Apocynaceae wood evolution matches key morphological innovations.

Premise: This paper provides an overview of the wood anatomy of the dogbane family (Apocynaceae), reconstructs wood anatomical trait evolution, and links this evolution with woody growth-form transitions and floral and seed trait innovations across the family.

Methods: Over 200 published wood anatomical descriptions were revised, and original light microscopic sections were made and described for another 50 species. Changes in wood anatomical characters through time were visualized with ancestral state reconstructions.

Thermal optima in the hypoxia tolerance of marine ectotherms: Physiological causes and biogeographic consequences.

The minimum O2 needed to fuel the demand of aquatic animals is commonly observed to increase with temperature, driven by accelerating metabolism. However, recent measurements of critical O2 thresholds ("Pcrit") reveal more complex patterns, including those with a minimum at an intermediate thermal "optimum". To discern the prevalence, physiological drivers, and biogeographic manifestations of such curves, we analyze new experimental and biogeographic data using a general dynamic model of aquatic water breathers.

Structural and Functional Characterization of Orcokinin B-like Neuropeptides in the Cuttlefish ().

The cuttlefish () is a Cephalopod mollusk that lives in the English Channel and breeds in coastal spawning grounds in spring. A previous work showed that the control of egg-laying is monitored by different types of regulators, among which neuropeptides play a major role. They are involved in the integration of environmental cues, and participate in the transport of oocytes in the genital tract and in the secretion of capsular products.

Impact of warming on aquatic body sizes explained by metabolic scaling from microbes to macrofauna.

Rising temperatures are associated with reduced body size in many marine species, but the biological cause and generality of the phenomenon is debated. We derive a predictive model for body size responses to temperature and oxygen (O) changes based on thermal and geometric constraints on organismal O supply and demand across the size spectrum. The model reproduces three key aspects of the observed patterns of intergenerational size reductions measured in laboratory warming experiments of diverse aquatic ectotherms (i.

Identification of a New Set of Polypeptidic Sex Pheromones from Cuttlefish (Sepia officinalis).

The common English Channel cuttlefish (Sepia officinalis) reproduces every year on very localized coastal spawning areas after a west-east horizontal migration of several tens of kilometers (80-200 km). The massive arrival of spawners on the coasts of west Cotentin and the Bay of Seine is suspected to be driven by the action of sex pheromones expressed and secreted by the genitals of sexually mature females. The present study aims to verify the existence of polypeptide pheromones, of a higher molecular weight than those described above.