by Cristina Sáez, Israel Pagán All plant viruses were thought to encode in its genome a movement protein that acts as a “passport,” allowing active movement within the host. A new study in PLOS Biology characterizes the first plant virus that can colonize its host without encoding this protein. All plant viruses were thought to encode in its...

by Ryeonghwa Kang, Kyungdeok Kim, Yewon Jung, Sang-Han Choi, Chanhee Lee, Geun Ho Im, Miram Shin, Kwangmin Ryu, Subin Choi, Esther Yang, Wangyong Shin, Seungjoon Lee, Suho Lee, Zachary Papadopoulos, Ji Hoon Ahn, Gou-Young Koh, Jonathan Kipnis, Hyojin Kang, Hyun Kim, Won-Ki Cho, Soochul Park, Seong-Gi Kim, Eunjoon Kim Autism spectrum disorders (ASD)...

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by Justin J. Quan, Lachezar A. Nikolov, Jihui Sha, James A. Wohlschlegel, Isabelle Coppens, Peter J. Bradley Toxoplasma gondii resides in its intracellular niche by employing a series of specialized secretory organelles that play roles in invasion, host cell manipulation, and parasite replication. Rab GTPases are major regulators of the parasite’s...

by Md. Hassan uz-Zaman, Simon D’Alton, Jeffrey E. Barrick, Howard Ochman The phenomenon of de novo gene birth—the emergence of genes from non-genic sequences—has received considerable attention due to the widespread occurrence of genes that are unique to particular species or genomes. Most instances of de novo gene birth have been recognized through...

by Mathieu Malherbe, Liran Samuni, Sonja J. Ebel, Kathrin S. Kopp, Catherine Crockford, Roman M. Wittig Tool use is considered a driving force behind the evolution of brain expansion and prolonged juvenile dependency in the hominin lineage. However, it remains rare across animals, possibly due to inherent constraints related to manual dexterity...