Motion parallax via head movements modulates visuo-motor control in pigeons [RESEARCH ARTICLE]
This study investigated whether self-generated motion parallax modulates pecking motor control and visual size perception in pigeons (Columba livia). We trained pigeons to peck a target on a touch monitor and to classify it as small or large. To manipulate motion parallax of the target, we changed the target position on the monitor according to the bird's head position in real time using a custom-built head tracker with two cameras. Pecking motor control was affected by the manipulation of motion parallax: when the motion parallax signified the target position farther than the monitor surface, the head position just before...
Source: Journal of Experimental Biology - February 10, 2021 Category: Biology Authors: Hataji, Y., Kuroshima, H., Fujita, K. Tags: RESEARCH ARTICLE Source Type: research
Symbiont regulation in Stylophora pistillata during cold stress: an acclimation mechanism against oxidative stress and severe bleaching [RESEARCH ARTICLE]
This study assessed how short and long cold excursions in seawater temperature affect the physiology and biochemical processes related to oxidative stress in the reef-building coral Stylophora pistillata. We provide, for the first time, direct evidence that the mechanisms underpinning cold stress and bleaching are related to the production of reactive oxygen species, and that rapid expulsion of a significant proportion of the symbiont population by the host during cooling conditions is an acclimation mechanism to avoid oxidative stress and, ultimately, severe bleaching. Furthermore, this study is one of the first to show t...
Source: Journal of Experimental Biology - February 10, 2021 Category: Biology Authors: Marangoni, L. F. d. B., Rottier, C., Ferrier-Pages, C. Tags: Ecophysiology: responses to environmental stressors and change RESEARCH ARTICLE Source Type: research
Visual stimulus-specific habituation of innate defensive behaviour in mice [RESEARCH ARTICLE]
Azadeh Tafreshiha, Sven A. van der Burg, Kato Smits, Laila A. Blömer, and J. Alexander Heimel Innate defensive responses such as freezing or escape are essential for animal survival. Mice show defensive behaviour to stimuli sweeping overhead, like a bird cruising the sky. Here, we tested this in young male mice and found that mice reduced their defensive freezing after sessions with a stimulus passing overhead repeatedly. This habituation is stimulus-specific, as mice freeze again to a novel shape. We found no evidence for head-centred stimulus location-specific habituation. The mice generalized over a range of siz...
Source: Journal of Experimental Biology - February 10, 2021 Category: Biology Authors: Tafreshiha, A., van der Burg, S. A., Smits, K., Blömer, L. A., Heimel, J. A. Tags: RESEARCH ARTICLE Source Type: research
The frugivorous bat Carollia perspicillata dynamically changes echolocation parameters in response to acoustic playback [RESEARCH ARTICLE]
M. Jerome Beetz, Manfred Kössl, and Julio C. Hechavarria Animals extract behaviorally relevant signals from "noisy" environments. Echolocation behavior provides a rich system testbed for investigating signal extraction. When echolocating in acoustically enriched environments, bats show many adaptations that are believed to facilitate signal extraction. Most studies to date focused on describing adaptations in insectivorous bats while frugivorous bats have rarely been tested. Here, we characterize how the frugivorous bat Carollia perspicillata adapts its echolocation behavior in response to acoustic playback. Since ...
Source: Journal of Experimental Biology - February 10, 2021 Category: Biology Authors: Beetz, M. J., Kössl, M., Hechavarria, J. C. Tags: RESEARCH ARTICLE Source Type: research
Parallel evolution of placental calcium transfer in the lizard Mabuya and eutherian mammals [RESEARCH ARTICLE]
Nathaly Hernandez Diaz, Francisca Leal, and Martha Patricia Ramirez Pinilla An exceptional case of parallel evolution between lizards and eutherian mammals occurs in the evolution of viviparity. In the lizard genus Mabuya, viviparity provided the environment for the evolution of yolk-reduced eggs and obligate placentotrophy. One major event that favored the evolution of placentation was the reduction of the eggshell. As with all oviparous reptiles, lizard embryos obtain calcium from both the eggshell and egg yolk. Therefore, the loss of the eggshell likely imposes a constraint for the conservation of the egg yolk, which ca...
Source: Journal of Experimental Biology - February 10, 2021 Category: Biology Authors: Diaz, N. H., Leal, F., Pinilla, M. P. R. Tags: RESEARCH ARTICLE Source Type: research
Masculinized Drosophila females adapt their fighting strategies to their opponent [RESEARCH ARTICLE]
Rachel E. Monyak, Nicole M. Golbari, Yick-Bun Chan, Ausra Pranevicius, Grace Tang, Maria Paz Fernandez, and Edward A. Kravitz Many animal species show aggression to gain mating partners and to protect territories and other resources from competitors. Both male and female fruit flies of the species Drosophila melanogaster exhibit aggression in same-sex pairings, but the strategies used are sexually dimorphic. We have begun to explore the biological basis for the differing aggression strategies, and the cues promoting one form of aggression over the other. Here, we describe a line of genetically masculinized females that swi...
Source: Journal of Experimental Biology - February 10, 2021 Category: Biology Authors: Monyak, R. E., Golbari, N. M., Chan, Y.-B., Pranevicius, A., Tang, G., Fernandez, M. P., Kravitz, E. A. Tags: RESEARCH ARTICLE Source Type: research
Cardiorespiratory adjustments to chronic environmental warming improve hypoxia tolerance in European perch (Perca fluviatilis) [RESEARCH ARTICLE]
We examined European perch (Perca fluviatilis) from the Biotest enclosure (23°C, Biotest population), a unique ~1 km2 ecosystem artificially warmed by cooling water from a nuclear power plant, and an adjacent reference site (16-18°C, Reference population). Specifically, we evaluated how acute and chronic warming affect routine oxygen consumption rate (MO2routine) and cardiovascular performance in acute hypoxia, alongside assessments of the thermal acclimation of the aerobic contribution to hypoxia tolerance (critical O2 tension for MO2routine; Pcrit) and absolute hypoxia tolerance (O2 tension at loss of equilibrium...
Source: Journal of Experimental Biology - February 10, 2021 Category: Biology Authors: Ekström, A., Sundell, E., Morgenroth, D., McArley, T., Gardmark, A., Huss, M., Sandblom, E. Tags: RESEARCH ARTICLE Source Type: research
Ontogeny of the star compass in birds: pied flycatchers (Ficedula hypoleuca) can establish the star compass in spring [RESEARCH ARTICLE]
Anna Zolotareva, Gleb Utvenko, Nadezhda Romanova, Alexander Pakhomov, and Nikita Chernetsov
The star compass of birds, like the sun compass, is not innate. To possess either of them, birds have to observe the rotating sky and determine its centre of rotation (in the case of the star compass) or the sun's movement (for the sun compass). Young birds are believed to learn how to use the star compass before their first migration, even though the evidence of this is lacking. Here, we tested whether hand-raised Pied flycatchers (Ficedula hypoleuca) that had not established the star compass prior to their first autumn migration ...
Source: Journal of Experimental Biology - February 9, 2021 Category: Biology Authors: Zolotareva, A., Utvenko, G., Romanova, N., Pakhomov, A., Chernetsov, N. Tags: RESEARCH ARTICLE Source Type: research
Rapid toxin sequestration modifies poison frog physiology [SHORT COMMUNICATION]
Lauren A. O'Connell, LS50: Integrated Science Laboratory Course, Jeremy D. O'Connell, Joao A. Paulo, Sunia A. Trauger, Steven P. Gygi, and Andrew W. Murray
Poison frogs sequester chemical defenses from their diet of leaf litter arthropods for defense against predation. Little is known about the physiological adaptations that confer this unusual bioaccumulation ability. We conducted an alkaloid-feeding experiment with the Diablito poison frog (Oophaga sylvatica) to determine how quickly alkaloids are accumulated and how toxins modify frog physiology using quantitative proteomics. Diablito frogs rapidly accumulated the alk...
Source: Journal of Experimental Biology - February 9, 2021 Category: Biology Authors: O'Connell, L. A., LS50: Integrated Science Laboratory Course, O'Connell, J. D., Paulo, J. A., Trauger, S. A., Gygi, S. P., Murray, A. W. Tags: SHORT COMMUNICATION Source Type: research
Dramatic changes in mitochondrial substrate use at critically high temperatures: a comparative study using Drosophila [RESEARCH ARTICLE]
Lisa Bjerregaard Jorgensen, Johannes Overgaard, Florence Hunter-Manseau, and Nicolas Pichaud Ectotherm thermal tolerance is critical to species distribution, but at present the physiological underpinnings of heat tolerance remain poorly understood. Mitochondrial function is perturbed at critically high temperatures in some ectotherms, including insects, suggesting that heat tolerance of these animals is linked to failure of oxidative phosphorylation (OXPHOS) and/or ATP production. To test this hypothesis we measured mitochondrial oxygen consumption rates in six Drosophila species with different heat tolerance using high-re...
Source: Journal of Experimental Biology - February 9, 2021 Category: Biology Authors: Jorgensen, L. B., Overgaard, J., Hunter-Manseau, F., Pichaud, N. Tags: RESEARCH ARTICLE Source Type: research
Choosier small hive beetle males miss out when females score nutritious bee jelly [INSIDE JEB]
Kathryn Knight (Source: Journal of Experimental Biology)
Source: Journal of Experimental Biology - February 8, 2021 Category: Biology Authors: Knight, K. Tags: INSIDE JEB Source Type: research
Winter honeybee (Apis mellifera) populations show greater potential to induce immune responses than summer populations after immune stimuli [RESEARCH ARTICLE]
In this study, we focus on the response of 10-day-old honeybee workers to immune challenges triggered in vivo by injecting heat-killed bacteria, with particular focus on honeybees that emerge and live under hive conditions. Responses to bacterial injections differed between summer and winter bees. Winter bees exhibited a more intense response, including higher expression of antimicrobial genes and antimicrobial activity, as well as a significant decrease in vitellogenin gene expression and its concentration in the hemolymph. The intense immune response observed in winter honeybees may contribute to our understanding of the...
Source: Journal of Experimental Biology - February 8, 2021 Category: Biology Authors: Dostalkova, S., Dobes, P., Kunc, M., Hurychova, J., Skrabisova, M., Petrivalsky, M., Titera, D., Havlik, J., Hyrsl, P., Danihlik, J. Tags: RESEARCH ARTICLE Source Type: research
Regulation of dietary intake of protein and lipid by nurse-age adult worker honeybees [RESEARCH ARTICLE]
Daniel Stabler, Mushtaq Al-Esawy, Jennifer A. Chennells, Giorgia Perri, Alexandria Robinson, and Geraldine A. Wright
Essential macronutrients are critical to the fitness and survival of animals. Many studies have shown that animals regulate the amount of protein and carbohydrate they eat for optimal performance. Regulation of dietary fat is important but less often studied. Honeybees collect and consume floral pollen to obtain protein and fat but how they achieve the optimal balance of these two macronutrients is presently unknown. Here, using chemically defined diets composed of essential amino acids and lipids (lecithin...
Source: Journal of Experimental Biology - February 8, 2021 Category: Biology Authors: Stabler, D., Al-Esawy, M., Chennells, J. A., Perri, G., Robinson, A., Wright, G. A. Tags: RESEARCH ARTICLE Source Type: research
Announcing the 2020 Journal of Experimental Biology Outstanding Paper Prize shortlist and winner [NEWS]
Kathryn Knight (Source: Journal of Experimental Biology)
Source: Journal of Experimental Biology - February 5, 2021 Category: Biology Authors: Knight, K. Tags: NEWS Source Type: research
Can microbial lodgers remote control fly hosts? [INSIDE JEB]
Kathryn Knight (Source: Journal of Experimental Biology)
Source: Journal of Experimental Biology - February 5, 2021 Category: Biology Authors: Knight, K. Tags: INSIDE JEB Source Type: research
