June 11, 2026
Large investments have been made to identify interventions that slow down or even try to reverse aging; however, no potential anti-aging solutions have yet emerged that have had a significant impact. As we reach the halfway point in the UN Decade of Healthy Aging, this Collection explores what we know about the biological processes that underlie aging and how they could be harnessed.
Image credit: Gustav Klimt
06/12/2026
Research Article
Antimicrobial resistance in Klebsiella pneumoniae is a growing global threat, but its evolutionary routes remain hard to predict. Olav Aga, Iain Johnston and colleagues use machine learning to explore how resistance evolves across different countries, revealing shared and region-specific pathways that may help forecast resistance evolution.
Image credit: Iain Johnston
06/12/2026
Update Article
A previous study in PLOS Biology developed IntAct, a tool to study isoform-specific actin localization, dynamics and molecular interactions across species. In this Update Article, Anubhav Dhar, Saravanan Palani and co-workers couple IntAct with ultrastructure expansion microscopy to enable the super-resolution imaging of various actin structures in yeast and mammalian cells.
Image credit: Anubhav Dhar, Nishant Suman, Deepak Nair, Saravanan Palani
06/10/2026
Research Article
Hedgehog signaling in vertebrates is transduced by the transmembrane protein Smoothened (SMO) on the primary cilium, but the underlying mechanisms remain unclear. Thi Nguyen, Jeremy Reiter and co-authors show that SMO and ciliary GPCRs regulate ciliary PKA activity to activate the hedgehog pathway.
Image credit: pbio.3003841
06/09/2026
Discovery Report
Animal vocalizations are diverse, yet their temporal structure is poorly understood. By analyzing acoustic rhythms across nearly 100 species, Theophane Piette, Chundra Cathcart, Eloïse Déaux, Anne-Lise Giraud and co-workers identify a conserved slow tempo centered around 2.7 Hz (within the delta range), suggesting a constraint rooted in neural mechanisms of auditory perception. Don't miss the Primer by Mingzi Xu and Lata Kalra.
Image credit: pbio.3003799
06/09/2026
Research Article
Crohn’s disease is associated with mutations in the innate immune receptor NOD2, but the mechanisms underlying NOD2 regulation of intestinal homeostasis remain unclear. Mckenna Eklund and Edan Foley find that NOD2 interacts with estrogen to regulate intestinal homeostasis and suggest that hormonal signalling may contribute to the sex-specific pathogenesis of this disease.
Image credit: pbio.3003766
06/08/2026
Short Reports
What factors can explain the brain's energy usage patterns? Hiroki Oishi, Kevin Weiner, Michael Arcaro and co-workers show that the distribution of a key metabolic marker in the primate visual system is not random but linked with functional responses, suggesting that cortical resource distribution is shaped by the processing demands of visual perception.
Image credit: pbio.3003847
06/10/2026
Community Page
Investigating the integrity of published papers is key to the scientific process, but the necessary knowledge is in short supply. This Community Page presents COSIG, an open collection of meta-scientific guides enabling anyone to perform forensic peer review.
Image credit: pbio.3003817
06/08/2026
Essay
Mutation rates per generation are strikingly consistent, suggesting a key role for natural selection in honing them. This Essay summarizes the patterns identified and outlines existing theories for how selection pressures might shape mutation rates in animal germline and soma.
Image credit: pbio.3003799
06/04/2026
Essay
Unified bacterial strain taxonomies are crucial. This Essay provides an overview of a novel bacterial strain taxonomy and describes how this system can be used in population biology and epidemiological surveillance of infectious diseases.
Image credit: pbio.3003781
06/03/2026
Perspective
The use of large language models is rapidly transforming the scientific writing process, but this Perspective urges caution when using such tools, arguing that it can risk decoupling writing from thinking.
Image credit: Unsplash user Steve A Johnson
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.
June 15 - 18
Meet Editor in Chief Nonia Pariente (npariente@plos.org)
June 22 - 26
Meet Associate Editor Ankiit Ahluwalia (aahluwalia@plos.org).
June 28 - July 2
Meet Senior Editor Roli Roberts (rroberts@plos.org)
June 28 - July 3
Meet Senior Editor Melissa Vazquez Hernandez (mvazquezhernandez@plos.org)
June 30 - July 4
Meet Senior Editor Richard Hodge (rhodge@plos.org)