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Current Issue of PLoSBiology

Current Issue | PLOS Biology
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Table of Contents

August 2024

Cover

Diatom abundance in the polar oceans is predicted by genome size
Issue Image

A principal goal in ecology is to identify the determinants of species abundances in nature. Body size has emerged as a fundamental and repeatable predictor of abundance, with smaller organisms occurring in greater numbers than larger ones. A biogeographic component, known as Bergmann’s rule, describes the preponderance, across taxonomic groups, of larger-bodied organisms in colder areas. Although undeniably important, the extent to which body size is the key trait underlying these patterns is unclear. Roberts et al. explored these questions in diatoms, unicellular algae of global importance for their roles in carbon fixation and energy flow through marine food webs. Using a phylogenomic dataset from a single lineage with worldwide distribution, they found that body size (cell volume) was strongly correlated with genome size, which varied by 50-fold across species and was driven by differences in the amount of repetitive DNA. However, directional models identified temperature and genome size, not cell size, as having the greatest influence on maximum population growth rate. A global metabarcoding dataset further identified genome size as a strong predictor of species abundance in the ocean, but only in colder regions at high and low latitudes where diatoms with large genomes dominated, a pattern consistent with Bergmann’s rule. The image shows a scanning electron micrograph of an individual cell of the marine diatom Cyclotella baltica.

Image Credit: Matthew Ashworth

Essay

Leveraging social media and other online data to study animal behavior

Reut Vardi, Andrea Soriano-Redondo, Jorge S. Gutiérrez, Łukasz Dylewski, Zuzanna Jagiello, Peter Mikula, Oded Berger-Tal, Daniel T. Blumstein, Ivan Jarić, Valerio Sbragaglia

PLOS Biology: published August 29, 2024 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3002793

Unsolved Mystery

Hijackers, hitchhikers, or co-drivers? The mysteries of mobilizable genetic elements

Manuel Ares-Arroyo, Charles Coluzzi, Jorge A. Moura de Sousa, Eduardo P. C. Rocha

PLOS Biology: published August 29, 2024 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3002796

Perspective

Molecular connectomics: Placing cells into morphological tissue context

Stathis Megas, Nadav Yayon, Kerstin B. Meyer, Sarah A. Teichmann

PLOS Biology: published August 26, 2024 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3002803

Primers

Aridity may alter the contributions of plants and fungi to grassland functions

Julie R. Deslippe

PLOS Biology: published August 15, 2024 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3002765

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To transfer mitochondria or not to transfer mitochondria: ADP does the trick

Jaromir Novak, Jiri Neuzil

PLOS Biology: published August 15, 2024 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3002754

A somatic view of the genomic impact of mitochondrial endosymbiosis

Rose M. Doss, Martin W. Breuss

PLOS Biology: published August 23, 2024 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3002756

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Community Page

GetGenome: Overcoming inequalities in access to genomics technology

James Canham, Joe Win, GetGenome Network, Sophien Kamoun

PLOS Biology: published August 26, 2024 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3002804

Research Articles

Salmonella Typhimurium exploits host polyamines for assembly of the type 3 secretion machinery

Tsuyoshi Miki, Takeshi Uemura, Miki Kinoshita, Yuta Ami, Masahiro Ito, Nobuhiko Okada, Takemitsu Furuchi, Shin Kurihara, Takeshi Haneda, Tohru Minamino, Yun-Gi Kim

PLOS Biology: published August 5, 2024 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3002731

Comprehensive blueprint of Salmonella genomic plasticity identifies hotspots for pathogenicity genes

Simran Krishnakant Kushwaha, Yi Wu, Hugo Leonardo Avila, Abhirath Anand, Thomas Sicheritz-Pontén, Andrew Millard, Sandhya Amol Marathe, Franklin L. Nobrega

PLOS Biology: published August 7, 2024 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3002746

An evolutionarily conserved pathway mediated by neuroparsin-A regulates reproductive plasticity in ants

Xiafang Zhang, Nianxia Xie, Guo Ding, Dongdong Ning, Wei Dai, Zijun Xiong, Wenjiang Zhong, Dashuang Zuo, Jie Zhao, Pei Zhang, Chengyuan Liu, Qiye Li, Hao Ran, Weiwei Liu, Guojie Zhang

PLOS Biology: published August 12, 2024 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3002763

State-dependent connectivity in auditory-reward networks predicts peak pleasure experiences to music

Kazuma Mori, Robert Zatorre

PLOS Biology: published August 12, 2024 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3002732

Toxoplasma gondii rhoptry discharge factor 3 is essential for invasion and microtubule-associated vesicle biogenesis

Rouaa Ben Chaabene, Matthew Martinez, Alessandro Bonavoglia, Bohumil Maco, Yi-Wei Chang, Gaëlle Lentini, Dominique Soldati-Favre

PLOS Biology: published August 13, 2024 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3002745

Arl2 GTPase associates with the centrosomal protein Cdk5rap2 to regulate cortical development via microtubule organization

Dongliang Ma, Kun-Yang Lin, Divya Suresh, Jiaen Lin, Mahekta R. Gujar, Htet Yamin Aung, Ye Sing Tan, Yang Gao, Anselm S. Vincent, Teng Chen, Hongyan Wang

PLOS Biology: published August 13, 2024 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3002751

GRK2 kinases in the primary cilium initiate SMOOTHENED-PKA signaling in the Hedgehog cascade

Madison F. Walker, Jingyi Zhang, William Steiner, Pei-I Ku, Ju-Fen Zhu, Zachary Michaelson, Yu-Chen Yen, Annabel Lee, Alyssa B. Long, Mattie J. Casey, Abhishek Poddar, Isaac B. Nelson, Corvin D. Arveseth, Falko Nagel, Ryan Clough, Sarah LaPotin, Kristen M. Kwan, Stefan Schulz, Rodney A. Stewart, John J. G. Tesmer, Tamara Caspary, Radhika Subramanian, Xuecai Ge, Benjamin R. Myers

PLOS Biology: published August 13, 2024 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3002685

SAMD1 suppresses epithelial–mesenchymal transition pathways in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma

Clara Simon, Inka D. Brunke, Bastian Stielow, Ignasi Forné, Anna Mary Steitz, Merle Geller, Iris Rohner, Lisa Marie Weber, Sabrina Fischer, Lea Marie Jeude, Theresa Huber, Andrea Nist, Thorsten Stiewe, Magdalena Huber, Malte Buchholz, Robert Liefke

PLOS Biology: published August 13, 2024 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3002739

Extracellular proteolysis of tandemly duplicated pheromone propeptides affords additional complexity to bacterial quorum sensing

Alonso Felipe-Ruiz, Sara Zamora-Caballero, Shira Omer Bendori, José R. Penadés, Avigdor Eldar, Alberto Marina

PLOS Biology: published August 13, 2024 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3002744

The dynamics and longevity of circulating CD4+ memory T cells depend on cell age and not the chronological age of the host

M. Elise Bullock, Thea Hogan, Cayman Williams, Sinead Morris, Maria Nowicka, Minahil Sharjeel, Christiaan van Dorp, Andrew J. Yates, Benedict Seddon

PLOS Biology: published August 13, 2024 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3002380

Aboveground and belowground biodiversity have complementary effects on ecosystem functions across global grasslands

Catarina S. C. Martins, Manuel Delgado-Baquerizo, Ramesha H. Jayaramaiah, Dongxue Tao, Jun-Tao Wang, Tadeo Sáez-Sandino, Hongwei Liu, Fernando T. Maestre, Peter B. Reich, Brajesh K. Singh

PLOS Biology: published August 14, 2024 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3002736

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Identification of pathways to high-level vancomycin resistance in Clostridioides difficile that incur high fitness costs in key pathogenicity traits

Jessica E. Buddle, Lucy M. Thompson, Anne S. Williams, Rosanna C. T. Wright, William M. Durham, Claire E. Turner, Roy R. Chaudhuri, Michael A. Brockhurst, Robert P. Fagan

PLOS Biology: published August 15, 2024 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3002741

Both pathogen and host dynamically adapt pH responses along the intestinal tract during enteric bacterial infection

Sarah E. Woodward, Laurel M. P. Neufeld, Jorge Peña-Díaz, Wenny Feng, Antonio Serapio-Palacios, Isabel Tarrant, Wanyin Deng, B. Brett Finlay

PLOS Biology: published August 15, 2024 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3002761

Pam16 and Pam18 were repurposed during Trypanosoma brucei evolution to regulate the replication of mitochondrial DNA

Corinne von Känel, Philip Stettler, Carmela Esposito, Stephan Berger, Simona Amodeo, Silke Oeljeklaus, Salvatore Calderaro, Ignacio M. Durante, Vendula Rašková, Bettina Warscheid, André Schneider

PLOS Biology: published August 15, 2024 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3002449

bHLH transcription factors cooperate with chromatin remodelers to regulate cell fate decisions during Arabidopsis stomatal development

Ao Liu, Andrea Mair, Juliana L. Matos, Macy Vollbrecht, Shou-Ling Xu, Dominique C. Bergmann

PLOS Biology: published August 16, 2024 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3002770

The conformational plasticity of structurally unrelated lipid transport proteins correlates with their mode of action

Sriraksha Srinivasan, Andrea Di Luca, Daniel Álvarez, Arun T. John Peter, Charlotte Gehin, Museer A. Lone, Thorsten Hornemann, Giovanni D’Angelo, Stefano Vanni

PLOS Biology: published August 19, 2024 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3002737

Repeated stress to the skin amplifies neutrophil infiltration in a keratin 17- and PKCα-dependent manner

Yang Xu, Erez Cohen, Craig N. Johnson, Carole A. Parent, Pierre A. Coulombe

PLOS Biology: published August 19, 2024 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3002779

Adenosine diphosphate released from stressed cells triggers mitochondrial transfer to achieve tissue homeostasis

Hao Li, Hongping Yu, Delin Liu, Peng Liao, Chuan Gao, Jian Zhou, Jialun Mei, Yao Zong, Peng Ding, Meng Yao, Bingqi Wang, Yafei Lu, Yigang Huang, Youshui Gao, Changqing Zhang, Minghao Zheng, Junjie Gao

PLOS Biology: published August 20, 2024 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3002753

Distinct melanocyte subpopulations defined by stochastic expression of proliferation or maturation programs enable a rapid and sustainable pigmentation response

Ayush Aggarwal, Ayesha Nasreen, Babita Sharma, Sarthak Sahoo, Keerthic Aswin, Mohammed Faruq, Rajesh Pandey, Mohit K. Jolly, Abhyudai Singh, Rajesh S. Gokhale, Vivek T. Natarajan

PLOS Biology: published August 20, 2024 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3002776

Slow-wave sleep drives sleep-dependent renormalization of synaptic AMPA receptor levels in the hypothalamus

Jianfeng Liu, Niels Niethard, Yu Lun, Stoyan Dimitrov, Ingrid Ehrlich, Jan Born, Manfred Hallschmid

PLOS Biology: published August 20, 2024 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3002768

Cryo-EM structures of the human band 3 transporter indicate a transport mechanism involving the coupled movement of chloride and bicarbonate ions

Chih-Chia Su, Zhemin Zhang, Meinan Lyu, Meng Cui, Edward W. Yu

PLOS Biology: published August 21, 2024 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3002719

The ion channel Anoctamin 10/TMEM16K coordinates organ morphogenesis across scales in the urochordate notochord

Zonglai Liang, Daniel Christiaan Dondorp, Marios Chatzigeorgiou

PLOS Biology: published August 22, 2024 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3002762

Somatic nuclear mitochondrial DNA insertions are prevalent in the human brain and accumulate over time in fibroblasts

Weichen Zhou, Kalpita R. Karan, Wenjin Gu, Hans-Ulrich Klein, Gabriel Sturm, Philip L. De Jager, David A. Bennett, Michio Hirano, Martin Picard, Ryan E. Mills

PLOS Biology: published August 22, 2024 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3002723

Related Articles

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Metabolic specialization drives reduced pathogenicity in Pseudomonas aeruginosa isolates from cystic fibrosis patients

Bjarke Haldrup Pedersen, Filipa Bica Simões, Ivan Pogrebnyakov, Martin Welch, Helle Krogh Johansen, Søren Molin, Ruggero La Rosa

PLOS Biology: published August 23, 2024 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3002781

Comparative time-series multi-omics analyses suggest H1.2 involvement in anoxic adaptation and cancer resistance

Juan Du, Weiqiang Liu, Meng Li, Zihao Li, Xuanjing Li, Yichen Dai, Gaoming Liu, Xiao Wang, Pingfen Zhu, Vadim N. Gladyshev, Xuming Zhou

PLOS Biology: published August 23, 2024 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3002778

Actomyosin-mediated apical constriction promotes physiological germ cell death in C. elegans

Tea Kohlbrenner, Simon Berger, Ana Cristina Laranjeira, Tinri Aegerter-Wilmsen, Laura Filomena Comi, Andrew deMello, Alex Hajnal

PLOS Biology: published August 23, 2024 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3002775

Fast-spiking interneuron detonation drives high-fidelity inhibition in the olfactory bulb

Shawn D. Burton, Christina M. Malyshko, Nathaniel N. Urban

PLOS Biology: published August 26, 2024 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3002660

Nuclear reassembly defects after mitosis trigger apoptotic and p53-dependent safeguard mechanisms in Drosophila

Jingjing Li, Laia Jordana, Haytham Mehsen, Xinyue Wang, Vincent Archambault

PLOS Biology: published August 26, 2024 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3002780

Inferring the extinction risk of marine fish to inform global conservation priorities

Nicolas Loiseau, David Mouillot, Laure Velez, Raphaël Seguin, Nicolas Casajus, Camille Coux, Camille Albouy, Thomas Claverie, Agnès Duhamet, Valentine Fleure, Juliette Langlois, Sébastien Villéger, Nicolas Mouquet

PLOS Biology: published August 29, 2024 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3002773

A taxon-restricted duplicate of Iroquois3 is required for patterning the spider waist

Emily V. W. Setton, Jesús A. Ballesteros, Pola O. Blaszczyk, Benjamin C. Klementz, Prashant P. Sharma

PLOS Biology: published August 29, 2024 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3002771

Short Reports

Diatom abundance in the polar oceans is predicted by genome size

Wade R. Roberts, Adam M. Siepielski, Andrew J. Alverson

PLOS Biology: published August 8, 2024 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3002733

Swordtail fish hybrids reveal that genome evolution is surprisingly predictable after initial hybridization

Quinn K. Langdon, Jeffrey S. Groh, Stepfanie M. Aguillon, Daniel L. Powell, Theresa Gunn, Cheyenne Payne, John J. Baczenas, Alex Donny, Tristram O. Dodge, Kang Du, Manfred Schartl, Oscar Ríos-Cárdenas, Carla Gutiérrez-Rodríguez, Molly Morris, Molly Schumer

PLOS Biology: published August 26, 2024 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3002742

The activation cascade of the broad-spectrum antiviral bemnifosbuvir characterized at atomic resolution

Aurélie Chazot, Claire Zimberger, Mikael Feracci, Adel Moussa, Steven Good, Jean-Pierre Sommadossi, Karine Alvarez, François Ferron, Bruno Canard

PLOS Biology: published August 27, 2024 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3002743

Methods and Resources

CellTracksColab is a platform that enables compilation, analysis, and exploration of cell tracking data

Estibaliz Gómez-de-Mariscal, Hanna Grobe, Joanna W. Pylvänäinen, Laura Xénard, Ricardo Henriques, Jean-Yves Tinevez, Guillaume Jacquemet

PLOS Biology: published August 8, 2024 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3002740

A rigorous and versatile statistical test for correlations between stationary time series

Alex E. Yuan, Wenying Shou

PLOS Biology: published August 15, 2024 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3002758

AlphaFold2-guided engineering of split-GFP technology enables labeling of endogenous tubulins across species while preserving function

Kaiming Xu, Zhiyuan Li, Linfan Mao, Zhengyang Guo, Zhe Chen, Yongping Chai, Chao Xie, Xuerui Yang, Jie Na, Wei Li, Guangshuo Ou

PLOS Biology: published August 19, 2024 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3002615

A noninvasive BCG skin challenge model for assessing tuberculosis vaccine efficacy

Nitya Krishnan, Miles Priestman, Iria Uhía, Natalie Charitakis, Izabella T. Glegola-Madejska, Thomas M. Baer, Albin Tranberg, Alan Faraj, Ulrika SH Simonsson, Brian D. Robertson

PLOS Biology: published August 19, 2024 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3002766

Meta-Research Article

Rationalizing risk aversion in science: Why incentives to work hard clash with incentives to take risks

Kevin Gross, Carl T. Bergstrom

PLOS Biology: published August 15, 2024 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3002750

Preregistered Research Article

An empirical appraisal of eLife’s assessment vocabulary

Tom E. Hardwicke, Sarah R. Schiavone, Beth Clarke, Simine Vazire

PLOS Biology: published August 22, 2024 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3002645