02/14/2020
perspective
Macroalgal germplasm banking is an important resource for biodiversity conservation, human food security, and industry innovation. This Perspective article by Rachael Wade, Filipe Alberto and co-authors maintains that an international, coordinative initiative is needed to fully develop and capitalize on this resource.
Image credit: Flickr user Rich Brooks
Current Issue January 2020
02/11/2020
Research Article
Shirlee Wohl, Hayden Metsky, Stephen Schaffner, Paul Rota, Lawrence Madoff, Nathan Yozwiak, Bronwyn MacInnis, Sandra Smole, Yonatan Grad, Pardis Sabeti and co-workers study recent mumps outbreaks in the United States to reveal transmission patterns within and between Massachusetts communities, highlighting the importance of combining detailed genomic and epidemiological data, both locally and nationwide.
Image credit: pbio.3000611
02/10/2020
research article
Brown adipose tissue plays a pivotal role in energy homeostasis and serves as a metabolic sink for glucose and fatty acid. Mari Sato, Tadataka Tsuji, Yu-Hua Tseng and co-workers demonstrate a novel light-sensing mechanism in mice via the photoreceptor Opsin3 that regulates fuel utilization and mitochondrial activity of brown adipocytes.
Image credit: pbio.3000630
02/10/2020
Research Article
The Ebola virus envelope glycoprotein is a membrane fusion machine required for the virus to enter into host cells. Dibyendu Kumar Das, James Munro and colleagues present direct observation of the conformational changes that the envelope glycoprotein undergoes during the membrane fusion process.
Image credit: Flickr user NIAID
02/11/2020
Community Page
Daniel Strech, Tracey Weissgerber and Ulrich Dirnagl describe an ongoing large-scale structured initiative at the Berlin Institute of Health which aims at improving the robustness, reproducibility and transparency of research in an academic biomedical setting.
Image credit: pbio.3000576
02/06/2020
Research Article
Selection scans across multiple populations and species of Heliconius butterfly, by Markus Moest, Steven Van Belleghem, Jennifer James, Chris Jiggins and colleagues, reveal pervasive selection on novel and introgressed color pattern variation. This suggests high rates of color pattern turn-over events, despite strong stabilizing Muellerian mimicry selection and cases of color pattern co-evolution in this radiation.
Image credit: Chris Jiggins
02/06/2020
Short Reports
Despite their sparsity (about 0.5% of neurons), a population of interneurons in the mouse barrel cortex that express genes associated with both cholinergic and GABAergic signalling can effectively modulate sensory processing in the cortical microcircuit.
Image credit: Amir Dudai & Nadav Yayon
01/27/2020
Methods and resources
An innovative imaging platform overcomes the challenge presented by the opacity of the adult Drosophila abdomen, enabling intravital imaging of live, intact flies at whole-organ and sub-cellular scales over multiple days.
Image credit: pbio.3000567
01/29/2020
research article
Alarmones ppGpp and pppGpp reshape the bacterial proteome by acting on DNA, RNA, and protein synthesis. This study shows that inhibition of translation by ppGpp involves prevention of 30S initiation complex formation by ppGpp-bound IF2.
Image credit: pbio.3000593
01/27/2020
research article
Collateral sensitivity to antibiotics in bacteria can be explained by a combination of several mechanisms that can be exploited to develop drug switches that combat resistance.
Image credit: Flickr user NIAID
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.
Meet Senior Editor Roli Roberts in Hinxton, UK
12-14 Feb, 2020
Meet Senior Editor Ines Alvarez-Garcia in Keystone, CO, USA
26-30 Jan, 2020
Meet Senior Editor Roli Roberts in Edinburgh
Nov 13-15, 2019
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