June 2019

Neurons receive a large number of active synaptic inputs from their many presynaptic partners across their dendritic tree. However, little is known about how the relative strengths of individual synapses are juggled to effectively encode information while maintaining network homeostasis. Here, to gain insights into the basic cellular rules that drive the activity-dependent spatial distribution of pre- and postsynaptic strengths across incoming axons and dendrites, Letellier et al.Letellier et al. combine patch-clamp recordings with live-cell imaging of hippocampal pyramidal neurons in dissociated cultures and organotypic slices. The study provides evidence for a potential homeostatic mechanism by which the rapid changes in global or distant postsynaptic strengths compensate for input-specific presynaptic plasticity. The image depicts the 2D projection of a stack of confocal microscopy planes of CA3 pyramidal cells (expressing fluorescent proteins EGFP or tdTomato) making sparse recurrent connections in organotypic slices of mouse hippocampus. The color code represents the z position of the different confocal planes.

Image Credit: Mathieu Letellier

Essays

Transmissible cancer and the evolution of sex

Frédéric Thomas, Thomas Madsen, Mathieu Giraudeau, Dorothée Misse, Rodrigo Hamede, Orsolya Vincze, François Renaud, Benjamin Roche, Beata Ujvari

PLOS Biology: published June 6, 2019 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3000275

Improving big citizen science data: Moving beyond haphazard sampling

Corey T. Callaghan, Jodi J. L. Rowley, William K. Cornwell, Alistair G. B. Poore, Richard E. Major

PLOS Biology: published June 27, 2019 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3000357

Perspectives

Plan U: Universal access to scientific and medical research via funder preprint mandates

Richard Sever, Michael Eisen, John Inglis

PLOS Biology: published June 4, 2019 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3000273

Evolution or revolution? Changing the way science is published and communicated

Buzz Baum, Enrico Coen

PLOS Biology: published June 4, 2019 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3000272

Plant health emergencies demand open science: Tackling a cereal killer on the run

Sophien Kamoun, Nicholas J. Talbot, M. Tofazzal Islam

PLOS Biology: published June 3, 2019 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3000302

Challenges and recommendations to improve the installability and archival stability of omics computational tools

Serghei Mangul, Thiago Mosqueiro, Richard J. Abdill, Dat Duong, Keith Mitchell, Varuni Sarwal, Brian Hill, Jaqueline Brito, Russell Jared Littman, Benjamin Statz, Angela Ka-Mei Lam, Gargi Dayama, Laura Grieneisen, Lana S. Martin, Jonathan Flint, Eleazar Eskin, Ran Blekhman

PLOS Biology: published June 20, 2019 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3000333

Applying the science of measurement to biology: Why bother?

Carmen H. Coxon, Colin Longstaff, Chris Burns

PLOS Biology: published June 20, 2019 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3000338

Primer

Rhythm and time in the premotor cortex

Virginia B. Penhune, Robert J. Zatorre

PLOS Biology: published June 3, 2019 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3000293

Community Pages

MooSciTIC: Training of trainers in West African research and higher education

Ménonvè Atindehou, Kifouli Adéoti, Laura Estelle Yêyinou Loko, Thierry Beulé, Emmanuel Paradis, Gustave Djedatin, Christine Tranchant-Dubreuil, François Sabot, Latifou Lagnika, Estelle Jaligot

PLOS Biology: published June 7, 2019 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3000312

Low-cost (<€5), open-source, potential alternative to commercial spectrophotometers

Vasco Ribeiro Pereira, Bill Stephen Hosker

PLOS Biology: published June 12, 2019 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3000321

Scientific Community Image Forum: A discussion forum for scientific image software

Curtis T. Rueden, Jeanelle Ackerman, Ellen T. Arena, Jan Eglinger, Beth A. Cimini, Allen Goodman, Anne E. Carpenter, Kevin W. Eliceiri

PLOS Biology: published June 19, 2019 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3000340

Harnessing robotic automation and web-based technologies to modernize scientific outreach

Orna Dahan, Bat-Shahar Dorfman, Serkan Sayin, Brittany Rosener, Tiffany Hua, Anat Yarden, Amir Mitchell

PLOS Biology: published June 26, 2019 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3000348

Research Articles

Trophic interactions modify the temperature dependence of community biomass and ecosystem function

Jessica Garzke, Stephanie J. Connor, Ulrich Sommer, Mary I. O’Connor

PLOS Biology: published June 10, 2019 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.2006806

Neutrality in the Metaorganism

Michael Sieber, Lucía Pita, Nancy Weiland-Bräuer, Philipp Dirksen, Jun Wang, Benedikt Mortzfeld, Sören Franzenburg, Ruth A. Schmitz, John F. Baines, Sebastian Fraune, Ute Hentschel, Hinrich Schulenburg, Thomas C. G. Bosch, Arne Traulsen

PLOS Biology: published June 19, 2019 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3000298

Hidden genomic evolution in a morphospecies—The landscape of rapidly evolving genes in Tetrahymena

Jie Xiong, Wentao Yang, Kai Chen, Chuanqi Jiang, Yang Ma, Xiaocui Chai, Guanxiong Yan, Guangying Wang, Dongxia Yuan, Yifan Liu, Shelby L. Bidwell, Nikhat Zafar, Michalis Hadjithomas, Vivek Krishnakumar, Robert S. Coyne, Eduardo Orias, Wei Miao

PLOS Biology: published June 3, 2019 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3000294

Simulations reveal challenges to artificial community selection and possible strategies for success

Li Xie, Alex E. Yuan, Wenying Shou

PLOS Biology: published June 25, 2019 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3000295

Inferring the distribution of fitness effects of spontaneous mutations in Chlamydomonas reinhardtii

Katharina B. Böndel, Susanne A. Kraemer, Toby Samuels, Deirdre McClean, Josianne Lachapelle, Rob W. Ness, Nick Colegrave, Peter D. Keightley

PLOS Biology: published June 26, 2019 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3000192

Competition for hosts modulates vast antigenic diversity to generate persistent strain structure in Plasmodium falciparum

Shai Pilosof, Qixin He, Kathryn E. Tiedje, Shazia Ruybal-Pesántez, Karen P. Day, Mercedes Pascual

PLOS Biology: published June 24, 2019 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3000336

Evolution of protein kinase substrate recognition at the active site

David Bradley, Pedro Beltrao

PLOS Biology: published June 24, 2019 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3000341

Shining new light on mammalian diving physiology using wearable near-infrared spectroscopy

J. Chris McKnight, Kimberley A. Bennett, Mathijs Bronkhorst, Debbie J. F. Russell, Steve Balfour, Ryan Milne, Matt Bivins, Simon E. W. Moss, Willy Colier, Ailsa J. Hall, Dave Thompson

PLOS Biology: published June 18, 2019 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3000306

Neurocomputational mechanisms at play when weighing concerns for extrinsic rewards, moral values, and social image

Chen Qu, Elise Météreau, Luigi Butera, Marie Claire Villeval, Jean-Claude Dreher

PLOS Biology: published June 6, 2019 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3000283

Representation of abstract semantic knowledge in populations of human single neurons in the medial temporal lobe

Thomas P. Reber, Marcel Bausch, Sina Mackay, Jan Boström, Christian E. Elger, Florian Mormann

PLOS Biology: published June 3, 2019 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3000290

A temporal integration mechanism enhances frequency selectivity of broadband inputs to inferior colliculus

Chen Chen, Heather L. Read, Monty A. Escabí

PLOS Biology: published June 24, 2019 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.2005861

Differential role of pre- and postsynaptic neurons in the activity-dependent control of synaptic strengths across dendrites

Mathieu Letellier, Florian Levet, Olivier Thoumine, Yukiko Goda

PLOS Biology: published June 5, 2019 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.2006223

Fast calcium transients in dendritic spines driven by extreme statistics

Kanishka Basnayake, David Mazaud, Alexis Bemelmans, Nathalie Rouach, Eduard Korkotian, David Holcman

PLOS Biology: published June 4, 2019 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.2006202

NGL-3 in the regulation of brain development, Akt/GSK3b signaling, long-term depression, and locomotive and cognitive behaviors

Hyejin Lee, Wangyong Shin, Kyungdeok Kim, Suho Lee, Eun-Jae Lee, Jihye Kim, Hanseul Kweon, Eunee Lee, Haram Park, Muwon Kang, Esther Yang, Hyun Kim, Eunjoon Kim

PLOS Biology: published June 5, 2019 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.2005326

Neuroinflammation mediates noise-induced synaptic imbalance and tinnitus in rodent models

Weihua Wang, Li. S. Zhang, Alexander K. Zinsmaier, Genevieve Patterson, Emily Jean Leptich, Savannah L. Shoemaker, Tatiana A. Yatskievych, Robert Gibboni, Edward Pace, Hao Luo, Jinsheng Zhang, Sungchil Yang, Shaowen Bao

PLOS Biology: published June 18, 2019 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3000307

Individual metabolomic signatures of circadian misalignment during simulated night shifts in humans

Laura Kervezee, Nicolas Cermakian, Diane B. Boivin

PLOS Biology: published June 18, 2019 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3000303

CRL4^Mahj E3 ubiquitin ligase promotes neural stem cell reactivation

Phuong Thao Ly, Ye Sing Tan, Chwee Tat Koe, Yingjie Zhang, Gengqiang Xie, Sharyn Endow, Wu-Min Deng, Fengwei Yu, Hongyan Wang

PLOS Biology: published June 6, 2019 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3000276

The interleukin-4/PPARγ signaling axis promotes oligodendrocyte differentiation and remyelination after brain injury

Qingxiu Zhang, Wen Zhu, Fei Xu, Xuejiao Dai, Ligen Shi, Wei Cai, Hongfeng Mu, T. Kevin Hitchens, Lesley M. Foley, Xiangrong Liu, Fang Yu, Jie Chen, Yejie Shi, Rehana K. Leak, Yanqin Gao, Jun Chen, Xiaoming Hu

PLOS Biology: published June 21, 2019 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3000330

DPPA2/4 and SUMO E3 ligase PIAS4 opposingly regulate zygotic transcriptional program

Yao-Long Yan, Chao Zhang, Jing Hao, Xue-Lian Wang, Jia Ming, Li Mi, Jie Na, Xinli Hu, Yangming Wang

PLOS Biology: published June 21, 2019 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3000324

AMPK regulates germline stem cell quiescence and integrity through an endogenous small RNA pathway

Pratik Kadekar, Richard Roy

PLOS Biology: published June 5, 2019 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3000309

ADAMTS13 maintains cerebrovascular integrity to ameliorate Alzheimer-like pathology

Yongliang Cao, Haochen Xu, Yuanbo Zhu, Mei-Juan Shi, Lixiang Wei, Jin Zhang, Shuo Cheng, Yiqian Shi, Haiyang Tong, Lijing Kang, Lu Lu, Haiyu Luo, Xing Yang, Xiaofei Bai, Ranran Wang, Yuanyuan Ma, Yun Wang, Zhongfeng Wang, Kai Zhong, Bing-Qiao Zhao, Wenying Fan

PLOS Biology: published June 11, 2019 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3000313

Detecting T cell receptors involved in immune responses from single repertoire snapshots

Mikhail V. Pogorelyy, Anastasia A. Minervina, Mikhail Shugay, Dmitriy M. Chudakov, Yuri B. Lebedev, Thierry Mora, Aleksandra M. Walczak

PLOS Biology: published June 13, 2019 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3000314

Specific activation of pro-Infliximab enhances selectivity and safety of rheumatoid arthritis therapy

Yun-Chi Lu, Chih-Hung Chuang, Kuo-Hsiang Chuang, I-Ju Chen, Bo-Cheng Huang, Wen-Han Lee, Hsin-Ell Wang, Jia-Je Li, Yi-An Cheng, Kai-Wen Cheng, Jaw-Yuan Wang, Yuan-Chin Hsieh, Wen-Wei Lin, Tian-Lu Cheng

PLOS Biology: published June 13, 2019 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3000286

Selective use of primate CD4 receptors by HIV-1

Cody J. Warren, Nicholas R. Meyerson, Obaiah Dirasantha, Emily R. Feldman, Gregory K. Wilkerson, Sara L. Sawyer

PLOS Biology: published June 10, 2019 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3000304

Phosphorylation of the VAR2CSA extracellular region is associated with enhanced adhesive properties to the placental receptor CSA

Dominique Dorin-Semblat, Marilou Tétard, Aurélie Claës, Jean-Philippe Semblat, Sébastien Dechavanne, Zaineb Fourati, Romain Hamelin, Florence Armand, Graziella Matesic, Sofia Nunes-Silva, Anand Srivastava, Stéphane Gangnard, Jose-Juan Lopez-Rubio, Marc Moniatte, Christian Doerig, Artur Scherf, Benoît Gamain

PLOS Biology: published June 10, 2019 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3000308

Complement alone drives efficacy of a chimeric antigonococcal monoclonal antibody

Sunita Gulati, Frank J. Beurskens, Bart-Jan de Kreuk, Marcel Roza, Bo Zheng, Rosane B. DeOliveira, Jutamas Shaughnessy, Nancy A. Nowak, Ronald P. Taylor, Marina Botto, Xianbao He, Robin R. Ingalls, Trent M. Woodruff, Wen-Chao Song, Janine Schuurman, Peter A. Rice, Sanjay Ram

PLOS Biology: published June 19, 2019 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3000323

Deciphering molecular mechanism of silver by integrated omic approaches enables enhancing its antimicrobial efficacy in E. coli

Haibo Wang, Aixin Yan, Zhigang Liu, Xinming Yang, Zeling Xu, Yuchuan Wang, Runming Wang, Mohamad Koohi-Moghadam, Ligang Hu, Wei Xia, Huiru Tang, Yulan Wang, Hongyan Li, Hongzhe Sun

PLOS Biology: published June 10, 2019 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3000292

A novel druggable interprotomer pocket in the capsid of rhino- and enteroviruses

Rana Abdelnabi, James A. Geraets, Yipeng Ma, Carmen Mirabelli, Justin W. Flatt, Aušra Domanska, Leen Delang, Dirk Jochmans, Timiri Ajay Kumar, Venkatesan Jayaprakash, Barij Nayan Sinha, Pieter Leyssen, Sarah J. Butcher, Johan Neyts

PLOS Biology: published June 11, 2019 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3000281

Selection and characterization of ultrahigh potency designed ankyrin repeat protein inhibitors of C. difficile toxin B

Rudo Simeon, Mengqiu Jiang, Ana M. Chamoun-Emanuelli, Hua Yu, Yongrong Zhang, Ran Meng, Zeyu Peng, Joanita Jakana, Junjie Zhang, Hanping Feng, Zhilei Chen

PLOS Biology: published June 24, 2019 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3000311

Star nanoparticles delivering HIV-1 peptide minimal immunogens elicit near-native envelope antibody responses in nonhuman primates

Joseph R. Francica, Richard Laga, Geoffrey M. Lynn, Gabriela Mužíková, Ladislav Androvič, Baptiste Aussedat, William E. Walkowicz, Kartika Padhan, Ramiro Andrei Ramirez-Valdez, Robert Parks, Stephen D. Schmidt, Barbara J. Flynn, Yaroslav Tsybovsky, Guillaume B. E. Stewart-Jones, Kevin O. Saunders, Faezzah Baharom, Constantinos Petrovas, Barton F. Haynes, Robert A. Seder

PLOS Biology: published June 17, 2019 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3000328

Flagellin hypervariable region determines symbiotic properties of commensal Escherichia coli strains

Alex Steimle, Sarah Menz, Annika Bender, Brianna Ball, Alexander N. R. Weber, Thomas Hagemann, Anna Lange, Jan K. Maerz, Raphael Parusel, Lena Michaelis, Andrea Schäfer, Hans Yao, Hanna-Christine Löw, Sina Beier, Mehari Tesfazgi Mebrhatu, Kerstin Gronbach, Samuel Wagner, David Voehringer, Martin Schaller, Birgit Fehrenbacher, Ingo B. Autenrieth, Tobias A. Oelschlaeger, Julia-Stefanie Frick

PLOS Biology: published June 17, 2019 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3000334

A unified mechanism for LLPS of ALS/FTLD-causing FUS as well as its modulation by ATP and oligonucleic acids

Jian Kang, Liangzhong Lim, Yimei Lu, Jianxing Song

PLOS Biology: published June 12, 2019 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3000327

Identification of N-linked glycans as specific mediators of neuronal uptake of acetylated α-Synuclein

Melissa Birol, Slawomir P. Wojcik, Andrew D. Miranker, Elizabeth Rhoades

PLOS Biology: published June 18, 2019 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3000318

An endocytic-secretory cycle participates in Toxoplasma gondii in motility

Simon Gras, Elena Jimenez-Ruiz, Christen M. Klinger, Katja Schneider, Andreas Klingl, Leandro Lemgruber, Markus Meissner

PLOS Biology: published June 24, 2019 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3000060

Phenotypic selection with an intrabody library reveals an anti-apoptotic function of PKM2 requiring Mitofusin-1

Tong Liu, Tomomi Kuwana, Hongkai Zhang, Matthew G. Vander Heiden, Richard A. Lerner, Donald D. Newmeyer

PLOS Biology: published June 10, 2019 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.2004413

Sizes of actin networks sharing a common environment are determined by the relative rates of assembly

Adrien Antkowiak, Audrey Guillotin, Micaela Boiero Sanders, Jessica Colombo, Renaud Vincentelli, Alphée Michelot

PLOS Biology: published June 10, 2019 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3000317

Cytosine-5 RNA methylation links protein synthesis to cell metabolism

Nikoletta A. Gkatza, Cecilia Castro, Robert F. Harvey, Matthias Heiß, Martyna C. Popis, Sandra Blanco, Susanne Bornelöv, Abdulrahim A. Sajini, Joseph G. Gleeson, Julian L. Griffin, James A. West, Stefanie Kellner, Anne E. Willis, Sabine Dietmann, Michaela Frye

PLOS Biology: published June 14, 2019 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3000297

Atomic view into Plasmodium actin polymerization, ATP hydrolysis, and fragmentation

Esa-Pekka Kumpula, Andrea J. Lopez, Leila Tajedin, Huijong Han, Inari Kursula

PLOS Biology: published June 14, 2019 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3000315

Mouse HSA⁺ immature cardiomyocytes persist in the adult heart and expand after ischemic injury

Mariana Valente, Tatiana Pinho Resende, Diana Santos Nascimento, Odile Burlen-Defranoux, Francisca Soares-da-Silva, Benoit Dupont, Ana Cumano, Perpétua Pinto-do-Ó

PLOS Biology: published June 27, 2019 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3000335

Short Reports

A natural histone H2A variant lacking the Bub1 phosphorylation site and regulated depletion of centromeric histone CENP-A foster evolvability in Candida albicans

Cedric A. Brimacombe, Jordan E. Burke, Jahan-Yar Parsa, Sandra Catania, Teresa R. O’Meara, Jessica N. Witchley, Laura S. Burrack, Hiten D. Madhani, Suzanne M. Noble

PLOS Biology: published June 21, 2019 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3000331

Birds invest wingbeats to keep a steady head and reap the ultimate benefits of flying together

Lucy A. Taylor, Graham K. Taylor, Ben Lambert, James A. Walker, Dora Biro, Steven J. Portugal

PLOS Biology: published June 18, 2019 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3000299

Methods and Resources

The object space task shows cumulative memory expression in both mice and rats

Lisa Genzel, Evelien Schut, Tim Schröder, Ronny Eichler, Mehdi Khamassi, Angela Gomez, Irene Navarro Lobato, Francesco Battaglia

PLOS Biology: published June 17, 2019 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3000322

FishNET: An automated relational database for zebrafish colony management

Abiud Cantu Gutierrez, Manuel Cantu Gutierrez, Alexander M. Rhyner, Oscar E. Ruiz, George T. Eisenhoffer, Joshua D. Wythe

PLOS Biology: published June 20, 2019 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3000343

Protein interactions and consensus clustering analysis uncover insights into herpesvirus virion structure and function relationships

Anna Hernández Durán, Todd M. Greco, Benjamin Vollmer, Ileana M. Cristea, Kay Grünewald, Maya Topf

PLOS Biology: published June 14, 2019 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3000316

Fully automated leg tracking of Drosophila neurodegeneration models reveals distinct conserved movement signatures

Shuang Wu, Kah Junn Tan, Lakshmi Narasimhan Govindarajan, James Charles Stewart, Lin Gu, Joses Wei Hao Ho, Malvika Katarya, Boon Hui Wong, Eng-King Tan, Daiqin Li, Adam Claridge-Chang, Camilo Libedinsky, Li Cheng, Sherry Shiying Aw

PLOS Biology: published June 27, 2019 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3000346

Formal Comment

Pleiotropy and synergistic cooperation

David C. Queller

PLOS Biology: published June 21, 2019 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3000320

Cover

Differential role of pre- and postsynaptic neurons in the activity-dependent control of synaptic strengths across dendrites

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