Article describes SERCA activity in the pectoralis muscle and heart ventricle of red-winged blackbird (Agelaius phoeniceus) nestlings, fledglings and adults. Additionally, using a diet manipulation, the authors tested the hypothesis that muscle SERCA activity is affected by dietary fatty acid composition, as has been shown in some previous studies.

Article reporting that PAK2, a member of the Rho family of GTPase-dependent kinases, regulates isometric tension development and myosin II RLC phosphorylation in saponin permeabilized endothelial monolayers. The results demonstrate that PAK2 can directly phosphorylate MLCK, inhibiting its activity and limiting the development of isometric tension.

Article asserts that the Magellanic sub-Antarctic Forest is home to the world's southernmost avian community and is the only Southern Hemisphere analogue to Northern Hemisphere temperate forests at this latitude. Authors describe annual survival patterns and their association with climate variables using a 20-year mark–recapture data set of five forest bird species in the Cape Horn Biosphere Reserve.

Article describes how non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is currently plaguing the population at pandemic proportions and is expected to become more prevalent over the next decade. The authors investigated the hypothesis that exposure to a mixture of gasoline and diesel engine emissions (MVE), coupled with the concurrent consumption of a HF diet, promotes the development of a NAFLD phenotype within the liver.

This article evaluates the role of endozoochory in herbivorous and sympatric bird species in sub-Antarctic Chile. The authors hypothesize that fragments of bryophyte gametophytes retrieved from their feces are viable and capable of regenerating new plant tissue. This relationship may have important implications in the way bryophytes disperse and colonize habitats facing climate change.

Article on the publication of a volume of articles of researchers addressing various fundamental questions in lipid signaling in plants.

This article is a study that represents the first transcriptome analysis of E+ and E− Texoma tall fescue under freezing and chilling temperatures in the natural field environment.

This article discusses development plasticity of cardiorespiratory physiology in two air-breathing anabantid fishes.

Article describes study which tested if targeted and persistent changes in steady-state protein expression underlie this hypoxic heart phenotype, using isobaric tags for relative and absolute quantitation (iTRAQ) proteomics.

Article discusses concerns and controversy related to the gold mining ‘Volta Grande Project’ at the Xingu River in northern Brazil.

This article summarizes three controversial aspects of the Volta Grande project.

This article investigates the long-term effects of developmental hypoxia on mitochondrial function in a species that regularly encounters hypoxia during development. Findings speculate that adjustments might improve mitochondrial hypoxia tolerance, which would be beneficial for turtles during breath-hold diving and overwintering in anoxic environments.

Article describes study which tested the hypothesis that developmental hypoxia alters cardiomyocyte physiology in a manner that protects the heart from hypoxic stress.

Article on the composition of the four cell wall fractions in diverse maize genotypes and to understand how this composition influences the resistance to pests, ethanol capacity and digestibility. Results evidence that there is no maize cell wall ideotype among the tested for optimal performance for various uses, and maize plants should be specifically bred for each particular application.

Data management plan for the grant, "The Renin-Angiotensin System in Air Pollution-Mediated Exacerbation of Obesity."

This article proposes an urban nutrition (UN) extension to the previously published urban ecological economic system. The proposed extension can be used by decision makers worldwide to evaluate how landscape configurations and agricultural production systems affect the nutritional needs of the local population while fostering sustainable practices.

Article presents research that explores proanthocyanidin (PA) biosynthesis routes in plants. The data suggests that different species have evolved different routes for PA biosynthesis.

Article indicating directions in which the field of Developmental Physiology might move. It suggests three categories of challenges: demonstrating broad relevance, promoting conceptual advances, and improving experimental approaches.

Data management plan for the grant, "Non-Genetic Inheritance of Hypoxia Tolerance in Fishes: Dynamics and Mechanisms." Research quantifying the inheritance of tolerance to low oxygen in a model fish and then determine the tolerance mechanisms, at organismal to molecular levels, that are passed on from parents to their offspring. The investigators will not only focus on conventional, well-studied genetic mechanisms for inheritance, but will explore so-called “epigenetic” forms of inheritance that may transfer parental characteristics for only a generation or two. Such “temporary inheritance” might actually require less energy and be more beneficial to a species than the more permanent form of genetic inheritance. This project will quantify non-genetic inheritance of hypoxia tolerance in zebrafish as a model organism and then identify underlying mechanisms, at organismal to molecular levels, in parents and in their progeny. Specifically, this project will quantify non-genetically inherited traits that allow hypoxia tolerance, determine “wash-in” and “wash-out” (i.e., the dynamics) of hypoxia-tolerant phenotypes across multiple generations, and establish epigenetic mechanism(s) of non-genetic inheritance in subsequent generations. The information provided by this project will allow biologists to better predict, and perhaps even mitigate, the negative consequences of future episodes of low oxygen in rivers and lakes.

Data management plan for the grant, "Chemical-Guided Identification of Primary Metabolic Targets for Improvement of Hydroxy Fatty Acid Synthesis in Physaria fendleri." Research on the identification of primary metabolic targets using chemical-guided identification. The first objective of this research is to conduct metabolomics analysis on P. fendleri embryos cultured with two identified chemical regulators of fatty acid metabolism. The second objective of this research is to generate a metabolic flux map of embryos treated with these regulatory compounds in order to determine how metabolic rates and carbon flow can be manipulated to improve HFA production in this species and increase its commercial viability. With properties that could replace imported castor oil, research on the crop in discussion is situated directly in the scope of the USDA-AFRI Education and Workforce Development goals.

Article reports observations of two Subarctic North Pacific puffin species in the North Atlantic near the coast of north-west Greenland.

Article describing the isolation and genomic characterization of 116 phages that infect Microbacterium spp.

Article describes how both biochemically and genetically, that ascorbate (AsA) is an alternative “starter unit” to flavan-3-ol monomers for leucocyanidin-derived (+)-catechin subunit extension in the Arabidopsis thaliana anthocyanidin synthase (ans) mutant. The authors' findings advance the knowledge of (+)-catechin-type PA extension and indicate that PA oligomerization does not necessarily proceed by sequential addition of a single extension unit. AsA-[C]n defines a new type of PA intermediate which we term “sub-PAs”.

Article states that despite remarkable advances in cancer research, cancer remains one of the leading causes of death worldwide. The author's proposed framework for cancer diagnostics detects cancers and their tissues of origin using a unified model of cancers encompassing 33 cancers represented in The Cancer Genome Atlas. Their model exploits the learned features of different cancers reflected in the respective dysregulated epigenomes, holding a great promise in early cancer detection.