September 1, 2026
Fungi must sense and prioritize nutrients to compete with microbes and form relationships with plants and animals. Brandon Reyes-Chavez, Joshua Kerkaert and Lori Huberman show that the regulator Cbr1 coordinates nutrient use and avoids negative feedback that could block access to some food sources in a basidiomycete fungus.
Image credit: Joshua Kerkaert
09/03/2026
Research Article
Primary cilium dysfunction contributes to diabetic complications, but the mechanisms linking hyperglycemia to cilium loss remain unclear. Jie Ran, Changfeng Wei, Yang Yang, Min Liu and colleagues reveal that PRMT1-HDAC6 crosstalk drives cilium disassembly, identifying a therapeutic target for metabolic ciliopathies.
Image credit: pbio.3003975
09/01/2026
Research Article
People with obsessive compulsive disorder recognize that their compulsive behaviors are unnecessary or disproportionate, but still struggle to inhibit habitual responses. Yu Pang, Dongsheng Zhou, Qi Chen and co-workers show that disrupted midfrontal-motor theta phase synchrony weakens effective control that could lead to abnormally strong motivational biases and excessive tendencies to approach reward and avoid punishment.
Image credit: pbio.3003979
09/01/2026
Research Article
Drug-resistant Candida parapsilosis is an increasing problem in hospitals, but what traits help the fungus survive? Farnaz Daneshnia, Wenjie Fang, Clarissa Nobile, Michael Mansour, Amir Arastehfar and co-authors find that reduced biofilm formation is repeatedly selected for during infection and helps C. parapsilosis evade immune defenses and persist in the host.
Image credit: pbio.3003973
09/01/2026
Research Article
What accounts for the highly dynamic patterns of brain activity at rest? This computational study by Anagh Pathak and Demian Battaglia shows that slow fluctuations in arousal help reproduce key features of brain regional communication dynamics, with implications for our understanding of critical brain states. Don't miss the accompanying Primer by Audrey Sederberg.
Image credit: pbio.3003916
08/31/2026
Methods and Resources
Identifying antiphage defense systems is challenging for bacterial species where such systems are understudied. Shelby Andersen, Breck Duerkop and colleagues describe a bioinformatic pipeline that uses a small serine recombinase as a genetic marker to identify novel antiphage defense systems across diverse bacterial phyla.
Image credit: pbio.3003991
08/31/2026
Research Article
Visual motion can bias perceived orientation relative to gravity, so are visual and vestibular signals integrated within cerebellar circuits that encode self-motion? Lex Gómez, Kathleen Cullen and co-workers shows that visual roll motion does not alter Purkinje cell activity or gravity-referenced vestibular coding in the primate cerebellar nodulus and ventral uvula, so such influences likely emerge in downstream circuits.
Image credit: pbio.3003972
09/01/2026
Community Page
This Community Page describes the 100 Diatom Genomes Project, which aims to provide a scalable framework for understanding diatom biodiversity, ecology and evolution, and for investigating their use in biotechnology.
Image credit: Oliver Skibbe
08/28/2026
Editorial
Despite recent progress in clinical research into Women’s Health, basic research is still lagging behind. This Editorial calls for a renewed focus on basic physiology research into both sexes to close the gap.
Image credit: pbio.3003578
08/26/2026
Unsolved Mystery
Human activities are transforming ecosystems, but what are their effects on wildlife microbiota? This Unsolved Mystery looks at how pollution, habitat change and altered host contact networks can reshape host-associated microbiota.
Image credit: pbio.3003939
08/19/2026
Essay
Encrypted peptides are short bioactive fragments hidden within larger proteins that remain largely undercharacterized. This Essay explores how proteolytically released peptides are discovered and how their mechanism of action helps to shape immunity and physiology.
Image credit: pbio.3003914
Aging affects us all, but we still do not know how the process evolves or if we can modulate its pace. This issue of PLOS Biology presents a Collection of articles that explores different aspects of aging, discussing what challenges still need to be overcome.
This PLOS Biology collection aims to shine a light on the many facets of immunometabolism, highlighting how molecular and cellular mechanisms impact diverse tissue and organismal functions and the exciting potential for leveraging immunometabolism for therapeutic interventions.
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.
September 14 - 15
Meet Editor in Chief Nonia Pariente (npariente@plos.org)
October 5 - 8
Meet Senior Editor Christian Schnell (cschnell@plos.org)
October 6 - 9
Meet Senior Editor Roli Roberts (rroberts@plos.org)
October 19 - 23
Meet Senior Editor Melissa Vazquez Hernandez (mvazquezhernandez@plos.org)
November 12 - 15
Meet Senior Editor Ines Alvarez-Garcia (ialvarez-garcia@plos.org)