Advertisement
Table of Contents

December 2021

Cover

Meiotic Cas9 expression mediates gene conversion in the male and female mouse germline
Issue Image

Highly efficient gene conversion systems have the potential to facilitate the study of complex genetic traits using laboratory mice and, if implemented as a "gene drive," to limit loss of biodiversity and disease transmission caused by wild rodent populations. It has previous been shown that such a system of gene conversion from heterozygous to homozygous after a sequence targeted CRISPR/Cas9 double-strand DNA break (DSB) is feasible in the female mouse germline. In the male germline, however, all DSBs were instead repaired by end joining (EJ) mechanisms to form an "insertion/deletion" (indel) mutation, suggesting that timing Cas9 expression to coincide with meiosis I is critical to favor conditions when homologous chromosomes are aligned and interchromosomal homology-directed repair (HDR) mechanisms predominate. Using a Cas9 knock-in allele at the Spo11 locus, Weitzel et al. show that meiotic expression of Cas9 does indeed mediate gene conversion in the male as well as in the female germline. The image shows male germline stem cells (magenta only) and expression of Cas9 in meiotic spermatocytes marked by the overlap of magenta and green.

Image Credit: Alexander Weitzel

Unsolved Mystery

Riddled with holes: Understanding air space formation in plant leaves

Christopher D. Whitewoods

PLOS Biology: published December 6, 2021 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3001475

Primer

Noise increases the correspondence between artificial and human vision

Jessica A. F. Thompson

PLOS Biology: published December 10, 2021 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3001477

Related Articles

  1. Noise-trained deep neural networks effectively predict human vision and its neural responses to challenging images

Community Page

A crowdsourcing open platform for literature curation in UniProt

Yuqi Wang, Qinghua Wang, Hongzhan Huang, Wei Huang, Yongxing Chen, Peter B. McGarvey, Cathy H. Wu, Cecilia N. Arighi, on behalf of the UniProt Consortium

PLOS Biology: published December 6, 2021 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3001464

Research Articles

Noise-trained deep neural networks effectively predict human vision and its neural responses to challenging images

Hojin Jang, Devin McCormack, Frank Tong

PLOS Biology: published December 9, 2021 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3001418

Related Articles

  1. Noise increases the correspondence between artificial and human vision

Locus coeruleus neurons encode the subjective difficulty of triggering and executing actions

Pauline Bornert, Sebastien Bouret

PLOS Biology: published December 7, 2021 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3001487

Related Articles

  1. Insights into the role of noradrenaline in effortful decisions

Multiple gamma rhythms carry distinct spatial frequency information in primary visual cortex

Chuanliang Han, Tian Wang, Yi Yang, Yujie Wu, Yang Li, Weifeng Dai, Yange Zhang, Bin Wang, Guanzhong Yang, Ziqi Cao, Jian Kang, Gang Wang, Liang Li, Hongbo Yu, Chun-I Yeh, Dajun Xing

PLOS Biology: published December 21, 2021 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3001466

Noncanonical projections to the hippocampal CA3 regulate spatial learning and memory by modulating the feedforward hippocampal trisynaptic pathway

Xiaoxiao Lin, Michelle Amalraj, Crisylle Blanton, Brenda Avila, Todd C. Holmes, Douglas A. Nitz, Xiangmin Xu

PLOS Biology: published December 20, 2021 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3001127

Consolidation and maintenance of long-term memory involve dual functions of the developmental regulator Apterous in clock neurons and mushroom bodies in the Drosophila brain

Show Inami, Tomohito Sato, Yuto Kurata, Yuki Suzuki, Toshihiro Kitamoto, Takaomi Sakai

PLOS Biology: published December 3, 2021 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3001459

Vaccination with SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern protects mice from challenge with wild-type virus

Fatima Amanat, Shirin Strohmeier, Philip S. Meade, Nicholas Dambrauskas, Barbara Mühlemann, Derek J. Smith, Vladimir Vigdorovich, D. Noah Sather, Lynda Coughlan, Florian Krammer

PLOS Biology: published December 16, 2021 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3001384

Elevated temperature inhibits SARS-CoV-2 replication in respiratory epithelium independently of IFN-mediated innate immune defenses

Vanessa Herder, Kieran Dee, Joanna K. Wojtus, Ilaria Epifano, Daniel Goldfarb, Christoforos Rozario, Quan Gu, Ana Da Silva Filipe, Kyriaki Nomikou, Jenna Nichols, Ruth F. Jarrett, Andrew Stevenson, Steven McFarlane, Meredith E. Stewart, Agnieszka M. Szemiel, Rute M. Pinto, Andreu Masdefiol Garriga, Chris Davis, Jay Allan, Sheila V. Graham, Pablo R. Murcia, Chris Boutell

PLOS Biology: published December 21, 2021 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3001065

The human gut symbiont Ruminococcus gnavus shows specificity to blood group A antigen during mucin glycan foraging: Implication for niche colonisation in the gastrointestinal tract

Haiyang Wu, Emmanuelle H. Crost, C David Owen, Wouter van Bakel, Ana Martínez Gascueña, Dimitrios Latousakis, Thomas Hicks, Samuel Walpole, Paulina A. Urbanowicz, Didier Ndeh, Serena Monaco, Laura Sánchez Salom, Ryan Griffiths, Raven S. Reynolds, Anna Colvile, Daniel I. R. Spencer, Martin Walsh, Jesus Angulo, Nathalie Juge

PLOS Biology: published December 22, 2021 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3001498

Genome-wide gene expression noise in Escherichia coli is condition-dependent and determined by propagation of noise through the regulatory network

Arantxa Urchueguía, Luca Galbusera, Dany Chauvin, Gwendoline Bellement, Thomas Julou, Erik van Nimwegen

PLOS Biology: published December 17, 2021 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3001491

Poststroke dendritic arbor regrowth requires the actin nucleator Cobl

Yuanyuan Ji, Dennis Koch, Jule González Delgado, Madlen Günther, Otto W. Witte, Michael M. Kessels, Christiane Frahm, Britta Qualmann

PLOS Biology: published December 13, 2021 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3001399

Mutations in LRRK2 linked to Parkinson disease sequester Rab8a to damaged lysosomes and regulate transferrin-mediated iron uptake in microglia

Adamantios Mamais, Jillian H. Kluss, Luis Bonet-Ponce, Natalie Landeck, Rebekah G. Langston, Nathan Smith, Alexandra Beilina, Alice Kaganovich, Manik C. Ghosh, Laura Pellegrini, Ravindran Kumaran, Ioannis Papazoglou, George R. Heaton, Rina Bandopadhyay, Nunziata Maio, Changyoun Kim, Matthew J. LaVoie, David C. Gershlick, Mark R. Cookson

PLOS Biology: published December 16, 2021 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3001480

Related Articles

  1. Correction: Mutations in LRRK2 linked to Parkinson disease sequester Rab8a to damaged lysosomes and regulate transferrin-mediated iron uptake in microglia

A structurally conserved site in AUP1 binds the E2 enzyme UBE2G2 and is essential for ER-associated degradation

Christopher E. Smith, Yien Che Tsai, Yu-He Liang, Domarin Khago, Jennifer Mariano, Jess Li, Sergey G. Tarasov, Emma Gergel, Borong Tsai, Matthew Villaneuva, Michelle E. Clapp, Valentin Magidson, Raj Chari, R. Andrew Byrd, Xinhua Ji, Allan M. Weissman

PLOS Biology: published December 8, 2021 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3001474

The 3-phosphoinositide–dependent protein kinase 1 is an essential upstream activator of protein kinase A in malaria parasites

Eva Hitz, Natalie Wiedemar, Armin Passecker, Beatriz A. S. Graça, Christian Scheurer, Sergio Wittlin, Nicolas M. B. Brancucci, Ioannis Vakonakis, Pascal Mäser, Till S. Voss

PLOS Biology: published December 8, 2021 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3001483

Heterophilic and homophilic cadherin interactions in intestinal intermicrovillar links are species dependent

Michelle E. Gray, Zachary R. Johnson, Debadrita Modak, Elakkiya Tamilselvan, Matthew J. Tyska, Marcos Sotomayor

PLOS Biology: published December 6, 2021 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3001463

Short Reports

Cysteine and iron accelerate the formation of ribose-5-phosphate, providing insights into the evolutionary origins of the metabolic network structure

Gabriel Piedrafita, Sreejith J. Varma, Cecilia Castro, Christoph B. Messner, Lukasz Szyrwiel, Julian L. Griffin, Markus Ralser

PLOS Biology: published December 3, 2021 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3001468

Evolutionary pathways to SARS-CoV-2 resistance are opened and closed by epistasis acting on ACE2

Gianni M. Castiglione, Lingli Zhou, Zhenhua Xu, Zachary Neiman, Chien-Fu Hung, Elia J. Duh

PLOS Biology: published December 21, 2021 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3001510

A genome-wide CRISPR screen identifies interactors of the autophagy pathway as conserved coronavirus targets

Annika Kratzel, Jenna N. Kelly, Philip V’kovski, Jasmine Portmann, Yannick Brüggemann, Daniel Todt, Nadine Ebert, Neeta Shrestha, Philippe Plattet, Claudia A. Staab-Weijnitz, Albrecht von Brunn, Eike Steinmann, Ronald Dijkman, Gert Zimmer, Stephanie Pfaender, Volker Thiel

PLOS Biology: published December 28, 2021 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3001490

CNNM proteins selectively bind to the TRPM7 channel to stimulate divalent cation entry into cells

Zhiyong Bai, Jianlin Feng, Gijs A. C. Franken, Namariq Al’Saadi, Na Cai, Albert S. Yu, Liping Lou, Yuko Komiya, Joost G. J. Hoenderop, Jeroen H. F. de Baaij, Lixia Yue, Loren W. Runnels

PLOS Biology: published December 20, 2021 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3001496

Methods and Resources

Barcoded Asaia bacteria enable mosquito in vivo screens and identify novel systemic insecticides and inhibitors of malaria transmission

Angelika Sturm, Martijn W. Vos, Rob Henderson, Maarten Eldering, Karin M. J. Koolen, Avinash Sheshachalam, Guido Favia, Kirandeep Samby, Esperanza Herreros, Koen J. Dechering

PLOS Biology: published December 20, 2021 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3001426

Meiotic Cas9 expression mediates gene conversion in the male and female mouse germline

Alexander J. Weitzel, Hannah A. Grunwald, Ceri Weber, Rimma Levina, Valentino M. Gantz, Stephen M. Hedrick, Ethan Bier, Kimberly L. Cooper

PLOS Biology: published December 23, 2021 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3001478

Discovery Report

Ultradian rhythms of AKT phosphorylation and gene expression emerge in the absence of the circadian clock components Per1 and Per2

Rona Aviram, Vaishnavi Dandavate, Gal Manella, Marina Golik, Gad Asher

PLOS Biology: published December 30, 2021 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3001492

Formal Comments

Comment on “Indirect Fitness Benefits Enable the Spread of Host Genes Promoting Costly Transfer of Beneficial Plasmids”

Alastair Jamieson-Lane, Bernd Blasius

PLOS Biology: published December 21, 2021 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3001449

Related Articles

  1. Indirect Fitness Benefits Enable the Spread of Host Genes Promoting Costly Transfer of Beneficial Plasmids
  2. Bacteria can be selected to help beneficial plasmids spread

Bacteria can be selected to help beneficial plasmids spread

Tatiana Dimitriu, Dusan Misevic, Ariel B. Lindner, Francois Taddei, Sam P. Brown

PLOS Biology: published December 21, 2021 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3001489

Related Articles

  1. Comment on “Indirect Fitness Benefits Enable the Spread of Host Genes Promoting Costly Transfer of Beneficial Plasmids”