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September 2024

Plastids are pivotal target organelles for comprehensively enhancing photosynthetic and metabolic traits in plants via plastid engineering. Plastid proteins are predominantly encoded by the nuclear genome, are made in the cytosol, and must traverse membrane-bound multiprotein translocons to access these organelles. This import process is meticulously regulated by chloroplast-targeting peptides (cTPs). Thagun et al. performed a comprehensive exploration and comparative assessment of an advanced suite of cTPs exhibiting superior targeting capabilities. They employed a multifaceted approach to identify and analyze 88 cTPs associated with Arabidopsis thaliana mutants with phenotypes linked to chloroplast function. A highly efficient cTP derived from Arabidopsis plastid ribosomal protein L35 (At2g24090) displayed remarkable effectiveness in chloroplast localization. This cTP could serve as an ideal transit peptide for precisely targeting biomolecules to plastids, leading to advancements in plastid engineering. The image shows four panels, each showing tobacco leaves expressing green fluorescent protein fused to a different cTPs (green). Chloroplasts are shown by chlorophyll autofluorescence (magenta).

Image Credit: Chonprakun Thagun and Keiji Numata

Essay

A how-to guide for code sharing in biology

Richard J. Abdill, Emma Talarico, Laura Grieneisen

Consensus View

A new lineage nomenclature to aid genomic surveillance of dengue virus

Verity Hill, Sara Cleemput, James Siqueira Pereira, Robert J. Gifford, Vagner Fonseca, Houriiyah Tegally, Anderson F. Brito, Gabriela Ribeiro, Vinicius Carius de Souza, Isabela Carvalho Brcko, Igor Santana Ribeiro, Iago Trezena Tavares De Lima, Svetoslav Nanev Slavov, Sandra Coccuzzo Sampaio, Maria Carolina Elias, Vi Thuy Tran, Duong Thi Hue Kien, Tuyen Huynh, Sophie Yacoub, Idrissa Dieng, Richard Salvato, Gabriel Luz Wallau, Tatiana S. Gregianini, Fernanda M. S. Godinho, Chantal B. F. Vogels, Mallery I. Breban, Mariana Leguia, Suraj Jagtap, Rahul Roy, Chanditha Hapuarachchi, Gaspary Mwanyika, Marta Giovanetti, Luiz C. J. Alcantara, Nuno R. Faria, Christine V. F. Carrington, Kathryn A. Hanley, Edward C. Holmes, Wim Dumon, Alex Ranieri Jerônimo Lima, Tulio de Oliveira, Nathan D. Grubaugh

Perspectives

Fixing science means an end to gaming the system

Nicholas J. L. Brown

Promoting reusable and open methods and protocols (PRO-MaP) can improve methodological reporting in the life sciences

Sofia Batista Leite, Matthew A. Brooke, Annamaria Carusi, Andy Collings, Pierre Deceuninck, Jean-François Dechamp, Bronwen Dekker, Elisa De Ranieri, Emma Ganley, Annalisa Gastaldello, Fanglian He, Marcel LaFlamme, Ingrid Langezaal, James Morris, David Pamies, Monica Piergiovanni, Bernd Pulverer, David Sadler, Caroline Shamu, Vivian Siegel, Marco Straccia, Tracey L. Weissgerber

Keeping time: How musical training may boost cognition

M. Florencia Assaneo, Fernando Lizcano-Cortés, Pablo Ripolles

Research Articles

Diverse signatures of convergent evolution in cactus-associated yeasts

Carla Gonçalves, Marie-Claire Harrison, Jacob L. Steenwyk, Dana A. Opulente, Abigail L. LaBella, John F. Wolters, Xiaofan Zhou, Xing-Xing Shen, Marizeth Groenewald, Chris Todd Hittinger, Antonis Rokas

An estimate of fitness reduction from mutation accumulation in a mammal allows assessment of the consequences of relaxed selection

Jobran Chebib, Anika Jonas, Eugenio López-Cortegano, Sven Künzel, Diethard Tautz, Peter D. Keightley

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Functional network modules overlap and are linked to interindividual connectome differences during human brain development

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Beta-band neural variability reveals age-related dissociations in human working memory maintenance and deletion

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Phosphorylation of the DNA damage repair factor 53BP1 by ATM kinase controls neurodevelopmental programs in cortical brain organoids

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A genome-wide arrayed CRISPR screen identifies PLSCR1 as an intrinsic barrier to SARS-CoV-2 entry that recent virus variants have evolved to resist

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Changes in DNA methylation contribute to rapid adaptation in bacterial plant pathogen evolution

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Mycobacteria that cause tuberculosis have retained ancestrally acquired genes for the biosynthesis of chemically diverse terpene nucleosides

Jacob A. Mayfield, Sahadevan Raman, Alexandrea K. Ramnarine, Vivek K. Mishra, Annie D. Huang, Sandrine Dudoit, Jeffrey Buter, Tan-Yun Cheng, David C. Young, Yashodhan M. Nair, Isobel G. Ouellet, Braden T. Griebel, Shuyi Ma, David R. Sherman, Ludovic Mallet, Kyu Y. Rhee, Adriaan J. Minnaard, D. Branch Moody

Short Reports

The genetic basis of the kākāpō structural color polymorphism suggests balancing selection by an extinct apex predator

Lara Urban, Anna W. Santure, Lydia Uddstrom, Andrew Digby, Deidre Vercoe, Daryl Eason, Jodie Crane, Kākāpō Recovery Team, Matthew J. Wylie, Tāne Davis, Marissa F. LeLec, Joseph Guhlin, Simon Poulton, Jon Slate, Alana Alexander, Patricia Fuentes-Cross, Peter K. Dearden, Neil J. Gemmell, Farhan Azeem, Marvin Weyland, Harald G. L. Schwefel, Cock van Oosterhout, Hernán E. Morales

Syllable processing is organized in discrete subregions of the human superior temporal gyrus

Daniel R. Cleary, Youngbin Tchoe, Andrew Bourhis, Charles W. Dickey, Brittany Stedelin, Mehran Ganji, Sang Heon Lee, Jihwan Lee, Dominic A. Siler, Erik C. Brown, Burke Q. Rosen, Erik Kaestner, Jimmy C. Yang, Daniel J. Soper, Seunggu Jude Han, Angelique C. Paulk, Sydney S. Cash, Ahmed M. Raslan, Shadi A. Dayeh, Eric Halgren

Bats generate lower affinity but higher diversity antibody responses than those of mice, but pathogen-binding capacity increases if protein is restricted in their diet

Daniel E. Crowley, Caylee A. Falvo, Evelyn Benson, Jodi Hedges, Mark Jutila, Shahrzad Ezzatpour, Hector C. Aguilar, Manuel Ruiz-Aravena, Wenjun Ma, Tony Schountz, Agnieszka Rynda-Apple, Raina K. Plowright

Centrosome amplification primes ovarian cancer cells for apoptosis and potentiates the response to chemotherapy

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Structure of the Nmd4-Upf1 complex supports conservation of the nonsense-mediated mRNA decay pathway between yeast and humans

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Methods and Resources

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Identification of a highly efficient chloroplast-targeting peptide for plastid engineering

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Preregistered Research Article

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