The following reviews illustrate how, to be successful, life must communicate and interact with both the external and internal worlds. In his review (3), Dietmar Kurtz explores the evolution and physiological mechanisms of adaptations to osmotic stress in fish that tolerate high salinity. The perception of environmental osmolality changes, known as osmosensing, is a highly complex, physiological process that involves many sensory elements at the organismal and cellular levels. Specific intracellularionic strength and ion composition is essential for cell metabolism to function optimally. Input from fish osmosensors is integrated in a combinatorial fashion to encode the severity, directionality, and ionic basis of environmental osmolality changes. What we learn about how fish adapt to fluctuating salinity may provide a better understanding of how a key abiotic factor, osmolality, is communicated and regulated in all organisms, including humans.
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