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Making a medusa

August 14, 2026

Making a medusa

Medusozoan cnidarians include the asexually reproducing sessile polyp and the sexually reproducing motile medusa in their life cycle, but the changes in cell type composition between these stages are unclear. Oliver Link, Alison Cole, Ulrich Technau and colleagues provide a single cell transcriptome atlas of Aurelia coerulea, informing our understanding of the evolution of their complex life cycle.

Image credit: Oliver Link & Roland Halbauer

PLOS Biologue

Community blog for PLOS Biology, PLOS Genetics and PLOS Computational Biology.

PLOS BIOLOGUE

08/14/2026

Research Article

Stress granules in RNA virus infection

Stress granules are thought to contribute to antiviral defense, but their roles during RNA virus infection remain unclear. Reto Lang, Volker Thiel and co-authors show that coronavirus and alphavirus infections generate stress granules with distinct kinetics, proteomes and viral RNA content.

Image credit: pbio.3003363

Stress granules in RNA virus infection

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Current Issue

Current Issue June 2026

08/11/2026

Research Article

Development during hard times

Animals can modulate the pace of their development in response to nutrient availability, but the underlying mechanisms of this plasticity remain unclear. Longwei Bai, Jacques Montagne, Cathy Ramos and François Leulier uncover a nutrient-sensitive gut–brain endocrine circuit that enables developmental adaptation and survival under fluctuating nutritional conditions in Drosophila larvae. Don't miss the accompanying Primer by Julia Cordero.

Image credit: pbio.3003911

Development during hard times

08/10/2026

Research Article

Neural encoding of pain, within and between individuals

Pain varies both within and between individuals, even when sensory input remains constant. Laura Tiemann, Felix Bott, Markus Ploner and colleagues show that brain signals robustly track intra-individual pain fluctuations, but are less sensitive to inter-individual differences, with implications for modeling and measuring pain.

Image credit: pbio.3003948

Neural encoding of pain, within and between individuals

08/10/2026

Research Article

Did I say that? ...or did they?

In order to coordinate interactions with others, people need to distinguish between self- and other-generated signals, such as sound, but how the brain maintains this separation is unclear. Manuel Varlet, Peter Keller and co-workers show that distinct sounds enhance synchronization, and that right-hemisphere-dominant neural mechanisms facilitate auditory self-other distinction and coordination.

Did I say that? ...or did they?

Image credit: pbio.3003935

08/10/2026

Methods and Resources

T cell microRNAs in experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis

miRNAs regulate CD4+ T cell differentiation, but how do they shape autoimmunity in vivo? Carolina Cunha, Daniel Inácio, Bruno Silva-Santos, Anita Gomes and co-authors map miRNAs in experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE), identifying miR-122-5p and miR-1247 as regulators of T cell pathogenicity.

T cell microRNAs in experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis

Image credit: pbio.3003271

08/06/2026

Research Article

Asymmetric chromatin accessibility and the AP axis

Anterior posterior axis formation varies across fly species where distinct determinants regulate chromatin accessibility during early embryogenesis. Ezra Amiri, Muzi Li, Shelby Blythe, Urs Schmidt-Ott and co-workers investigate chromatin accessibility and gene expression during axis specification in the moth fly, revealing complex temporal patterns of chromatin accessibility across nuclear cycles.

Asymmetric chromatin accessibility and the AP axis

Image credit: pbio.3003896

08/11/2026

Perspective

Mentored AI use for early career researchers

Generative AI is transforming the traditional approach to training researchers by lowering technical barriers. This Perspective argues that, when paired with careful mentoring, AI can help ECRs engage more quickly in scientific inquiry.

Mentored AI use for early career researchers

Image credit: pbio.3003917

08/04/2026

Perspective

Is the scientific paper still a fraud?

How we write scientific papers does not reflect how we do science. This Perspective invites us to consider the structure of the scientific paper, and the need to celebrate the human in an age when AI threatens to overwhelm us.

Is the scientific paper still a fraud?

Image credit: Roli Roberts

08/03/2026

Community Page

Grafify!

Creating accurate graphs and performing statistical analyses can be challenging for those who lack coding experience. This Community Page introduces "grafify online," a free, browser-based app for generating publication-quality graphs and performing statistical tests.

Grafify!

Image credit: pbio.3003909

07/27/2026

Perspective

Where next for structural bioinformatics?

Structural bioinformatics aims to answer biological questions by considering biomolecular structures at scale. This Perspective argues that now that we have accurate predictions, we need to ask what we can learn from them.

Where next for structural bioinformatics?

Image credit: pbio.3001962

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