PLoS BiologyPub Date : 2025-03-28DOI: 10.1371/journal.pbio.3003018
David Acunzo, Damiano Grignolio, Clayton Hickey
{"title":"Neural mechanisms for the attention-mediated propagation of conceptual information in the human brain.","authors":"David Acunzo, Damiano Grignolio, Clayton Hickey","doi":"10.1371/journal.pbio.3003018","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3003018","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The visual environment is complicated, and humans and other animals accordingly prioritize some sources of information over others through the deployment of spatial attention. Cognitive theories propose that one core purpose of this is to gather information that can be used in downstream cognitive processes, including the development of concepts and categories. However, neuroscientific investigation has focused closely on the identification of the systems and algorithms that support attentional control or that instantiate the effect of attention on sensation and perception. Much less is known about how attention impacts the acquisition and activation of concepts. Here, we use machine learning of EEG and concurrently recorded EEG/MRI to temporally and anatomically characterize the neural network that abstracts from attended perceptual information to activate and construct semantic and conceptual representations. We find that variance in the amplitude of N2pc-an event-related potential (ERP) component closely linked to selective attention-predicts the emergence of conceptual information in a network including VMPFC, posterior parietal cortex, and anterior insula. This network appears to play a key role in the attention-mediated translation of perceptual information to concepts, semantics, and action plans.</p>","PeriodicalId":49001,"journal":{"name":"PLoS Biology","volume":"23 3","pages":"e3003018"},"PeriodicalIF":9.8,"publicationDate":"2025-03-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143736151","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
PLoS BiologyPub Date : 2025-03-27eCollection Date: 2025-03-01DOI: 10.1371/journal.pbio.3003107
{"title":"Editorial Note: How sex chromosomes get trapped into nonrecombination.","authors":"","doi":"10.1371/journal.pbio.3003107","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3003107","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":49001,"journal":{"name":"PLoS Biology","volume":"23 3","pages":"e3003107"},"PeriodicalIF":9.8,"publicationDate":"2025-03-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143732715","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
PLoS BiologyPub Date : 2025-03-27eCollection Date: 2025-03-01DOI: 10.1371/journal.pbio.3003093
Manuel Delgado-Baquerizo, David J Eldridge, Yu-Rong Liu, Zhong-Wen Liu, Claudia Coleine, Pankaj Trivedi
{"title":"Soil biodiversity and function under global change.","authors":"Manuel Delgado-Baquerizo, David J Eldridge, Yu-Rong Liu, Zhong-Wen Liu, Claudia Coleine, Pankaj Trivedi","doi":"10.1371/journal.pbio.3003093","DOIUrl":"10.1371/journal.pbio.3003093","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Soil organisms represent the most abundant and diverse organisms on the planet and support almost every ecosystem function we know, and thus impact our daily lives. Some of these impacts have been well-documented, such as the role of soil organisms in regulating soil fertility and carbon sequestration; processes that have direct implications for essential ecosystem services including food security and climate change mitigation. Moreover, soil biodiversity also plays a critical role in supporting other aspects from One Health-the combined health of humans, animals, and the environment-to the conservation of historic structures such as monuments. Unfortunately, soil biodiversity is also highly vulnerable to a growing number of stressors associated with global environmental change. Understanding how and when soil biodiversity supports these functions, and how it will adapt to changing environmental conditions, is crucial for conserving soils and maintaining soil processes for future generations. In this Essay, we discuss the fundamental importance of soil biodiversity for supporting multiple ecosystem services and One Health, and further highlight essential knowledge gaps that need to be addressed to conserve soil biodiversity for the next generations.</p>","PeriodicalId":49001,"journal":{"name":"PLoS Biology","volume":"23 3","pages":"e3003093"},"PeriodicalIF":9.8,"publicationDate":"2025-03-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143732717","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
PLoS BiologyPub Date : 2025-03-27eCollection Date: 2025-03-01DOI: 10.1371/journal.pbio.3003106
{"title":"Retraction: Sheltering of deleterious mutations explains the stepwise extension of recombination suppression on sex chromosomes and other supergenes.","authors":"","doi":"10.1371/journal.pbio.3003106","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3003106","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":49001,"journal":{"name":"PLoS Biology","volume":"23 3","pages":"e3003106"},"PeriodicalIF":9.8,"publicationDate":"2025-03-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143732716","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
PLoS BiologyPub Date : 2025-03-26DOI: 10.1371/journal.pbio.3003014
Joseph D Jones, Brandon L Holder, Andrew C Montgomery, Chloe V McAdams, Emily He, Anna E Burns, Kiran R Eiken, Alex Vogt, Adriana I Velarde, Alexandra J Elder, Jennifer A McEllin, Stephane Dissel
{"title":"The dorsal fan-shaped body is a neurochemically heterogeneous sleep-regulating center in Drosophila.","authors":"Joseph D Jones, Brandon L Holder, Andrew C Montgomery, Chloe V McAdams, Emily He, Anna E Burns, Kiran R Eiken, Alex Vogt, Adriana I Velarde, Alexandra J Elder, Jennifer A McEllin, Stephane Dissel","doi":"10.1371/journal.pbio.3003014","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3003014","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Sleep is a behavior that is conserved throughout the animal kingdom. Yet, despite extensive studies in humans and animal models, the exact function or functions of sleep remain(s) unknown. A complicating factor in trying to elucidate the function of sleep is the complexity and multiplicity of neuronal circuits that are involved in sleep regulation. It is conceivable that distinct sleep-regulating circuits are only involved in specific aspects of sleep and may underlie different sleep functions. Thus, it would be beneficial to assess the contribution of individual circuits in sleep's putative functions. The intricacy of the mammalian brain makes this task extremely difficult. However, the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster, with its simpler brain organization, available connectomics, and unparalleled genetics, offers the opportunity to interrogate individual sleep-regulating centers. In Drosophila, neurons projecting to the dorsal fan-shaped body (dFB) have been proposed to be key regulators of sleep, particularly sleep homeostasis. We recently demonstrated that the most widely used genetic tool to manipulate dFB neurons, the 23E10-GAL4 driver, expresses in 2 sleep-regulating neurons (VNC-SP neurons) located in the ventral nerve cord (VNC), the fly analog of the vertebrate spinal cord. Since most data supporting a role for the dFB in sleep regulation have been obtained using 23E10-GAL4, it is unclear whether the sleep phenotypes reported in these studies are caused by dFB neurons or VNC-SP cells. A recent publication replicated our finding that 23E10-GAL4 contains sleep-promoting neurons in the VNC. However, it also proposed that the dFB is not involved in sleep regulation at all, but this suggestion was made using genetic tools that are not dFB-specific and a very mild sleep deprivation protocol. In this study, using a newly created dFB-specific genetic driver line, we demonstrate that optogenetic activation of the majority of 23E10-GAL4 dFB neurons promotes sleep and that these neurons are involved in sleep homeostasis. We also show that dFB neurons require stronger stimulation than VNC-SP cells to promote sleep. In addition, we demonstrate that dFB-induced sleep can consolidate short-term memory (STM) into long-term memory (LTM), suggesting that the benefit of sleep on memory is not circuit-specific. Finally, we show that dFB neurons are neurochemically heterogeneous and can be divided in 3 populations. Most dFB neurons express both glutamate and acetylcholine, while a minority of cells expresses only one of these 2 neurotransmitters. Importantly, dFB neurons do not express GABA, as previously suggested. Using neurotransmitter-specific dFB tools, our data also points at cholinergic dFB neurons as particularly potent at regulating sleep and sleep homeostasis.</p>","PeriodicalId":49001,"journal":{"name":"PLoS Biology","volume":"23 3","pages":"e3003014"},"PeriodicalIF":9.8,"publicationDate":"2025-03-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143732718","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
PLoS BiologyPub Date : 2025-03-25DOI: 10.1371/journal.pbio.3003127
Daniel Routledge, Nonia Pariente
{"title":"On improving the sustainability of peer review.","authors":"Daniel Routledge, Nonia Pariente","doi":"10.1371/journal.pbio.3003127","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3003127","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The term \"reviewer fatigue\" has become only too familiar in scientific publishing. How can we ease the burden on reviewers to make the peer review system more sustainable, while streamlining the publication process for authors?</p>","PeriodicalId":49001,"journal":{"name":"PLoS Biology","volume":"23 3","pages":"e3003127"},"PeriodicalIF":9.8,"publicationDate":"2025-03-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143711830","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
PLoS BiologyPub Date : 2025-03-21DOI: 10.1371/journal.pbio.3003005
Kevin S Chen, Anuj K Sharma, Jonathan W Pillow, Andrew M Leifer
{"title":"Navigation strategies in Caenorhabditis elegans are differentially altered by learning.","authors":"Kevin S Chen, Anuj K Sharma, Jonathan W Pillow, Andrew M Leifer","doi":"10.1371/journal.pbio.3003005","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3003005","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Learned olfactory-guided navigation is a powerful platform for studying how a brain generates goal-directed behaviors. However, the quantitative changes that occur in sensorimotor transformations and the underlying neural circuit substrates to generate such learning-dependent navigation is still unclear. Here we investigate learned sensorimotor processing for navigation in the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans by measuring and modeling experience-dependent odor and salt chemotaxis. We then explore the neural basis of learned odor navigation through perturbation experiments. We develop a novel statistical model to characterize how the worm employs two behavioral strategies: a biased random walk and weathervaning. We infer weights on these strategies and characterize sensorimotor kernels that govern them by fitting our model to the worm's time-varying navigation trajectories and precise sensory experiences. After olfactory learning, the fitted odor kernels reflect how appetitive and aversive trained worms up- and down-regulate both strategies, respectively. The model predicts an animal's past olfactory learning experience with > 90% accuracy given finite observations, outperforming a classical chemotaxis metric. The model trained on natural odors further predicts the animals' learning-dependent response to optogenetically induced odor perception. Our measurements and model show that behavioral variability is altered by learning-trained worms exhibit less variable navigation than naive ones. Genetically disrupting individual interneuron classes downstream of an odor-sensing neuron reveals that learned navigation strategies are distributed in the network. Together, we present a flexible navigation algorithm that is supported by distributed neural computation in a compact brain.</p>","PeriodicalId":49001,"journal":{"name":"PLoS Biology","volume":"23 3","pages":"e3003005"},"PeriodicalIF":9.8,"publicationDate":"2025-03-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143674612","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
PLoS BiologyPub Date : 2025-03-20eCollection Date: 2025-03-01DOI: 10.1371/journal.pbio.3003061
Rory L Cooper, Michel C Milinkovitch
{"title":"In vivo sonic hedgehog pathway antagonism temporarily results in ancestral proto-feather-like structures in the chicken.","authors":"Rory L Cooper, Michel C Milinkovitch","doi":"10.1371/journal.pbio.3003061","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3003061","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The morphological intricacies of avian feathers make them an ideal model for investigating embryonic patterning and morphogenesis. In particular, the sonic hedgehog (Shh) pathway is an important mediator of feather outgrowth and branching. However, functional in vivo evidence regarding its role during feather development remains limited. Here, we demonstrate that an intravenous injection of sonidegib, a potent Shh pathway inhibitor, at embryonic day 9 (E9) temporarily produces striped domains (instead of spots) of Shh expression in the skin, arrests morphogenesis, and results in unbranched and non-invaginated feather buds-akin to proto-feathers-in embryos until E14. Although feather morphogenesis partially recovers, hatched treated chickens exhibit naked skin regions with perturbed follicles. Remarkably, these follicles are subsequently reactivated by seven weeks post-hatching. Our RNA-sequencing data and rescue experiment using Shh-agonism confirm that sonidegib specifically down-regulates Shh pathway activity. Overall, we provide functional evidence for the role of the Shh pathway in mediating feather morphogenesis and confirm its role in the evolutionary emergence and diversification of feathers.</p>","PeriodicalId":49001,"journal":{"name":"PLoS Biology","volume":"23 3","pages":"e3003061"},"PeriodicalIF":9.8,"publicationDate":"2025-03-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143671654","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
PLoS BiologyPub Date : 2025-03-20eCollection Date: 2025-03-01DOI: 10.1371/journal.pbio.3003076
Sheng Huang, Chengji Piao, Zhiying Zhao, Christine B Beuschel, Oriane Turrel, David Toppe, Stephan J Sigrist
{"title":"Enhanced memory despite severe sleep loss in Drosophila insomniac mutants.","authors":"Sheng Huang, Chengji Piao, Zhiying Zhao, Christine B Beuschel, Oriane Turrel, David Toppe, Stephan J Sigrist","doi":"10.1371/journal.pbio.3003076","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3003076","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Sleep is crucial for cognitive functions and life span across species. While sleep homeostasis and cognitive processes are linked through cellular and synaptic plasticity, the signaling pathways connecting them remain unclear. Here, we show that Drosophila insomniac (inc) short sleep mutants, which lack an adaptor protein for the autism-associated Cullin-3 ubiquitin ligase, exhibited enhanced Pavlovian aversive olfactory learning and memory, unlike other sleep mutants with normal or reduced memory. Through a genetic modifier screen, we found that a mild reduction of Protein Kinase A (PKA) signaling specifically rescued the sleep and longevity phenotypes of inc mutants. However, this reduction further increased their excessive memory and mushroom body overgrowth. Since inc mutants displayed higher PKA signaling, we propose that inc loss-of-function suppresses sleep via increased PKA activity, which also constrains the excessive memory of inc mutants. Our data identify a signaling cascade for balancing sleep and memory functions, and provide a plausible explanation for the sleep phenotypes of inc mutants, suggesting that memory hyperfunction can provoke sleep deficits.</p>","PeriodicalId":49001,"journal":{"name":"PLoS Biology","volume":"23 3","pages":"e3003076"},"PeriodicalIF":9.8,"publicationDate":"2025-03-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143671642","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
PLoS BiologyPub Date : 2025-03-19eCollection Date: 2025-03-01DOI: 10.1371/journal.pbio.3003070
Andrea J Radtke, Ifeanyichukwu U Anidi, Leanne Arakkal, Armando J Arroyo-Mejias, Rebecca T Beuschel, Katy Börner, Colin J Chu, Beatrice Clark, Menna R Clatworthy, Jake Colautti, Fabian Coscia, Joshua Croteau, Saven Denha, Rose Dever, Walderez O Dutra, Sonja Fritzsche, Spencer Fullam, Michael Y Gerner, Anita Gola, Kenneth J Gollob, Jonathan M Hernandez, Jyh Liang Hor, Hiroshi Ichise, Zhixin Jing, Danny Jonigk, Evelyn Kandov, Wolfgang Kastenmüller, Joshua F E Koenig, Rosa K Kortekaas, Aanandita Kothurkar, Alexandra Y Kreins, Ian T Lamborn, Yuri Lin, Katia Luciano Pereira Morais, Aleksandra Lunich, Jean C S Luz, Ryan B MacDonald, Chen Makranz, Vivien I Maltez, John E McDonough, Ryan V Moriarty, Juan M Ocampo-Godinez, Vitoria M Olyntho, Annette Oxenius, Kartika Padhan, Kirsten Remmert, Nathan Richoz, Edward C Schrom, Wanjing Shang, Lihong Shi, Rochelle M Shih, Emily Speranza, Salome Stierli, Sarah A Teichmann, Tibor Z Veres, Megan Vierhout, Brianna T Wachter, Adam K Wade-Vallance, Margaret Williams, Nathan Zangger, Ronald N Germain, Ziv Yaniv
{"title":"The IBEX Knowledge-Base: A central resource for multiplexed imaging techniques.","authors":"Andrea J Radtke, Ifeanyichukwu U Anidi, Leanne Arakkal, Armando J Arroyo-Mejias, Rebecca T Beuschel, Katy Börner, Colin J Chu, Beatrice Clark, Menna R Clatworthy, Jake Colautti, Fabian Coscia, Joshua Croteau, Saven Denha, Rose Dever, Walderez O Dutra, Sonja Fritzsche, Spencer Fullam, Michael Y Gerner, Anita Gola, Kenneth J Gollob, Jonathan M Hernandez, Jyh Liang Hor, Hiroshi Ichise, Zhixin Jing, Danny Jonigk, Evelyn Kandov, Wolfgang Kastenmüller, Joshua F E Koenig, Rosa K Kortekaas, Aanandita Kothurkar, Alexandra Y Kreins, Ian T Lamborn, Yuri Lin, Katia Luciano Pereira Morais, Aleksandra Lunich, Jean C S Luz, Ryan B MacDonald, Chen Makranz, Vivien I Maltez, John E McDonough, Ryan V Moriarty, Juan M Ocampo-Godinez, Vitoria M Olyntho, Annette Oxenius, Kartika Padhan, Kirsten Remmert, Nathan Richoz, Edward C Schrom, Wanjing Shang, Lihong Shi, Rochelle M Shih, Emily Speranza, Salome Stierli, Sarah A Teichmann, Tibor Z Veres, Megan Vierhout, Brianna T Wachter, Adam K Wade-Vallance, Margaret Williams, Nathan Zangger, Ronald N Germain, Ziv Yaniv","doi":"10.1371/journal.pbio.3003070","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3003070","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Multiplexed imaging is a powerful approach in spatial biology, although it is complex, expensive and labor-intensive. Here, we present the IBEX Knowledge-Base, a central resource for reagents, protocols and more, to enhance knowledge sharing, optimization and innovation of spatial proteomics techniques.</p>","PeriodicalId":49001,"journal":{"name":"PLoS Biology","volume":"23 3","pages":"e3003070"},"PeriodicalIF":9.8,"publicationDate":"2025-03-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143665097","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}