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PLOS Biology
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A leading life science journal that champions high-impact research across all disciplines—from molecules to ecosystems. We offer innovative formats and collaborative editorial support to ensure your work achieves its full scientific impact.
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PLOS Biology @plosbiology.org · Feb 21
PLOS has issued a statement on recent US Executive Orders and scientific integrity.

We are determined to stand firmly behind our mission, our values and our principles, and against any attempt at censorship or undermining of the core principles of scientific inquiry.

plos.io/3D4O8cH
PLOS statement on recent US Executive Orders and scientific integrity - The Official PLOS Blog
Since its founding over twenty five years ago PLOS has been dedicated to advancing open science, ensuring that knowledge is accessible to…
plos.io
Reposted by PLOS Biology
bpodaily.bsky.social
First Contact: Details revealed of cells & gene activity at the interface between mother & foetus using pig-derived organoids

📷 @crm110.bsky.social et al Coyne Lab @dukemedschool.bsky.social in
@plosbiology.org

➡️ bpod.org.uk/archive/2025... with
@antdlewis.bsky.social
December 30, 2025 at 11:36 AM
Reposted by PLOS Biology
tjryan.bsky.social
Starting 2026 with a thread a very recent manuscripts at Ryan Lab @tcddublin.bsky.social @tbsi-tcd.bsky.social

"Extinction and subsequent updating of innate fear responses to a visual looming stimulus rely on hippocampus-dependent mechanisms"
journals.plos.org/plosbiology/...

@PLOSBiology
Extinction and subsequent updating of innate fear responses to a visual looming stimulus rely on hippocampus-dependent mechanisms
How does the brain balance innate responses with adaptive learning when reacting to threats? This study shows that repeated exposure to looming stimuli reduces innate defensive responses via hippocamp...
journals.plos.org
January 2, 2026 at 4:34 PM
Reposted by PLOS Biology
tjryan.bsky.social
Lastly, many thanks to the Editors at @plosbiology.org for a serious, efficient, and scholarly approach to peer review. My first time submitting to this journal, and I was very impressed.
January 2, 2026 at 5:03 PM
plosbiology.org
Join @keystoneSymposia.bsky.social for insights on Fungal Pathogens: Emerging Threats and Future Challenges, in January at Breckenridge. #KSFungalPath26

➡️ Further details: plos.io/4axKhDh
December 30, 2025 at 6:43 PM
plosbiology.org
Explore emerging research with field leaders @keystoneSymposia.bsky.social #Immunometabolism Across Scales: From Cells to Systems to Healthspan this January in Vancouver.

➡️ Find out more: plos.io/493x0zY

#KSImmunometab26
Evening view of the Fairmont Hotel Vancouver, a historic building with a green copper roof, illuminated against the twilight sky. Below the image is a text overlay detailing an event titled 'Joint Symposium on Immunoengineering Calls to Metabolism Across Scales: From Immunometabolism to Healthspan', held from January 11-14, 2026, in Vancouver, BC, Canada.
December 27, 2025 at 2:17 PM
plosbiology.org
In the #gonad, #sex is not an irrevocable commitment, and requires active maintenance. Artyom Kopp explores a new @plosbiology.org study elucidating the molecular mechanisms that preserve sexual identity in the adult #Drosophila #testis 🧪 Paper: plos.io/4pMT6hq Primer: plos.io/3MRBBxG
Somatic sex maintenance in the Drosophila testis. Left: in XY adults, chinmo prevents Zld protein expression, keeping traF off and allowing dsxM to maintain the male fate (blue) while the female pathway is switched off (gray). Right: loss of chinmo leads to the ectopic expression of zld, inducing traF and activating the female developmental program (red) in chromosomally male cells.
December 22, 2025 at 1:50 PM
plosbiology.org
In the #gonad, #sex is not an irrevocable commitment, and requires active maintenance. Artyom Kopp explores a new @plosbiology.org study elucidating the molecular mechanisms that preserve sexual identity in the adult #Drosophila #testis 🧪 Paper: plos.io/4pMT6hq Primer: plos.io/3MRBBxG
Somatic sex maintenance in the Drosophila testis. Left: in XY adults, chinmo prevents Zld protein expression, keeping traF off and allowing dsxM to maintain the male fate (blue) while the female pathway is switched off (gray). Right: loss of chinmo leads to the ectopic expression of zld, inducing traF and activating the female developmental program (red) in chromosomally male cells.
December 22, 2025 at 9:01 AM
plosbiology.org
Slitrk1 & Slitrk2 are structurally & biochemically similar, so what role do they each play in #synapses? This study shows that each acts in distinct #hippocampal subfields & via different binding partners. Relevance to Slitrk2's association with #schizophrenia @plosbiology.org 🧪 plos.io/4qibtuo
Slitrk1 and Slitrk2 proteins are widely expressed in various layers of hippocampal CA1 and DG but exhibit distinct enriched expression patterns. (A) Schematic of immunohistochemical analysis strategy used to analyze the protein expression patterns of Slitrk1 and Slitrk2 in the hippocampal subfields of adult mice. Representative images showing Slitrk1 protein distribution in coronal brain sections from adult male mice. Scale bar, 100 µm (applies to all images). (B–I) Representative images (B, F for Slitrk1 and C, G for Slitrk2) and quantification of mean intensity distributions for Slitrk1 (D, H) and Slitrk2 (E, I) across CA1 and DG layers. Data are presented as means ± SEMs (n = 6 mice/group). Scale bars, 50 µm (applies to all images). Abbreviations: SO, stratum oriens; SR, stratum radiatum; SP, stratum pyramidale; SLM, stratum lacunosum-moleculare; GCL, granule cell layer; ML, molecular layer.
December 22, 2025 at 8:55 AM
plosbiology.org
In the #gonad, #sex is not an irrevocable commitment, and requires active maintenance. Artyom Kopp explores a new @plosbiology.org study elucidating the molecular mechanisms that preserve sexual identity in the adult #Drosophila #testis 🧪 Paper: plos.io/4pMT6hq Primer: plos.io/3MRBBxG
Somatic sex maintenance in the Drosophila testis. Left: in XY adults, chinmo prevents Zld protein expression, keeping traF off and allowing dsxM to maintain the male fate (blue) while the female pathway is switched off (gray). Right: loss of chinmo leads to the ectopic expression of zld, inducing traF and activating the female developmental program (red) in chromosomally male cells.
December 19, 2025 at 7:19 PM
plosbiology.org
Slitrk1 & Slitrk2 are structurally & biochemically similar, so what role do they each play in #synapses? This study shows that each acts in distinct #hippocampal subfields & via different binding partners. Relevance to Slitrk2's association with #schizophrenia @plosbiology.org 🧪 plos.io/4qibtuo
Slitrk1 and Slitrk2 proteins are widely expressed in various layers of hippocampal CA1 and DG but exhibit distinct enriched expression patterns. (A) Schematic of immunohistochemical analysis strategy used to analyze the protein expression patterns of Slitrk1 and Slitrk2 in the hippocampal subfields of adult mice. Representative images showing Slitrk1 protein distribution in coronal brain sections from adult male mice. Scale bar, 100 µm (applies to all images). (B–I) Representative images (B, F for Slitrk1 and C, G for Slitrk2) and quantification of mean intensity distributions for Slitrk1 (D, H) and Slitrk2 (E, I) across CA1 and DG layers. Data are presented as means ± SEMs (n = 6 mice/group). Scale bars, 50 µm (applies to all images). Abbreviations: SO, stratum oriens; SR, stratum radiatum; SP, stratum pyramidale; SLM, stratum lacunosum-moleculare; GCL, granule cell layer; ML, molecular layer.
December 19, 2025 at 5:40 PM
plosbiology.org
Enteroendocrine cells (EECs) in the #gut #epithelium secrete diverse hormones that regulate digestion, energy use & behavior. @jfrawls.bsky.social &co identify EEC subtypes & #hormone profiles in #zebrafish, and explore their lineage relationships @plosbiology.org 🧪 plos.io/49iZKWC
Enteroendocrine cell subtypes in zebrafish: A zebrafish larva at 6 days postfertilization expressing transgenic reporters neurod1:TagRFP, neurogenin3:QF2, and QUAS:GFP. neurod1:TagRFP labels the pancreatic islet and all enteroendocrine cells in the gut and is shown in magenta. The combination of neurogenin3:QF2 and QUAS:GFP reporters labels a subset of enteroendocrine cells in the gut and is shown in cyan. Overlapping signal appears white. Image credit: Margaret Morash.
December 19, 2025 at 5:35 PM
plosbiology.org
Inside #macrophages, #Salmonella faces Mg2+ scarcity that disrupts cAMP synthesis & metabolism. @npokorzynski.bsky.social @microbelab.bsky.social &co show that PhoP restores control by promoting Mg2+ uptake & directing cAMP production to sustain growth via CRP @plosbiology.org 🧪 plos.io/3Lcav3T
Cartoon representation of PhoP control of CRP-cAMP. PhoP promotes transcription of the mgtA gene and the mgtCBRUcigR operon, which encode the Mg2+ importers MgtA and MgtB and the F1F0 ATP synthase inhibitor MgtC. Mg2+ is an essential cofactor of cAMP-synthesizing adenylate cyclase CyaA and ATP is CyaA’s substrate. cAMP-bound CRP directly activates transcription of the carbohydrate utilization determinants ptsG, glpK, and malT. Red crossbars indicate negative regulation whereas green arrows indicate positive regulation.
December 19, 2025 at 5:30 PM
plosbiology.org
2025 was marked by upheaval and uncertainty for many within the life science community. In this Editorial, we reflect on the past year and highlight some of the many research achievements that give us reasons to be thankful.
🧪 #AcademicSky #biology #EOY #science #roundup
plos.io/4j5T3uh
The text 'A catalyst for better' is shown over a background of blue cells and part of the PLOS logo
December 19, 2025 at 5:30 PM
plosbiology.org
How is somatic gonadal #sex fate maintained throughout adulthood? This study identifies a post-transcriptional mechanism involving repression of the TF Zelda by #miRNAs, safeguarding male identity & preventing activation of the female program in #Drosophila #testis @plosbiology.org 🧪 plos.io/4pMT6hq
Representative confocal images of a control testis (top row), a testis somatically depleted of chinmo (middle row), and a testis with somatic co-depletion of chinmo and zld (bottom row). Testes are stained for Vasa (gray), Fas3 (green, grayscale), and Tj (magenta).
December 19, 2025 at 5:25 PM
plosbiology.org
Inside #macrophages, #Salmonella faces Mg2+ scarcity that disrupts cAMP synthesis & metabolism. @npokorzynski.bsky.social @microbelab.bsky.social &co show that PhoP restores control by promoting Mg2+ uptake & directing cAMP production to sustain growth via CRP @plosbiology.org 🧪 plos.io/3Lcav3T
Cartoon representation of PhoP control of CRP-cAMP. PhoP promotes transcription of the mgtA gene and the mgtCBRUcigR operon, which encode the Mg2+ importers MgtA and MgtB and the F1F0 ATP synthase inhibitor MgtC. Mg2+ is an essential cofactor of cAMP-synthesizing adenylate cyclase CyaA and ATP is CyaA’s substrate. cAMP-bound CRP directly activates transcription of the carbohydrate utilization determinants ptsG, glpK, and malT. Red crossbars indicate negative regulation whereas green arrows indicate positive regulation.
December 19, 2025 at 2:05 PM
plosbiology.org
How is somatic gonadal #sex fate maintained throughout adulthood? This study identifies a post-transcriptional mechanism involving repression of the TF Zelda by #miRNAs, safeguarding male identity & preventing activation of the female program in #Drosophila #testis @plosbiology.org 🧪 plos.io/4pMT6hq
Representative confocal images of a control testis (top row), a testis somatically depleted of chinmo (middle row), and a testis with somatic co-depletion of chinmo and zld (bottom row). Testes are stained for Vasa (gray), Fas3 (green, grayscale), and Tj (magenta).
December 19, 2025 at 2:00 PM
plosbiology.org
2025 was marked by upheaval and uncertainty for many within the life science community. In this Editorial, we reflect on the past year and highlight some of the many research achievements that give us reasons to be thankful.
🧪 #AcademicSky #biology #EOY #science #roundup
plos.io/4j5T3uh
The text 'A catalyst for better' is shown over a background of blue cells and part of the PLOS logo
December 19, 2025 at 2:00 PM
plosbiology.org
Enteroendocrine cells (EECs) in the #gut #epithelium secrete diverse hormones that regulate digestion, energy use & behavior. @jfrawls.bsky.social &co identify EEC subtypes & #hormone profiles in #zebrafish, and explore their lineage relationships @plosbiology.org 🧪 plos.io/49iZKWC
Enteroendocrine cell subtypes in zebrafish: A zebrafish larva at 6 days postfertilization expressing transgenic reporters neurod1:TagRFP, neurogenin3:QF2, and QUAS:GFP. neurod1:TagRFP labels the pancreatic islet and all enteroendocrine cells in the gut and is shown in magenta. The combination of neurogenin3:QF2 and QUAS:GFP reporters labels a subset of enteroendocrine cells in the gut and is shown in cyan. Overlapping signal appears white. Image credit: Margaret Morash.
December 19, 2025 at 1:55 PM
plosbiology.org
Slitrk1 & Slitrk2 are structurally & biochemically similar, so what role do they each play in #synapses? This study shows that each acts in distinct #hippocampal subfields & via different binding partners. Relevance to Slitrk2's association with #schizophrenia @plosbiology.org 🧪 plos.io/4qibtuo
Slitrk1 and Slitrk2 proteins are widely expressed in various layers of hippocampal CA1 and DG but exhibit distinct enriched expression patterns. (A) Schematic of immunohistochemical analysis strategy used to analyze the protein expression patterns of Slitrk1 and Slitrk2 in the hippocampal subfields of adult mice. Representative images showing Slitrk1 protein distribution in coronal brain sections from adult male mice. Scale bar, 100 µm (applies to all images). (B–I) Representative images (B, F for Slitrk1 and C, G for Slitrk2) and quantification of mean intensity distributions for Slitrk1 (D, H) and Slitrk2 (E, I) across CA1 and DG layers. Data are presented as means ± SEMs (n = 6 mice/group). Scale bars, 50 µm (applies to all images). Abbreviations: SO, stratum oriens; SR, stratum radiatum; SP, stratum pyramidale; SLM, stratum lacunosum-moleculare; GCL, granule cell layer; ML, molecular layer.
December 19, 2025 at 1:54 PM
Reposted by PLOS Biology
npariente.bsky.social
Thoughtful recap of 2025 by Joanna Clarke, including many discoveries made this year & the editors' picks of those we published in @plosbiology.org

Want to guess? There are bright yellow worms, unusual mycomembranes, human response to avatars, tit learning strategies, soil science & more

🧪
plosbiology.org PLOS Biology @plosbiology.org · 15d
2025 was marked by upheaval and uncertainty for many within the life science community. In this Editorial, we reflect on the past year and highlight some of the many research achievements that give us reasons to be thankful.
🧪 #AcademicSky #biology #EOY #science #roundup
plos.io/4j5T3uh
The text 'A catalyst for better' is shown over a background of blue cells and part of the PLOS logo
December 19, 2025 at 12:42 PM
Reposted by PLOS Biology
roliroberts.bsky.social
Lovely celebration of 2025 for @plosbiology.org by my colleague Jo Clarke. My two nominations for this were journals.plos.org/plosbiology/... (by Chaolun Li &co) about worms turned yellow by orpiment, and journals.plos.org/plosbiology/... about a boom in AI-generated articles (by Matt Spick &co)...
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
December 19, 2025 at 11:07 AM
plosbiology.org
Inside #macrophages, #Salmonella faces Mg2+ scarcity that disrupts cAMP synthesis & metabolism. @npokorzynski.bsky.social @microbelab.bsky.social &co show that PhoP restores control by promoting Mg2+ uptake & directing cAMP production to sustain growth via CRP @plosbiology.org 🧪 plos.io/3Lcav3T
Cartoon representation of PhoP control of CRP-cAMP. PhoP promotes transcription of the mgtA gene and the mgtCBRUcigR operon, which encode the Mg2+ importers MgtA and MgtB and the F1F0 ATP synthase inhibitor MgtC. Mg2+ is an essential cofactor of cAMP-synthesizing adenylate cyclase CyaA and ATP is CyaA’s substrate. cAMP-bound CRP directly activates transcription of the carbohydrate utilization determinants ptsG, glpK, and malT. Red crossbars indicate negative regulation whereas green arrows indicate positive regulation.
December 19, 2025 at 10:52 AM
plosbiology.org
How is somatic gonadal #sex fate maintained throughout adulthood? This study identifies a post-transcriptional mechanism involving repression of the TF Zelda by #miRNAs, safeguarding male identity & preventing activation of the female program in #Drosophila #testis @plosbiology.org 🧪 plos.io/4pMT6hq
Representative confocal images of a control testis (top row), a testis somatically depleted of chinmo (middle row), and a testis with somatic co-depletion of chinmo and zld (bottom row). Testes are stained for Vasa (gray), Fas3 (green, grayscale), and Tj (magenta).
December 19, 2025 at 10:39 AM
plosbiology.org
2025 was marked by upheaval and uncertainty for many within the life science community. In this Editorial, we reflect on the past year and highlight some of the many research achievements that give us reasons to be thankful.
🧪 #AcademicSky #biology #EOY #science #roundup
plos.io/4j5T3uh
The text 'A catalyst for better' is shown over a background of blue cells and part of the PLOS logo
December 19, 2025 at 10:13 AM
plosbiology.org
Enteroendocrine cells (EECs) in the #gut #epithelium secrete diverse hormones that regulate digestion, energy use & behavior. @jfrawls.bsky.social &co identify EEC subtypes & #hormone profiles in #zebrafish, and explore their lineage relationships @plosbiology.org 🧪 plos.io/49iZKWC
Enteroendocrine cell subtypes in zebrafish: A zebrafish larva at 6 days postfertilization expressing transgenic reporters neurod1:TagRFP, neurogenin3:QF2, and QUAS:GFP. neurod1:TagRFP labels the pancreatic islet and all enteroendocrine cells in the gut and is shown in magenta. The combination of neurogenin3:QF2 and QUAS:GFP reporters labels a subset of enteroendocrine cells in the gut and is shown in cyan. Overlapping signal appears white. Image credit: Margaret Morash.
December 19, 2025 at 9:08 AM