Advances in Comparative and Environmental Physiology – serie

Although feeding has not yet been thoroughly studied in many vertebrate taxa, and different conceptual and methodological approaches make a synthesis difficult, the aim of this volume is to provide a comprehensive overview of the feeding design in aquatic and terrestrial vertebrates with a detailed description of its functional properties. The book focuses on the constant interaction between function and form, behaviour and morphology in the course of evolution of the feeding apparatus and feeding mechanism in both a complementary and basic manner in relation to survival, interspecific competition, adaptation to environmental changes and adaptive radiation. Special emphasis is given to the quantification of the observational and experimental data on the morphology and biomechanics of the feeding design and its elements - jaws, teeth, hyoidean apparatus and tongue in order to allow the present and further comparisons in an evolutionary perspective.

Various endogenous and environmental challenges of homoiostasis have resulted in the evolution of apparently quite different mechanisms for the same or similar functions in individual representatives of the animal kingdom. One of the prominent achievements of comparative physiology over the last few decades has been the description of regula- tory features common to many studied species beyond the extreme diversity of their morphological forms. Delineation offunctional princi- ples universally applicable to the physiology and biochemistry of living systems became often possible through technical advances in the devel- opment of numerous new techniques, in many cases modified and adopted from other fields of science, but also by approaching certain problems using multifactorial analysis. The advance in technology has facilitated studies of minute functional details of mechanisms, which finally lead to better understanding of generally similar functions, covered by the multiple developments of Nature as a response to an extreme variety of different conditions. Improved understanding of specific mechanisms, however, has presented new problems at the level of system integration.The importance of the integrative aspect became particularly apparent during an international symposium on 'Mecha- nisms of Systemic Regulation in Lower Vertebrates: Respiration, Circu- lation, Ion Transfer and Metabolism' (organized in 1990 by Norbert Heisler and Johannes Piiper at the Max-Planck-Institut fUr experimen- telle Medizin at Gottingen/Germany).

Although feeding is not yet been thoroughly studied in manyvertebrates taxa, and different conceptual andmethodological approaches of the concerned scientists make asynthesis difficult, the aim of the editors is to provide acomprehensive overview of the feeding design in aquatic andterrestrial vertebrates with a detailed description of itsfunctional properties. The book emphasizes the constantinteraction between function and form, behaviour andmorphology in the course of evolution of the feedingapparatus and way of feeding both complementary andbasically related to survival interspecific competition,adaptation to environmental changes and adaptive radiations.Special stress is drawn onquantification of theobservational and experimental data on the morphology andbiomechanics of the feeding design and its element jaws,teeth, hyoidean apparatus, tongue, in order to allow presentand further comparisons in an evolutionary perspective.

After the pioneering studies by Ussing and co-workers, studies of epithelial Nael transport have come a long way. The first phase of the phenomenological description of the cell as a black box has been follow­ ed by studies of cellular mechanisms, the interplay of the different trans­ port components, and the mechanisms of regulation. A broad spectrum of methods has been applied to many epithelia in a variety of species. For the individual epithelia transport schemes have been proposed, and, at this point I think it is appropriate to take a pause and search for elements common to several epithelia. This aspect triggered the publica­ tion of this book, and in fact the various chapters emphasize that the funetional eomponents, expressed in the various epithelia, are not in­ finite in number, but they occur in epithelia which are separated in evolu­ tion by several hundred million years. The authors come both from the field of veterinary and human physiology as weIl as from biology. In my opinion, the close contacts and eollaborations between physiologists and biologists have been essential for the progress in this field. I wish to thank all authors for their con­ tributions, and I hope that the reader will appreciate this collection of up to date reviews on epithelia in nonvertebrates and vertebrates.

Advances in Comparative and Environmental Physiology provides comprehensive, integrated reviews giving sound, critical, and provocative summaries of our present knowledge in environmental and comparative physiology, from the molecular to the organismic level. The field has now gained the international status it deserves and the organization of a series devoted to it is very timely in view of its actual rapid development. Biologists, physiologists, and biochemists, independently of their basic scientific orientation, will find this new series of major interest.

Understanding the brain mechanisms which underlie behavior is one of the most challenging tasks of modern biology. The study of these mechanisms can be approached using a variety of biological systems as models, depending essentially on the type of question being asked and the technical approach which is considered. In vertebrates, the study of brain neurochemistry in relation to behavior e,xpression has made tremendous progress during the last two decades. In particular, much at­ tention has been devoted to the effect of steroid hormones on brain structure and activity in connection with social and mainly reproductive behavior. This book exemplifies some of the major trends in the field. I did not attempt to cover exhaustively all the work that has been done in this area but rather to present a series of selected reviews on the molec­ ular and cellular brain mechanisms most directly related to social behavior. This selection obviously reflects my own interests but also, I believe, highlights those areas of research in which important progress has been made in recent years. A number of brain biochemical or cellular mechanisms which could be related to behavior, but have not been formally demonstrated to be so, are consequently ignored. The focus here is on social behavior and thus steroid-dependent processes are covered in priority. This choice of course leads us to ignore major trends in brain and behavior research but this is, I hope, clearly reflected in the title of the volume.

When survival is challenged by the cold, animals react by employing both behavioral and physiological solutions. Depending on the magni­ tude of the cold stress and the nature of the adjustment, simple avoidance or sophisticated capacity or resistance compensations may be used. Thus, migration, shelter seeking, metabolic and insulative compen­ sation, torpor, and freezing avoidance and tolerance are successful tac­ tics used by diverse groups of animals. To understand and appreciate the benefits of these tactics, it is necessary to examine not only the well being of the whole animal but also their basic underlying mechanisms. In ad­ dition, it is also of fundamental importance to grasp how seasonal cold affects the survivorship and reproductive success of populations when confronted by a general reduction in primary productivity and an elevated energy cost for maintenance (e. g. in endotherms). In this regard, a synthetic overview which integrates aspects of cell biology, biochem­ istry, physiology, neurobiology, behavior, and population biology should be a fruitful approach in providing a holistic understanding on how animals adapt to cold. The present volume is an attempt to achieve such an overview; its objective is to provide a depth and breadth of coverage that is essential to a full appreciation of animal adaptation to cold. It is the hope of the contributing authors that this book will serve as an effective reference text for all senior undergraduate and graduate students as well as research scientists with an interest in cold physiology.

Advances in Comparative and Environmental Physiology helps biologists, physiologists, and biochemists keep track of the extensive literature in the field. Providing comprehensive, integrated reviews and sound, critical, and provocative summaries, this series is a must for all active researchers in environmental and comparative physiology.

The structural and chemical limitations to respiratory gas exchange existing between the ambient medium and the cell are comprehensively treated. Beginning with an examination of the natural oscillations of respiratory gases in both terrestrial and aquatic environments, Vertebrate Gas Exchange details the structures involved in convecting the medium (air or water), the morphometrics of capillary gas transfers, and gas transfer kinetics. Important features include details on measurement techniques associated with tissue capillary supply and gas exchange kinetics.

Advances in Comparative and Environmental Physiology helps biologists, physiologists, and biochemists keep track of the extensive literature in the field. Providing comprehensive, integrated reviews and sound, critical, and provocative summaries, this series is a must for all active researchers in environmental and comparative physiology.

Advances in Comparative and Environmental Physiology helps biologists, physiologists, and biochemists keep track of the extensive literature in the field. Providing comprehensive, integrated reviews and sound, critical, and provocative summaries, this series is a must for all active researchers in environmental and comparative physiology.

Advances in Compararative and Environmental Physiology helps biologists, physiologists, and biochemists keep track of the extensive literature in the field. Providing comprehensive, integrated reviews and sound, critical, and provocative summaries, this series is a must for all active researchers in environmental and comparative physiology. Cellular volume and osmolality in animals is a well studied topic and this specific volume in the series provides the reader with a thorough grounding in this area of physiology. Consisting of two parts, the text discusses osmolality and volume control in terms of both inorganic and organic ions which as a result gives an excellent overview to those working and interested in this field.

Investigations of the oxygen carriers range from the characterization of natural populations to measurements of tenths of nanometer distances between atoms. The scope is so great that few biologists and biochemists can fully comprehend the primary literature in its entirety. In addition, the findings of the past two or three decades have advanced the field so rapidly that a truly current account is not readily accessible to a general audience. In recognition of the problem a symposium was held and its proceedings published in the American Zoologist in 1980. Although it included several research reports, most of the contributions were intended to summarize then state-of-the-art information on molecular structure and respiratory function at a level that could be understood by biologists and biochemists who are not experts on our subject. Judging from the reprint requests with which the authors were inundated, the assessment of need had been accurate. I believe that the need for an update, which is wholly focused on communication to the general audience, is even greater in 1992. I therefore asked the authors of this volume to address individuals who might otherwise turn in vain to an advanced textbook of physiology or biochemistry. I have, of course, requested a more comprehensive coverage than would be possible in a general text, but one that is not more parochial. Just as textbooks differ vastly in the level at which their subject matter is presented, so the level of non-expertise was conceived differently by the contributors to this volume.

In the past 5 years there has been an enormous increase of evidence that the ion channels activated by mechanical force are common to a wide variety of cell types. Mechanosensitive (MS) ion channels form a small proportion of the total channel population. They are now found in more than 30 cell types from E. coli, yeast, to plant, invertebrate, and vertebrate cells, where they occur in virtually all types of cells from bone to smooth muscle, as well as neurons. The majority of MS channels are permeable to monovalent cations and are slightly selective for K+ over Na +. How­ 2 ever, there are several reports of anion-selective MS channels, MS Ca + channels, and MS channels with large conductances that do not dis­ criminate markedly between cations and anions. Recently B. Hille has postulated possible evolutionary relationships between several types of ion channels, with mechanosensitive channels predating even the eukaryotes. Two voltage-gated channel types originate with the stem eukaryotes, as deduced from the presence of voltage-gated K+ 2 and Ca + channels in protozoa, algae, or higher plants. Agonist-gated chan­ nels as well as voltage-gated Na + channels appear with the earliest metazoan animals, as deduced from the presence of Na + spikes and fast chemical synapses in cnidaria (coelenterates), ctenophores, and all higher animals.

GeoffGoldspink and I edited a book, Mechanics and Energetics of Animal Locomotion, which was published by Chapman and Hall in 1977. It dealt at an advanced level with all aspects of animal locomotion, emphasizing particularly the topics of then current research. Since then there have been more elementary books on the subject, including my own Locomotion of Animals (Blackie 1982), and specialized books on such topics as swimming and flight, but (despite very substantial progress in research) there has been no advanced book covering the whole range of animal locomotion. It seemed to me and to Professor Gilles (editor ofthis series) that a new book was needed. Plainly, a book of this length cannot contain everything that is known about animal locomotion. We have not attempted to make it encyclopedic, but have tried to show where the study of animal locomotion stands now, and where it is going. Older books remain useful as sources of long-established information.

This volume intends to provide a comprehensive overview on the mecha­ nisms of muscle contraction and non-muscle cell motility at the molecu­ lar and cellular level, not only for investigators in these fields but also for general readers interested in these topics. A most attractive feature of various living organisms in the animal and plant kingdoms is their ability to move. In spite of a great diversity in the structure and function of various motile systems, it has frequently been assumed since the nineteenth century that all kinds of "motility" are essentially the same. Based on this assumption, some investigators in the nineteenth century thought that the mechanisms of motility could better be studied on primitive non-muscle motile systems such as amoeboid movement, rath­ er than on highly specialized muscle cells. Contrary to their expectation, however, the basic mechanisms of motility have been revealed solely by investigations on vertebrate skeletal muscles, since a monumental discovery of Szent-Gyorgyi and his coworkers in the early 1940s that muscle contraction results from the interaction between two different contractile proteins, actin and myosin, coupled with ATP hydrolysis.

Provided here is an up to date account of how high pressuresaffect cellularprocesses in microorganisms and ineukaryotic cells. Topics include membranetransport, cellactivation, the excitable properties of cells, muscularcontraction, with particular emphasis on cardiac muscle, andthe role of pressure in the physiology of cartilage in loadbearing joints. Additionally there are thorough reviews ofthe effects of pressure on fish and on the central nervoussystem of mammals, including man.

Studies on the colon not only serve medical interest or clinical purposes, but are also a highly interesting subject of comparative physiology, from which we can learn much about the basic principles in physiology. Presented here are examples of research on colonic ion transport of each vertebrate group, including the classical models of epithelia, rat and rabbit, and also on the special and unique features in fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds, and selected mammals such as the guinea pig. Physiology and pathophysiology of ion transport in the human large intestine are as well covered as the use of colonic cell cultures as model systems for crypt cell properties.

One of the prerequisites for survival is the ability ofcells to maintain their volume. Thus, during the course ofevolution cells have "learned" a variety of strategies toachieve volume homeostasis. This volume regulatory machineryinvolves regulation of both, cellular metabolism andcellular transport and is exploited by hormones andtransmitters to regulate cellularfunction. This book toillustrates the complex interplay of cell volume regulatorymechanisms and cellular function in a variety of tissues.However, our knowledge is still far from being conclusive,and the present collection of reviews is thought to fosterfurther experimental efforts to unravel the role of cellvolume in the integrated function of cells.

Advances in Comparative and Environmental Physiology helps biologists, physiologists, and biochemists keep track of the extensive literature in the field. Providing comprehensive, integrated reviews and sound, critical, and provocative summaries, this series is a must for all active researchers in environmental and comparative physiology.

Biological cell membranes regulate the transfer of matter and informa­ tion between the intracellular and extracellular compartments as basic survival and maintenance functions for an organism: This volume contains a series of reviews that are concerned with how biological plasma membranes regulate the transport of chloride between the intracellular and extracellular compartments of a cell. This book is also an attempt to analyze the molecular basis for the movement of chloride across a cell membrane. This volume is devoted to a diversity of electrogenic chloride transport mechanisms in representative cell membranes of all living things. The first section of the book (Chaps. 1-4) focuses on mech­ anisms of primary active chloride transport (i.e. photon or A TP-driven), while the second section (Chaps. 5-6) centers on secondary active chloride transporters (symport and antiport) in both plant and animal plasma membranes. The last section, which comprises seven chapters (Chaps. 7-13), deals with chloride channels in cell membranes of prokaryocytes and eukaryocytes of most every phylum. It is hoped that with this particular ordering the reader can glean a telescopic view of the evolutionary history of the various electrogenic chloride transporters.

ADVANCES IN COMPARATIVE AND ENVIRONMENTAL PHYSIOLOGY helpsbiologists, physiologists, and biochemists keep track of theextensive literature in thefield. Providing comprehensive,integrated reviews and sound, critical, and provocativesummaries, this series is a must for all active researchersin environmental and comparative physiology.The present volume contains six reviews on: - MotileActivities of Fish Chromatophores. - Epithelial Transport ofHeavy Metals. - Heavy Metal Cytotoxicity in MarineOrganisms. - Comparative Pulmonary Morphology andMorphometry. - Molecular Adaptations in Resistance toPenicillins. - Molecular Adaptations of Enzymes FromThermophilic and Psychrophilic Organisms.

Various endogenous and environmental challenges of homoiostasis have resulted in the evolution of apparently quite different mechanisms for the same or similar functions in individual representatives of the animal kingdom. One of the prominent achievements of comparative physiology over the last few decades has been the description of regula- tory features common to many studied species beyond the extreme diversity of their morphological forms. Delineation of functional princi- ples universally applicable to the physiology and biochemistry of living systems became often possible through technical advances in the devel- opment of numerous new techniques, in many cases modified and adopted from other fields of science, but also by approaching certain problems using multifactorial analysis. The advance in technology has facilitated studies of minute functional details of mechanisms, which finally lead to better understanding of generally similar functions, covered by the multiple developments of Nature as a response to an extreme variety of different conditions. Improved understanding of specific mechanisms, however, has presented new problems at the level of system integration.The importance of the integrative aspect became particularly apparent during an international symposium on 'Mecha- nisms of Systemic Regulation in Lower Vertebrates: Respiration, Circu- lation, Ion Transfer and Metabolism' (organized in 1990 by Norbert Heisler and Johannes Piiper at the Max-Planck-Institut flir experimen- telle Medizin at Gottingen/Germany).

E. L. Cooper The Immunodefense System Because invertebrates are exceedingly diverse and numerous, estimates reveal nearly 2 million species classified in more than 20 phyla from unicellular organisms up to the complex, multicellular protostomes and deuterostomes. It is not surprising to find less diverse defense/immune responses whose effector mechanisms remain to be completely elucidated. Of course, I am not advocating that the few of us devoted to analyzing invertebrate immunity attempt the Herculean task of examining all these species to uncover some kind of unique response! As these two volumes will reveal, we are doing fairly well in examining in depth only the most miniscule examples of invertebrates, some of which have great effects on human populations such as edible crustaceans or insect pests. This is in striking contrast to the mass of information on the mammalian immune response which has been derived essentially from the mouse, a member of one phylum, Vertebrata, an approach, reductionist to be sure, but one that has served well both the technological and conceptual advances of immunology as a disci­ pline. The essential framework of immunology, the overwhelming burst of results since the 1960s, have emanated primarily from this single animal. We should not forget the thymus and the bird's bursa of Fabricius, without which we might have been slower to recognize the bipartite T /B system.