Ventilation is critical to animal life-it ensures that individuals move air/water across their respiratory surface, and thus it sustains gas exchange with the environment. Many species have evolved highly specialized (if not unusual) ventilatory mechanisms, including the use of behavior to facilitate different aspects of breathing. However, these behavioral traits are often only described anecdotally, and the ecological conditions that elicit them are typically unclear. We study one such "ventilation behavior" in Lake Titicaca frogs (Telmatobius culeus). These frogs inhabit high-altitude (i.e., low oxygen) lakes in the Andean Mountains of South America, and they have become textbook examples of cutaneous gas exchange, which is essentially breathing that occurs across the skin. Accordingly, this species has evolved large, baggy skin-folds that dangle from the body to increase the surface area for ventilation. We show that individuals exposed to acute hypoxic conditions that mirror what free-living individuals likely encounter quickly (within minutes) decrease their activity levels, and thus become very still. If oxygen levels continue to decline, the frogs soon begin to perform push-up behaviors that presumably break the low-oxygen boundary layer around skin-folds to increase the conductance of the water/skin gas exchange pathway. Altogether, we suspect that individuals rapidly adjust aspects of their behavior in response to seemingly sudden changes to the oxygen environment as a mechanism to fine tune cutaneous respiration.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.beproc.2024.105047 | DOI Listing |
Front Vet Sci
December 2024
Gansu Key Laboratory of Herbivorous Animal Biotechnology, Faculty of Animal Science and Technology, Gansu Agricultural University, Lanzhou, China.
After prolonged adaptation to high-altitude environments, Tibetan sheep have developed a robust capacity to withstand hypobaric hypoxia. Compared to low-altitude sheep, various organs and tissues in Tibetan sheep have undergone significant adaptive remodeling, particularly in the lungs. However, whether lambs and adult Tibetan sheep exhibit similar adaptations to high-altitude hypoxia remains unclear.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFFront Plant Sci
December 2024
BIODYNE Biosystems Dynamics and Exchanges, TERRA Teaching and Research Center, Gembloux Agro-Bio Tech, University of Liege, Gembloux, Belgium.
Introduction: The identification of the physiological processes limiting carbon assimilation under water stress is crucial for improving model predictions and selecting drought-tolerant varieties. However, the influence of soil water availability on photosynthesis-limiting processes is still not fully understood. This study aimed to investigate the origins of photosynthesis limitations on potato () during a field drought experiment.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Integr Plant Biol
December 2024
Department of Life Science, Hanyang University, Seoul, 04763, Republic of Korea.
Stomata are epidermal pores that are essential for water evaporation and gas exchange in plants. Stomatal development is orchestrated by intrinsic developmental programs, hormonal controls, and environmental cues. The steroid hormone brassinosteroid (BR) inhibits stomatal lineage progression by regulating BIN2 and BSL proteins in leaves.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFACS Omega
December 2024
Key Laboratory for Enhanced Oil & Gas Recovery of the Ministry of Education, Northeast Petroleum University, Daqing 163318, Heilongjiang, China.
In alkali/surfactant/polymer (ASP) flooding systems, alkalis react with clay minerals such as Illite, montmorillonite, and kaolinite, leading to reservoir damage and impacting oil recovery rates. Therefore, studying the dissolution effects of strong alkalis on clay minerals is crucial for improving oil recovery. This study uses Illite as a representative clay mineral and employs the ReaxFF reactive force field and molecular dynamics simulations to model its dissolution in NaOH solution.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFACS Macro Lett
December 2024
National Engineering Laboratory of Eco-Friendly Polymeric Materials (Sichuan), College of Chemistry, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610064, China.
Polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs) have served as promising alternatives to traditional petroleum-based plastics. Chemical synthesis of stereoregular PHAs via stereocontrolled ring-opening polymerization (ROP) of racemic β-lactones was a desired strategy with a formidable challenge. Herein, we developed a class of DiMeBiPh-salen yttrium complexes that adopted a -α configuration for stereoselective ROP of -β-butyrolactones (-BBL) and -β-valerolactone (-BVL).
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