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Current Issue of PLoSBiology


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August 2025

The alvinellid worm Paralvinella hessleri is the only animal that colonizes the hottest part of deep-sea hydrothermal vents in the west pacific. Wang et al. found P. hessleri accumulates exceptionally high level of toxic element arsenic (>1% of wet weight) and tolerates elevated concentrations of hydrogen sulfide. Using advanced microscopy, elementary analysis, and genomics and proteomics approaches, the authors identify a previously unrecognized arsenic-sulfide biomineralization process in P. hessleri. Their data suggest that arsenic accumulates within epithelial cell granules, where it likely reacts with sulfide diffused inward from the hydrothermal vent fluid, resulting in the intracellular formation of orpiment (As2S3) minerals. In this “fighting poison with poison” manner, the highly toxic arsenic and sulfide were simultaneously detoxified in the form of orpiment within intracellular granules of the single layer of epithelial cells. The image shows a lateral view of a P. hessleri specimen with buccal tentacles extroverted; note that the animal has a bright yellow color which derives from the epithelial orpiment crystals.

Image Credit: Hao Wang

Primers

Community Page

Flexible competency framework: A tool for optimizing life science training

Xiuqi Li, Jelena Patrnogić, David Van Vactor

Research Articles

A deep-sea hydrothermal vent worm detoxifies arsenic and sulfur by intracellular biomineralization of orpiment (As2S3)

Hao Wang, Lei Cao, Huan Zhang, Zhaoshan Zhong, Li Zhou, Chao Lian, Xiaocheng Wang, Hao Chen, Minxiao Wang, Xin Zhang, Chaolun Li

Quantifying the effects of antibiotic resistance and within-host competition on strain fitness in Streptococcus pneumoniae

Aswin Krishna, Gerry Tonkin-Hill, Thibaut Morel-Journel, Stephen Bentley, Paul Turner, François Blanquart, Sonja Lehtinen

Attractive serial dependence arises during decision-making

Jiangang Shan, Jasper E. Hajonides, Nicholas E. Myers

Recurrence affects the geometry of visual representations across the ventral visual stream in the human brain

Siying Xie, Johannes Singer, Bati Yilmaz, Daniel Kaiser, Radoslaw M. Cichy

Transfer of motor learning is associated with patterns of activity in the default mode network

Ali Rezaei, Corson N. Areshenkoff, Daniel J. Gale, Anouk J. De Brouwer, Joseph Y. Nashed, J. Randall Flanagan, Jason P. Gallivan

Related Articles

Encoding of visual stimuli and behavioral goals in distinct anatomical areas of monkey ventrolateral prefrontal cortex

Claudio Basile, Marzio Gerbella, Alfonso Gravante, Amelia Lapadula, Francesca Rodà, Luciano Simone, Leonardo Fogassi, Stefano Rozzi

Multispecies characterization of immature neurons in the mammalian amygdala reveals their expansion in primates

Marco Ghibaudi, Chiara La Rosa, Nikita Telitsyn, Jean-Marie Graїc, Chris G. Faulkes, Chet C. Sherwood, Luca Bonfanti

HAPLN2 forms aggregates and promotes microglial inflammation during brain aging in mice

Ayaka Watanabe, Shoshiro Hirayama, Itsuki Kominato, Sybille Marchese, Pietro Esposito, Vanya Metodieva, Taeko Kimura, Hiroshi Kameda, Terunori Sano, Masaki Takao, Sho Takatori, Masato Koike, Juan Alberto Varela, Taisuke Tomita, Shigeo Murata

Mitochondrial ROS and HIF-1α signaling mediate synaptic plasticity in the critical period

Daniel Sobrido-Cameán, Bramwell Coulson, Michael Miller, Matthew C. W. Oswald, Tom Pettini, David M. D. Bailey, Richard A. Baines, Matthias Landgraf

Caudal fin shape imprinted during late zebrafish embryogenesis is re-patterned by the Sonic hedgehog pathway

Eric Surette, Joan Donahue, Crisvely Soto Martinez, Stephanie Robinson, Deirdre McKenna, Brendan Fitzgerald, Katherine Backus, Rolf O. Karlstrom, Nicolás Cumplido, Sarah K. McMenamin

Active DNA demethylation upstream of rod-photoreceptor fate determination is required for retinal development

Ismael Hernández-Núñez, Alaina Urman, Xiaodong Zhang, William Jacobs, Christy Hoffmann, Ellen G. Harding, Shiming Chen, Meelad M. Dawlaty, Philip A. Ruzycki, John R. Edwards, Brian S. Clark

The Tra/Dsx-JHBP axis controls female-specific gene expression and oviposition in locusts

Xiaoming Zhao, Qian Ma, Ti Shao, Pan Jia, Zhaochen Wu, Caiyan Huo, Yuxin Wang, Weimin Liu, Zhangwu Zhao, Chen-Zhu Wang, Sheng Li, Jianzhen Zhang

Sublethal executioner caspase activation in hepatocytes promotes liver regeneration through the JAK/STAT3 pathway

Zhiyuan Cao, Lining Qin, Kaixuan Liu, Chen Yao, Enhong Li, Xiaoyu Hao, Molin Wang, Baichun Jiang, Yongxin Zou, Huili Hu, Qiao Liu, Changshun Shao, Yaoqin Gong, Gongping Sun

Alterations in ether lipid metabolism in obesity revealed by systems genomics of multi-omics datasets

Yvette L. Schooneveldt, Sudip Paul, Kevin Huynh, Habtamu B. Beyene, Nat A. Mellett, Gerald F. Watts, Joseph Hung, Jennie Hui, John Beilby, John Blangero, Eric K. Moses, Jonathan E. Shaw, Dianna J. Magliano, Marcus M. Seldin, Brian G. Drew, Anna C. Calkin, Corey Giles, Peter J. Meikle

MK-8527 is a novel inhibitor of HIV-1 reverse transcriptase translocation with potential for extended-duration dosing

Izzat T. Raheem, Vinay Girijavallabhan, Kerry L. Fillgrove, Shih Lin Goh, Carolyn Bahnck-Teets, Qian Huang, Fangbiao Li, Bang-Lin Wan, Gregory T. O’Donnell, Jonathan B. Patteson, Maria E. Cilento, Amrith Bennet, Robert P. Hayes, Srivanya Tummala, Carolyn McHale, Judyann Wiltsie, Joan Ellis, Ernest Asante-Appiah, Daria J. Hazuda, Jeffrey Hale, Jay A. Grobler, Min Xu, Tracy L. Diamond, Ming-Tain Lai

Archaea produce peptidoglycan hydrolases that kill bacteria

Romain Strock, Valerie W.C. Soo, Pauline Misson, Georgia Roumelioti, Pavel V. Shliaha, Antoine Hocher, Tobias Warnecke

Related Articles

Genome-wide identification of modulators of Chlamydia trachomatis parasitophorous vacuole stability highlights an important role for sphingolipid supply

Mohammed Rizwan Babu Sait, Lana H. Jachmann, Gözde Türköz, Milica Milivojevic, Celia Llorente-Sáez, Soniya Dhanjal, Fabian Schumacher, Sara Henriksson, Naga Venkata Gayathri Vegesna, Noha Seddik, Anastasiia Chaban, Partha Mohanty, Magnus Ölander, Samada Muraleedharan, Sepideh Farmand Azadeh, Burkhard Kleuser, Bernhard Schmierer, Barbara S. Sixt

An arginine switch drives the stepwise activation of β-arrestin by CXCR7

Jeong Seok Ji, Yaejin Yun, Tomasz Maciej Stepniewski, Hye-Jin Yoon, Kyungjin Min, Ji Young Park, Chiwoon Chung, Miguel Dieguez Eceolaza, Ka Young Chung, Jana Selent, Hyung Ho Lee

Short Reports

Honeybees adapt to a range of comb cell sizes by merging, tilting, and layering their construction

Golnar Gharooni-Fard, Chethan Kavaraganahalli Prasanna, Orit Peleg, Francisco López Jiménez

Chimpanzee mothers, but not fathers, influence offspring vocal–visual communicative behavior

Joseph G. Mine, Laura C. Dees, Claudia Wilke, Erik P. Willems, Zarin P. Machanda, Martin N. Muller, Melissa Emery Thompson, Richard W. Wrangham, Erik J. Scully, Kevin Langergraber, Sabine Stoll, Katie E. Slocombe, Simon W. Townsend

A developmental gradient of COUP-TFI expression regulates the relative size of hippocampus dorsal and ventral subregions

Ching-San Tseng, Zi-hui Zhuang, Hsiang-Wei Hsing, Chia-Ming Lee, Tsan-Ting Hsu, Yu-Kuan Pan, Yi-Ping Hsueh, Bi-Chang Chen, Shen-Ju Chou

Methods and Resources

Defining cellular diversity at the swine maternal–fetal interface using spatial transcriptomics and organoids

Cole R. McCutcheon, Allyson Caldwell, Liheng Yang, Elisa Crisci, Jonathan Alex Pasternak, Carolyn B. Coyne

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Discovery Reports

Streptomyces venezuelae uses secreted chitinases and a designated ABC transporter to support the competitive saprophytic catabolism of chitin

Anne van der Meij, Hannah Tyrrell, Dustin J. Sokolowski, Evan M. F. Shepherdson, Marie A. Elliot, Justin R. Nodwell

Short-range human cortico-cortical white matter fibers have thinner axons and are less myelinated compared to long-range fibers despite a similar g-ratio

Philip Ruthig, David Edler von der Planitz, Maria Morozova, Katja Reimann, Carsten Jäger, Tilo Reinert, Siawoosh Mohammadi, Nikolaus Weiskopf, Evgeniya Kirilina, Markus Morawski