12/03/2024
Research Article
What are the neural correlates of the multiple competing processes that occur simultaneously during sensorimotor learning? Corson Areshenkoff, Jason Gallivan and co-workers reveal three distinct neural connectivity patterns within the motor cortex that are associated with implicit learning, explicit learning and the tracking of performance.
Image credit: pbio.3002934
Current Issue November 2024
12/03/2024
Research Article
How fast are viruses spreading in the wild? Simon Dellicour, Philippe Lemey and co-authors evaluate the performance of dispersal metrics estimated using phylogeographic analysis of genomic data from viral epidemics. Comparison with the dispersal capacity of a broad range of viruses spreading in animal populations highlights important differences that can be related to host and/or human-mediated movements.
Image credit: pbio.3002914
12/03/2024
Methods and Resources
Animal coloration research has flourished recently but the uptake of hyperspectral imaging methods has been slow. Benedict Hogan and Mary Caswell Stoddard develop a user-friendly pipeline for hyperspectral imaging and highlight its advantages in measuring animal coloration by comparing two birds-of-paradise and their rare hybrid offspring.
Image credit: David Ocampo
12/02/2024
Research Article
Melanin production in the skin protects us against UV damage, but how? Xiaoyu Tian, Hanyu Wang, Song Liu, Rutao Cui, Jun Zhou and colleagues show that upon UV exposure MC1R enters primary cilia and interacts with the BBSome, triggering the downstream signalling that stimulates melanogenesis. Red-haired people have a genetic variation in MC1R that affects this interaction, leading to defective melanin production.
Image credit: pbio.3002940
12/02/2024
Research Article
The cortico-striatal-thalamic circuit is involved in updating cortical task representations, but the role of the thalamus in the context of cognitive flexibility is not well known. Xitong Chen, Kai Hwang and co-authors show that the human thalamus, along with its associated thalamocortical interactions, encodes and updates context representations during hierarchical cognitive control.
Image credit: pbio.3002937
12/02/2024
Research Article
How does temperature affect sleeping patterns? Xin Yuan, Hailiang Li and Fang Guo elucidate the neural circuits in flies that integrate temperature cues with circadian networks to modulate sleep-wake patterns.
Image credit: pbio.3002918
12/03/2024
Perspective
Adam Kucharski argues that successful pandemic preparedness requires early outbreak management, including effective responses that target spillovers before evidence of human-to-human transmission exists.
Image credit: pbio.3002916
11/26/2024
Perspective
The rise of antibiotic resistance calls for innovative solutions. This Perspective outlines how biology can be mined digitally using artificial intelligence as a new paradigm for antibiotic discovery, offering hope in the fight against superbugs.
Image credit: pbio.3002946
11/25/2024
Consensus View
Understanding the origin of eukaryotic cells is one of the most difficult problems in all of biology. This Consensus View lays out guidelines to identify the gene repertoire of the Last Eukaryotic Common Ancestor (LECA).
Image credit: pbio.3002917
11/22/2024
Perspective
This Perspective, written by members of the United2Act Research Working Group, proposes five key research questions on paper mills that require resourcing and support.
Image credit: Johann Bernhard Basedow via Wikimedia Commons
Neurotechnology offers unprecedented opportunities to treat neural disorders, restore brain function and enhance cognitive abilities. This collection explores the present and possible futures of neurotechnology to improve human health and cognition.
Translating conservation and biodiversity research from the field into the real world is a complex problem. This collection discusses issues around economics, policy, and how to do research that answers questions that decision makers have.
Symbiosis research has become a holistic and pervasive field with a mature theoretical basis. This collection showcases symbiotic relationships across the tree of life, exploring their evolutionary basis and underlying mechanisms.
PLOS Biology is 20 and we are celebrating with a collection that contains articles that look back at landmark studies that we published, others that look past and future, and others discussing how publishing and open science have evolved and what is to come.
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This collection explores engineering strategies to help us adapt plants to a changing climate, including breeding techniques, genome engineering, synthetic biology and microbiome engineering.
December 10 - 13
Meet Senior Editor Roli Roberts (rroberts@plos.org)
December 14 - 18
Meet Senior Editor Ines Alvarez-Garcia (ialvarez-garcia@plos.org)
January 20 - 23
Meet Editor in Chief Nonia Pariente (npariente@plos.org)
February 27 - March 1
Meet Associate Editor Melissa Vazquez Hernandez (mvazquezhernandez@plos.org)
March 12 - 14
Meet Editor in Chief Nonia Pariente (npariente@plos.org)
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