Mosquito-borne pathogens infect millions of people worldwide, and the rise in insecticide resistance is exacerbating this problem. A new generation of environmentally safe insecticides will be essential to control insecticide-resistant mosquitoes. One potential route to such novel insecticide targets is the identification of proteins specifically needed for mosquito reproduction. Using RNA interference to screen mosquito-specific genes in Aedes aegypti (the mosquito that transmits yellow fever), Isoe et al. identified the eggshell organizing factor 1 (EOF1) protein as playing an essential role in eggshell melanization and embryonic development. Nearly 100% of the eggs laid by EOF1-deficient females had a defective eggshell and were non-viable. Additional experiments revealed that EOF1 also plays an essential role in eggshell formation in Aedes albopictus, a carrier of Zika virus and dengue fever. The image shows a scanning electron micrograph of a small region (about 20 µm across) of the shell from a normal Aedes aegypti egg.
Image Credit: pbio.3000068
Essay
Resolving the apparent transmission paradox of African sleeping sickness
PLOS Biology: published January 11, 2019 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3000105
Unsolved Mystery
Arbovirus coinfection and co-transmission: A neglected public health concern?
PLOS Biology: published January 22, 2019 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3000130
Perspectives
Large carnivores under assault in Alaska
PLOS Biology: published January 15, 2019 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3000090
Related Articles
Evidence that nonsignificant results are sometimes preferred: Reverse P-hacking or selective reporting?
PLOS Biology: published January 25, 2019 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3000127
Primers
Network hubs affect evolvability
PLOS Biology: published January 30, 2019 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3000111
Related Articles
Dominance reversals and the maintenance of genetic variation for fitness
PLOS Biology: published January 29, 2019 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3000118
Related Articles
Community Pages
Annotated primary scientific literature: A pedagogical tool for undergraduate courses
PLOS Biology: published January 9, 2019 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3000103
Bio-On-Magnetic-Beads (BOMB): Open platform for high-throughput nucleic acid extraction and manipulation
PLOS Biology: published January 10, 2019 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3000107
Developing a modern data workflow for regularly updated data
PLOS Biology: published January 29, 2019 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3000125
Research Articles
Environment-dependent pleiotropic effects of mutations on the maximum growth rate r and carrying capacity K of population growth
PLOS Biology: published January 25, 2019 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3000121
Asymmetric diversification of mating pheromones in fission yeast
PLOS Biology: published January 22, 2019 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3000101
The brown algal mode of tip growth: Keeping stress under control
PLOS Biology: published January 14, 2019 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.2005258
Coordinated electrical activity in the olfactory bulb gates the oscillatory entrainment of entorhinal networks in neonatal mice
PLOS Biology: published January 31, 2019 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.2006994
Intervention against hypertension in the next generation programmed by developmental hypoxia
PLOS Biology: published January 22, 2019 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.2006552
Insulin resistance disrupts epithelial repair and niche-progenitor Fgf signaling during chronic liver injury
PLOS Biology: published January 29, 2019 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.2006972
The Cdk8/19-cyclin C transcription regulator functions in genome replication through metazoan Sld7
PLOS Biology: published January 29, 2019 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.2006767
Organic cation transporter 3 (Oct3) is a distinct catecholamines clearance route in adipocytes mediating the beiging of white adipose tissue
PLOS Biology: published January 17, 2019 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.2006571
Related Articles
Identification and characterization of a mosquito-specific eggshell organizing factor in Aedes aegypti mosquitoes
PLOS Biology: published January 8, 2019 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3000068
Drosophila melanogaster cloak their eggs with pheromones, which prevents cannibalism
PLOS Biology: published January 10, 2019 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.2006012
CD4 occupancy triggers sequential pre-fusion conformational states of the HIV-1 envelope trimer with relevance for broadly neutralizing antibody activity
PLOS Biology: published January 16, 2019 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3000114
Differential and convergent utilization of autophagy components by positive-strand RNA viruses
PLOS Biology: published January 4, 2019 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.2006926
A transient helix in the disordered region of dynein light intermediate chain links the motor to structurally diverse adaptors for cargo transport
PLOS Biology: published January 7, 2019 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3000100
Triplet-pore structure of a highly divergent TOM complex of hydrogenosomes in Trichomonas vaginalis
PLOS Biology: published January 4, 2019 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3000098
Structure of the DP1–DP2 PolD complex bound with DNA and its implications for the evolutionary history of DNA and RNA polymerases
PLOS Biology: published January 18, 2019 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3000122
A Notch-mediated, temporal asymmetry in BMP pathway activation promotes photoreceptor subtype diversification
PLOS Biology: published January 31, 2019 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.2006250
Short Reports
Avoidance response to CO2 in the lateral horn
PLOS Biology: published January 17, 2019 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.2006749
Pathogen diversity drives the evolution of generalist MHC-II alleles in human populations
PLOS Biology: published January 31, 2019 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3000131
Methods and Resources
Adding function to the genome of African Salmonella Typhimurium ST313 strain D23580
PLOS Biology: published January 15, 2019 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3000059
Meta-Research Article
Contest models highlight inherent inefficiencies of scientific funding competitions
PLOS Biology: published January 2, 2019 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3000065
Research Matters
Open notebook science can maximize impact for rare disease projects
PLOS Biology: published January 28, 2019 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3000120
Continued poxvirus research: From foe to friend
PLOS Biology: published January 30, 2019 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3000124