How does a protein's structure spell the difference between health and disease? Our journey to understand glaucoma-associated myocilin.

abstract：:A recent report by the Institute of Medicine leaves few urgent reasons standing for the continued use of chimpanzees in biomedical research. It is high time to think about their retirement, Frans de Waal argues, without neglecting prospects for non-invasive research on behavior, cognition, and genetics. ...

journal_title：PLoS biology

authors： de Waal FB

更新日期：2012-01-01 00:00:00

abstract：:The rapid destruction of the planet's biodiversity has prompted the nations of the world to set a target of achieving a significant reduction in the rate of loss of biodiversity by 2010. However, we do not yet have an adequate way of monitoring progress towards achieving this target. Here we present a method for produ...

journal_title：PLoS biology

authors： Butchart SH,Stattersfield AJ,Bennun LA,Shutes SM,Akçakaya HR,Baillie JE,Stuart SN,Hilton-Taylor C,Mace GM

更新日期：2004-12-01 00:00:00

abstract：:Dopamine guides behavior and learning through pleasure, according to classic understanding. Dopaminergic neurons are traditionally thought to signal positive or negative prediction errors (PEs) when reward expectations are, respectively, exceeded or not matched. These signed PEs are quite different from the unsigned P...

journal_title：PLoS biology

authors： Valdés-Baizabal C,Carbajal GV,Pérez-González D,Malmierca MS

更新日期：2020-06-19 00:00:00

abstract：:Characterization of circadian systems at the organism level-a top-down approach-has led to definition of unifying properties, a hallmark of the science of chronobiology. The next challenge is to use a bottom-up approach to show how the molecular workings of the cellular circadian clock work as building blocks of those...

journal_title：PLoS biology

authors： Merrow M,Harrington M

更新日期：2020-10-14 00:00:00

abstract：:A developing plant organ exhibits complex spatiotemporal patterns of growth, cell division, cell size, cell shape, and organ shape. Explaining these patterns presents a challenge because of their dynamics and cross-correlations, which can make it difficult to disentangle causes from effects. To address these problems,...

journal_title：PLoS biology

authors： Fox S,Southam P,Pantin F,Kennaway R,Robinson S,Castorina G,Sánchez-Corrales YE,Sablowski R,Chan J,Grieneisen V,Marée AFM,Bangham JA,Coen E

更新日期：2018-11-01 00:00:00

abstract：:Myosin VI has been studied in both a monomeric and a dimeric form in vitro. Because the functional characteristics of the motor are dramatically different for these two forms, it is important to understand whether myosin VI heavy chains are brought together on endocytic vesicles. We have used fluorescence anisotropy m...

journal_title：PLoS biology

authors： Altman D,Goswami D,Hasson T,Spudich JA,Mayor S

更新日期：2007-08-01 00:00:00

abstract：:The array of vibrissae on a rat's face is the first stage in a high-resolution tactile sensing system. Progressing from rostral to caudal in any vibrissae row results in an increase in whisker length and thickness. This may, in turn, provide a systematic map of separate tactile channels governed by the mechanical prop...

journal_title：PLoS biology

authors： Gugig E,Sharma H,Azouz R

更新日期：2020-10-22 00:00:00

abstract：:RNA interference is triggered by double-stranded RNA that is processed into small interfering RNAs (siRNAs) by Dicer enzyme. Endogenously, RNA interference triggers are created from small noncoding RNAs called microRNAs (miRNAs). RNA-induced silencing complexes (RISC) in human cells can be programmed by exogenously in...

journal_title：PLoS biology

authors： Chu CY,Rana TM

更新日期：2006-07-01 00:00:00

abstract：:Synaptic plasticity is widely believed to constitute a key mechanism for modifying functional properties of neuronal networks. This belief implicitly implies, however, that synapses, when not driven to change their characteristics by physiologically relevant stimuli, will maintain these characteristics over time. How ...

journal_title：PLoS biology

authors： Minerbi A,Kahana R,Goldfeld L,Kaufman M,Marom S,Ziv NE

更新日期：2009-06-23 00:00:00

abstract：:No organism lives in a constant environment. Based on classical studies in molecular biology, many have viewed microbes as following strict rules for shifting their metabolic activities when prevailing conditions change. For example, students learn that the bacterium Escherichia coli makes proteins for digesting lacto...

journal_title：PLoS biology

authors： Siegal ML

更新日期：2015-02-17 00:00:00

abstract：:Disease-associated misfolded proteins or proteins damaged due to cellular stress are generally disposed via the cellular protein quality-control system. However, under saturating conditions, misfolded proteins will aggregate. In higher eukaryotes, these aggregates can be transported to accumulate in aggresomes at the ...

journal_title：PLoS biology

authors： Rujano MA,Bosveld F,Salomons FA,Dijk F,van Waarde MA,van der Want JJ,de Vos RA,Brunt ER,Sibon OC,Kampinga HH

更新日期：2006-12-01 00:00:00

abstract：:Contemporary science thrives on collaborative networks, but these can also be found elsewhere in the history of science in unexpected places. When Mendel turned his attention to inheritance in peas he was not an isolated monk, but rather the latest in a line of Moravian researchers and agriculturalists who had been th...

journal_title：PLoS biology

authors： Poczai P,Bell N,Hyvönen J

更新日期：2014-01-01 00:00:00

abstract：:HAPLESS2 (HAP2) is a broadly conserved, gamete-expressed transmembrane protein that was shown recently to be structurally homologous to viral class II fusion proteins, which initiate fusion with host cells via insertion of fusion loops into the host membrane. However, the functional conformation of the HAP2 fusion loo...

journal_title：PLoS biology

authors： Fedry J,Forcina J,Legrand P,Péhau-Arnaudet G,Haouz A,Johnson M,Rey FA,Krey T

更新日期：2018-08-13 00:00:00

abstract：:Within the human host, the malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum is exposed to multiple selection pressures. The host environment changes dramatically in severe malaria, but the extent to which the parasite responds to-or is selected by-this environment remains unclear. From previous studies, the parasites that cause...

journal_title：PLoS biology

authors： Tonkin-Hill GQ,Trianty L,Noviyanti R,Nguyen HHT,Sebayang BF,Lampah DA,Marfurt J,Cobbold SA,Rambhatla JS,McConville MJ,Rogerson SJ,Brown GV,Day KP,Price RN,Anstey NM,Papenfuss AT,Duffy MF

更新日期：2018-03-12 00:00:00

abstract：:Lymphoid T-zone fibroblastic reticular cells (FRCs) actively promote T-cell trafficking, homeostasis, and expansion but can also attenuate excessive T-cell responses via inducible nitric oxide (NO) and constitutive prostanoid release. It remains unclear how these FRC-derived mediators dampen T-cell responses and wheth...

journal_title：PLoS biology

authors： Schaeuble K,Cannelle H,Favre S,Huang HY,Oberle SG,Speiser DE,Zehn D,Luther SA

更新日期：2019-07-15 00:00:00

abstract：:Rodent whisker input consists of dense microvibration sequences that are often temporally integrated for perceptual discrimination. Whether primary somatosensory cortex (S1) participates in temporal integration is unknown. We trained rats to discriminate whisker impulse sequences that varied in single-impulse kinemati...

journal_title：PLoS biology

authors： McGuire LM,Telian G,Laboy-Juárez KJ,Miyashita T,Lee DJ,Smith KA,Feldman DE

更新日期：2016-08-30 00:00:00

abstract：:Bax/Bak-mediated mitochondrial outer membrane permeabilization (MOMP) is essential for "intrinsic" apoptotic cell death. Published studies used synthetic liposomes to reveal an intrinsic pore-forming activity of Bax, but it is unclear how other mitochondrial outer membrane (MOM) proteins might facilitate this function...

journal_title：PLoS biology

authors： Kushnareva Y,Andreyev AY,Kuwana T,Newmeyer DD

更新日期：2012-01-01 00:00:00

abstract：:Planarians display remarkable plasticity in maintenance of their germline, with the ability to develop or dismantle reproductive tissues in response to systemic and environmental cues. Here, we investigated the role of G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) in this dynamic germline regulation. By genome-enabled receptor ...

journal_title：PLoS biology

authors： Saberi A,Jamal A,Beets I,Schoofs L,Newmark PA

更新日期：2016-05-10 00:00:00

abstract：:In mammals, light exerts pervasive effects on physiology and behavior in two ways: indirectly through clock synchronization and the phase adjustment of circadian rhythms, and directly through the promotion of alertness and sleep, respectively, in diurnal and nocturnal species. A recent report by Pilorz and colleagues ...

journal_title：PLoS biology

authors： Bourgin P,Hubbard J

更新日期：2016-08-15 00:00:00

abstract：:There is a widespread concern about the direct and indirect effects of industrial fisheries; this concern is particularly pertinent for so-called "marine protected areas" (MPAs), which should be safeguarded by national and international law. The intertidal flats of the Dutch Wadden Sea are a State Nature Monument and ...

journal_title：PLoS biology

authors： van Gils JA,Piersma T,Dekinga A,Spaans B,Kraan C

更新日期：2006-11-01 00:00:00

abstract：:Patterned spontaneous activity in the developing retina is necessary to drive synaptic refinement in the lateral geniculate nucleus (LGN). Using perforated patch recordings from neurons in LGN slices during the period of eye segregation, we examine how such burst-based activity can instruct this refinement. Retinogeni...

journal_title：PLoS biology

authors： Butts DA,Kanold PO,Shatz CJ

更新日期：2007-03-01 00:00:00

abstract：:Meta-research is the study of research itself: its methods, reporting, reproducibility, evaluation, and incentives. Given that science is the key driver of human progress, improving the efficiency of scientific investigation and yielding more credible and more useful research results can translate to major benefits. T...

journal_title：PLoS biology

authors： Ioannidis JPA

更新日期：2018-03-13 00:00:00

abstract：:The link between single-cell variation and population-level fate choices lacks a mechanistic explanation despite extensive observations of gene expression and epigenetic variation among individual cells. Here, we found that single human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) have different and biased differentiation potentials ...

journal_title：PLoS biology

authors： Jang J,Han D,Golkaram M,Audouard M,Liu G,Bridges D,Hellander S,Chialastri A,Dey SS,Petzold LR,Kosik KS

更新日期：2019-09-26 00:00:00

abstract：:Rapidly grouping local elements into an organized object (i.e., perceptual integration) is a fundamental yet challenging task, especially in noisy contexts. Previous studies demonstrate that ventral visual pathway, which is widely known to mediate object recognition, engages in the process by conveying object-level in...

journal_title：PLoS biology

authors： Liu L,Wang F,Zhou K,Ding N,Luo H

更新日期：2017-11-30 00:00:00

abstract：:All organisms live in temporally fluctuating environments. Theory predicts that the evolution of deterministic maternal effects (i.e., anticipatory maternal effects or transgenerational phenotypic plasticity) underlies adaptation to environments that fluctuate in a predictably alternating fashion over maternal-offspri...

journal_title：PLoS biology

authors： Dey S,Proulx SR,Teotónio H

更新日期：2016-02-24 00:00:00

abstract：:[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1371/journal.pbio.1001326.]. ...

journal_title：PLoS biology

authors： Lu W,Hu Y,Chen G,Chen Z,Zhang H,Wang F,Feng L,Pelicano H,Wang H,Keating MJ,Liu J,McKeehan W,Wang H,Luo Y,Huang P

更新日期：2017-12-11 00:00:00

abstract：:Sensory loss induces cross-modal plasticity, often resulting in altered performance in remaining sensory modalities. Whereas much is known about the macroscopic mechanisms underlying cross-modal plasticity, only scant information exists about its cellular and molecular underpinnings. We found that Caenorhabditis elega...

journal_title：PLoS biology

authors： Rabinowitch I,Laurent P,Zhao B,Walker D,Beets I,Schoofs L,Bai J,Schafer WR,Treinin M

更新日期：2016-01-08 00:00:00

abstract：:Domestic dogs exhibit tremendous phenotypic diversity, including a greater variation in body size than any other terrestrial mammal. Here, we generate a high density map of canine genetic variation by genotyping 915 dogs from 80 domestic dog breeds, 83 wild canids, and 10 outbred African shelter dogs across 60,968 sin...

journal_title：PLoS biology

authors： Boyko AR,Quignon P,Li L,Schoenebeck JJ,Degenhardt JD,Lohmueller KE,Zhao K,Brisbin A,Parker HG,vonHoldt BM,Cargill M,Auton A,Reynolds A,Elkahloun AG,Castelhano M,Mosher DS,Sutter NB,Johnson GS,Novembre J,Hubisz MJ,

更新日期：2010-08-10 00:00:00

abstract：:We have obtained precatalytic (enzyme-substrate complex) and postcatalytic (enzyme-product complex) crystal structures of an active full-length hammerhead RNA that cleaves in the crystal. Using the natural satellite tobacco ringspot virus hammerhead RNA sequence, the self-cleavage reaction was modulated by substitutin...

journal_title：PLoS biology

authors： Chi YI,Martick M,Lares M,Kim R,Scott WG,Kim SH

更新日期：2008-09-30 00:00:00

abstract：:Genes with male- and testis-enriched expression are under-represented on the Drosophila melanogaster X chromosome. There is also an excess of retrotransposed genes, many of which are expressed in testis, that have "escaped" the X chromosome and moved to the autosomes. It has been proposed that inactivation of the X ch...

journal_title：PLoS biology

authors： Hense W,Baines JF,Parsch J

更新日期：2007-10-01 00:00:00