative physiology and biomechanics who are within five years of setting up their first lab/research group. Check out our ECR Visiting Fellowships and Research Partnership Kickstart Travel Grants.
JEB@100: an interview with Monitoring Editor Stuart Egginton

Stuart Egginton reveals how he overcame the challenges of being a comparative physiologist in a medical school and how he would tell his younger self to trust his instincts when pursuing new ideas.
Travelling Fellowships from JEB

Our Travelling Fellowships offer up to £3,000 to graduate students and post-doctoral researchers wishing to make collaborative visits to other laboratories. Next deadline to apply is 27 October 2023
Feedforward and feedback control in the neuromechanics

Auke J. Ijspeert and Monica A. Daley provide an overview of key knowledge gained from comparative vertebrate experiments and insights obtained from neuromechanical simulations and robotic approaches. Read the full Centenary Review Article here.
Light fine-tunes electric fish pulses to keep them in the shade

Weakly electric fish perceive their surroundings through electric chirrups and now Ana Camargo & colleagues have revealed that light fine-tunes the fish's electric pulses to ensure that they remain scheduled beneath the mats of vegetation they use for shelter, avoiding penetrating beams of light that could give them away.