In the face of severe environmental crises that threaten insect biodiversity, new technologies are imperative to monitor both the identity and ecology of insect species. Traditionally, insect surveys rely on manual collection of traps, which provide abundance data but mask the large intra- and inter-day variations in insect activity, an important facet of their ecology. Although laboratory studies have shown that circadian processes are central to insects' biological functions, from feeding to reproduction, we lack the high-frequency monitoring tools to study insect circadian biology in the field. To address these issues, Geissmann et al. developed the Sticky Pi, a novel, autonomous, open-source, insect trap that acquires images of sticky cards every 20 minutes. Using custom deep learning algorithms, Sticky Pi automatically and accurately scored where, when, and which insects were captured. The automatic identification and high sampling rate of this tool provide biologists with unique data with the potential to impact research far beyond chronobiology, with applications to biodiversity monitoring and pest control as well as fundamental implications for phenology, behavioural ecology, and ecophysiology. The Sticky Pi project was released as an open community resource on https://doc.sticky-pi.com. The image shows Sticky Pi in a strawberry field at the University of British Columbia farm.
Image Credit: Quentin Geissmann
Editorial
Mendel’s legacy in modern genetics
PLOS Biology: published July 28, 2022 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3001760
Essays
Selfish centromeres and the wastefulness of human reproduction
PLOS Biology: published July 5, 2022 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3001671
Turning promise into practice: Crop biotechnology for increasing genetic diversity and climate resilience
PLOS Biology: published July 26, 2022 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3001716
Consensus View
Recommendations for empowering early career researchers to improve research culture and practice
PLOS Biology: published July 7, 2022 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3001680
Unsolved Mystery
If amyloid drives Alzheimer disease, why have anti-amyloid therapies not yet slowed cognitive decline?
PLOS Biology: published July 21, 2022 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3001694
Perspectives
Johann Gregor Mendel: Born to be a scientist?
PLOS Biology: published July 19, 2022 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3001703
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What can we learn from selfish loci that break Mendel’s law?
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Gregor Mendel’s legacy in quantitative genetics
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The deceptive simplicity of mendelian genetics
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Primers
Reptile research shows new avenues and old challenges for extinction risk modelling
PLOS Biology: published July 11, 2022 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3001719
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How sex chromosomes get trapped into nonrecombination
PLOS Biology: published July 19, 2022 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3001718
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The path of voices in our brain
PLOS Biology: published July 29, 2022 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3001742
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PLOS Biology: published July 6, 2022 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3001706
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Sweet sensors support stressed cell survival
PLOS Biology: published July 22, 2022 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3001705
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Enzymes flying under the radar: Cryptic METTL3 can persist in knockout cells
PLOS Biology: published July 20, 2022 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3001717
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Research Articles
Sheltering of deleterious mutations explains the stepwise extension of recombination suppression on sex chromosomes and other supergenes
PLOS Biology: published July 19, 2022 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3001698
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Neural dynamics differentially encode phrases and sentences during spoken language comprehension
PLOS Biology: published July 14, 2022 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3001713
Differential activation of a frontoparietal network explains population-level differences in statistical learning from speech
PLOS Biology: published July 6, 2022 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3001712
LiCl-induced sickness modulates rat gustatory cortical responses
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Neuron-specific ablation of the Krabbe disease gene galactosylceramidase in mice results in neurodegeneration
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A Krüppel-like factor is required for development and regeneration of germline and yolk cells from somatic stem cells in planarians
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Genome-wide functional analysis reveals key roles for kinesins in the mammalian and mosquito stages of the malaria parasite life cycle
PLOS Biology: published July 28, 2022 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3001704
The ciliopathy protein CCDC66 controls mitotic progression and cytokinesis by promoting microtubule nucleation and organization
PLOS Biology: published July 18, 2022 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3001708
Expanded ACE2 dependencies of diverse SARS-like coronavirus receptor binding domains
PLOS Biology: published July 27, 2022 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3001738
Short Reports
Neural responses in human superior temporal cortex support coding of voice representations
PLOS Biology: published July 28, 2022 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3001675
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Alternative splicing of METTL3 explains apparently METTL3-independent m6A modifications in mRNA
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Methods and Resources
Sticky Pi is a high-frequency smart trap that enables the study of insect circadian activity under natural conditions
PLOS Biology: published July 7, 2022 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3001689
Histologically resolved multiomics enables precise molecular profiling of human intratumor heterogeneity
PLOS Biology: published July 1, 2022 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3001699
Estimating the transfer rates of bacterial plasmids with an adapted Luria–Delbrück fluctuation analysis
PLOS Biology: published July 25, 2022 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3001732
Discovery Reports
Critically ill COVID-19 patients with neutralizing autoantibodies against type I interferons have increased risk of herpesvirus disease
PLOS Biology: published July 5, 2022 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3001709
The Gr64 cluster of gustatory receptors promotes survival and proteostasis of epithelial cells in Drosophila
PLOS Biology: published July 21, 2022 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3001710