Issues

Summary: We explore the mechanisms of hearing in extant atympanate vertebrates and the implications for the early evolution of tympanate hearing.

Summary: Photo-nonresponding hamsters use torpor or increase body temperature variability in response to fasting, which may allow them to cope with unpredictable, adverse environmental conditions.

Highlighted Article: Male and hermaphrodite Caenorhabditis elegans induce intestinal tubular lysosomes by different mechanisms to accommodate their unique reproductive needs.

Summary: A brainstem preparation that allows recording of electrophysiological properties of motoneurons in the intact respiratory network as a new tool for mechanistic insights into breathing control across vertebrates.

Highlighted Article: Copepods treated with the mitochondria-targeted chemical 2-4-dinitrophenol show an increase in respiration rate and ketolation of astaxanthin. This suggests a potential connection between mitochondrial function and carotenoid metabolism.

Summary: Cold acclimation of black-capped chickadees increases overall aerobic capacity of the pectoralis muscle and liver but this does not occur by simply upregulating mitochondrial proton leak or oxidative phosphorylation.

Summary: Gene expression and alternative splicing interact in response to thermal stress in an imperilled fish, with implications for conservation and mechanisms of thermal tolerance in vertebrate ectotherms.

Highlighted Article: Evidence that sand scorpions perform looping walks immediately after establishing a burrow and the possible significance of these putative learning walks in terms of scorpion navigation.

Summary: Forces experienced during burrowing drive shape variation in mid-trunk to posterior trunk vertebrae in caecilians.

Summary: Amphibious green crabs can perform prolonged exercise at low speed in air, but exhibit slow recovery in seawater, with carapace buffering and hyperventilation mitigating profound acidosis and excess post-exercise O₂ consumption.

Summary: Interindividual variation in whole-animal aerobic metabolism correlates with variation in subordinate traits related to the O₂ transport cascade in fish.

Highlighted Article: Enhanced androgen synthesis capabilities were identified in muscle muscles that actuate rapid social displays. This signature was also found in non-display muscles that operate exceeding fast speeds.

Summary: Social context influences the use of agonistic electrocommunication signals during non-breeding aggression in a knifefish with extreme variation in jaw length.

Summary: As an Arctic nesting species and one of the world's smallest marine endotherms, dovekies experience very high dive costs according to energy expenditure models using accelerometer-derived time budgets.

Summary: Analysis of p53 regulation and its effect on pro-survival pathways in crayfish reveals p53 activation in response to DNA damage during anoxia that promotes apoptosis.

Summary: When tamanduas are walking and balancing, forelimb kinematics are comparable to other therian quadrupedal mammals, but lateral rotation of the spine in the pectoral region resembles the kinematics of sprawling (e.g., lizard-like) locomotion; tamanduas also increase diagonality on more challenging supports.

Summary: The anaesthetic isoeugenol – used to manage aquatic animals – targets respiratory complex I in lobster cardiac mitochondria, but does not impact complex II.

Highlighted Article: Highland and cold-hypoxia acclimated deer mice show greater capacities to deliver fatty acids and triglycerides to thermo-effector tissue during maximal cold challenge compared with lowlanders and warm normoxia-acclimated deer mice, respectively.