This book provides a comprehensive and up-to-date account of the information available on the morphological, physiological and evolutionary aspects of specialized cells distributed within the epithelia of the airways in the vertebrates. A lot of work has been done on the cell and molecular biology of these cells which are regarded as as oxygen receptor neuroepithelial cells. These chemoreceptors which were conserved throughout evolution have neuroendocrine functions carrying their signals to the central nervous system. The chemoreceptor cells are sensors which detect the signal changes in the external and internal environments, and play a key role in the survival of various species. Studies addressed to the chemoreceptor cell systems in the airways are of great importance for investigating their response to changes in the oxygen and carbon dioxide concentrations in the environment since the future of the planet earth is being threatened by global warming and climate change. Praise for the book: ...This volume would be of special interest to researchers who are curious about the evolution of vertebrate respiratory control in general and the regulation of ventilation in nonmammalian vertebrates in particular. -Wayne L. Silver, Wake Forest University, in The Quarterly Review of Biology, Volume 85, Number 2

Hopefully, this book will be taken off of the shelf frequently to be studied carefully over many years. More than 40 researchers were involved in this project, which examines respiration, circulation, and metabolism from ?sh to the land vertebrates, including human beings. A breathable and stable atmosphere ?rst appeared about 500 million years ago. Oxygen levels are not stable in aquatic environments and exclusively water-breathing ?sh must still cope with the ever-changing levels of O 2 and with large temperature changes. This is re?ected in their sophisticated count- current systems, with high O extraction and internal and external O receptors. 2 2 The conquest for the terrestrial environment took place in the late Devonian period (355–359 million years ago), and recent discoveries portray the gradual transitional evolution of land vertebrates. The oxygen-rich and relatively stable atmospheric conditionsimpliedthatoxygen-sensingmechanismswererelativelysimpleandl- gain compared with acid–base regulation. Recently, physiology has expanded into related ?elds such as biochemistry, molecular biology, morphology and anatomy. In the light of the work in these ?elds, the introduction of DNA-based cladograms, which can be used to evaluate the likelihood of land vertebrates and lung?sh as a sister group, could explain why their cardio-respiratory control systems are similar. The diffusing capacity of a duck lung is 40 times higher than that of a toad or lung?sh. Certainly, some animals have evolved to rich high-performance levels.

This book discusses aerobic metabolism at all levels, from the gas exchange organs to mitochondria including aspects of morphology and physiology as well as the control of breathing in the central nervous system.

How do vertebrates get the oxygen they need, or even manage without it for shorter or longer periods of time? How do they sense oxygen, how do they take it up from water or air, and how do they transport it to their tissues? Respiratory system adaptations allow numerous vertebrates to thrive in extreme environments where oxygen availability is limited or where there is no oxygen at all. Written for students and researchers in comparative physiology, this authoritative summary of vertebrate respiratory physiology begins by exploring the fundamentals of oxygen sensing, uptake and transport in a textbook style. Subsequently, the reader is shown important examples of extreme respiratory performance, like diving and high altitude survival in mammals and birds, air breathing in fish, and those few vertebrates that can survive without any oxygen at all for several months, showing how evolution has solved the problem of life without oxygen.

Fish form an extremely diverse group of vertebrates. At a conservative estimate at least 40% of the world's vertebrates are fish. On the one hand they are united by their adaptations to an aquatic environment and on the other they show a variety of adaptations to differing environmental conditions - often to extremes of temperature, salinity, oxygen level and water chemistry. They exhibit an array of behavioural and reproductive systems. Interesting in their own right, this suite of adaptive physiologies provides many model systems for both comparative vertebrate and human physiologists. This four volume encyclopedia covers the diversity of fish physiology in over 300 articles and provides entry level information for students and summary overviews for researchers alike. Broadly organised into four themes, articles cover Functional, Thematic, and Phylogenetic Physiology, and Fish Genomics. Functional articles address the traditional aspects of fish physiology that are common to all areas of vertebrate physiology including: Reproduction, Respiration, Neural (Sensory, Central, Effector), Endocrinology, Renal, Cardiovascular, Acid-base Balance, Osmoregulation, Ionoregulation, Digestion, Metabolism, Locomotion, and so on. Thematic Physiology articles are carefully selected and fewer in number. They provide a level of integration that goes beyond the coverage in the Functional Physiology topics and include discussions of Toxicology, Air-breathing, Migrations, Temperature, Endothermy, etc. Phylogenetic Physiology articles bring together information that bridges the physiology of certain groupings of fishes where the knowledge base has a sufficient depth and breadth and include articles on Ancient Fishes, Tunas, Sharks, etc. Genomics articles describe the underlying genetic component of fish physiology and high light their suitability and use as model organisms for the study of disease, stress and physiological adaptations and reactions to external conditions. Winner of a 2011 PROSE Award Honorable Mention for Multivolume Science Reference from the Association of American Publishers The definitive encyclopedia for the field of fish physiology Three volumes which comprehensively cover the entire field in over 300 entries written by experts Detailed coverage of basic functional physiology of fishes, physiological themes in fish biology and comparative physiology amongst taxonomic Groups Describes the genomic bases of fish physiology and biology and the use of fish as model organisms in human physiological research Includes a glossary of terms

Following the success of the bestselling third edition, this newly updated and completely revised fourth edition of The Physiology of Fishes provides comprehensive coverage of the most important aspects of the form and function of fishes. It covers the most recent advances as well as fundamental subjects such as cardiovascular physiology, intestinal transport, and gill ion uptake. Written by an international group of experts, this book contains fresh approaches, with completely new treatment of the original topics and the addition of new chapters: Muscle plasticity Membranes and Metabolism Oxygen Sensing Endocrine Disruption Pain Perception Cardiac Regeneration Neuronal Regeneration Two decades after the publication of the first edition, this book remains the only published single-volume work on fish physiology. Each chapter contains an extensive bibliography, providing readers with the best sources from the primary literature. The fourth edition provides an important reference for aquatic biologists, ichthyologists, fisheries scientists, and comparative physiologists.

Fish sensory systems have been extensively studied not only because of a wide general interest in the behavioral and sensory physiology of this group, but also because fishes are well suited as biological models for studies of sensory systems. Fish Physiology: Sensory Systems Neuroscience describes how fish are able to perceive their physical and biological surroundings, and highlights some of the exciting developments in molecular biology of fish sensory systems. Volume 25 in the Fish Physiology series offers the only updated thorough examination of fish sensory systems at the molecular, cellular and systems levels. - Offers a comprehensive account of the present state of science in this rapidly expanding and developing field - New physiological techniques presented to enable examining responses at the cellular and system levels - Discusses fish sensory systems and how they have adapted to the physiological challenges presented by an aquatic environment

The Encyclopedia of the Neuroscience explores all areas of the discipline in its focused entries on a wide variety of topics in neurology, neurosurgery, psychiatry and other related areas of neuroscience. Each article is written by an expert in that specific domain and peer reviewed by the advisory board before acceptance into the encyclopedia. Each article contains a glossary, introduction, a reference section, and cross-references to other related encyclopedia articles. Written at a level suitable for university undergraduates, the breadth and depth of coverage will appeal beyond undergraduates to professionals and academics in related fields.

This volume presents contributions given at the international symposium on The Vertebrate Gas Transport Cascade: Adaptations to Environment and Mode of Life, held in São Sebastião, São Paulo, Brazil from September 10-15, 1991. Recent developments in the field and the unifying principles of basic respiratory mechanisms are covered, and reviews in major areas of respiratory physiology are complemented by recent experimental data. Principal topics discussed include conditions for gas exchange in selected special environments, ventilation of the gas exchanger, diffusing capacity and exchange between respired medium and blood, respiratory pigments and oxygen transport by blood, cardiovascular function and oxygen transport by blood, oxygen delivery to tissue, and transition to anaerobic metabolism. The Vertebrate Gas Transport Cascade: Adaptations to Environment and Mode of Life will be a useful addition to the reference collections of respiratory physiologists, comparative physiologists, cardiovascular physiologists, experimental biologists, students, and others interested in the topic.