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We're 20 years old!

January 27, 2023

We're 20 years old!

As PLOS Biology enters its third decade, Nonia Pariente, on behalf of the PLOS Biology staff editors, reflects on our mission, what has changed, what remains to be done and our wishes for the future...

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PLOS Biologue

Community blog for PLOS Biology, PLOS Genetics and PLOS Computational Biology.

PLOS BIOLOGUE

01/23/2023

Research Article

Chitin synthesis in insects

Chitin is a highly abundant polymer in nature and an excellent biomaterial with multiple applications. However, the molecular mechanisms of chitin biosynthesis and chitin structural diversity are still unclear. Ettore De Giorgio, Marta Llimargas and colleagues explore the molecular mechanisms regulating chitin deposition and dissect the roles of the different factors involved in this process in the model insect Drosophila.

Image credit: pbio.3001978

Chitin synthesis in insects

Recently Published Articles

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Current Issue December 2022

01/23/2023

Methods and Resources

Diverse Wolbachia genomes from the Darwin Tree of Life

Wolbachia are common bacterial endosymbionts that manipulate reproductive biology in their hosts. Emmelien Vancaester and Mark Blaxter assemble the genomes of 110 Wolbachia coincidentally sequenced alongside their insect hosts, finding a rich diversity of host manipulation loci.

Image credit: pbio.3001972

Diverse Wolbachia genomes from the Darwin Tree of Life

01/23/2023

Short Reports

Regulating neuronal firing rate

Neurons tightly regulate firing rate, and a failure to do so leads to multiple neurological disorders; how is this done? This study of respiratory motoneurons, by Sarah Pellizzari, Joseph Santin and co-authors, shows that populations of neurons use unique combinations of two activity regulators (Na+ pumps and Kv7 channels) that monitor different readouts of firing rate to maintain neuronal output.

Image credit: pbio.3001971

Regulating neuronal firing rate

01/23/2023

Research Article

Avoiding aggregation of misfolded membrane proteins

Protein aggregates are hallmark features of aging and neurodegenerative diseases, but how is aggregation of membrane proteins regulated? Rachel Kandel, Sonya Neal and co-workers show that the yeast derlin Dfm1 has a chaperone-like function that influences the solubility of ER-resident misfolded membrane proteins.

Avoiding aggregation of misfolded membrane proteins

Image credit: pbio.3001950

01/23/2023

Research Article

Sea anemone microbiome plasticity

A combination of field and laboratory experiments, by Laura Baldassarre, Adam Reitzel and Sebastian Fraune, shows that microbiome plasticity in the sea anemone Nematostella vectensis depends mostly on changes in ambient water temperature. In addition, host genotypes differ in their microbial plasticity, reflecting their different abilities to cope with changing environmental conditions.

Sea anemone microbiome plasticity

Image credit: Hanna Domin

01/23/2023

Research Article

RNA recombination and IRES-independent translation in enterovirus

Hyejeong Kim, Craig Cameron and colleagues reveal a cap-independent strategy of translation initiation in enterovirus that functions when eIF2α has been inactivated, identifying an RNA element upstream of the initiation codon that enables translation initiation using the non-canonical initiation factors eIF2A or eIF2D.

RNA recombination and IRES-independent translation in enterovirus

Image credit: pbio.3001693

01/26/2023

Essay

Viral infection in the ocean

Viruses are the most abundant biological entity in the ocean. Flora Vincent and Assaf Vardi journey across several orders of magnitude of biological organization, time, and space, to investigate interactions between hosts and viruses in the ocean.

Viral infection in the ocean

Image credit: pbio.3001966

01/25/2023

Perspective

The dawn of relaxed phylogenetics

In 2006, we published a landmark phylogenetic method. Jacob Steenwyk and Antonis Rokas discuss how relaxed phylogenetics influenced the field of evolutionary biology by enabling researchers to investigate evolution’s tempo.

The dawn of relaxed phylogenetics

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01/25/2023

Perspective

A rising tide of parasite transcriptomics

20 years ago, the first developmental transcriptome of the malaria parasite was published in PLOS Biology. Manoj Duraisingh, Marc-Jan Gubbels and Kourosh Zarringhalam explore how transcriptomics has transformed parasite biology since.

A rising tide of parasite transcriptomics

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01/24/2023

Consensus View

Monitoring open science practices

This Consensus View identifies nineteen open science practices that will form the foundation for institutional dashboards for monitoring progress.

Monitoring open science practices

Image credit: pbio.3001949

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PLOS Biology | ISSN: 1545-7885 (online)