The PLOS Biology XV Collection: 15 Years of Exceptional Science Highlighted across 12 Months

To land on a surface the bat needs to get a grip with their tiny feet, which are interconnected to the wings via the inner wing membrane (the plagiopatagium) and therefore quite immobile. Because the bat has to slow down just before initiating the somersault, this prevents the use of aerodynamic forces–these are small anyway at such low speeds, and the proximity to the landing site prevents vigorous flapping. The transgenic LUSHD118A did not result in the enhanced OSN activity that Laughlin et al. had observed in the infusion experiment. [...]these neurons retained the ability to be activated by cVA, and lush mutant flies expressing additional LUSH mutant proteins at endogenous levels didn’t recapitulate the increased or decreased cVA sensitivity shown by Laughlin et al. [...]the authors show that multicellular organisms comprising these high-mutation cells are less fit. [...]their experiments not only provide valuable insight into ancient evolutionary transitions to multicellularity but may also guide studies of reversion to unicellularity, whereby cancerous cells arise by flouting rules governing replication or quiescence in multicellular organisms. First some background: since roughly the 1970s, various government authorities have required that research proposing to use nonhuman animals undergo an independent review and approval process before it is conducted.