The study and importance of altitudinal migration has attracted increasing interest among zoologists. Altitudinal migrants are taxonomically widespread and move across altitudinal gradients as partial or complete migrants, subjecting them to a wide array of environments and ecological interactions. Here, we present a brief synthesis of recent developments in the field and suggest future directions toward a more taxonomically inclusive comparative framework for the study of altitudinal migration. Our framework centers on a working definition of altitudinal migration that hinges on its biological relevance, which is scale-dependent and related to fitness outcomes. We discuss linguistic nuances of altitudinal movements and provide concrete steps to compare altitudinal migration phenomena across traditionally disparate study systems. Together, our comparative framework outlines a \"phenotypic space\" that contextualizes the biotic and abiotic interactions encountered by altitudinal migrants from divergent lineages and biomes. We also summarize new opportunities, methods, and challenges for the ongoing study of altitudinal migration. A persistent, primary challenge is characterizing the taxonomic extent of altitudinal migration within and among species. Fortunately, a host of new methods have been developed to help researchers assess the taxonomic prevalence of altitudinal migration-each with their own advantages and disadvantages. An improved comparative framework will allow researchers that study disparate disciplines and taxonomic groups to better communicate and to test hypotheses regarding the evolutionary and ecological drivers underlying variation in altitudinal migration among populations and species.

Structural and functional asymmetries are traceable in every form of life, and some lateralities are homologous. Functionally speaking, the division of labour between the two halves of the brain is a basic characteristic of the nervous system that arose even before the appearance of vertebrates. The most well-known expression of this specialisation in humans is hand dominance, also known as handedness. Even if hand/limb/paw dominance is far more commonly associated with the presence of a nervous system, it is also observed in its own form in aneural organisms, such as plants. To date, little is known regarding the possible functional significance of this dominance in plants, and many questions remain open (among them, whether it reflects a generalised behavioural asymmetry). Here, we propose a comparative approach to the study of handedness, including plants, by taking advantage of the experimental models and paradigms already used to study laterality in humans and various animal species. By taking this approach, we aim to enrich our knowledge of the concept of handedness across natural kingdoms.

Alzheimer\'s disease (AD) presents a complex interplay of molecular alterations, yet understanding its pathogenesis remains a challenge. In this study, we delved into the intricate landscape of proteome and transcriptome changes in AD brains compared to healthy controls, examining 788 brain samples revealing common alterations at both protein and mRNA levels. Moreover, our analysis revealed distinct protein-level changes in aberrant energy metabolism pathways in AD brains that were not evident at the mRNA level. This suggests that the changes in protein expression could provide a deeper molecular representation of AD pathogenesis. Subsequently, using a comparative proteomic approach, we explored the therapeutic potential of mesenchymal stem cell-derived extracellular vehicles (EVs), isolated through various methods, in mitigating AD-associated changes at the protein level. Our analysis revealed a particular EV-subtype that can be utilized for compensating dysregulated mitochondrial proteostasis in the AD brain. By using network biology approaches, we further revealed the potential regulators of key therapeutic proteins. Overall, our study illuminates the significance of proteome alterations in AD pathogenesis and identifies the therapeutic promise of a specific EV subpopulation with reduced pro-inflammatory protein cargo and enriched proteins to target mitochondrial proteostasis.

Functional brain connectivity based on resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) has been shown to be correlated with human personality and behavior. In this study, we sought to know whether capabilities and traits in dogs can be predicted from their resting-state connectivity, as in humans. We trained awake dogs to keep their head still inside a 3T MRI scanner while resting-state fMRI data was acquired. Canine behavior was characterized by an integrated behavioral score capturing their hunting, retrieving, and environmental soundness. Functional scans and behavioral measures were acquired at three different time points across detector dog training. The first time point (TP1) was prior to the dogs entering formal working detector dog training. The second time point (TP2) was soon after formal detector dog training. The third time point (TP3) was three months\' post detector dog training while the dogs were engaged in a program of maintenance training for detection work. We hypothesized that the correlation between resting-state FC in the dog brain and behavior measures would significantly change during their detection training process (from TP1 to TP2) and would maintain for the subsequent several months of detection work (from TP2 to TP3). To further study the resting-state FC features that can predict the success of training, dogs at TP1 were divided into a successful group and a non-successful group. We observed a core brain network which showed relatively stable (with respect to time) patterns of interaction that were significantly stronger in successful detector dogs compared to failures and whose connectivity strength at the first time point predicted whether a given dog was eventually successful in becoming a detector dog. A second ontologically based flexible peripheral network was observed whose changes in connectivity strength with detection training tracked corresponding changes in behavior over the training program. Comparing dog and human brains, the functional connectivity between the brain stem and the frontal cortex in dogs corresponded to that between the locus coeruleus and left middle frontal gyrus in humans, suggestive of a shared mechanism for learning and retrieval of odors. Overall, the findings point toward the influence of phylogeny and ontogeny in dogs producing two dissociable functional neural networks.

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Comparative studies of aging are a promising approach to identifying general properties of and processes leading to aging. While to date, many comparative studies of aging in animals have focused on relatively narrow species groups, methodological innovations now allow for studies that include evolutionary distant species. However, comparative studies of aging across a wide range of species that have distinct life histories introduce additional challenges in experimental design. Here, we discuss these challenges, highlight the most pressing problems that need to be solved, and provide suggestions based on current approaches to successfully carry out comparative aging studies across the animal kingdom.

Intercellular signalling is an indispensable part of multicellular life. Understanding the commonalities and differences in how signalling molecules function in two remote branches of the tree of life may shed light on the reasons these molecules were originally recruited for intercellular signalling. Here we review the plant function of three highly studied animal intercellular signalling molecules, namely glutamate, γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA), and melatonin. By considering both their signalling function in plants and their broader physiological function, we suggest that molecules with an original function as key metabolites or active participants in reactive ion species scavenging have a high chance of becoming intercellular signalling molecules. Naturally, the evolution of machinery to transduce a message across the plasma membrane is necessary. This fact is demonstrated by three other well-studied animal intercellular signalling molecules, namely serotonin, dopamine, and acetylcholine, for which there is currently no evidence that they act as intercellular signalling molecules in plants.

A rich history of comparative research in the auditory field has afforded a synthetic view of sound information processing by ears and brains. Some organisms have proven to be powerful models for human hearing due to fundamental similarities (e.g., well-matched hearing ranges), while others feature intriguing differences (e.g., atympanic ears) that invite further study. Work across diverse \"non-traditional\" organisms, from small mammals to avians to amphibians and beyond, continues to propel auditory science forward, netting a variety of biomedical and technological advances along the way. In this brief review, limited primarily to tetrapod vertebrates, we discuss the continued importance of comparative studies in hearing research from the periphery to central nervous system with a focus on outstanding questions such as mechanisms for sound capture, peripheral and central processing of directional/spatial information, and non-canonical auditory processing, including efferent and hormonal effects.

Identifying structure-function correspondences is a major goal among biologists, cognitive neuroscientists, and brain mappers. Recent studies have identified relationships between performance on cognitive tasks and the presence or absence of small, shallow indentations, or sulci, of the human brain. Building on the previous finding that the presence of one such sulcus in the left anterior lateral prefrontal cortex (aLPFC) was related to reasoning task performance in children and adolescents, we tested whether this relationship extended to a different sample, age group, and reasoning task. As predicted, the presence of this aLPFC sulcus-the ventral para-intermediate frontal sulcus-was also associated with higher reasoning scores in young adults (ages 22-36). These findings have not only direct developmental, but also evolutionary relevance-as recent work shows that the pimfs-v is exceedingly rare in chimpanzees. Thus, the pimfs-v is a novel developmental, cognitive, and evolutionarily relevant feature that should be considered in future studies examining how the complex relationships among multiscale anatomical and functional features of the brain give rise to abstract thought.