Some prey are exceptionally difficult to digest, and yet even non-specialized animals may consume them—why? Durophagy, the consumption of hard-shelled prey, is thought require special adaptations for crushing or digesting hard shells avoid many potential costs this type. But lacking specializations nevertheless include hard-bodied in their diets. We describe several non-mutually exclusive adapt...

compensatory growth response and body composition of male sailfin molly, poecilia latipinna subjected to short-term starvation and subsequent feeding were studied for 54 days. four feeding schedules were used in this study: c, control (were fed to apparent satiation throughout the experiment); t1, treatment 1 (3 days starvation and 6 days refeeding); t2, treatment 2 (6 days starvation and 12 da...

Several theories, both ancient and recent, suggest that having the time to contemplate a decision should increase moral awareness and the likelihood of ethical choices. Our findings indicated just the opposite: greater time for deliberation led to less ethical decisions. Post-hoc analyses and a followup experiment suggested that decision-makers act as if their previous choices have created or l...

After removal of one mouse kidney, compensatory hypertrophy in the remaining kidney is marked in 2 days by a 20% average increase in ribosomal RNA (rRNA) per cell. Both 28S and 18S RNA are conserved during the initial stages of compensatory renal hypertrophy to an extent sufficient to account for the rest of the observed accumulation of rRNA. Like some cultured cells, the kidney conserves rRNA ...

Regeneration of gas exchange area by induction of neoalveolarization would greatly improve therapeutic options in destructive pulmonary diseases. Unilateral pneumonectomy is an established model to remove defined portions of gas exchange area and study mechanisms of compensatory lung growth. We addressed the question whether new alveoli are added to the residual lung after pneumonectomy in mice...

Compensatory adrenal growth after unilateral adrenalectomy (ULA) leads to adrenocortical hyperplasia. Because zonal growth contributions are not clear, we characterized the phenotype of cortical cells that proliferate using immunofluorescence histochemistry and zone-specific cell counting. Rats underwent ULA, sham adrenalectomy (sham), or no surgery and were killed at 2 or 5 days. Adrenals were...

Telomerase mutations and significantly shortened chromosomal telomeres have recently been implicated in human lung pathologies. Natural telomere shortening is an inevitable consequence of aging, which is also a risk factor for development of lung disease. However, the impact of shortened telomeres and telomerase dysfunction on the ability of lung cells to respond to significant challenge is sti...