03/21/2019
Research Article
How does the human brain represent time? A neuroimaging study by Foteini Protopapa, Domenica Bueti and co-authors reveals the existence in the human Supplementary Motor Area of chronotopic maps — neural units tuned to different durations and mapped to contiguous portions of the cortical surface.
Image credit: pbio.3000026
Current Issue February 2019
03/21/2019
Research Article
Chad Miller, Benjamin Turk and colleagues re-engineer the catalytic cleft of protein kinases from the STE20 family to demonstrate that phosphorylation site specificity can be both necessary and sufficient for certain signalling outputs.
Image credit: pbio.2006540
03/20/2019
Short Reports
Ablation of insulin receptors in astrocytes, by Iyad Manaserh, Jennifer Hill and co-workers, reveals that insulin promotes pubertal development and fertility in mice by acting on astrocytes rather than directly affecting neuronal reproductive circuits.
Image credit: pbio.3000189
03/20/2019
Research Article
Fumito Naganuma, Ramalingam Vetrivelan and colleagues show that a neurotensin-producing subset of neurons in the lateral hypothalamus promote arousal and thermogenesis; these neurons are necessary for appropriate sleep-wake and body temperature responses to various stressors.
Image credit: pbio.3000172
03/21/2019
Research Article
In honeybees, nutrition drives dimorphic size development of reproductive organs in fertile queens and sterile workers. Annika Roth, Martin Beye and co-workers use the first induced morphological mutants in honeybees to show that this developmental plasticity requires a genetic program that is switched on by the “feminizer” gene.
Image credit: pbio.3000171
03/18/2019
Research Article
The transcription of a gene may start from one of several transcription start sites, a phenomenon known as alternative transcriptional initiation. Contrary to common belief, Chuan Xu, Joong-Ki Park and Jianzhi Zhang show that variation of the transcription start site of a given gene is non-adaptive and is largely attributable to transcriptional initiation error that is typically deleterious.
Image credit: pbio.3000197
03/18/2019
Essay
This Essay highlights data resolution as central property of biodiversity data that affects the precision of macro-ecological inferences, discussing ways to maximize synergies among data types.
Image credit: pbio.3000183
03/18/2019
RESEARCH ARTICLE
A neurobehavioral study in mice reveals that dietary restriction (and in particular reduced dietary tryptophan) can improve memory performance by reducing serotonin-mediated mTORC1 signaling in the hippocampus.
Image credit: pbio.2007097
03/12/2019
Research Article
Planthopper insects produce fast abdominal twerks for vibrational communication through the substrate, employing a novel vibratory organ that uses two reciprocal elastic recoil mechanisms to generate fast cyclical motion.
Image credit: Flickr user Katja Schulz
03/12/2019
Research Article
A global analysis of human impacts on threatened vertebrates shows that they are almost ubiquitous across Earth, and hundreds of species have no refuge from these impacts.
Image credit: pbio.3000158
Susanna Bidgood explores the future of using poxviruses as versatile tools for cell biology research.
Rachel Harding proposes that open notebooks present an opportunity for researchers to showcase their work and rapidly advance science in their field
On the eve of the UN General Assembly meeting on TB, Christoph Grundner urged the need to consider basic research as an essential component of any future anti-TB strategy.
Norman Pace remembers the early days of what became known as "metagenomics," as experienced by the author during his development as a scientist.
Rodrigo Almeida argues that considering the social context of emerging plant diseases and effective science communication are essential for the management epidemics.
Meet Senior Editor Ines Alvarez-Garcia in Keystone, CO.
January 27-31, 2019
Meet Senior Editor Lauren Richardson in La Jolla, CA.
January 22-24, 2019
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