Glial cells are essential for functionality of the nervous system. Growing evidence underscores the importance of astrocytes; however, analogous astroglia in peripheral organs are poorly understood. Using confocal time-lapse imaging, fate mapping, and mutant genesis in a zebrafish model, Kikel-Coury et al. identify a neural crest-derived glial cell, termed nexus glia, which uses Meteorin signaling via Jak/Stat3 to drive differentiation and to regulate heart rate and rhythm. Nexus glia are labeled with gfap, glast, and glutamine synthetase, markers that typically denote astroglia cells. Further, analysis of single-cell sequencing datasets of human and murine hearts across ages reveals astrocyte-like cells, which the authors confirm through a multispecies approach. They also show that cardiac nexus glia at the outflow tract are critical regulators of both the sympathetic and parasympathetic system. These data establish the crucial role of glia in cardiac homeostasis and provide a description of nexus glia in the peripheral nervous system. The image shows neurons (blue) and astrocyte-like cardiac nexus glia (green) encompassing a zebrafish heart (red).
Image Credit: Nina L. Kikel-Coury
Perspective
Advanced human mucosal tissue models are needed to improve preclinical testing of vaccines
PLOS Biology: published November 12, 2021 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3001462
Primer
It takes two to tango: Concerted protein translation and degradation necessary for synaptic scaling
PLOS Biology: published November 24, 2021 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3001448
Related Articles
Community Pages
From grassroots to global: A blueprint for building a reproducibility network
PLOS Biology: published November 10, 2021 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3001461
iSDAsoil: The first continent-scale soil property map at 30 m resolution provides a soil information revolution for Africa
PLOS Biology: published November 1, 2021 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3001441
Research Articles
The economics of managing evolution
PLOS Biology: published November 16, 2021 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3001409
Spatial subsidies drive sweet spots of tropical marine biomass production
PLOS Biology: published November 2, 2021 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3001435
Fitness costs of female choosiness are low in a socially monogamous songbird
PLOS Biology: published November 4, 2021 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3001257
Diversity, taxonomy, and evolution of archaeal viruses of the class Caudoviricetes
PLOS Biology: published November 9, 2021 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3001442
Respiration modulates oscillatory neural network activity at rest
PLOS Biology: published November 11, 2021 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3001457
An altered balance of integrated and segregated brain activity is a marker of cognitive deficits following sleep deprivation
PLOS Biology: published November 4, 2021 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3001232
Adult medial habenula neurons require GDNF receptor GFRα1 for synaptic stability and function
PLOS Biology: published November 8, 2021 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3001350
Homeostatic scaling is driven by a translation-dependent degradation axis that recruits miRISC remodeling
PLOS Biology: published November 23, 2021 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3001432
Related Articles
A shared transcriptional code orchestrates temporal patterning of the central nervous system
PLOS Biology: published November 12, 2021 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3001450
Identification of astroglia-like cardiac nexus glia that are critical regulators of cardiac development and function
PLOS Biology: published November 18, 2021 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3001444
Lineage-tracing and translatomic analysis of damage-inducible mitotic cochlear progenitors identifies candidate genes regulating regeneration
PLOS Biology: published November 10, 2021 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3001445
p38γ and p38δ regulate postnatal cardiac metabolism through glycogen synthase 1
PLOS Biology: published November 10, 2021 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3001447
Mouse-adapted SARS-CoV-2 protects animals from lethal SARS-CoV challenge
PLOS Biology: published November 4, 2021 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3001284
NAMPT-derived NAD+ fuels PARP1 to promote skin inflammation through parthanatos cell death
PLOS Biology: published November 8, 2021 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3001455
FERONIA and microtubules independently contribute to mechanical integrity in the Arabidopsis shoot
PLOS Biology: published November 12, 2021 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3001454
Neuronal HSF-1 coordinates the propagation of fat desaturation across tissues to enable adaptation to high temperatures in C. elegans
PLOS Biology: published November 1, 2021 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3001431
Assembly of infectious Kaposi’s sarcoma-associated herpesvirus progeny requires formation of a pORF19 pentamer
PLOS Biology: published November 4, 2021 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3001423
Short Reports
Upregulation of DNA repair genes and cell extrusion underpin the remarkable radiation resistance of Trichoplax adhaerens
PLOS Biology: published November 17, 2021 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3001471
Predicting novel candidate human obesity genes and their site of action by systematic functional screening in Drosophila
PLOS Biology: published November 8, 2021 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3001255
Acquisition of ionic copper by the bacterial outer membrane protein OprC through a novel binding site
PLOS Biology: published November 11, 2021 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3001446
Methods and Resources
A cloud-based toolbox for the versatile environmental annotation of biodiversity data
PLOS Biology: published November 15, 2021 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3001460
Exploring bacterial diversity via a curated and searchable snapshot of archived DNA sequences
PLOS Biology: published November 9, 2021 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3001421
Systematic exploration of Escherichia coli phage–host interactions with the BASEL phage collection
PLOS Biology: published November 16, 2021 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3001424
Meta-Research Article
A survey of biomedical journals to detect editorial bias and nepotistic behavior
PLOS Biology: published November 23, 2021 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3001133
Related Articles
Update Article
Attention controls multisensory perception via two distinct mechanisms at different levels of the cortical hierarchy
PLOS Biology: published November 18, 2021 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3001465