01/23/2026
Short Reports
Mitophagy is critical for cellular health and is associated with multiple diseases. Lucas Restrepo, Eric Baehrecke and co-workers reveal that the outer mitochondrial membrane protein Mtch functions as a novel regulator of mitophagy during Drosophila intestinal development, likely by regulating the insertion of the mitophagy receptor BNIP3.
Image credit: pbio.3003616
Current Issue December 2025
01/23/2026
Research Article
Somatic Cell Nuclear Transfer (SCNT) is an approach that enables the generation of an embryo from a somatic cell, but its efficiency remains low due to epigenetic barriers. Yanhua Zhao, Meiting Zhang, Lei Lei and co-authors show that pioneer transcription factor Nr5a2 overexpression enhances SCNT embryo development by improving genome activation and recruiting P300 to restore transcriptional activity.
Image credit: pbio.3003611
01/23/2026
Research Article
Ferns alternate between generations of asexual sporophytes and sexual free-living gametophytes. Dinh Nhan Lai, Yun Zhou and colleagues uncover a molecular mechanism underlying male-to-hermaphrodite conversion in a model fern species, showing that de novo auxin biosynthesis orchestrates cell fate and proliferation during meristem formation.
Image credit: pbio.3003592
01/22/2026
Research Article
Skeletal muscle atrophy is a debilitating condition that accompanies a number of diseases, but there are few known therapeutic targets to reverse it. Xiao Chen Shi, Rui Xin Zhang, Jun Kai Feng, Li Nong Yao, Jiang Wei Wu and co-workers identify optineurin as a regulator of muscle homeostasis, showing that it binds to plakoglobin JUP and activates the PI3K-AKT pathway to prevent muscle atrophy in mice.
Image credit: pbio.3003581
01/20/2026
Research Article
Cochlear hair cell stereocilia bundles are vital for hearing, but their 3D morphology remains unclear due to their complex organisation. Yasmin Kassim, Uri Manor and co-authors develop an open-source, deep learning-based tool called VASCilia that automates the high-throughput analysis of 3D confocal microscopy datasets of phalloidin-stained cochlear hair cell bundles.
Image credit: pbio.3003591
01/20/2026
Research Article
Infantile amnesia limits recall of early-life memories, but its cellular basis is unclear. Erika Stewart, Tomás Ryan and co-workers reveal that transient microglial activity during postnatal development regulates infant memory persistence and retrieval.
Image credit: Birte Doludda
01/21/2026
Essay
Chronic low-grade metabolic inflammation (metaflammation) drives insulin resistance and metabolic dysfunction in obesity. This Essay discusses the immunometabolic mechanisms underlying metaflammation, including lesser known beneficial effects.
Image credit: pbio.3003620
01/20/2026
Essay
Immunometabolism may be a useful target for cancer therapy. This Essay explores the potential for incorporating both lifestyle changes and drug therapies that target immunometabolism into treatments for cancer.
Image credit: pbio.3003617
01/09/2026
Perspective
This Perspective highlights how systems biology approaches, including multi-omics profiling and perturbomics screening, are being used to advance our understanding of immunometabolism.
Image credit: pbio.3003570
01/05/2026
Essay
This Essay investigates how the study of immunometabolism has yielded insight into the molecular mechanisms underlying bacterial pulmonary infections.
Image credit: pbio.3003585
Recent technological advancements in omics have unveiled the mechanisms governing tumor progression across spatial and temporal scales. This collection reveals the complexities of the crosstalk between cancer cells and the tumor microenvironment.
Neurotechnology offers unprecedented opportunities to treat neural disorders, restore brain function and enhance cognitive abilities. This collection explores the present and possible futures of neurotechnology to improve human health and cognition.
Translating conservation and biodiversity research from the field into the real world is a complex problem. This collection discusses issues around economics, policy, and how to do research that answers questions that decision makers have.
Symbiosis research has become a holistic and pervasive field with a mature theoretical basis. This collection showcases symbiotic relationships across the tree of life, exploring their evolutionary basis and underlying mechanisms.
PLOS Biology is 20 and we are celebrating with a collection that contains articles that look back at landmark studies that we published, others that look past and future, and others discussing how publishing and open science have evolved and what is to come.
.
March 11 - 13
Meet Magazine section Senior Editor Joanna Clarke ([email protected]).
March 16 - 17
(Attended remotely) Contact Magazine section Senior Editor Joanna Clarke ([email protected])
March 22 - 25
Meet Senior Editor Ines Alvarez-Garcia ([email protected])
May 5 - 7
Meet Editor in Chief Nonia Pariente ([email protected])
June 8 - 11
Meet Senior Editor Richard Hodge ([email protected])
Connect with Us