01/14/2022
Research Article
Why do developing zebrafish atrioventricular heart valves become hyperplastic under certain hemodynamic conditions? Renee Wei-Yan Chow, Julien Vermot and co-workers suggest that part of the answer lies in how the mechanosensitive Nfat pathway regulates the valve mesenchymal-to-endothelial transition.
Image credit: pbio.3001505
Current Issue December 2021
01/13/2022
Research Article
One way to block the spread of malaria is to modify the mosquito vectors so that they are unable to transmit the parasite. Maria Simões, Yuemei Dong, Godfree Mlambo and George Dimopoulos show that the Anopheles mosquito can be engineered to block the human malaria parasite by melanizing it while in the mosquito's midgut.
Image credit: pbio.3001515
01/13/2022
Unsolved Mystery
Recent data suggest that many defense systems found in the genomes of Bacteria and Archaea are encoded by mobile genetic elements. Eduardo Rocha and David Bikard maintain that this realization challenges our understanding of their role in cells and raises key novel questions: Who is defending? From what? And what is the role of the cellular genome in this complex network of antagonistic interactions between mobile genetic elements?
Image credit: pbio.3001514
01/11/2022
Primer
As we uncover the ubiquity of hybridization in nature, determining how natural selection acts on hybrids has newfound importance for speciation. Jenn Coughlan explores a study in PLOS Biology that uses threespine stickleback to detect a genomic signature of ecological incompatibilities. Read the accompanying Research Article.
Image credit: pbio.3001504
01/06/2022
Meta-Research Article
A literature-wide data-driven meta-analysis by Thomas Stoeger and Luís Nunes Amaral identifies the specific scientific and organizational contexts that coincided with early-stage research into human genes throughout the past half century, revealing that generalized insights derived from studies of science and innovation only partially apply to preliminary research into human genes.
Image credit: pbio.3001520
01/06/2022
Research Article
How do immune cells overcome barriers to infiltrate tissues in response to infections and tumors? Vera Belyaeva, Stephanie Wachner, Attila Gyoergy, Daria Siekhaus and colleagues show that macrophages upregulate the proto-oncogene Fos, increasing the density and crosslinking of cortical actin, thereby counteracting the tension of surrounding tissues and protecting the macrophage nucleus.
Image credit: Stephanie Wachner
01/05/2022
Research Article
A cognitive model of cleaner fish learning the ephemeral-reward task demonstrates how a critical step in cognitive evolution may be understood as the evolution of chunking and its tuning to fit ecological conditions.
Image credit: pbio.3001519
01/05/2022
Perspective
Emerging single-cell proteomics methods may decode the natural variation of proteome configurations across individual cells, allowing inference of biological mechanisms with minimal assumptions.
Image credit: pbio.3001512
01/05/2022
Research Article
Intracranial recordings from human olfactory cortex reveal a characteristic spectrotemporal response to odors, including theta, beta and gamma oscillations, and show that high-frequency responses are critical for accurate perception of odors.
Image credit: pbio.3001509
01/05/2022
Research Article
A comparative genomics study of anaerobic methanotrophic (ANME) archaea reveals the genetic "parts list" associated with the repeated evolutionary transition between methanogenic and methanotrophic metabolism in the archaeal domain of life.
Image credit: Grayson Chadwick
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.
Dec 6-10
Meet senior editor Ines Alvarez-Garcia
November 8-11
Meet senior editor Gabriel Gasque
November 2-4
Meet senior editor Roli Roberts
October 26-29
Meet associate editor Luke Smith
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