Issues

Summary: We review the behavioral changes that vertebrate animals experience following infection. We then compare and contrast the physiological mechanisms responsible for generating these sickness behaviors across different taxa.

Summary: The waggle dance-related odometer in Apis florea and that in Apis cerana are differently affected by changes in visual contrast under natural foraging conditions.

Highlighted Article: The depletion of oxygen during diving in crocodilians is associated with HCO₃^– binding to haemoglobin, which contrasts the classic vertebrate pattern, where HCO₃^– accumulates in the plasma.

Summary: Whisker-mediated touch guides texture discrimination in short-tailed opossums. Texture discrimination sensitivity and associated tactile strategies in these marsupials show behavioral plasticity, which is dependent on sensory inputs available during development.

Highlighted Article: With their ability to switch between biomechanically distinct filter-feeding modes, sei whales represent a functional and ecological intermediate in the transition between intermittent and continuous filter feeding.

Summary: Diets with lower pollen protein to lipid ratios mitigate the effect of organophosphates on honey bees (Apis mellifera).

Highlighted Article: Acoustic synchrony in a katydid species with a multi-component call can be explained by a two-oscillator model.

Summary: The medullary raphe in chicks activates cold- but not warmth-defense thermoeffectors, mainly thermogenesis, similar to its role in mammals, indicating a possible convergent pathway in body temperature regulation of endotherms.

Summary: Sea lamprey bile salts are pheromones produced in a sex- and life-stage-dependent manner. Primer pheromones differentially affect bile salt production, circulation, clearance and release.

Summary:Drosophila larval epidermal cells do not age at the larval stage; however, they do exhibit signs of aging if they persist into the adult stage.

Summary: Male dragon lizards with bright throat patches (bibs) suffer greater telomere attrition in response to regular heavy exercise than males without bibs.

Summary: Freshly collected snails do not respond as inbred, laboratory-reared snails do to a heat shock stressor. Here, we show that a pre-injection of propranolol enables the stressor to enhance memory in the outbred snails.

Summary: We analyzed volatile metabolites in the hindguts of adult Ips hauseri, identifying that the beetles use monoterpenoid signals in feeding and reproduction, the close synchronization of which validates bottom-up effects.

Summary: Cellular metabolic rate in primary fibroblast cells from dogs does not change with LPS treatment. However, IL-6 concentration increases with LPS treatment.

Summary: Plasma membrane Ca²⁺-ATPases play a role in returning ciliary calcium to the resting level after an action potential. These pumps are co-isolated with Ca_V channels primarily in membrane density fractions.

Summary:Ectatomma ruidum learn faster and remember for longer when trained using chemotactile or visual stimuli than when using olfactory and mechanical stimuli separately, indicating a strong link between their life history and ability to learn.

Highlighted Article: This paper investigates the behavioural anti-predatory strategies that amphibian larvae may adopt in response to chemical cues by either native (dragonfly) or alien (crayfish) predators.

Summary: A genetic and behavioural study of colour vision in freshwater stingrays demonstrates visual discrimination between four different colours (compared with grey) and differing hues of red.

Highlighted Article: Analyses of bat echolocation and flight behaviors in obstacle avoidance tasks revealed that the presence of visual and auditory cues together enhances bats’ avoidance response to obstacles compared with visual or auditory cues alone.

Highlighted Article: Animals do not only need pigments to form colorful features. Birds also select combinations of protein, lipids and carbohydrates to produce the most colorful signals.

Summary: Decreases in trout heart mitochondrial function at high temperatures are due to impaired oxidative phosphorylation and complex I activity and may contribute to set upper thermal limits in this species.

Summary: The non-fasting adapted dolphin demonstrates physiological responses to food deprivation that integrate characteristics of the traditional fasting model with specializations observed in other fasting-adapted marine mammals.

Summary: Basilar and non-basilar pyramidal output neurons of the electrosensory lobe show tonic and phasic–tonic functional phenotypes that may enable them to selectively encode global and textural features of actively electrosensed objects.

Summary: In piranhas, the sound production system used in social communication probably evolved from the spinal locomotor system via modification of the muscles and of the neuronal circuits controlling them.

Summary: The energetic cost of cyclic isometric force production increases sharply with cycle frequency and in proportion to the rate of force development.