Vaccines are one of the greatest scientific success stories of our time. They have saved more than 154 million lives in the last 50 years — more than 1 life every 10 seconds.

Recent moves to strip funding from vaccine-related research are shortsighted and self-harming. As is the use of precious resources to revisit debunked claims of links to autism.

The best vaccine isn’t useful if it is not distributed, or not socially accepted. Vaccine equity and hesitancy remain great challenges. Globalizing antivaccine activism could become our greatest hurdle.

It is not time to defund, but rather invest in vaccines.

Read our latest editorial in #PLOSBiology: Vaccines work… and do not cause autism

#vaccines #vaccination #immunization #WorldImmunizationWeek #measles #outbreak #vaccinehesitancy

https://journals.plos.org/plosbiology/article?id=10.1371/journal.pbio.3003143

"On improving the sustainability of peer review" - a good editorial from #PLOSBiology https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3003127 #peerreview #academicchatter #academicpublishing

How does the lysogenic-lytic cycle work in intestinal #bacteriophages? @dbikard &co show that hankyphage produces defective viral particles & identify RepCHP as master repressor of this #phage's lytic cycle #plosbiology https://plos.io/41Rr22S

How does sensory information construct representations in the human brain? This study shows that a network including prefrontal & posterior #ParietalCortex & anterior #insula has a key role in translating perceptual information to concepts, semantics & action plans #plosbiology https://plos.io/4lbXN2b

Sleep regulation in #Drosophila. @dissel_lab1 &co show that #cholinergic #neurons in the dorsal fan-shaped body (dFB) play a major role in #sleep modulation in this neurochemically heterogeneous region of the fly brain #plosbiology https://plos.io/42uPczp

How do worms navigate based on learned experience? @AndrewLeifer &co reveal flexible behavioral strategies & distributed neural computations underlying learning-dependent odor #navigation in #Celegans #plosbiology https://plos.io/4bYZs7c

Sleep can support #memory, but can memory hyperfunction cause #sleep deficits? They find that the short-sleep #Drosophila mutant "#insomniac" has enhanced memory and that PKA signaling balances sleep & memory in these flies #plosbiology https://plos.io/4ihHNtL

The Shh pathway is a key regulator of feather development. @rorylcooper & @lanevol show that inhibiting Shh during chick embryogenesis results in unbranched #feather buds, similar to those seen in some of their #dinosaur ancestors #plosbiology https://plos.io/4bIYQCx

Analysis of #IUCNRedList data on 67,217 animal species reveals that a range of #conservation actions successfully conserved species at greatest risk of extinction, but rarely resulted in full recovery #plosbiology https://plos.io/3XUzEDd

Secretion mechanisms of many T6SS effectors in Gram-neg #bacteria remain unclear. @DrDorSalomon &co identify a new class of #T6SS effectors, which can harbor either 1 or 2 toxic domains and use the WHIX domain as a secretion motif #plosbiology https://plos.io/4iCxVL3

Bright colors observed across the animal world are often used during mate choice. @dickmerrill explores a #plosbiology study of genetic & neural mechanisms contributing to evolution of visual mating decisions in Heliconius butterflies. Paper: https://plos.io/4iHQDRd Primer: https://plos.io/4ipW7QS

Current methods for profiling #HistoneModifications require cell isolation & don't work with all tissue types. @jellevda &co adapt Targeted DamID (TaDa) to profile cell-type-specific #histone marks throughout the genome, in vivo, without cell isolation #plosbiology https://plos.io/3Dw8sUD

Neural circuits that link genetic variation to #behavior: This study of mate choice behavior in Heliconius cydno #butterflies shows that alterations to the peripheral nervous system, driven by genetic & gene expression differences, can alter essential behaviors #plosbiology https://plos.io/4iHQDRd

A role for translational control in stem & differentiating cells. This study shows that signals from the #StemCell niche induce changes in translational rates (via eIF3d1 phosphorylation) to control stem cell fate in #Drosophila testis #plosbiology https://plos.io/3Dw1W07

Bacterial ABC peptide transporters are involved in processes like nutrient uptake. This study solves #cryoEM structures of the #Ecoli dipeptide #transporter DppABCDF in both apo & ATP analog-bound forms, providing insights into assembly & import mechanism #plosbiology https://plos.io/3DxP8pU

Intercellular interactions between DIP & Dpr proteins coordinate #NeuralNetwork assembly in flies, but what if they're expressed in the same cell? This study shows that DIPs & Dprs can interact in cis, & that the cis/trans balance plays a role in neural development #plosbiology https://plos.io/3XpRs9f

#Sorghum develops aerial roots and (like maize) produces abundant carb-rich mucilage after rain. @jeanmichelane &co show that diazotrophic #bacteria in the aerial roots can fix nitrogen, reducing need for synthetic fertilizers #plosbiology https://plos.io/3EYPZjK

Dynamics of a supergene. A study of the BC supergene in wing color morphs of the African monarch #butterfly by @rishidekayne &co reveals dynamic evolution of #supergene haplotypes, fueled by incomplete recombination suppression #plosbiology https://plos.io/3DiFhnL

When did the lubricated joints that allow our skeleton to swivel, rotate and bend evolve? Gage Crump explores a new #plosbiology paper by @neelimasharma @neilshubin &co that pinpoints their origin to the earliest jawed vertebrates. Paper: https://plos.io/3CTC8La Primer: https://plos.io/4kkhXa6

When did synovial joints evolve? @neelimasharma @neilshubin &co reveal that stable, mobile & lubricated joints were present in the common ancestor of jawed fishes but lacking in jawless ones #plosbiology https://plos.io/3CTC8La