Zoology

eLife assessment

This Research Advance provides compelling evidence connecting the ancient Egyptian trade of baboons with the ancient port city of Adulis. Combining ancient DNA methods from a single mummified baboon with historical accounts, this work fundamentally advances our understanding of the ancient baboon trade in the Red Sea. Some additional reporting of DNA contamination will make the evidence provided even stronger.

eLife assessment

This important article provides insights into the neural centres in the Japanese quail brain that are associated with photoperiod-induced life-history states. The physiological and transcriptomic analyses of the mediobasal hypothalamus and pituitary gland offer evidence for a coincidence timing mechanism for measuring day length, which is relevant for the field of circannual biology. Despite some shortcomings in data analysis, the study's convincing experiments and findings have the potential to captivate the attention of molecular and organismal endocrinologists.

eLife assessment

This is a useful investigation of the changes in gene expression and some of the physiological consequences of sublethal exposures to the neonicotinoid insecticide imidacloprid in honeybee larvae. While the study adds to our understanding of how this insecticide impacts development and growth of honeybees, the evidence supporting the major claims is incomplete. The study would benefit from a more thorough mechanistic characterization of the phenotypes to substantiate the conclusions.

Evaluation Summary:

The hypoxia inducible factor (Hif) pathway was defined based on its role in cellular adaptation to hypoxia. In this paper, the authors examine the function of the pathway under 'physiological' normoxia in highly aerobic locust flight muscle. They find that a muscle-specific variant, Hif-1alpha2, is induced extensively by flying. By integrating bioinformatic analyses, measurements of gene expression and regulation, metabolites as well as redox regulation and flight assays, it is shown that Hif-1alpha2 plays an important role in sustaining prolonged flight by promoting glucose oxidation and upregulating a reactive oxygen species quencher (DJ-1). This study demonstrates the physiological requirement for two Hif-1a variants in a highly aerobic tissue in migratory locusts, a species that is both physiologically fascinating and a major agricultural pest. The work will be of interest to colleagues studying the physiology of muscles and flight.

(This preprint has been reviewed by eLife. We include the public reviews from the reviewers here; the authors also receive private feedback with suggested changes to the manuscript. Reviewer #1 and Reviewer 3 agreed to share their name with the authors.)

eLife assessment

Understanding the integration and contribution of different combinations of environmental cues to the synchronization of the daily oscillator is important, because it provides insight into how organisms might be able to distinguish (and weight) between irregular (or in the tidal zone highly complex) versus regular individual daily changes of light and temperature. The study, which is thoroughly conducted and provides an impressive amount of experimental and analytical work, dissects the effects of sensory conflict on behavior and gene expression rhythms.

Evaluation Summary:

Bat landings are remarkable because they are typically inverted and can involve two, three or four limbs securing the substrate, ranging from cave ceilings to leaves. How different bat species accomplish landing in such a remarkable dynamic fashion and how this ability may have evolved is a mystery. Boersma and Swartz resolved this question by studying how a wide range of bat species land in a unique biomechanics field study conducted across the world, which they complemented with a phylogenetic analysis that provides new insights into how bat landing behavior may have evolved in relation to substrate mechanics. The new evolutionary insight into how bat landing style relates to peak substrate contact force will be of interest to comparative biomechanists, movement ecologists and evolutionary biologists alike. Finally, the markedly different landing strategies for complex natural surfaces may inspire roboticists to design more effective landing and grasping solutions for complex surfaces.

(This preprint has been reviewed by eLife. We include the public reviews from the reviewers here; the authors also receive private feedback with suggested changes to the manuscript. The reviewers remained anonymous to the authors.)

Evaluation Summary:

This article will be of interest to behavioural ecologists studying aggression, within-group conflict, communication, and the use of social information. The study elegantly combines well-designed experiments with field observations to investigate the effects of within-group conflict on social behaviour. Specifically, it expands our understanding of social dynamics in group-living species by providing evidence that bystanders of within-group conflict may play a role in maintaining group cohesion. The findings provide a valuable contribution, and contrast, to existing work in this field.

(This preprint has been reviewed by eLife. We include the public reviews from the reviewers here; the authors also receive private feedback with suggested changes to the manuscript. Reviewer #1 agreed to share their name with the authors.)

Evaluation Summary:

This study substantially advances our understanding of why, when, and how wild birds use daily torpor as an energetic strategy. A technically challenging combination of carefully controlled experiments on temporarily captive wild birds along with frequent respiratory measurements and whole-body composition measurements was key to making this advance.

(This preprint has been reviewed by eLife. We include the public reviews from the reviewers here; the authors also receive private feedback with suggested changes to the manuscript. The reviewers remained anonymous to the authors.)

Evaluation Summary:

This manuscript develops new software tools to analyze and classify single cells with high throughput based on single cell phenotyping using an existing imaging system. The authors show that tissues can be reproducibly decomposed into clusters of cells based on their feature space and that cell composition dynamics can be reliably detected. The main impact is to make single cell phenotyping more tractable, including for samples and organisms for which sequencing-based or fluorescent-labeling-based approaches are not readily available. Applicability was demonstrated in two research model organisms, zebrafish and freshwater snail.

(This preprint has been reviewed by eLife. We include the public reviews from the reviewers here; the authors also receive private feedback with suggested changes to the manuscript. The reviewers remained anonymous to the authors.)