PLoS Biology: Archived Table of Contents This is an RSS file. You can use it to subscribe to this data in your favourite RSS reader or to display this data on your own website or blog.

Five families of diverse DNA viruses comprehensively restructure the nucleus
by Quincy Rosemarie, Bill Sugden Many viruses have evolved ways to restructure their host cell ’s nucleus profoundly and unexpectedly upon infection. In particular, DNA viruses that need to commandeer their host’s cellular synthetic functions to produce their progeny can induce the condensation and margination of host chromatin during productive infection, a phenomenon known as virus-indu ced reorganization of cellular chromatin (ROCC). These ROCC-inducing DNA viruses belong to 5 families (herpesviruses, baculoviruses, adenoviruses, parvoviruses, and geminiviruses) that infect a wide range of hosts and are important f...
Source: PLoS Biology: Archived Table of Contents - November 6, 2023 Category: Biology Authors: Quincy Rosemarie Source Type: research

Postdoctoral scientists are mentors, and it is time to recognize their work
by Gracielle Higino, Ceres Barros, Ellen Bledsoe, Dominique G. Roche, Sandra Ann Binning, Timoth ée Poisot Academia often fails to recognize the important work that supports its functioning, such as mentoring and teaching performed by postdoctoral researchers. This is a particular problem for early-career researchers, but opportunities exist to improve the status quo. Post-doctoral scientists are effective mentors for graduate students. This Perspective discusses how failures to properly credit them for this role has negative consequence for everyone and suggests possible solutions. (Source: PLoS Biology: Archived Table of Contents)
Source: PLoS Biology: Archived Table of Contents - November 2, 2023 Category: Biology Authors: Gracielle Higino Source Type: research

Chimpanzees make tactical use of high elevation in territorial contexts
by Sylvain R. T. Lemoine, Liran Samuni, Catherine Crockford, Roman M. Wittig Tactical warfare is considered a driver of the evolution of human cognition. One such tactic, considered unique to humans, is collective use of high elevation in territorial conflicts. This enables early detection of rivals and low-risk maneuvers, based on information gathered. Whether other animals use such tactics is unknown. With a unique dataset of 3 years of simultaneous behavioral and ranging data on 2 neighboring groups of western chimpanzees, from the Ta ï National Park, Côte d’Ivoire, we tested whether chimpanzees make decisions cons...
Source: PLoS Biology: Archived Table of Contents - November 2, 2023 Category: Biology Authors: Sylvain R. T. Lemoine Source Type: research

Is N -Hacking Ever OK? The consequences of collecting more data in pursuit of statistical significance
by Pamela Reinagel Upon completion of an experiment, if a trend is observed that is “not quite significant,” it can be tempting to collect more data in an effort to achieve statistical significance. Such sample augmentation or “N-hacking ” is condemned because it can lead to an excess of false positives, which can reduce the reproducibility of results. However, the scenarios used to prove this rule tend to be unrealistic, assuming the addition of unlimited extra samples to achieve statistical significance, or doing so when results are not even close to significant; an unlikely situation for most experiments involv...
Source: PLoS Biology: Archived Table of Contents - November 1, 2023 Category: Biology Authors: Pamela Reinagel Source Type: research

Effects of stochastic coding on olfactory discrimination in flies and mice
by Shyam Srinivasan, Simon Daste, Mehrab N. Modi, Glenn C. Turner, Alexander Fleischmann, Saket Navlakha Sparse coding can improve discrimination of sensory stimuli by reducing overlap between their representations. Two factors, however, can offset sparse coding ’s benefits: similar sensory stimuli have significant overlap and responses vary across trials. To elucidate the effects of these 2 factors, we analyzed odor responses in the fly and mouse olfactory regions implicated in learning and discrimination—the mushroom body (MB) and the piriform cortex (PCx). We found that neuronal responses fall along a continuum fro...
Source: PLoS Biology: Archived Table of Contents - October 31, 2023 Category: Biology Authors: Shyam Srinivasan Source Type: research

Multiple light signaling pathways control solar tracking in sunflowers
by Christopher J. Brooks, Hagop S. Atamian, Stacey L. Harmer Sunflowers are famous for their ability to track the sun throughout the day and then reorient at night to face east the following morning. This occurs by differential growth patterns, with the east sides of stems growing more during the day and the west sides of stems growing more at night. This process, termed heliotropism, is generally believed to be a specialized form of phototropism; however, the underlying mechanism is unknown. To better understand heliotropism, we compared gene expression patterns in plants undergoing phototropism in a controlled environme...
Source: PLoS Biology: Archived Table of Contents - October 31, 2023 Category: Biology Authors: Christopher J. Brooks Source Type: research

Metabolic sinkholes: Histones as methyl repositories
by Ansar Karimian, Maria Vogelauer, Siavash K. Kurdistani Perez and Sarkies uncover histones as methyl group repositories in normal and cancer human cells, shedding light on an intriguing function of histone methylation in optimizing the cellular methylation potential independently of gene regulation. (Source: PLoS Biology: Archived Table of Contents)
Source: PLoS Biology: Archived Table of Contents - October 27, 2023 Category: Biology Authors: Ansar Karimian Source Type: research

Diverse microtubule-targeted anticancer agents kill cells by inducing chromosome missegregation on multipolar spindles
by Amber S. Zhou, John B. Tucker, Christina M. Scribano, Andrew R. Lynch, Caleb L. Carlsen, Sophia T. Pop-Vicas, Srishrika M. Pattaswamy, Mark E. Burkard, Beth A. Weaver Microtubule-targeted agents are commonly used for cancer treatment, though many patients do not benefit. Microtubule-targeted drugs were assumed to elicit anticancer activity via mitotic arrest because they cause cell death following mitotic arrest in cell culture. However, we recently demonstrated that intratumoral paclitaxel concentrations are insufficient to induce mitotic arrest and rather induce chromosomal instability (CIN) via multipolar mitotic sp...
Source: PLoS Biology: Archived Table of Contents - October 26, 2023 Category: Biology Authors: Amber S. Zhou Source Type: research

Mammalian cells internalize bacteriophages and use them as a resource to enhance cellular growth and survival
by Marion C. Bichet, Jack Adderley, Laura Avellaneda-Franco, Isabelle Magnin-Bougma, Natasha Torriero-Smith, Linden J. Gearing, Celine Deffrasnes, Cassandra David, Genevieve Pepin, Michael P. Gantier, Ruby CY Lin, Ruzeen Patwa, Gregory W. Moseley, Christian Doerig, Jeremy J. Barr There is a growing appreciation that the direct interaction between bacteriophages and the mammalian host can facilitate diverse and unexplored symbioses. Yet the impact these bacteriophages may have on mammalian cellular and immunological processes is poorly understood. Here, we applied highly purified phage T4, free from bacterial by-products a...
Source: PLoS Biology: Archived Table of Contents - October 26, 2023 Category: Biology Authors: Marion C. Bichet Source Type: research

Histone methyltransferase activity affects metabolism in human cells independently of transcriptional regulation
by Marcos Francisco Perez, Peter Sarkies The N-terminal tails of eukaryotic histones are frequently posttranslationally modified. The role of these modifications in transcriptional regulation is well-documented. However, the extent to which the enzymatic processes of histone posttranslational modification might affect metabolic regulation is less clear. Here, we investigated how histone methylation might affect metabolism using metabolomics, proteomics, and RNA-seq data from cancer cell lines, primary tumour samples and healthy tissue samples. In cancer, the expression of histone methyltransferases (HMTs) was inversely co...
Source: PLoS Biology: Archived Table of Contents - October 26, 2023 Category: Biology Authors: Marcos Francisco Perez Source Type: research

 Wolbachia endosymbionts manipulate the self-renewal and differentiation of germline stem cells to reinforce fertility of their fruit fly host
by Shelbi L. Russell, Jennie Ruelas Castillo, William T. Sullivan The alphaproteobacteriumWolbachia pipientis infects arthropod and nematode species worldwide, making it a key target for host biological control.Wolbachia-driven host reproductive manipulations, such as cytoplasmic incompatibility (CI), are credited for catapulting these intracellular bacteria to high frequencies in host populations. Positive, perhaps mutualistic, reproductive manipulations also increase infection frequencies, but are not well understood. Here, we identify molecular and cellular mechanisms by whichWolbachia influences the molecularly distin...
Source: PLoS Biology: Archived Table of Contents - October 24, 2023 Category: Biology Authors: Shelbi L. Russell Source Type: research

Eggs of the mosquito Aedes aegypti survive desiccation by rewiring their polyamine and lipid metabolism
This study is fundamental to understandingAedes embryo survival and in controlling the spread of these mosquitoes. (Source: PLoS Biology: Archived Table of Contents)
Source: PLoS Biology: Archived Table of Contents - October 24, 2023 Category: Biology Authors: Anjana Prasad Source Type: research

Spatacsin regulates directionality of lysosome trafficking by promoting the degradation of its partner AP5Z1
by Alexandre Pierga, Rapha ël Matusiak, Margaux Cauhapé, Julien Branchu, Lydia Danglot, Maxime Boutry, Frédéric Darios The endoplasmic reticulum (ER) forms contacts with the lysosomal compartment, regulating lysosome positioning and motility. The movements of lysosomes are controlled by the attachment of molecular motors to their surface. However, the molecular mechanisms by which ER controls lysosome dynamics are still elusive. Here, using mouse brain extracts and mouse embryonic fibroblasts, we demonstrate that spatacsin is an ER-resident protein regulating the formation of tubular lysosomes, which are highly dynami...
Source: PLoS Biology: Archived Table of Contents - October 23, 2023 Category: Biology Authors: Alexandre Pierga Source Type: research

Evolutionary innovation through transcription factor rewiring in microbes is shaped by levels of transcription factor activity, expression, and existing connectivit
by Matthew J. Shepherd, Aidan P. Pierce, Tiffany B. Taylor The survival of a population during environmental shifts depends on whether the rate of phenotypic adaptation keeps up with the rate of changing conditions. A common way to achieve this is via change to gene regulatory network (GRN) connections —known as rewiring—that facilitate novel interactions and innovation of transcription factors. To understand the success of rapidly adapting organisms, we therefore need to determine the rules that create and constrain opportunities for GRN rewiring. Here, using an experimental microbial model s ystem with the soil bact...
Source: PLoS Biology: Archived Table of Contents - October 23, 2023 Category: Biology Authors: Matthew J. Shepherd Source Type: research

Microbial thermogenesis is dependent on ATP concentrations and the protein kinases ArcB, GlnL, and YccC
by Puneet Singh Dhatt, Stephen Chiu, Tae Seok Moon Organisms necessarily release heat energy in their pursuit of survival. This process is known as cellular thermogenesis and is implicated in many processes from cancer metabolism to spontaneous farm fires. However, the molecular basis for this fundamental phenomenon is yet to be elucidated. Here, we show that the major players involved in the cellular thermogenesis ofEscherichia coli are the protein kinases ArcB, GlnL, and YccC. We also reveal the substrate-level control of adenosine triphosphate (ATP)-driven autophosphorylation that governs cellular thermogenesis. Specif...
Source: PLoS Biology: Archived Table of Contents - October 20, 2023 Category: Biology Authors: Puneet Singh Dhatt Source Type: research