09/10/2026
Research Article
Carbon dioxide is among the most important cues used by Aedes aegypti mosquitoes when searching for a human blood meal. Jialu Bao, Wesley Alford, Meg Younger, Wei-Chung Allen Lee and co-workers reveal that the wiring of the neurons that sense CO2 differs from the wiring in Drosophila, supporting robust detection of this ethologically key host cue. Don't miss the accompanying Primer by Chih-Ying Su.
Image credit: pbio.3003959
Current Issue August 2026
09/09/2026
Research Article
How do the brain's anatomical architecture and functional activity patterns become established during early life? Ruoke Zhao, Dan Wu and co-authors characterize the brain's developmental changes from the perinatal period to toddlerhood, offering insights into the organization of structural and functional networks and cognitive development.
Image credit: Ruoke Zhao & Dan Wu
09/08/2026
Meta-Research Article
The modern form of scientific publishing often incentivizes overstating results to maximize perceived impact at the expense of ensuring rigor. Maureen McGargill, Matthew Krummel and colleagues test the Discovery Stack model, which seeks to realign peer review with its core purpose of upholding scientific rigor by separating the assessment of quality and impact.
Image credit: pbio.3003986
09/08/2026
Research Article
The distribution of fitness effects (DFE) describes the impact of mutations on an organism's ability to reproduce, but how and why does the DFE vary among species? Meixi Lin, Kirk Lohmueller and co-workers analyze genetic variation from 11 animal species, finding that fitness effects are influenced by phylogeny, population size and organismal complexity.
Image credit: pbio.3003976
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
09/08/2026
Essay
Seaweed forests are widely viewed as natural climate solutions, yet warming oceans are driving their rapid decline. This Essay reveals that losses are outpacing restoration efforts by orders of magnitude, raising urgent concerns.
Image credit: Jonas Thomar
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
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)
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