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In many animal species, the juvenile period is under strong selection, leading to a concentration of social learning during this stage as an efficient strategy for young individuals to acquire skills essential for survival. However, as social learning is not always adaptive, juveniles need to be strategic in when, who, and what to copy. In species with extended parental care, parents are often preferred sources of information, leading to stable intergenerational transmission of knowledge. However, little is known about transmission pathways in species with limited periods of parental care, and their implication for cultural inheritance. Wild et al. investigate social learning strategies during development in a model species with a dependence period of a few weeks, the great tit (Parus major). Using fully automated two-option foraging puzzles, the authors diffused knowledge about the puzzle through breeding populations and then constrained parental individuals’ choices such that parents either (1) both had knowledge of the same option, (2) had conflicting knowledge of the two options, or (3) had no knowledge of how to solve the puzzle. They then tracked solving behavior of 229 newly fledged juveniles over 10 weeks. Parental solving frequency during dependence strongly predicted knowledge acquisition by offspring, suggesting intergenerational cultural inheritance. However, detailed investigation of learning pathways revealed siblings as the most important role models for social learning, followed by nonparental adults and parents. The image shows a juvenile great tit solving a foraging puzzle by pushing a sliding door to the left while being observed by two other juvenile birds.

Image Credit: Sonja Wild

Essays

How to harness the effects of exudates and microbes that support beneficial plant–plant interactions for sustainable agriculture

Eva Marina Stirnemann, Joëlle Sasse

PLOS Biology: published October 16, 2025 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3003416

Disease-associated microglia in neurodegenerative diseases: Friend or foe?

Yi-Hsuan Cheng, Margaret S. Ho

PLOS Biology: published October 21, 2025 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3003426

Targeting mitochondrial structure and dynamics for therapeutic intervention in cancer

Wakiko Iwata, Nora Haggerty, Hiromi Sesaki, Miho Iijima

PLOS Biology: published October 22, 2025 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3003453

Perspective

Better understanding of laboratory animal genetics will improve reproducibility

Guillaume Pavlovic, Sara Wells, Yann Hérault, Lydia Teboul

PLOS Biology: published October 30, 2025 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3003464

Primers

New extensive sampling transforms our understanding of global marine diversity

Jonathan Belmaker

PLOS Biology: published October 31, 2025 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3003440

Astrocytes serve as integrative hubs regulating sleep and arousal

Ashley M. Ingiosi

PLOS Biology: published October 3, 2025 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3003389

Illuminating calcium and potassium dynamics with red fluorescent sensors

Lan Geng, Yulong Li

PLOS Biology: published October 21, 2025 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3003460

Community Page

When goodbye comes too soon: How to wrap up science projects quickly

Megan Hastings Hagenauer, Stacey J. Winham, Alexandra L. J. Freeman, Paul W. Sternberg, Benedict J. Kolber

PLOS Biology: published October 21, 2025 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3003455

Research Articles

eDNA surveys substantially expand known geographic and ecological niche boundaries of marine fishes

Loïc Sanchez, Nicolas Loiseau, Camille Albouy, Morgane Bruno, Adèle Barroil, Alicia Dalongeville, Julie Deter, Jean-Dominique Durand, Nadia Faure, Fabian Fopp, Régis Hocdé, Mélissa Jaquier, Narriman S. Jiddawi, Meret Jucker, Jean-Baptiste Juhel, Kadarusman, Virginie Marques, Laëtitia Mathon, David Mouillot, Marie Orblin, Loïc Pellissier, Raphaël Seguin, Hagi Yulia Sugeha, Alice Valentini, Laure Velez, Indra Bayu Vimono, Fabien Leprieur, Stéphanie Manel

PLOS Biology: published October 30, 2025 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3003432

A large-scale study across the avian clade identifies ecological drivers of neophobia

ManyBirds Project, Rachael Miller, Vedrana Šlipogor, Kai R. Caspar, Jimena Lois-Milevicich, Carl Soulsbury, Stephan A. Reber, Claudia Mettke-Hofmann, Megan Lambert, Benjamin J. Ashton, Alice M. I. Auersperg, Melissa Bateson, Solenne Belle, Boris Bilčík, Laura M. Biondi, Francesco Bonadonna, Desiree Brucks, Michael W. Butler, Samuel P. Caro, Marion Charrier, Tiffany Chatelin, Johnathan Ching, Nicola S. Clayton, Benjamin J. Cluver, Ella B. Cochran, Francesca Cornero, Emily Danby, Samara Danel, Martina Darwich, James R. Davies, Alicia de la Colina, Dominik Fischer, Ondřej Fišer, Florencia Foitzick, Edward C. Galluccio, Clara Garcia-Co, Elias Garcia-Pelegrin, Isabelle George, Kai-Philipp Gladow, Raúl O. Gómez, Anna Grewer, Katie Grice, Lauren M. Guillette, Devon C. Hallihan, Katie J. Harrington, Frauke Heer, Chloe Henry, Vladimira Hodova, Marisa Hoeschele, Cécilia Houdelier, Paula Ibáñez de Aldecoa, Oluwaseun Serah Iyasere, Yuka Kanemitsu, Mina Khodadadi, Duc Khong, Melanie G. Kimball, Ariana N. Klappert, Lucy N. Koch, Uta U. König von Borstel, Lubor Košt’ál, Anastasia Krasheninnikova, Lubica Kubikova, Connor T. Lambert, Daan W. Laméris, Courtenay G. Lampert, Oceane Larousse, Christine R. Lattin, Zhongqiu Li, Michael Lindenmeier, Delia A. Lister, Julia A. Mackenzie, Selina Mainz, Danna Masri, Jorg J. M. Massen, Laurenz Mohr, Wendt Müller, Paul M. Nealen, Andreas Nieder, Aurèle Novac, Nínive Paes Cavalcante, Kristina Pascual, Carla Pascual-Guàrdia, Ayushi Patel, Katarína Pichová, Cristina Pilenga, Laurent Prétôt, John L. Quinn, Elena Račevska, Juan C. Reboreda, Sam Reynolds, Amanda R. Ridley, Theresa Rössler, Francisco Ruiz-Raya, Marina Salas, Beatriz C. Saldanha, Sebastián M. Santiago, Nikola Schlöglová, Gia Seatriz, Eva Serrano-Davies, Eva G. Shair Ali, Janja Sirovnik, Zuzana Skalná, Katie E. Slocombe, Masayo Soma, Tiziana Srdoc, Stefan Stanescu, Michaela Syrová, Alex H. Taylor, Christopher N. Templeton, Karlie Thompson, Sandra Trigo, Camille A. Troisi, Utku Urhan, Maurice Valbert, Kees van Oers, Alberto Velando, Frederick Verbruggen, Jorrit W. Verkleij, Alizée Vernouillet, Jonas Verspeek, Petr Veselý, Auguste M. P. von Bayern, Eline Waalders, Benjamin A. Whittaker, Ella R. Williamson, Vanessa A. D. Wilson, Michelle A. Winfield, Neslihan Wittek, Karen K. L. Yeung, Jade A. Zanutto

PLOS Biology: published October 14, 2025 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3003394

Simple scaling laws control the genetic architectures of human complex traits

Yuval B. Simons, Hakhamanesh Mostafavi, Huisheng Zhu, Courtney J. Smith, Jonathan K. Pritchard, Guy Sella

PLOS Biology: published October 13, 2025 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3003402

The complex evolution and genomic dynamics of mating-type loci in Cryptococcus and Kwoniella

Marco A. Coelho, Márcia David-Palma, Seonju Marincowitz, Janneke Aylward, Nam Q. Pham, Andrey M. Yurkov, Brenda D. Wingfield, Michael J. Wingfield, Sheng Sun, Joseph Heitman

PLOS Biology: published October 3, 2025 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3003417

Phylogenomic signatures of repeat-induced point mutations across the fungal kingdom

Thomas Badet, Daniel Croll

PLOS Biology: published October 15, 2025 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3003433

Forty new genomes shed light on sexual reproduction and the origin of tetraploidy in Microsporidia

Amjad Khalaf, Chenxi Zhou, Claudia C. Weber, Emmelien Vancaester, Ying Sims, Alex Makunin, Thomas C. Mathers, Dominic E. Absolon, Jonathan M. D. Wood, Shane A. McCarthy, Kamil S. Jaron, Mark Blaxter, Mara K. N. Lawniczak

PLOS Biology: published October 21, 2025 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3003446

Human brain integrates both unconditional and conditional timing statistics to guide expectation and behavior

Yiyuan Teresa Huang, Zenas C. Chao

PLOS Biology: published October 23, 2025 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3003459

Hemispherotomy leads to persistent sleep-like slow waves in the isolated cortex of awake humans

Michele Angelo Colombo, Jacopo Favaro, Ezequiel Mikulan, Andrea Pigorini, Flavia Maria Zauli, Ivana Sartori, Piergiorgio d’Orio, Laura Castana, Irene Toldo, Stefano Sartori, Simone Sarasso, Tim Bayne, Anil K. Seth, Marcello Massimini

PLOS Biology: published October 16, 2025 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3003060

Identification of five sleep-biopsychosocial profiles with specific neural signatures linking sleep variability with health, cognition, and lifestyle factors

Aurore A. Perrault, Valeria Kebets, Nicole M. Y. Kuek, Nathan E. Cross, Rackeb Tesfaye, Florence B. Pomares, Jingwei Li, Michael W. L. Chee, Thien Thanh Dang-Vu, B. T. Thomas Yeo

PLOS Biology: published October 7, 2025 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3003399

Brain-age models with lower age prediction accuracy have higher sensitivity for disease detection

Marc-Andre Schulz, Nys Tjade Siegel, Kerstin Ritter

PLOS Biology: published October 28, 2025 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3003451

Neural variability reliably encodes interindividual differences in the perception of pain intensity

Li-Bo Zhang, Xin-Yi Geng, Li Hu

PLOS Biology: published October 27, 2025 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3003470

Sound feature representations decorrelate across the mouse auditory pathway

Etienne Gosselin, Sophie Bagur, Sara Jamali, Jean-Luc Puel, Jérôme Bourien, Brice Bathellier

PLOS Biology: published October 24, 2025 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3003452

Recurrent circuits encode de novo visual center-surround computations in the mouse superior colliculus

Peng Cui, Kuisong Song, Dimitrios Mariatos-Metaxas, Arturo G. Isla, Teresa Femenia, Iakovos Lazaridis, Konstantinos Meletis, Arvind Kumar, Andreas A. Kardamakis

PLOS Biology: published October 16, 2025 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3003414

Combining gamma neuromodulation and robotic rehabilitation after a stroke restores parvalbumin interneuron dynamics and improves motor recovery in mice

Livia Vignozzi, Francesca Macchi, Elena Montagni, Maria Pasquini, Alessandra Martello, Antea Minetti, Éléa Coulomb, Anna Letizia Allegra Mascaro, Silvestro Micera, Matteo Caleo, Cristina Spalletti

PLOS Biology: published October 14, 2025 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3002806

Hippocampal pyramidal cells of the CA1 region are not a major target of the thalamic nucleus reuniens

Lilya Andrianova, Paul J. Banks, Clair A. Booth, Erica S. Brady, Gabriella Margetts-Smith, Shivali Kohli, Jonathan Cavanagh, Zafar I. Bashir, Chris J. McBain, Michael T. Craig

PLOS Biology: published October 13, 2025 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3003419

Cortical astrocyte histamine-1-receptors regulate intracellular calcium and extracellular adenosine dynamics across sleep and wake

Charlotte R. Taylor, Vincent Tse, Drew D. Willoughby, Maxine Levesque, Trisha V. Vaidyanathan, Jeanne T. Paz, Kira E. Poskanzer

PLOS Biology: published October 2, 2025 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3003376

Nicotine induces abnormal motor coupling through sensitization of a mechanosensory circuit in Caenorhabditis elegans

Yuting Liu, Leiru Huang, Ruipeng Wang, Fukang Qi, Yiwen Liu, Qingyuan Chen, Morgane Mialon, Lili Chen, Berangere Pinan-Lucarre, Shangbang Gao

PLOS Biology: published October 3, 2025 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3003423

Octopamine signaling regulates the intracellular pattern of the presynaptic active zone scaffold within Drosophila mushroom body neurons

Hongyang Wu, Sayaka Eno, Kyoko Jinnai, Ayako Abe, Kokoro Saito, Yoh Maekawa, Darren W. Williams, Nobuhiro Yamagata, Shu Kondo, Hiromu Tanimoto

PLOS Biology: published October 23, 2025 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3003449

Increased urea nitrogen salvaging by a remodeled gut microbiota helps nonhibernating pikas maintain protein homeostasis during winter

Fuyu Shi, Desheng Zou, Liangzhi Zhang, Na Guo, Jiangkun Yu, Abraham Allan Degen, Xianjiang Tang, Shien Ren, Yuning Ru, Shuai Zheng, Yanming Zhang, Dehua Wang

PLOS Biology: published October 16, 2025 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3003436

Calcium signaling is required for anterior patterning in the mouse embryo

Matthew J. Stower, Richard C. V. Tyser, Shifaan Thowfeequ, Felix Zhou, Marta Portela, Konstantinos Miti, Jacintha Sugnaseelan, Xin Lu, Shankar Srinivas

PLOS Biology: published October 6, 2025 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3003430

Dual transcriptional activities of PAX3 and PAX7 spatially encode spinal cell fates through distinct gene networks

Robin Rondon, Théaud Hezez, Julien Richard Albert, Shinichiro Hayashi, Bernadette Drayton-Libotte, Gloria Gonzalez Curto, Frédéric Auradé, Elie Balloul, Claire Dugast-Darzacq, Frédéric Relaix, Pascale Gilardi-Hebenstreit, Vanessa Ribes

PLOS Biology: published October 24, 2025 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3003448

PRMT5 regulates alternative splicing of TCF3 under hypoxia to promote EMT and invasion in breast cancer

Srinivas Abhishek Mutnuru, Pooja Yadav, Parik Kakani, Shruti Ganesh Dhamdhere, Poorva Kumari, Shruti Agrawal, Atul Samaiya, Sanjeev Shukla

PLOS Biology: published October 28, 2025 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3003444

Malaria parasites can optimize transmission investment by sensing two within-host cues

Avril Wang, Megan Ann Greischar, Nicole Mideo

PLOS Biology: published October 9, 2025 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3003081

Expansion of the functional genomics GRACE library reveals genes relevant for temperature-dependent fitness in Candida albicans

Ci Fu, Emily H. Xiong, Livia Kupczok, Linda S. Archambault, Timothy R. W. Wang, Caitlin Holleran, Duncan Carruthers-Lay, Ting Xuan Zhuang, Sofia Marcoccia, Haoyang Zhang, Kevin Chen, Daniel Anderson, Bonnie Yiu, Zhongle Liu, Lydia Herzel, Nicole Robbins, Leah E. Cowen

PLOS Biology: published October 17, 2025 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3003409

New retron systems from environmental bacteria identify triggers of anti-phage defense and expand tools for genome editing

Kazuo L. Nakamura, Karen Zhang, Mario R. Mestre, Matías Rojas-Montero, Seth L. Shipman

PLOS Biology: published October 23, 2025 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3003042

Impeding pathways of intrinsic resistance in Escherichia coli confers antibiotic sensitization and resistance proofing

Manasvi Balachandran, Rohini Chatterjee, Ishaan Chaudhary, Chinmaya Jena, Nishad Matange

PLOS Biology: published October 22, 2025 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3003443

Mammalian antiviral proteins ZAP and KHNYN can independently restrict CpG-enriched avian viruses

Jordan T. Becker, Clayton K. Mickelson, Lauren M. Pross, Autumn E. Sanders, Esther R. Vogt, Frances K. Shepherd, Chloe Wick, Alison J. Barkhymer, Stephanie L. Aron, Elizabeth J. Fay, Reuben S. Harris, Ryan A. Langlois

PLOS Biology: published October 28, 2025 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3003471

The Ync13–Rga7–Rng10 complex selectively coordinates secretory vesicle trafficking and secondary septum formation during cytokinesis

Sha Zhang, Davinder Singh, Yi-Hua Zhu, Katherine J. Zhang, Alejandro Melero, Sophie G. Martin, Jian-Qiu Wu

PLOS Biology: published October 27, 2025 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3003466

Visualization of Trypanosoma brucei flagellar pocket collar biogenesis identifies two new cytoskeletal structures

Marie Zelená, Elina Casas, Chloé Lambert, Nicolas Landrein, Denis Dacheux, Eloïse Bertiaux, Kim Ivan Abesamis, Gang Dong, Vladimir Varga, Derrick Roy Robinson, Mélanie Bonhivers

PLOS Biology: published October 9, 2025 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3003429

The core outer junction protein CFAP77 connects A- and B-tubules within doublet microtubules of cilia and flagella

Lan Xia, Guo-Liang Yin, Yu Long, Fei Sun, Bin-Bin Wang, Yun Zhu, Su-Ren Chen

PLOS Biology: published October 21, 2025 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3003442

Short Reports

Siblings and nonparental adults provide alternative pathways to cultural inheritance in juvenile great tits

Sonja Wild, Gustavo Alarcón-Nieto, Lucy M. Aplin

PLOS Biology: published October 9, 2025 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3003401

Distinct alpha networks modulate different aspects of perceptual decision-making

Ying Joey Zhou, Mats W. J. van Es, Saskia Haegens

PLOS Biology: published October 22, 2025 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3003461

The superficial layers of the primary visual cortex create a saliency map that feeds forward to the parietal cortex

Chen Liu, Chengwen Liu, Laurentius Huber, Li Zhaoping, Peng Zhang

PLOS Biology: published October 14, 2025 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3003159

The auditory brainstem response to natural speech is not affected by selective attention

Thomas J. Stoll, Nathan D. Vandjelovic, Melissa J. Polonenko, Nadja R. S. Li, Adrian K. C. Lee, Ross K. Maddox

PLOS Biology: published October 6, 2025 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3003407

Persistent viral infections impact key biological traits in Drosophila melanogaster

Mauro Castelló-Sanjuán, Rubén González, Ottavia Romoli, Hervé Blanc, Jared C. Nigg, Maria-Carla Saleh

PLOS Biology: published October 9, 2025 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3003437

Methods and Resources

The future-focused Proactive Conservation Index highlights unrecognized global priorities for vertebrate conservation

Gabriel Henrique de Oliveira Caetano, Gopal Murali, Daniel Pincheira-Donoso, Reut Vardi, Lior Greenspoon, Shai Meiri, Uri Roll

PLOS Biology: published October 21, 2025 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3003422

DISSeCT: An unsupervised framework for high-resolution mapping of rodent behavior using inertial sensors

Romain Fayat, Marie Sarraudy, Clément Léna, Daniela Popa, Pierre Latouche, Guillaume P. Dugué

PLOS Biology: published October 9, 2025 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3003431

Seizure evolution in a mouse model of West syndrome involves complex and time-dependent synapse remodeling, gliosis and alterations in lipid metabolism

Ruiying Ma, Muwon Kang, Gyu Hyun Kim, Hyojin Kang, Sunho Lee, Yeji Yang, Hea Ji Lee, Seungji Choi, Seungsoo Kim, Seoyeong Kim, Yukyung Jun, Hyewon Kim, Yinhua Zhang, U Suk Kim, Hyae Rim Kang, Yoonhee Kim, Yulim Lee, Woosuk Chung, Eun Jung Lee, Serk In Park, Eunha Kim, Minji Jeon, Geum-Sook Hwang, Jungmin Choi, Youngae Jung, Jin Young Kim, Eunjoon Kim, Kea Joo Lee, Kihoon Han

PLOS Biology: published October 9, 2025 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3003192

Identification and characterization of tumor-associated astrocyte subpopulations and their interactions with the tumor microenvironment in experimental glioblastomas

Mitrajit Ghosh, Paulina Pilanc-Kudlek, Szymon Baluszek, Karol Jacek, Katarzyna Poleszak, Paulina Szadkowska, Anna M. Lenkiewicz, Bartłomiej Gielniewski, Aleksandra Ellert-Miklaszewska, Maria G. Castro, Bozena Kaminska

PLOS Biology: published October 13, 2025 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3002893

Meta-Research Articles

High prevalence of articles with image-related problems in animal studies of subarachnoid hemorrhage and low rates of correction by publishers

René Aquarius, Merel van de Voort, Hieronymus D. Boogaarts, P. Manon Reesink, Kimberley E. Wever

PLOS Biology: published October 30, 2025 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3003438

FAIR-SMART expands access to supplementary materials for research transparency

Chih-Hsuan Wei, Robert Leaman, Po-Ting Lai, Don Comeau, Shubo Tian, Zhiyong Lu

PLOS Biology: published October 9, 2025 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3003428

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October 2025

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Siblings and nonparental adults provide alternative pathways to cultural inheritance in juvenile great tits

Essays

Perspective

Primers

Related Articles

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Related Articles

Community Page

Research Articles

Related Articles

Related Articles

Short Reports

Methods and Resources

Meta-Research Articles

This page is brought to you by Brian Golding (Golding@McMaster.CA) and is copied locally here to speed your access. To go to the original page (should you find something interesting or should you wish to follow links) click on

Current Issue of PLoSBiology