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Current Issue of PLoSBiology

Current Issue | PLOS Biology
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Table of Contents

July 2026

Cover

Dipteran flight diversity is shaped by aerodynamic constraints, scaling, and evolutionary trade-offs
Issue Image

Flight has been a key innovation in insect evolution, yet the selective and mechanistic pressures shaping their flight motor systems remain poorly understood. Le Roy, Bharathi et al. present a comprehensive comparative analysis of flight in Diptera (true flies), integrating morphology, wingbeat kinematics, and aerodynamics within a phylogenetic framework. The authors quantified morphology in 133 species spanning the Dipteran phylogenetic and size range, and for a subset of 46 species, they combined high-speed stereoscopic videography with computational fluid dynamics (CFD) to characterize wingbeat kinematics and aerodynamic performance, respectively. Their results reveal that morphology is strongly structured by phylogeny, whereas wingbeat kinematics are broadly conserved across Diptera, reflecting dominant aerodynamic constraints. Two early-diverged lineages, Culicomorpha (mosquitoes and midges) and Tipulomorpha (crane flies), exhibit strikingly divergent kinematics and aerodynamics, suggesting lineage-specific selective pressures. Combining these data with scaling analyses shows that maintaining in-flight weight support across the dipteran size range requires systematic allometric adjustments in wing morphology, wingbeat kinematics, and flight musculature. These findings provide a mechanistic framework for understanding how complex locomotor systems diversify under multiple selection pressures. The image shows a high-resolution stacked image of the blowfly wing and thorax. The translucent wing attaches via an intricate hinge system to the muscular thorax that powers rapid wingbeats.

Image Credit: Carlos Faulquier

Essays

The primate claustrum as a hub for precision weighting of prediction errors across the cortical hierarchy

Yujie Hou, Alessandra Pizzuti, Kenneth Knoblauch, Julien Vezoli, Rainer Goebel, Martin Vinck, Henry Kennedy

PLOS Biology: published July 16, 2026 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3003906

Resistance potentiators: Evolutionary catalysts of antibiotic resistance

R. Craig MacLean, Adam Mulkern, Liam P. Shaw

PLOS Biology: published July 6, 2026 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3003852

Unsolved Mystery

The G-force in the genome: Unknowns on the functional flairs of DNA G-quadruplexes

Irene Gallina, Sara N. Richter

PLOS Biology: published July 16, 2026 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3003874

Perspectives

Why biology must prioritize data reanalysis in the era of artificial intelligence

Daniel Ghaderi, Ali Sahimi, Benjamin Esser, Kelly V. Ruggles, Roy Maimon

PLOS Biology: published July 22, 2026 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3003888

Towards globally equitable bioinformatics adoption

Paulyna Magaña, Piraveen Gopalasingam, Jennifer R. Fleming, Oleg Kovalevskiy, Augustin Žídek, ThankGod Echezona Ebenezer, Agata Laydon, Roz Onions, Eva Akurut, Syed Muktadir Al Sium, Yalbi Itzel Balderas-Martínez, Sanjana Fatema Chowdhury, Saikat Chowdhury, Sylvia Christie, Govinda Rao Dabburu, Fatoumata Gnine Fofana, Ronald Galiwango, Mahipal Ganji, Daudi Jjingo, Fredrick Elishama Kakembo, Grace Kebirungi, Shahiid Kiyaga, Ayoub Ksouri, Sanjeet Kumar Mahtha, Vinicius Maracaja-Coutinho, Jack Mason, Jose Arturo Molina-Mora, Patricia P. N. Nabisubi, Emmanuel Nji, Houcemeddine Othman, Martina Soledad Paoletta, Nicole M. Scherer, Bhagya Senadheera, Adrián Gustavo Turjanski, David Twesigomwe, Andrew Walakira, Sameer Velankar, Cath Brooksbank

PLOS Biology: published July 1, 2026 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3003839

The cell cloud: Adopting systems biology concepts in the era of single-cell immunology

Tal Shay, Christophe O. Benoist, Ricardo Grieshaber-Bouyer

PLOS Biology: published July 2, 2026 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3003853

Where next for structural bioinformatics?

Joe G. Greener

PLOS Biology: published July 27, 2026 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3003903

Primers

The long horizon of animal study preregistration: Attitudes, barriers, and myths

Pasquale Pellegrini, Ulf Toelch

PLOS Biology: published July 29, 2026 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3003905

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Asymmetry in the evolution of the male and female germlines

Carina F. Mugal, Marie Sémon

PLOS Biology: published July 24, 2026 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3003907

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  1. Comparative single-nucleus transcriptomics reveals asymmetric evolution of the Drosophila male and female germlines

Neurons generated shortly after birth encode the scent of early-life happiness

Chloé Guillaume, Elisa Galliano

PLOS Biology: published July 15, 2026 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3003890

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Wanting this, not that: The neural circuit that turns specific expectations into actions

Joey A. Charbonneau, Erin L. Rich

PLOS Biology: published July 10, 2026 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3003859

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  1. Identity-specific reward expectations in orbitofrontal cortex guide goal-directed choices

Clonal drift in the aging gut: Mapping the fate of stem cells over time

Tzu-Chiao Lu, Hongjie Li

PLOS Biology: published July 23, 2026 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3003928

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Structural snapshots of the glucose-6-phosphate/phosphate exchange cycle

Lin Kevin Qi, Cheng Shen, Motoyuki Hattori

PLOS Biology: published July 29, 2026 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3003913

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  2. Structures of the human glucose-6-phosphate transporter provide insights into its transport cycle and substrate recognition

Research Articles

Viruses help shape microbiome response to polyphenol rewiring of methane-suppressed peat microcosms

James Riddell V, Rokaiya Nurani Shatadru, Garrett J. Smith, Bridget B. McGivern, Jared B. Ellenbogen, Sophie K. Jurgensen, Ami Fofana, Malak M. Tfaily, Kelly C. Wrighton, Matthew B. Sullivan

PLOS Biology: published July 30, 2026 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3003925

Dipteran flight diversity is shaped by aerodynamic constraints, scaling, and evolutionary trade-offs

Camille Le Roy, Ilam Bharathi, Thomas Engels, Florian T. Muijres

PLOS Biology: published July 9, 2026 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3003473

Comparative single-nucleus transcriptomics reveals asymmetric evolution of the Drosophila male and female germlines

Imtiyaz E. Hariyani, Sudeshna Das, Emma M. Le, Carmen Gamero-Castano, Tina Soroudi, Joshua Choi, Spring Momeni, Justin C. Kim, Rongying Lu, Vivek Swarup, José M. Ranz

PLOS Biology: published July 20, 2026 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3003869

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Social learning dynamically shapes moral decision-making by biasing subjective valuation

Julien Benistant, Valentin Guigon, Alain Nicolas, Edmund Derrington, Jean-Claude Dreher

PLOS Biology: published July 10, 2026 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3003889

Shared memories of event details in the human brain are altered by misinformation and test expectations

Xuhao Shao, Chuansheng Chen, Elizabeth F. Loftus, Bi Zhu

PLOS Biology: published July 6, 2026 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3003886

Identity-specific reward expectations in orbitofrontal cortex guide goal-directed choices

Phillip P. Witkowski, Noelle Henein, Nicole Moussa, Geoffrey Schoenbaum, Thorsten Kahnt

PLOS Biology: published July 9, 2026 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3003829

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  1. Wanting this, not that: The neural circuit that turns specific expectations into actions

Disinhibitory signaling enables flexible coding of top-down information in cortical networks

Tomas G. Aquino, Robert Kim, Nuttida Rungratsameetaweemana

PLOS Biology: published July 2, 2026 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3003831

Sequential neural dynamics underlie unconscious integration and conscious perception of visual stimuli

Maëlan Q. Menétrey, Michael H. Herzog, David Pascucci

PLOS Biology: published July 6, 2026 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3003894

Endogenous auditory and motor brain rhythms predict individual speech tracking

Christina Lubinus, Anne Keitel, Jonas Obleser, David Poeppel, Johanna M. Rimmele

PLOS Biology: published July 31, 2026 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3003924

Competing speech streams are simultaneously represented in the human cortex during attention switching

Sara Carta, Emina Aličković, Johannes Zaar, Alejandro López Valdés, Giovanni M. Di Liberto

PLOS Biology: published July 16, 2026 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3003876

Noise-invariant representations of sound emerge along the canonical cortical hierarchy

Tomas Suarez Omedas, Ross S. Williamson

PLOS Biology: published July 20, 2026 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3003915

Positive early-life olfactory memory is rooted in the olfactory bulb and triggers large-scale changes beyond the olfactory system

Jules Dejou, Anna Athanassi, Théo Brunel, Marc Thevenet, Anne Didier, Nathalie Mandairon

PLOS Biology: published July 14, 2026 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3003845

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Competing value signals impair reward-learning via dopaminergic mechanisms and increase exploration

Wen-Wei Lin, Pei-Yu Lee, Hsin-Yun Tsai, Yi-Hsuan Lin, Min-Min Lin, Zheng-Liang Lu, Mei-Yu Yeh, Ming-Tsung Tseng

PLOS Biology: published July 24, 2026 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3003922

GABA neurons in the sublaterodorsal tegmental nucleus suppress wakefulness in healthy and narcoleptic mice

HanHee Lee, Jimmy J. Fraigne, John H. Peever

PLOS Biology: published July 8, 2026 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3003303

Retrosplenial cortical reorganization during late adolescence introduces instability of contextual memory circuits

Hui Zhang, Zorica Petrovic, Elizabeth M. Wood, Ana Cicvaric, Maayan Krispil-Alon, Vladimir Jovasevic, Kendra Parker, Thomas E. Bassett, Anna Carboncino, Anita L. Guedea, Pengfei Yi, Gal Richter-Levin, J. Tiago Gonçalves, Jelena Radulovic

PLOS Biology: published July 17, 2026 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3003908

A developmental shift in glucocorticoid receptor expression preserves glucocorticoid sensitivity in the adult suprachiasmatic nucleus

Kristian Händler, Varun K. A. Sreenivasan, Violetta Pilorz, Celia Martinez-Perez, Iratxe Elorduy, Tomas J. Casas, Marianne Lehmann, Jon Olano Bringas, Laura Escobar Castañondo, Nora Bengoa-Vergniory, Federico N. Soria, Henrik Oster, Malte Spielmann, Mariana Astiz

PLOS Biology: published July 7, 2026 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3003870

A desynchrony mechanism between events triggers a compensatory delay during Caenorhabditis elegans development

Francisco Javier Romero-Expósito, Almudena Moreno-Rivero, Marta Muñoz-Barrera, Nicola Gritti, Francesca Sartor, Martha Merrow, Jeroen S. van Zon, Alejandro Mata-Cabana, María Olmedo

PLOS Biology: published July 24, 2026 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3003867

Dachsous-Fat signaling shapes the Drosophila wing through mechanical forces

Bipin Kumar Tripathi, Zhenru Zhou, Kenneth D. Irvine

PLOS Biology: published July 14, 2026 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3003883

The zinc-finger protein ZC3H10 suppresses type I interferon responses during viral infection by repressing interferon-stimulated gene promoters

Xiaojing Dong, Xiaoyan Zuo, Xia Xiao, Shichao Ma, Lili Ren, Zhuo Zhou, Xiaobo Lei, Jianwei Wang

PLOS Biology: published July 16, 2026 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3003881

Cell type-specific Ca2+ signals govern mouse seminiferous tubule physiology

Justine A. Fischoeder, David Fleck, Jerome Schröer, Christopher Wiesbrock, Lina Kenzler, Christoph Weber-Hamacher, Ilian Schröder, Melissa Franke, Stefanie Kurth, Martin Strauch, Guiscard Seebohm, Dorit Merhof, Johannes Stegmaier, Naofumi Uesaka, Jennifer Spehr, Marc Spehr

PLOS Biology: published July 24, 2026 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3003910

Peroxisomal import is circadian in glia and regulates sleep and lipid metabolism

Anurag Das, Irma Magaly Rivas-Serna, Ankur Kumar, Lakpa Sherpa, Kerui Huang, Hia Kalita, Marlene Dorneich-Hayes, Ruiqi Liu, Vera C. Mazurak, John P. Vaughen, Hua Bai

PLOS Biology: published July 15, 2026 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3003901

Meis1 isoform diversity orchestrates neural progenitor differentiation by regulating ATOH1 degradation at distinct subcellular compartments

Tomoo Owa, Toma Adachi, Ryo Shiraishi, Kentaro Ichijo, Kaiyuan Ji, Minami Mizuno, Kyoka Suyama, Kayo Nishitani, Ikuko Hasegawa, Masaki Sone, Daisuke Kawauchi, Tomoki Nishioka, Shinichiro Taya, Yutaka Suzuki, Kozo Kaibuchi, Satoshi Miyashita, Mikio Hoshino

PLOS Biology: published July 13, 2026 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3003897

Engineering resilient gene drives for sustainable malaria control by predicting, testing and overcoming target site resistance in Anopheles gambiae

Ioanna Morianou, Lee Phillimore, Bhavin S. Khatri, Louise Marston, Matthew Gribble, Austin Burt, Federica Bernardini, Andrew M. Hammond, Tony Nolan, Andrea Crisanti

PLOS Biology: published July 6, 2026 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3003879

sept-1/zina-1 is an ancient toxin-antidote system in Caenorhabditis elegans

Dongyao Liu, Chaogu Zheng

PLOS Biology: published July 23, 2026 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3003563

siRNA-guided DNA-methylation at a sucrose transporter gene potentially contributes to climatic plant adaptation

Jianqiu Li, Min Song, Qiyu Xu, Yunjia Tang, Johannes Liesche

PLOS Biology: published July 30, 2026 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3003919

Neuronal protein Sex-lethal modulates tRNA synthesis via the polymerase III subunit Polr3E in male Drosophila neurons

Freya Storer, Colin D. McClure, Alicia Estacio Gomez, Lucy J. Minkley, Tsz Lam Wong, Nina Markevych, Tony D. Southall

PLOS Biology: published July 17, 2026 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3003863

Queuosine tRNA modification regulates translational adaptation and virulence of Leishmania mexicana

Bankatesh Kumar, Julie Kovářová, Michala Boudová, Sneha Kulkarni, Thalia Pacheco Fernandez, Abhay Satoskar, Zdeněk Paris

PLOS Biology: published July 17, 2026 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3003887

Short Reports

Flight style and metabolism shape the tempo of genome evolution in birds

Yanzhu Ji, Lei Wu, Dongming Li, Shaohong Feng, Qi Fang, Ying Xiong, Yongbin Chang, Jacob C. Cooper, Xin Yu, Kai Zhang, Shiyu Tang, Huishang She, Huan Wang, Dezhi Zhang, Gang Song, Ping Fan, Jiaogen Zhou, Liang Ma, Yanhua Qu, Chenxi Jia, Catherine Sheard, James Andrew DeWoody, Joseph A. Tobias, Guojie Zhang, Weiwei Zhai, Fumin Lei

PLOS Biology: published July 14, 2026 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3003884

Structural basis for substrate recognition and inhibition of human glucose-6-phosphate transporter SLC37A4

Hui Li, Xiaomin Peng, Yuwen Huang, Wencheng Wu, Nan Li, Ziqi Cheng, Xuepeng Wei

PLOS Biology: published July 28, 2026 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3003833

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Methods and Resources

Realistic monkey body animation reveals an uncanny valley in macaque body perception

Lucas M. Martini, Anna Bognár, Rufin Vogels, Martin A. Giese

PLOS Biology: published July 14, 2026 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3003880

A high-resolution phenotypic screen identifies regulators of CNS axon diameter in zebrafish

Maria A. Eichel-Vogel, Daniel Y. H. Soong, Melody N. Sequeira, Maya L. A. Ibenfeldt, Katy L. H. Marshall-Phelps, Jenea M. Bin, David A. Lyons

PLOS Biology: published July 17, 2026 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3003895

Meta-Research Article

A survey of researchers’ attitudes to preregistration in animal research reveals multiple perceived barriers to adoption

Cristina Priboi, Boris Mayer, Evie Vergauwe, Bernice S. Elger, Hanno Würbel

PLOS Biology: published July 28, 2026 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3003511

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Discovery Report

Growth-density inversion in Escherichia coli reveals superlinear, not sublinear, density dependence

James A. Orr, Kaleigh E. Davis, Alicia H. Williams, Jan Engelstädter, Daniel B. Stouffer, Andrew D. Letten

PLOS Biology: published July 16, 2026 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3003898

Editorial Note

Editorial Note: A nonenzymatic dependency on inositol-requiring enzyme 1 controls cancer cell cycle progression and tumor growth

The PLOS Biology Editors

PLOS Biology: published July 29, 2026 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3003920

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