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Table of Contents

February 2022

Cover

Meta-analysis reveals an extreme "decline effect" in the impacts of ocean acidification on fish behavior
Issue Image

Ocean acidification—decreasing oceanic pH resulting from the uptake of excess atmospheric CO2—has the potential to affect marine life in the future. Among the possible consequences, a series of studies on coral reef fish suggested that the direct effects of acidification on fish behavior may be extreme and have broad ecological ramifications. Recent studies documenting a lack of effect of experimental ocean acidification on fish behavior, however, call this prediction into question. Indeed, the phenomenon of decreasing effect sizes over time is not uncommon and is typically referred to as the "decline effect." Clements et al. explore the consistency and robustness of scientific evidence over the past decade regarding direct effects of ocean acidification on fish behavior. Using a systematic review and meta-analysis of 91 studies empirically testing effects of ocean acidification on fish behavior, the authors provide quantitative evidence that the research to date on this topic is characterized by a decline effect, where large effects in initial studies have all but disappeared in subsequent studies over a decade. The vast majority of studies with large effect sizes in this field tend to be characterized by low sample sizes, yet are published in high-impact journals and have a disproportionate influence on the field in terms of citations. The image shows a clownfish peering through the tentacles of its anemone home in the Great Barrier Reef, Australia.

Image Credit: Fredrik Jutfelt

Perspective

Are there any good experiments that should not be done?

Robert Pollack, Matthew Cobb

PLOS Biology: published February 14, 2022 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3001539

Primers

Understanding how the human brain tracks emitted speech sounds to execute fluent speech production

Akiko Callan, Daniel E. Callan

PLOS Biology: published February 4, 2022 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3001533

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Insights into the role of noradrenaline in effortful decisions

Kristin Kaduk, Fadila Hadj-Bouziane

PLOS Biology: published February 22, 2022 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3001545

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Prereplication complex proteins get caught moonlighting

Hilary A. Coller

PLOS Biology: published February 23, 2022 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3001549

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Research Articles

Meta-analysis reveals an extreme “decline effect” in the impacts of ocean acidification on fish behavior

Jeff C. Clements, Josefin Sundin, Timothy D. Clark, Fredrik Jutfelt

PLOS Biology: published February 3, 2022 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3001511

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  2. Recalibrating the significance of the decline effect in fish ocean acidification research

A feature of maternal sleep apnea during gestation causes autism-relevant neuronal and behavioral phenotypes in offspring

Amanda M. Vanderplow, Bailey A. Kermath, Cassandra R. Bernhardt, Kimberly T. Gums, Erin N. Seablom, Abigail B. Radcliff, Andrea C. Ewald, Mathew V. Jones, Tracy L. Baker, Jyoti J. Watters, Michael E. Cahill

PLOS Biology: published February 3, 2022 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3001502

A cortical network processes auditory error signals during human speech production to maintain fluency

Muge Ozker, Werner Doyle, Orrin Devinsky, Adeen Flinker

PLOS Biology: published February 3, 2022 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3001493

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Four concurrent feedforward and feedback networks with different roles in the visual cortical hierarchy

Elham Barzegaran, Gijs Plomp

PLOS Biology: published February 10, 2022 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3001534

RFX transcription factors control a miR-150/PDAP1 axis that restrains the proliferation of human T cells

Michele Chirichella, Niccolò Bianchi, Emina Džafo, Elena Foli, Francesco Gualdrini, Amy Kenyon, Gioacchino Natoli, Silvia Monticelli

PLOS Biology: published February 10, 2022 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3001538

microRNA-142 guards against autoimmunity by controlling Treg cell homeostasis and function

Wei-Le Wang, Ching Ouyang, Natalie M. Graham, Yuankun Zhang, Kaniel Cassady, Estefany Y. Reyes, Min Xiong, Alicia M. Davis, Kathie Tang, Defu Zeng, Mark P. Boldin

PLOS Biology: published February 18, 2022 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3001552

Camptothecin effectively treats obesity in mice through GDF15 induction

Jun Feng Lu, Meng Qing Zhu, Bao Cai Xie, Xiao Chen Shi, Huan Liu, Rui Xin Zhang, Bo Xia, Jiang Wei Wu

PLOS Biology: published February 24, 2022 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3001517

A DNA replication-independent function of pre-replication complex genes during cell invasion in C. elegans

Evelyn Lattmann, Ting Deng, Michael Walser, Patrizia Widmer, Charlotte Rexha-Lambert, Vibhu Prasad, Ossia Eichhoff, Michael Daube, Reinhard Dummer, Mitchell P. Levesque, Alex Hajnal

PLOS Biology: published February 22, 2022 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3001317

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The endoplasmic reticulum proteostasis network profoundly shapes the protein sequence space accessible to HIV envelope

Jimin Yoon, Emmanuel E. Nekongo, Jessica E. Patrick, Tiffani Hui, Angela M. Phillips, Anna I. Ponomarenko, Samuel J. Hendel, Rebecca M. Sebastian, Yu Meng Zhang, Vincent L. Butty, C. Brandon Ogbunugafor, Yu-Shan Lin, Matthew D. Shoulders

PLOS Biology: published February 18, 2022 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3001569

The noncoding RNA CcnA modulates the master cell cycle regulators CtrA and GcrA in Caulobacter crescentus

Wanassa Beroual, Karine Prévost, David Lalaouna, Nadia Ben Zaina, Odile Valette, Yann Denis, Meriem Djendli, Gaël Brasseur, Matteo Brilli, Marta Robledo Garrido, Jose-Ignacio Jimenez-Zurdo, Eric Massé, Emanuele G. Biondi

PLOS Biology: published February 22, 2022 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3001528

LRRK2 dynamics analysis identifies allosteric control of the crosstalk between its catalytic domains

Jui-Hung Weng, Phillip C. Aoto, Robin Lorenz, Jian Wu, Sven H. Schmidt, Jascha T. Manschwetus, Pallavi Kaila-Sharma, Steve Silletti, Sebastian Mathea, Deep Chatterjee, Stefan Knapp, Friedrich W. Herberg, Susan S. Taylor

PLOS Biology: published February 22, 2022 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3001427

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Short Reports

People’s desire to be in nature and how they experience it are partially heritable

Chia-chen Chang, Daniel T. C. Cox, Qiao Fan, Thi Phuong Le Nghiem, Claudia L. Y. Tan, Rachel Rui Ying Oh, Brenda B. Lin, Danielle F. Shanahan, Richard A. Fuller, Kevin J. Gaston, L. Roman Carrasco

PLOS Biology: published February 3, 2022 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3001500

Gene-rich germline-restricted chromosomes in black-winged fungus gnats evolved through hybridization

Christina N. Hodson, Kamil S. Jaron, Susan Gerbi, Laura Ross

PLOS Biology: published February 25, 2022 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3001559

Cortical signatures of auditory object binding in children with autism spectrum disorder are anomalous in concordance with behavior and diagnosis

Hari Bharadwaj, Fahimeh Mamashli, Sheraz Khan, Ravinderjit Singh, Robert M. Joseph, Ainsley Losh, Stephanie Pawlyszyn, Nicole M. McGuiggan, Steven Graham, Matti S. Hämäläinen, Tal Kenet

PLOS Biology: published February 15, 2022 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3001541

SARS-CoV-2 antibodies protect against reinfection for at least 6 months in a multicentre seroepidemiological workplace cohort

Emilie Finch, Rachel Lowe, Stephanie Fischinger, Michael de St Aubin, Sameed M. Siddiqui, Diana Dayal, Michael A. Loesche, Justin Rhee, Samuel Beger, Yiyuan Hu, Matthew J. Gluck, Benjamin Mormann, Mohammad A. Hasdianda, Elon R. Musk, Galit Alter, Anil S. Menon, Eric J. Nilles, Adam J. Kucharski, on behalf of the CMMID COVID-19 working group and the SpaceX COVID-19 Cohort Collaborative

PLOS Biology: published February 10, 2022 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3001531

Dynamic assembly of the mRNA m6A methyltransferase complex is regulated by METTL3 phase separation

Dasol Han, Andrew P. Longhini, Xuemei Zhang, Vivian Hoang, Maxwell Z. Wilson, Kenneth S. Kosik

PLOS Biology: published February 10, 2022 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3001535

Methods and Resources

Characterising metabolomic signatures of lipid-modifying therapies through drug target mendelian randomisation

Tom G. Richardson, Genevieve M. Leyden, Qin Wang, Joshua A. Bell, Benjamin Elsworth, George Davey Smith, Michael V. Holmes

PLOS Biology: published February 25, 2022 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3001547

Meta-Research Articles

Examining linguistic shifts between preprints and publications

David N. Nicholson, Vincent Rubinetti, Dongbo Hu, Marvin Thielk, Lawrence E. Hunter, Casey S. Greene

PLOS Biology: published February 1, 2022 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3001470

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Tracking changes between preprint posting and journal publication during a pandemic

Liam Brierley, Federico Nanni, Jessica K. Polka, Gautam Dey, Máté Pálfy, Nicholas Fraser, Jonathon Alexis Coates

PLOS Biology: published February 1, 2022 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3001285

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Public human microbiome data are dominated by highly developed countries

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PLOS Biology: published February 15, 2022 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3001536

Analysis of 567,758 randomized controlled trials published over 30 years reveals trends in phrases used to discuss results that do not reach statistical significance

Willem M. Otte, Christiaan H. Vinkers, Philippe C. Habets, David G. P. van IJzendoorn, Joeri K. Tijdink

PLOS Biology: published February 18, 2022 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3001562

Discovery Report

Identification of a novel cationic glycolipid in Streptococcus agalactiae that contributes to brain entry and meningitis

Luke R. Joyce, Haider S. Manzer, Jéssica da C. Mendonça, Ricardo Villarreal, Prescilla E. Nagao, Kelly S. Doran, Kelli L. Palmer, Ziqiang Guan

PLOS Biology: published February 18, 2022 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3001555

Update Article

Further evidence for the capacity of mirror self-recognition in cleaner fish and the significance of ecologically relevant marks

Masanori Kohda, Shumpei Sogawa, Alex L. Jordan, Naoki Kubo, Satoshi Awata, Shun Satoh, Taiga Kobayashi, Akane Fujita, Redouan Bshary

PLOS Biology: published February 17, 2022 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3001529

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