March 2025

The morphological intricacies of avian feathers make them an ideal model for investigating embryonic patterning and morphogenesis. In particular, the sonic hedgehog (Shh) pathway is an important mediator of feather outgrowth and branching. However, functional in vivo evidence regarding its role during feather development remains limited. Cooper and Milinkovitch demonstrate that an intravenous injection of sonidegib, a potent Shh pathway inhibitor, at embryonic day 9 (E9) temporarily produces striped domains (instead of spots) of Shh expression in the skin, arrests morphogenesis, and results in unbranched and non-invaginated feather buds—akin to proto-feathers—in embryos until E14. Overall, they provide functional evidence for the role of the Shh pathway in mediating feather morphogenesis and confirm its role in the evolutionary emergence and diversification of feathers. The image shows the wing of a chick embryo at the twelfth day of incubation, with feather buds covering the entire embryonic wing.

Image Credit: Rory Cooper Michel Milinkovitch

Editorial

On improving the sustainability of peer review

Daniel Routledge, Nonia Pariente, On Behalf of the PLOS Biology Staff Editors

PLOS Biology: published March 25, 2025 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3003127

Essays

Soil biodiversity and function under global change

Manuel Delgado-Baquerizo, David J. Eldridge, Yu-Rong Liu, Zhong-Wen Liu, Claudia Coleine, Pankaj Trivedi

PLOS Biology: published March 27, 2025 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3003093

The end of the genetic paradigm of cancer

Sui Huang, Ana M. Soto, Carlos Sonnenschein

PLOS Biology: published March 18, 2025 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3003052

Perspectives

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Peter J. Hotez

PLOS Biology: published March 28, 2025 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3003089

Microbiota isolate collections: A key to global vector-borne disease control

Miguel Medina Muñoz, Holly L. Nichols, Kerri L. Coon

PLOS Biology: published March 18, 2025 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3003078

Primer

Is beauty beyond the eye of the butterfly?

Richard M. Merrill

PLOS Biology: published March 12, 2025 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3003054

Community Page

The IBEX Knowledge-Base: A central resource for multiplexed imaging techniques

Andrea J. Radtke, Ifeanyichukwu U. Anidi, Leanne Arakkal, Armando J. Arroyo-Mejias, Rebecca T. Beuschel, Katy Börner, Colin J. Chu, Beatrice Clark, Menna R. Clatworthy, Jake Colautti, Fabian Coscia, Joshua Croteau, Saven Denha, Rose Dever, Walderez O. Dutra, Sonja Fritzsche, Spencer Fullam, Michael Y. Gerner, Anita Gola, Kenneth J. Gollob, Jonathan M. Hernandez, Jyh Liang Hor, Hiroshi Ichise, Zhixin Jing, Danny Jonigk, Evelyn Kandov, Wolfgang Kastenmüller, Joshua F. E. Koenig, Rosa K. Kortekaas, Aanandita Kothurkar, Alexandra Y. Kreins, Ian T. Lamborn, Yuri Lin, Katia Luciano Pereira Morais, Aleksandra Lunich, Jean C. S. Luz, Ryan B. MacDonald, Chen Makranz, Vivien I. Maltez, John E. McDonough, Ryan V. Moriarty, Juan M. Ocampo-Godinez, Vitoria M. Olyntho, Annette Oxenius, Kartika Padhan, Kirsten Remmert, Nathan Richoz, Edward C. Schrom, Wanjing Shang, Lihong Shi, Rochelle M. Shih, Emily Speranza, Salome Stierli, Sarah A. Teichmann, Tibor Z. Veres, Megan Vierhout, Brianna T. Wachter, Adam K. Wade-Vallance, Margaret Williams, Nathan Zangger, Ronald N. Germain, Ziv Yaniv

PLOS Biology: published March 19, 2025 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3003070

Research Articles

Genetic, developmental, and neural changes underlying the evolution of butterfly mate preference

Nicholas W. VanKuren, Nathan P. Buerkle, Wei Lu, Erica L. Westerman, Alexandria K. Im, Darli Massardo, Laura Southcott, Stephanie E. Palmer, Marcus R. Kronforst

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Neural mechanisms for the attention-mediated propagation of conceptual information in the human brain

David Acunzo, Damiano Grignolio, Clayton Hickey

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Yun Wen Chu, Suma Chinta, Hayagreev V. S. Keri, Shreya Beri, Scott R. Pluta

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Navigation strategies in Caenorhabditis elegans are differentially altered by learning

Kevin S Chen, Anuj K Sharma, Jonathan W Pillow, Andrew M Leifer

PLOS Biology: published March 21, 2025 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3003005

Enhanced memory despite severe sleep loss in Drosophila insomniac mutants

Sheng Huang, Chengji Piao, Zhiying Zhao, Christine B. Beuschel, Oriane Turrel, David Toppe, Stephan J. Sigrist

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The Hunchback transcription factor determines interneuron molecular identity, morphology, and presynapse targeting in the Drosophila NB5-2 lineage

Heather Q. Pollington, Chris Q. Doe

PLOS Biology: published March 31, 2025 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3002881

Members of the DIP and Dpr adhesion protein families use cis inhibition to shape neural development in Drosophila

Nicholas C. Morano, Davys H. Lopez, Hagar Meltzer, Alina P. Sergeeva, Phinikoula S. Katsamba, Kevin D. Rostam, Himanshu Pawankumar Gupta, Jordan E. Becker, Bavat Bornstein, Filip Cosmanescu, Oren Schuldiner, Barry Honig, Richard S. Mann, Lawrence Shapiro

PLOS Biology: published March 3, 2025 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3003030

In vivo sonic hedgehog pathway antagonism temporarily results in ancestral proto-feather-like structures in the chicken

Rory L. Cooper, Michel C. Milinkovitch

PLOS Biology: published March 20, 2025 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3003061

Notch3 is an asymmetric gene and a modifier of heart looping defects in Nodal mouse mutants

Tobias Holm Bønnelykke, Marie-Amandine Chabry, Emeline Perthame, Gregor Dombrowsky, Felix Berger, Sven Dittrich, Marc-Phillip Hitz, Audrey Desgrange, Sigolène M. Meilhac

PLOS Biology: published March 31, 2025 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3002598

Signals from the niche promote distinct modes of translation initiation to control stem cell differentiation and renewal in the Drosophila testis

Ruoxu Wang, Mykola Roiuk, Freya Storer, Aurelio A. Teleman, Marc Amoyel

PLOS Biology: published March 11, 2025 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3003049

Structural characterization of the ABC transporter DppABCDF in Escherichia coli reveals insights into dipeptide acquisition

Panpan Li, Manfeng Zhang, Yihua Huang

PLOS Biology: published March 7, 2025 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3003026

Short Reports

Past conservation efforts reveal which actions lead to positive outcomes for species

Ashley T. Simkins, William J. Sutherland, Lynn V. Dicks, Craig Hilton-Taylor, Molly K. Grace, Stuart H. M. Butchart, Rebecca A. Senior, Silviu O. Petrovan

PLOS Biology: published March 18, 2025 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3003051

Incomplete lytic cycle of a widespread Bacteroides bacteriophage leads to the formation of defective viral particles

Sol Vendrell-Fernández, Beatriz Beamud, Yasmina Abou Haydar, Jorge Am de Sousa, Julien Burlaud-Gaillard, Etienne Kornobis, Bertrand Raynal, Joelle Vinh, David Bikard, Jean-Marc Ghigo

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PLOS Biology: published March 17, 2025 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3003053

Methods and Resources

Targeted DamID detects cell-type-specific histone modifications in intact tissues or organisms

Jelle van den Ameele, Manuel Trauner, Eva Hörmanseder, Alex P. A. Donovan, Oriol Llorà-Batlle, Seth W. Cheetham, Robert Krautz, Rebecca Yakob, Anna Malkowska, John B. Gurdon, Andrea H. Brand

PLOS Biology: published March 11, 2025 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3002944

Update Articles

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Joseph D. Jones, Brandon L. Holder, Andrew C. Montgomery, Chloe V. McAdams, Emily He, Anna E. Burns, Kiran R. Eiken, Alex Vogt, Adriana I. Velarde, Alexandra J. Elder, Jennifer A. McEllin, Stephane Dissel

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