04/03/2020
Essay
Have you ever tried to use metagenomic DNA sequences reported in scientific publications? Were you successful? Ester Eckert, Andrea Di Cesare, Diego Fontaneto, Gianluca Corno and colleagues reveal that every fifth published metagenome is not available to science, and ask whether data accessibility should be considered a mandatory component of manuscript submission.
Image credit: Wikimedia Commons user D. Hardisty
Current Issue March 2020
04/03/2020
Methods and Resources
Using deep learning to segment the layers of the cerebral cortex, Konrad Wagstyl, Alan Evans and co-workers present the first whole brain quantitative atlas of cortical and laminar structure. This laminar atlas provides a novel framework for bridging between the scales of neuroscience.
Image credit: Konrad Wagstyl
04/03/2020
Research Article
How does our brain put names to faces; by associating spatially separated representations of faces and names or by integrating these representations? Angélique Volfart, Bruno Rossion and co-authors identify populations of neurons in the left human anterior temporal lobe that fire only on the integration of identity information from faces and names.
Image credit: pbio.3000659
04/01/2020
Essay
Carlos Sonnenschein and Ana Soto propose that a new theory of cancer — the “tissue organization field” theory — explains phenomena (such as the normalization of cancer cells) that are not consistent with the widely held somatic mutation theory.
Image credit: Wikipedia Commons by Johannes Hevelius
03/31/2020
Editorial
Established over 15 years ago, PLOS Biology pioneered open access publishing in the Life Sciences at a time when most of the literature remained locked behind paywalls. In this Editorial, Nonia Pariente, on behalf of the PLOS Biology Staff Editors, looks to the future, as we reinvigorate our mission to act as a catalyst for open science and accelerate change in scientific communication for the benefit of science and scientists.
Image credit: pbio.3000707
03/31/2020
Research Article
High-resolution cryo-EM, by Joseph Snowden, Morgan Herod, Nicola Stonehouse and co-authors, reveals that the norovirus capsid continuously samples conformational space, challenging the model of conformational changes in virus structure being orchestrated along linear, irreversible pathways of assembly and disassembly, with implications for infectivity and immune evasion.
Image credit: pbio.3000649
03/30/2020
Methods and Resources
A small ortholog of Cas9 isolated from Staphylococcus auricularis recognizes a simple 5'-NNGG-3' PAM, displays high activity for genome editing and is compact enough to be packaged into adeno-associated virus.
Image credit: pbio.3000686
03/30/2020
Essay
Vocal learning is the capacity to modify vocal output on the basis of experience. Pedro Tiago Martins & Cedric Boeckx maintain that the existing evidence supports a more nuanced view of this phenotype.
Image credit: Flickr user Dennis Flax
03/30/2020
Community Page
A novel science education outreach event in which grad students communicate their research to young students. This benefits all the participants, increasing science interest of the audience and improving science communication skills of the grad student presenters.
Image credit: pbio.3000668
03/27/2020
Perspective
Brian Nosek and Timothy Errington propose that the answer shifts the conception of replication from a boring, uncreative, housekeeping activity to an exciting, generative, vital contributor to research progress.
Image credit: pbio.3000691
Raquel Lieberman discusses her work on the protein myocilin, implicated in glaucoma, but whose normal function remains unclear after over 20 years.
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.
Normal service will resume after Covid-19 crisis ends.
Normal service will resume after Covid-19 crisis ends.
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