THE EGYPTIAN JOURNAL OF EXPERIMENTAL BIOLOGY最新文献_第10页

Linking environmental salinity to respiratory phenotypes and metabolic rate in fishes: a data mining and modelling approach. 将环境盐度与鱼类的呼吸表型和代谢率联系起来:数据挖掘和建模方法。

THE EGYPTIAN JOURNAL OF EXPERIMENTAL BIOLOGY Pub Date : 2022-03-08 DOI: 10.1242/jeb.243421

T. Harter, C. Damsgaard, M. Regan

{"title":"Linking environmental salinity to respiratory phenotypes and metabolic rate in fishes: a data mining and modelling approach.","authors":"T. Harter, C. Damsgaard, M. Regan","doi":"10.1242/jeb.243421","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1242/jeb.243421","url":null,"abstract":"The gill is the primary site of ionoregulation and gas exchange in adult teleost fishes. However, those characteristics that benefit diffusive gas exchange (large, thin gills) may also enhance the passive equilibration of ions and water that threaten osmotic homeostasis. Our literature review revealed that gill surface area and thickness were similar in freshwater (FW) and seawater (SW) species; however, the diffusive oxygen (O2) conductance (Gd) of the gill was lower in FW species. While a lower Gd may reduce ion losses, it also limits O2 uptake capacity and possibly aerobic performance in situations of high O2 demand (e.g. exercise) or low O2 availability (e.g. environmental hypoxia). We also found that FW fishes had significantly higher haemoglobin (Hb)-O2 binding affinities than SW species, which will increase the O2 diffusion gradient across the gills. Therefore, we hypothesized that the higher Hb-O2 affinity of FW fishes compensates, in part, for their lower Gd. Using a combined literature review and modelling approach, our results show that a higher Hb-O2 affinity in FW fishes increases the flux of O2 across their low-Gd gills. In addition, FW and SW teleosts can achieve similar maximal rates of O2 consumption (ṀO2,max) and hypoxia tolerance (Pcrit) through different combinations of Hb-O2 affinity and Gd. Our combined data identified novel patterns in gill and Hb characteristics between FW and SW fishes and our modelling approach provides mechanistic insight into the relationship between aerobic performance and species distribution ranges, generating novel hypotheses at the intersection of cardiorespiratory and ionoregulatory fish physiology.","PeriodicalId":22458,"journal":{"name":"THE EGYPTIAN JOURNAL OF EXPERIMENTAL BIOLOGY","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-03-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"87054077","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 3

Phylogenetics of swimming behaviour in Medusozoa: the role of giant axons and their possible evolutionary origin. Medusozoa 游泳行为的系统发育：巨轴突的作用及其可能的进化起源。

THE EGYPTIAN JOURNAL OF EXPERIMENTAL BIOLOGY Pub Date : 2022-03-08 DOI: 10.1242/jeb.243382

Robert W Meech

{"title":"Phylogenetics of swimming behaviour in Medusozoa: the role of giant axons and their possible evolutionary origin.","authors":"Robert W Meech","doi":"10.1242/jeb.243382","DOIUrl":"10.1242/jeb.243382","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Although neural tissues in cnidarian hydroids have a nerve net structure, some cnidarian medusae contain well-defined nerve tracts. As an example, the hydrozoan medusa Aglantha digitale has neural feeding circuits that show an alignment and condensation, which is absent in its relatives Aequorea victoria and Clytia hemisphaerica. In some cases, neural condensations take the form of fast propagating giant axons concerned with escape or evasion. Such giant axons appear to have developed from the fusion of many, much finer units. Ribosomal DNA analysis has identified the lineage leading to giant axon-based escape swimming in Aglantha and other members of the Aglaura clade of trachymedusan jellyfish. The Aglaura, along with sister subclades that include species such as Colobonema sericeum, have the distinctive ability to perform dual swimming, i.e. to swim at either high or low speeds. However, the form of dual swimming exhibited by Colobonema differs both biomechanically and physiologically from that in Aglantha and is not giant axon based. Comparisons between the genomes of such closely related species might provide a means to determine the molecular basis of giant axon formation and other neural condensations. The molecular mechanism responsible may involve 'fusogens', small molecules possibly derived from viruses, which draw membranes together prior to fusion. Identifying these fusogen-based mechanisms using genome analysis may be hindered by the many changes in anatomy and physiology that followed giant axon evolution, but the genomic signal-to-noise ratio may be improved by examining the convergent evolution of giant axons in other hydrozoa, such as the subclass Siphonophora.</p>","PeriodicalId":22458,"journal":{"name":"THE EGYPTIAN JOURNAL OF EXPERIMENTAL BIOLOGY","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-03-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8987731/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"83959804","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

Meta-analytic approaches and effect sizes to account for 'nuisance heterogeneity' in comparative physiology. 在比较生理学中解释“讨厌的异质性”的元分析方法和效应大小。

THE EGYPTIAN JOURNAL OF EXPERIMENTAL BIOLOGY Pub Date : 2022-03-08 DOI: 10.1242/jeb.243225

D. Noble, Patrice Pottier, M. Lagisz, Samantha Burke, S. Drobniak, R. E. O’Dea, S Nakagawa

{"title":"Meta-analytic approaches and effect sizes to account for 'nuisance heterogeneity' in comparative physiology.","authors":"D. Noble, Patrice Pottier, M. Lagisz, Samantha Burke, S. Drobniak, R. E. O’Dea, S Nakagawa","doi":"10.1242/jeb.243225","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1242/jeb.243225","url":null,"abstract":"Meta-analysis is a powerful tool used to generate quantitatively informed answers to pressing global challenges. By distilling data from broad sets of research designs and study systems into standardised effect sizes, meta-analyses provide physiologists with opportunities to estimate overall effect sizes and understand the drivers of effect variability. Despite this ambition, research designs in the field of comparative physiology can appear, at the outset, as being vastly different to each other because of 'nuisance heterogeneity' (e.g. different temperatures or treatment dosages used across studies). Methodological differences across studies have led many to believe that meta-analysis is an exercise in comparing 'apples with oranges'. Here, we dispel this myth by showing how standardised effect sizes can be used in conjunction with multilevel meta-regression models to both account for the factors driving differences across studies and make them more comparable. We assess the prevalence of nuisance heterogeneity in the comparative physiology literature - showing it is common and often not accounted for in analyses. We then formalise effect size measures (e.g. the temperature coefficient, Q10) that provide comparative physiologists with a means to remove nuisance heterogeneity without the need to resort to more complex statistical models that may be harder to interpret. We also describe more general approaches that can be applied to a variety of different contexts to derive new effect sizes and sampling variances, opening up new possibilities for quantitative synthesis. By using effect sizes that account for components of effect heterogeneity, in combination with existing meta-analytic models, comparative physiologists can explore exciting new questions while making results from large-scale data sets more accessible, comparable and widely interpretable.","PeriodicalId":22458,"journal":{"name":"THE EGYPTIAN JOURNAL OF EXPERIMENTAL BIOLOGY","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-03-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"72800652","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 13

Noise-induced hearing loss correlates with inner ear hair cell decrease in larval zebrafish. 噪声性听力损失与斑马鱼幼体内耳毛细胞减少有关。

THE EGYPTIAN JOURNAL OF EXPERIMENTAL BIOLOGY Pub Date : 2022-03-08 DOI: 10.1242/jeb.243743

Rafael A Lara, Lukas Breitzler, Ieng Hou Lau, Flora Gordillo-Martínez, Fangyi Chen, P. Fonseca, A. Bass, Raquel O. Vasconcelos

{"title":"Noise-induced hearing loss correlates with inner ear hair cell decrease in larval zebrafish.","authors":"Rafael A Lara, Lukas Breitzler, Ieng Hou Lau, Flora Gordillo-Martínez, Fangyi Chen, P. Fonseca, A. Bass, Raquel O. Vasconcelos","doi":"10.1242/jeb.243743","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1242/jeb.243743","url":null,"abstract":"Anthropogenic noise can be hazardous for the auditory system and wellbeing of animals, including humans. However, very limited information is known on how this global environmental pollutant affects auditory function and inner ear sensory receptors in early ontogeny. The zebrafish (Danio rerio) is a valuable model in hearing research, including to investigate developmental processes of the vertebrate inner ear. We tested the effects of chronic exposure to white noise in larval zebrafish on inner ear saccular sensitivity and morphology at 3 and 5 days post fertilization (dpf), as well as on auditory-evoked swimming responses using the prepulse inhibition paradigm (PPI) at 5 dpf. Noise-exposed larvae showed significant increase in microphonic potential thresholds at low frequencies, 100 and 200 Hz, while PPI revealed a hypersensitisation effect and similar threshold shift at 200 Hz. Auditory sensitivity changes were accompanied by a decrease in saccular hair cell number and epithelium area. In aggregate, the results reveal noise-induced effects on inner ear structure-function in a larval fish paralleled by a decrease in auditory-evoked sensorimotor responses. More broadly, this study highlights the importance of investigating the impact of environmental noise on early development of sensory and behavioural responsiveness to acoustic stimuli.","PeriodicalId":22458,"journal":{"name":"THE EGYPTIAN JOURNAL OF EXPERIMENTAL BIOLOGY","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-03-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"88687044","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 6

Looking to the future: Building New Paradigms in Comparative Physiology and Biomechanics. 展望未来:建立比较生理学和生物力学的新范式。

THE EGYPTIAN JOURNAL OF EXPERIMENTAL BIOLOGY Pub Date : 2022-03-08 DOI: 10.1242/jeb.244096

C. Franklin, S. Patek, P. Wright

引用次数: 0

Colour discrimination thresholds vary throughout colour space in a reef fish (Rhinecanthus aculeatus) 珊瑚鱼(Rhinecanthus aculeatus)的色彩辨别阈值在色彩空间中有所不同。

THE EGYPTIAN JOURNAL OF EXPERIMENTAL BIOLOGY Pub Date : 2022-03-08 DOI: 10.1242/jeb.243533

Naomi F. Green, Emily Guevara, D. Osorio, J. Endler, N. Marshall, M. Vorobyev, K. L. Cheney

{"title":"Colour discrimination thresholds vary throughout colour space in a reef fish (Rhinecanthus aculeatus)","authors":"Naomi F. Green, Emily Guevara, D. Osorio, J. Endler, N. Marshall, M. Vorobyev, K. L. Cheney","doi":"10.1242/jeb.243533","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1242/jeb.243533","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Animals use colour vision in a range of behaviours. Visual performance is limited by thresholds, which are set by noise in photoreceptors and subsequent neural processing. The receptor noise limited (RNL) model of colour discrimination is widely used for modelling colour vision and accounts well for experimental data from many species. In one of the most comprehensive tests yet of colour discrimination in a non-human species, we used Ishihara-style stimulus patterns to examine thresholds for 21 directions at five locations in colour space for the fish Rhinecanthus aculeatus. Thresholds matched RNL model predictions most closely for stimuli near the achromatic point, but exceeded predictions (indicating a decline in sensitivity) with distance from this point. Thresholds were also usually higher for saturation than for hue differences. These changes in colour threshold with colour space location and direction may give insight into photoreceptor non-linearities and post-receptoral mechanisms of colour vision in fish. Our results highlight the need for a cautious interpretation of the RNL model – especially for modelling colours that differ from one another in saturation (rather than hue), and for highly saturated colours distant from the achromatic point in colour space.","PeriodicalId":22458,"journal":{"name":"THE EGYPTIAN JOURNAL OF EXPERIMENTAL BIOLOGY","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-03-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"86038328","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 7

Life in the slow lane: Field Metabolic Rate and Prey Consumption Rate of the Greenland Shark (Somniosus microcephalus) modeled using Archival Biologgers. 慢车道上的生活:利用档案生物学建模格陵兰鲨(Somniosus microcephalus)的野外代谢率和猎物消耗率。

THE EGYPTIAN JOURNAL OF EXPERIMENTAL BIOLOGY Pub Date : 2022-03-08 DOI: 10.1242/jeb.242994

Eric Ste-Marie, Y. Watanabe, J. Semmens, M. Marcoux, N. Hussey

{"title":"Life in the slow lane: Field Metabolic Rate and Prey Consumption Rate of the Greenland Shark (Somniosus microcephalus) modeled using Archival Biologgers.","authors":"Eric Ste-Marie, Y. Watanabe, J. Semmens, M. Marcoux, N. Hussey","doi":"10.1242/jeb.242994","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1242/jeb.242994","url":null,"abstract":"Field metabolic rate (FMR) is a holistic measure of metabolism representing the routine energy utilization of a species living within a specific ecological context, thus providing insight into its ecology, fitness and resilience to environmental stressors. For animals which cannot be easily observed in the wild, FMR can also be used in concert with dietary data to quantitatively assess their role as consumers, improving understanding of the trophic linkages that structure food webs and allowing for informed management decisions. Here we modeled the FMR of Greenland sharks (Somniosus microcephalus) equipped with biologger packages or pop-up archival satellite tags (PSATs) in two coastal inlets of Baffin Island (Nunavut) using metabolic scaling relationships for mass, temperature and activity. We estimated that Greenland sharks had an overall mean FMR of 21.67±2.30 mgO2h-1kg-0.84 (n=30; 1-4 day accelerometer package deployments) while residing inside these cold-water fjord systems in the late summer, and 25.48±0.47 mgO2h-1kg-0.84 (n=6; PSATs) over an entire year. When considering prey consumption rate, an average shark in these systems (224kg) requires a maintenance ration of 61-193g of fish or marine mammal prey daily. As a lethargic polar species, these low FMR estimates, and corresponding prey consumption estimates suggest Greenland sharks require very little energy to sustain themselves under natural conditions. These data provide the first characterization of the energetics and consumer role of this vulnerable and understudied species in the wild, essential given growing pressures from climate change and expanding commercial fisheries in the Arctic.","PeriodicalId":22458,"journal":{"name":"THE EGYPTIAN JOURNAL OF EXPERIMENTAL BIOLOGY","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-03-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"75528920","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 4

Paths towards greater consensus building in experimental biology. 在实验生物学中建立更大共识的途径。

THE EGYPTIAN JOURNAL OF EXPERIMENTAL BIOLOGY Pub Date : 2022-03-08 DOI: 10.1242/jeb.243559

Dominique G. Roche, G. Raby, T. Norin, R. Ern, H. Scheuffele, M. Skeeles, Rachael Morgan, Anna H. Andreassen, J. Clements, Sarahdghyn Louissaint, F. Jutfelt, T. Clark, S. Binning

{"title":"Paths towards greater consensus building in experimental biology.","authors":"Dominique G. Roche, G. Raby, T. Norin, R. Ern, H. Scheuffele, M. Skeeles, Rachael Morgan, Anna H. Andreassen, J. Clements, Sarahdghyn Louissaint, F. Jutfelt, T. Clark, S. Binning","doi":"10.1242/jeb.243559","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1242/jeb.243559","url":null,"abstract":"In a recent editorial, the Editors-in-Chief of Journal of Experimental Biology argued that consensus building, data sharing, and better integration across disciplines are needed to address the urgent scientific challenges posed by climate change. We agree and expand on the importance of cross-disciplinary integration and transparency to improve consensus building and advance climate change research in experimental biology. We investigated reproducible research practices in experimental biology through a review of open data and analysis code associated with empirical studies on three debated paradigms and for unrelated studies published in leading journals in comparative physiology and behavioural ecology over the last 10 years. Nineteen per cent of studies on the three paradigms had open data, and 3.2% had open code. Similarly, 12.1% of studies in the journals we examined had open data, and 3.1% had open code. Previous research indicates that only 50% of shared datasets are complete and re-usable, suggesting that fewer than 10% of studies in experimental biology have usable open data. Encouragingly, our results indicate that reproducible research practices are increasing over time, with data sharing rates in some journals reaching 75% in recent years. Rigorous empirical research in experimental biology is key to understanding the mechanisms by which climate change affects organisms, and ultimately promotes evidence-based conservation policy and practice. We argue that a greater adoption of open science practices, with a particular focus on FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Re-usable) data and code, represents a much-needed paradigm shift towards improved transparency, cross-disciplinary integration, and consensus building to maximize the contributions of experimental biologists in addressing the impacts of environmental change on living organisms.","PeriodicalId":22458,"journal":{"name":"THE EGYPTIAN JOURNAL OF EXPERIMENTAL BIOLOGY","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-03-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"86816775","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 15

Impact of fluctuating developmental temperatures on phenotypic traits in reptiles: a meta-analysis. 发育温度波动对爬行动物表型性状的影响:一项荟萃分析。

THE EGYPTIAN JOURNAL OF EXPERIMENTAL BIOLOGY Pub Date : 2022-03-08 DOI: 10.1242/jeb.243369

Rebecca S Raynal, D. Noble, J. Riley, A. Senior, D. Warner, G. While, L. Schwanz

{"title":"Impact of fluctuating developmental temperatures on phenotypic traits in reptiles: a meta-analysis.","authors":"Rebecca S Raynal, D. Noble, J. Riley, A. Senior, D. Warner, G. While, L. Schwanz","doi":"10.1242/jeb.243369","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1242/jeb.243369","url":null,"abstract":"During the vulnerable stages of early life, most ectothermic animals experience hourly and diel fluctuations in temperature as air temperatures change. While we know a great deal about how different constant temperatures impact the phenotypes of developing ectotherms, we know remarkably little about the impacts of temperature fluctuations on the development of ectotherms. In this study, we used a meta-analytic approach to compare the mean and variance of phenotypic outcomes from constant and fluctuating incubation temperatures across reptile species. We found that fluctuating temperatures provided a small benefit (higher hatching success and shorter incubation durations) at cool mean temperatures compared with constant temperatures, but had a negative effect at warm mean temperatures. In addition, more extreme temperature fluctuations led to greater reductions in embryonic survival compared with moderate temperature fluctuations. Within the limited data available from species with temperature-dependent sex determination, embryos had a higher chance of developing as female when developing in fluctuating temperatures compared with those developing in constant temperatures. With our meta-analytic approach, we identified average mean nest temperatures across all taxa where reptiles switch from receiving benefits to incurring costs when incubation temperatures fluctuate. More broadly, our study indicates that the impact of fluctuating developmental temperature on some phenotypes in ectothermic taxa are likely to be predictable via integration of developmental temperature profiles with thermal performance curves.","PeriodicalId":22458,"journal":{"name":"THE EGYPTIAN JOURNAL OF EXPERIMENTAL BIOLOGY","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-03-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"78575624","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 3

Best practices for building and curating databases for comparative analyses. 构建和管理用于比较分析的数据库的最佳实践。

THE EGYPTIAN JOURNAL OF EXPERIMENTAL BIOLOGY Pub Date : 2022-03-08 DOI: 10.1242/jeb.243295

L. Schwanz, A. Gunderson, Maider Iglesias‐Carrasco, Michele A. Johnson, J. Kong, J. Riley, N. Wu

{"title":"Best practices for building and curating databases for comparative analyses.","authors":"L. Schwanz, A. Gunderson, Maider Iglesias‐Carrasco, Michele A. Johnson, J. Kong, J. Riley, N. Wu","doi":"10.1242/jeb.243295","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1242/jeb.243295","url":null,"abstract":"Comparative analyses have a long history of macro-ecological and -evolutionary approaches to understand structure, function, mechanism and constraint. As the pace of science accelerates, there is ever-increasing access to diverse types of data and open access databases that are enabling and inspiring new research. Whether conducting a species-level trait-based analysis or a formal meta-analysis of study effect sizes, comparative approaches share a common reliance on reliable, carefully curated databases. Unlike many scientific endeavors, building a database is a process that many researchers undertake infrequently and in which we are not formally trained. This Commentary provides an introduction to building databases for comparative analyses and highlights challenges and solutions that the authors of this Commentary have faced in their own experiences. We focus on four major tips: (1) carefully strategizing the literature search; (2) structuring databases for multiple use; (3) establishing version control within (and beyond) your study; and (4) the importance of making databases accessible. We highlight how one's approach to these tasks often depends on the goal of the study and the nature of the data. Finally, we assert that the curation of single-question databases has several disadvantages: it limits the possibility of using databases for multiple purposes and decreases efficiency due to independent researchers repeatedly sifting through large volumes of raw information. We argue that curating databases that are broader than one research question can provide a large return on investment, and that research fields could increase efficiency if community curation of databases was established.","PeriodicalId":22458,"journal":{"name":"THE EGYPTIAN JOURNAL OF EXPERIMENTAL BIOLOGY","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-03-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"90152547","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 8