01/10/2019
Community Page
Phil Oberacker, Peter Stepper, Donna Bond, Timothy Hore, Tomasz Jurkowski and co-workers present open-source nucleic acid purification and handling protocols based on functionalised magnetic beads, with the aim of transforming life science research practice and its economics.
Image credit: pbio.3000107
Current Issue December 2018
01/10/2019
research article
Sunitha Narasimha, Roshan Vijendravarma and colleagues show that maternal sex pheromones incorporated within the wax layer of the fruit fly eggshell prevent the egg from leaking, and conceal it from predation by same-species larvae in an anti-cannibalistic strategy that may operate through chemical deception.
Image credit: Roshan Vijendravarma
01/07/2019
Research Article
Ricardo Celestino, Morkos Henen, José Gama, Reto Gassmann, Beat Vögeli and colleagues find that a highly conserved mechanism links the microtubule minus end–directed motor dynein to structurally diverse cargo adaptors through its light intermediate chain; this interaction is crucial for dynein function in vivo.
Image credit: pbio.3000100
01/04/2019
research article
The cellular autophagy pathway sculpts intracellular membranes to degrade or transport cytoplasmic contents. Emma Abernathy, Karla Kirkegaard and co-authors identify components of this pathway that are hijacked by polio, dengue and Zika viruses for their own membrane-associated amplification and dissemination.
Image credit: pbio.2006926
01/04/2019
research article
Abhijith Makki, Jan Tachezy and co-authors show that the highly divergent outer membrane translocase (TOM) from the Trichomonas hydrogenosome (an organelle related to mitochondria) is composed of conserved core and lineage-specific subunits, and has an unconventional skull-like triplet-pore structure.
Image credit: pbio.3000098
01/09/2019
Community Page
Matthew Kararo and Melissa McCartney present Science in the Classroom (SitC), a tool for undergraduate educators to introduce their students to primary scientific literature. Annotations scaffold the readers so that authentic scientific practices are explained and recognized for their importance in scientific communications.
Image credit: pbio.3000103
01/02/2019
Meta-Research Article
Economic modelling shows that grant-proposal competitions are inevitably inefficient when the number of awards is small, but efficiency can be restored by a number of process modifications.
Image credit: Flickr user Reynermedia
12/31/2018
research article
Cryo-trapped crystal structures of tyrosinase in a complex with its “caddie” protein reveal structural insights into the catalytic mechanism of tyrosinase, the rate-limiting enzyme in the production of melanin.
Image credit: pbio.3000077
12/31/2018
community page
A communication standard for the provenance of high-throughput sequencing data; a BioCompute Object (BCO) can serve as a history of what was computed, providing clarity and transparency.
Image credit: pbio.3000099
01/11/2019
plos biologue
In this final blog post to celebrate our 15th anniversary, Jonathan Kimmelman explores two PLOS Biology studies that identify poor practices in ethical oversight of both human and animal experiments.
Image credit: Maggie Bartlett, NHGRI
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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