12/10/2018
Research Article
A study of bacterial adaptation to the vertebrate gut, by Catherine Robinson, Karen Guillemin, Brendan Bohannan and co-workers, challenges assumptions about the primary importance of the intra-host environment, instead highlighting the significance of bacterial immigration and transmission in persistent host-microbe interactions.
Image credit: pbio.1002517
Current Issue November 2018
12/13/2018
RESEARCH ARTICLE
Sam Wass, Vicky Leong and colleagues examine how information is shared between infants and parents by using dual EEG recording during joint play. The results suggest that where the parent is more neurally responsive, the infant is more attentive. Read the accompanying Primer.
Image credit: pbio.3000074
12/12/2018
SHORT REPORTS
Eirini Kallimasioti-Pazi, Andrew Wood and co-authors find that the chromatin environment of CRISPR-Cas9 target sites affects the rate at which mutations accumulate, but not the types of mutation that arise or their frequency following prolonged exposure to Cas9.
Image credit: pdb101
12/11/2018
RESEARCH ARTICLE
Experiments with seed beetles by Karl Grieshop and Göran Arnqvist show that opposite alleles at polymorphic loci encoding fitness are dominant in heterozygous males versus females; this enables sexually antagonistic selection to maintain genetic variation for fitness.
Image credit: Richard001, Wikimedia
12/10/2018
Essay
Just as we do controls for experiments we should all do controls for data analysis – this is easy to say but requires dedication to implement. This Essay, by Kathleen Lotterhos, Jason Moore and Ann Stapleton, explains the need for analysis validation and provides specific suggestions for how to get started.
Image credit: Janeke88, Pixabay
12/10/2018
RESEARCH ARTICLE
A genome-wide study by Adrija Kalvisa, Majken Siersbæk, Lars Grøntved and co-workers identifies those gene regulatory regions which in the liver are controlled by feeding, and reveals that glucocorticoid and insulin signaling pathways cooperatively regulate post-prandial repression of gene expression.
Image credit: Takometer, Wikimedia
12/12/2018
RESEARCH ARTICLE
Analyses of immunity-related signal transduction, using tomato plants infected with the bacterium Pseudomonas syringae, reveal rules of molecular communication between plants and pathogens governing resistance and susceptibility phenotypes.
Image credit: pbio.2005956
12/11/2018
Formal Comment
This Formal Comment responds to a recent Meta-Research Article by identifying initiatives that are already in place for funding risky exploratory research that illuminate mysteries of the dark genome. The original authors respond.
Image credit: Kristine Paulus, Flikr
12/13/2018
Methods & Resources
A co-immunoimmobilization assay lets you see transient protein-protein interactions at the single-molecule level in the membranes of living cells, on the basis of the protein’s intrinsic diffusivity.
Image credit: pbio.2006660
12/13/2018
Methods & Resources
EmbryoPhenomics - an open source platform for high-throughput phenome screening of aquatic embryos; this proof-of-principle comprises >30 million images, assessing the sensitivity of >600 aquatic embryos to environmental stress.
Image credit: pbio.3000074
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.
Oswald Schmitz suggests that studying how species produce ecological functions can be like watching jazz musicians improvise as they respond and adapt to one another to create their music.
Meta-research may not be as click-worthy as a meta-pug – a pug dog dressed up in a pug costume – but it is crucial to understanding research, says Lisa Bero in this Research Matters article.
Meet Managing Editor Hashi Wijayatilake in San Diego, CA.
December 8-12, 2018
Meet Senior Editor Ines Alvarez-Garcia in Roscoff, France.
November 19-23, 2018
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