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Wiring Complex Primate Behavior

July 31, 2020

Wiring Complex Primate Behavior

A comparison of the organization of connections in the temporal association cortex, by Lea Roumazeilles, Rogier Mars and co-workers, sheds light on specializations underlying the unique behavioral abilities of monkeys, chimpanzees, gorillas and humans.

Image credit: pbio.3000810

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07/31/2020

short report

Zinc: an Ancient Shield against Multiple Fertilization

Fertilization of an egg by more than one sperm presents one of the earliest and most prevalent barriers to successful reproduction. Katherine Wozniak ,Rachel Bainbridge, Anne Carlson and co-authors show that, as in mammals, eggs from diverse species release zinc upon fertilization; this extracellular zinc protects eggs from multiple fertilizations, revealing that this fundamental strategy may have evolved more than 650 million years ago.

Image credit: pbio.3000811

Zinc: an Ancient Shield against Multiple Fertilization

Recently Published Articles

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Current Issue

Current Issue July 2020

07/30/2020

methods and resources

DNA Demethylation Patterns in Early Human Life

Yun Gao, Lin Li, Peng Yuan, Fan Zhai, Jie Qiao, Fuchou Tang and co-workers use CLEVER-seq to delineate the 5-formylcytosine landscape of human early embryos at single-cell resolution, enhancing our understanding of TET-dependent active demethylation processes during human preimplantation embryo development.

Image credit: pbio.3000799

DNA Demethylation Patterns in Early Human Life

07/30/2020

methods and resources

Chi.Bio: Precise, Low-Cost Control of Culture Conditions

The precision and repeatability of biological studies are predicated upon methods for isolating a targeted subsystem from external sources of noise and variability. Harrison Steel, Robert Habgood, Ciarán Kelly and Antonis Papachristodoulou present a low-cost, open-source culture platform, Chi.Bio, which allows biologists to automate experimental protocols with unparalleled precision.

Image credit: pbio.3000794

Chi.Bio: Precise, Low-Cost Control of Culture Conditions

07/30/2020

research article

Should a Viral Genome Stay in the Host Cell or Leave?

A theoretical-experimental analysis of viral dynamics, by Shoya Iwanami, Kosaku Kitagawa, Shingo Iwami, Koichi Watashi and colleagues, reveals a stay/leave trade-off during the viral life cycle and demonstrates the significance for viral proliferation of a replication-release switching mechanism.

Should a Viral Genome Stay in the Host Cell or Leave?

Image credit: pbio.3000562

07/28/2020

perspective

Poor Code Availability in Ecology

Publication of the analytical code underlying a scientific study is increasingly expected or even mandated by journals, allowing others to reproduce the results. However, a survey of more than 300 recently published ecology papers, by Antica Culina, Ilona van den Berg, Simon Evans and Alfredo Sánchez-Tójar, finds the majority have no code publicly available, handicapping efforts to improve scientific transparency.

Poor Code Availability in Ecology

Image credit: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3833928

07/21/2020

Research Article

Phase Separation in Plants

Yiling Zhang, Zhankun Li, Naizhi Chen, Yao Huang and Shanjin Huang reveal that a plant-specific protein controls multiple growth and developmental processes by regulating gene transcription and mRNA splicing via liquid-liquid phase separation.

Phase Separation in Plants

Image credit: pbio.3000782

07/23/2020

Research Article

Functional Amyloid in Garden Peas

This study of garden peas shows that several storage proteins accumulate in plant seeds as highly stable amyloids that resist the canning process and digestion by gastrointestinal enzymes.

Functional Amyloid in Garden Peas

Image credit: pbio.3000564

07/23/2020

Research Article

Nanog Prevents Hyper-Dorsalization

This study reveals Nanog as a strong repressor of nuclear β-catenin to safeguard embryogenesis against global activation of maternal β-catenin activity and hyper-dorsalization in zebrafish.

Nanog Prevents Hyper-Dorsalization

Image credit: pbio.3000561

07/22/2020

Methods and Resources

The Simplicity of Swimming

Most fish swim with body undulations resulting from fluid-structure interactions between internal tissues and the surrounding water. This study shows that larval fish generate complex swimming motions using simple actuation patterns.


The Simplicity of Swimming

Image credit: pbio.3000462

07/20/2020

Research Article

Structure of Hibernating Ribosomes

Single-particle cryo-EM structures of recently identified factors for eukaryotic ribosome hibernation (yeast Lso2 and its human counterpart) bound to ribosomes reveals that the factors bind in the intersubunit space.

Structure of Hibernating Ribosomes

Image credit: pbio.3000780

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