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PLOS ONE 10 Year Anniversary: Staff Editors’ Favorites

Published February 16, 2017 Curated Collections

Kicking off the first of the 10th Anniversary Collections, the Staff Editors of the journal have each chosen their favorite PLOS ONE article from the 10 year archive. In the accompanying EveryONE blog, the editors have also given insight as to what made them choose their selected article. Highlighting 19 research articles, this collection intends to showcase the breadth of varied research as chosen by the editors who know the journal best.

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Joerg Heber, Editor in Chief
Iratxe Puebla, Managing Editor
Meg Byrne, Senior Editor
Christna Chap, Senior Editor
Eric Martens, Senior Editor
Michelle Dohm, Senior Editor
Gina Alvino, Associate Editor
Eileen Clancy, Associate Editor
Alejandra Clark, Associate Editor
Tessa de Roo, Associate Editor
Sara Fuentes Pérez, Associate Editor
Rachel Hertog, Associate Editor
Renee Hoch, Associate Editor
Helen Howard, Associate Editor
Adya Misra, Associate Editor
Carla Pegoraro, Associate Editor
Anna Simonin, Associate Editor
Nicola Stead, Associate Editor
Jenna Wilson, Associate Editor

Joerg Heber, Editor in Chief

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10.1371/journal.pone.0011862

PLOS ONE The Effect of Surface Nanometre-Scale Morphology on Protein Adsorption
July 29, 2010 Pasquale Emanuele Scopelliti, Antonio Borgonovo, Marco Indrieri, Luca Giorgetti, Gero Bongiorno, Roberta Carbone, Alessandro Podestà, Paolo Milani
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EveryONE Blog Staff Editors’ Favorites: Joerg Heber
January 12, 2017 This study quantifies how nano-scale morphologies on surfaces can have significant effects on protein adsorption. I selected this paper as it nicely plays to the strengths of PLOS ONE‘s broad scope, in this case straddling the interface of nanoscience, physics and biology.

Iratxe Puebla, Managing Editor

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10.1371/journal.pone.0022751

PLOS ONE Prospective Genomic Characterization of the German Enterohemorrhagic Escherichia coli O104:H4 Outbreak by Rapid Next Generation Sequencing Technology
July 20, 2011 Alexander Mellmann, Dag Harmsen, Craig Cummings, Emily Zentz, Shana Leopold, Alain Rico, Karola Prior, Rafael Szczepanowski, Yongmei Ji, Wenlan Zhang, Stephen McLaughlin, John Henkhaus, Benjamin Leopold, Martina Bielaszewska, Rita Prager, Pius Brzoska, Richard Moore, Simone Guenther, Jonathan Rothberg, Helge Karch
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EveryONE Blog Staff Editors’ Favorites: Iratxe Puebla
January 12, 2017 The article reports the genome sequencing of the E. coli isolate at the source of an outbreak in Germany in 2011, research into the outbreak was still ongoing so this helped inform progress in a situation of a public health outbreak, we were contacted about the paper prior to submission and fast tracked it so it was live in less than 2 weeks.

Meg Byrne, Senior Editor

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10.1371/journal.pone.0109035

PLOS ONE The Influence of Partner-Specific Memory Associations on Picture Naming: A Failure to Replicate Horton (2007)
October 3, 2014 Sarah Brown-Schmidt, William S. Horton
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EveryONE Blog Staff Editors’ Favorites: Meg Byrne
January 12, 2017 This paper was highlighted in the PLOS ONE collection "The Missing Pieces: A Collection of Negative, Null and Inconclusive Results". The authors could not replicate their previous results, and published a paper refuting their previously published findings.

Christna Chap, Senior Editor

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10.1371/journal.pone.0002428

PLOS ONE Colorectal Cancer Stem Cells Are Enriched in Xenogeneic Tumors Following Chemotherapy
June 18, 2008 Scott J. Dylla, Lucia Beviglia, In-Kyung Park, Cecile Chartier, Janak Raval, Lucy Ngan, Kellie Pickell, Jorge Aguilar, Sasha Lazetic, Stephanie Smith-Berdan, Michael F. Clarke, Tim Hoey, John Lewicki, Austin L. Gurney
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EveryONE Blog Staff Editors’ Favorites: Christna Chap
January 12, 2017 This article was one of the first ones to provide experimental evidence for the cancer stem cell hypothesis by showing a cancer stem cell-specific mechanism of resistance to standard chemotherapy.

Eric Martens, Senior Editor

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10.1371/journal.pone.0105948

PLOS ONE Sliding Rocks on Racetrack Playa, Death Valley National Park: First Observation of Rocks in Motion
August 27, 2014 Richard D. Norris, James M. Norris, Ralph D. Lorenz, Jib Ray, Brian Jackson
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EveryONE Blog Staff Editors’ Favorites: Eric Martens
January 12, 2017 The movement of large rocks along the surface of Racetrack Playa, Death Valley has been a source of mystery for decades. This study employed GPS and time-lapse video to show that the movement happened in the presence of thin “windowpane” ice, which occurs under specific conditions of temperature and wind.

Michelle Dohm, Senior Editor

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10.1371/journal.pone.0089934

PLOS ONE Water Filtration Using Plant Xylem
February 26, 2014 Michael S. H. Boutilier, Jongho Lee, Valerie Chambers, Varsha Venkatesh, Rohit Karnik
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EveryONE Blog Staff Editors’ Favorites: Michelle Dohm
January 12, 2017 The authors of this study took advantage of wood’s ability to undergo pressure-driven water filtration and made a potential point-of-use device that is both inexpensive and biodegradable. This small filter made of freshly cut plant xylem from the sapwood of coniferous trees can filter out 99.9% of bacteria – at the nanoscale – from several liters of clean drinking water, enough for one person for a day.

Gina Alvino, Associate Editor

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10.1371/journal.pone.0158124

PLOS ONE Determining Connections between the Daily Lives of Zoo Elephants and Their Welfare: An Epidemiological Approach
July 14, 2016 Cheryl Meehan, Joy Mench, Kathy Carlstead, Jennifer Hogan
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EveryONE Blog Staff Editors’ Favorites: Gina Alvino
January 12, 2017 This overview provides a summary of the findings of the 9 research articles featured in the PLOS Collection titled “Epidemiological Investigations of North American Zoo Elephant Welfare“, the largest prospective zoo-based animal welfare study to date which focuses “on the life history, social, housing, and management factors found to be associated with particular aspects of elephant welfare.

Eileen Clancy, Associate Editor

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10.1371/journal.pone.0098781

PLOS ONE Foldscope: Origami-Based Paper Microscope
June 18, 2014 James S. Cybulski, James Clements, Manu Prakash
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EveryONE Blog Staff Editors’ Favorites: Eileen Clancy
January 12, 2017 I picked this paper because I think the potential of the Foldscope is really exciting. It can be shipped and stored flat and costs less than $1 to make, making it a great option for students, educators, and field scientists throughout the world, particularly in resource deficient areas.

Alejandra Clark, Associate Editor

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10.1371/journal.pone.0122575

PLOS ONE Strange Little Flies in the Big City: Exotic Flower-Breeding Drosophilidae (Diptera) in Urban Los Angeles
April 29, 2015 David Grimaldi, Paul S. Ginsberg, Lesley Thayer, Shane McEvey, Martin Hauser, Michael Turelli, Brian Brown
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EveryONE Blog Staff Editors’ Favorites: Alejandra Clark
January 12, 2017 This is an interesting study showing how intensive field sampling can reveal remarkable insect biodiversity even in the most urbanized areas. Field sampling reveals the presence of two unexpected species of Drosophilids in urban LA, which unlike most introduced Drosophilids that feed on rotten fruits, are specialized flower-breeders.

Tessa de Roo, Associate Editor

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10.1371/journal.pone.0002214

PLOS ONE Evidence of Authentic DNA from Danish Viking Age Skeletons Untouched by Humans for 1,000 Years
May 28, 2008 Linea Melchior, Toomas Kivisild, Niels Lynnerup, Jørgen Dissing
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EveryONE Blog Staff Editors’ Favorites: Tessa de Roo
January 12, 2017 In Viking Age studies a lot of archaeologists make large claims based on dubious or heavily contested evidence. This paper goes to the heart (or bones) of the Viking Age and scientifically investigates some of the people who populated the past.

Sara Fuentes Pérez, Associate Editor

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10.1371/journal.pone.0065427

PLOS ONE Identifying the World’s Most Climate Change Vulnerable Species: A Systematic Trait-Based Assessment of all Birds, Amphibians and Corals
June 12, 2013 Wendy B. Foden, Stuart H. M. Butchart, Simon N. Stuart, Jean-Christophe Vié, H. Resit Akçakaya, Ariadne Angulo, Lyndon M. DeVantier, Alexander Gutsche, Emre Turak, Long Cao, Simon D. Donner, Vineet Katariya, Rodolphe Bernard, Robert A. Holland, Adrian F. Hughes, Susannah E. O’Hanlon, Stephen T. Garnett, Çagan H. Şekercioğlu, Georgina M. Mace
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EveryONE Blog Staff Editors’ Favorites: Sara Fuentes Pérez
January 12, 2017 Climate change will have dramatic effects on biodiversity but not all species will be affected in the same way. This is one of the first studies to identify species most at risk based on predicted change in climate and species’ biological traits at a global scale. It also highlights how ecological theory can be harnessed to inform policy.

Rachel Hertog, Associate Editor

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10.1371/journal.pone.0094950

PLOS ONE Insect Leaf-Chewing Damage Tracks Herbivore Richness in Modern and Ancient Forests
May 2, 2014 Mónica R. Carvalho, Peter Wilf, Héctor Barrios, Donald M. Windsor, Ellen D. Currano, Conrad C. Labandeira, Carlos A. Jaramillo
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EveryONE Blog Staff Editors’ Favorites: Rachel Hertog
January 12, 2017 While body fossils are what come to mind when most people think about the fossil record, trace fossils such as footprints, burrows and bite marks are also valuable sources of information about ancient ecosystems. This nice study by Carvalho et al. looks at the relationship between leaf-chewing damage types (DTs) and damage maker richness and showed that damage can be used to infer insect richness in both modern and fossil forests.

Renee Hoch, Associate Editor

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10.1371/journal.pone.0005575

PLOS ONE Early Antiretroviral Therapy Reduces AIDS Progression/Death in Individuals with Acute Opportunistic Infections: A Multicenter Randomized Strategy Trial
May 18, 2009 Andrew R. Zolopa, Janet Andersen, Lauren Komarow, Ian Sanne, Alejandro Sanchez, Evelyn Hogg, Carol Suckow, William Powderly, for the ACTG A5164 study team
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EveryONE Blog Staff Editors’ Favorites: Renee Hoch
January 12, 2017 This clinical trial published in PLOS ONE asked an important clinical question and quickly became a landmark study for the infectious disease community. It directly impacted clinical practice guidelines and patient outcomes, and prompted several follow-up studies about the optimal timing of antiretroviral treatment in AIDS patients with opportunistic infections.

Helen Howard, Associate Editor

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10.1371/journal.pone.0152421

PLOS ONE Modeling Magnetomyograms of Uterine Contractions during Pregnancy Using a Multiscale Forward Electromagnetic Approach
March 28, 2016 Mengxue Zhang, Vanessa Tidwell, Patricio S. La Rosa, James D. Wilson, Hari Eswaran, Arye Nehorai
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EveryONE Blog Staff Editors’ Favorites: Helen Howard
January 12, 2017 The authors present a mathematical model to mimic the mechanisms behind uterine contractions during pregnancy. I thought this was a really interesting study, and importantly, a better understanding of this topic will help to predict the onset of preterm labour.

Adya Misra, Associate Editor

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10.1371/journal.pone.0011910

PLOS ONE Respiratory Chain Complexes in Dynamic Mitochondria Display a Patchy Distribution in Life Cells
July 30, 2010 Britta Muster, Wladislaw Kohl, Ilka Wittig, Valentina Strecker, Friederike Joos, Winfried Haase, Jürgen Bereiter-Hahn, Karin Busch
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EveryONE Blog Staff Editors’ Favorites: Adya Misra
January 12, 2017 This paper demonstrates the dynamic nature of the batteries of our cell, the mitochondria using live cell imaging. The exchange of mitochondrial DNA and proteins via “fission” and “fusion” is crucial for mitochondrial homeostasis and defects in these processes have been implicated in several neurodegenerative diseases, notably Parkinson’s disease and the less famous, Mitochondrial disease.

Carla Pegoraro, Associate Editor

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10.1371/journal.pone.0150987

PLOS ONE Are Isolated Indigenous Populations Headed toward Extinction?
March 8, 2016 Robert S. Walker, Dylan C. Kesler, Kim R. Hill
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EveryONE Blog Staff Editors’ Favorites: Carla Pegoraro
January 12, 2017 This is an interesting paper looking at the growth of isolated indigenous populations and the possible policies to rescue them from imminent extinction.

Anna Simonin, Associate Editor

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10.1371/journal.pone.0084549

PLOS ONE Sloth Hair as a Novel Source of Fungi with Potent Anti-Parasitic, Anti-Cancer and Anti-Bacterial Bioactivity
January 15, 2014 Sarah Higginbotham, Weng Ruh Wong, Roger G. Linington, Carmenza Spadafora, Liliana Iturrado, A. Elizabeth Arnold
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EveryONE Blog Staff Editors’ Favorites: Anna Simonin
January 12, 2017 This is a really interesting paper highlighting the amazing biodiversity found in small and previously unstudied niches. It is a reminder of the importance of studying seemingly obscure fungal communities, conserving areas of rich biodiversity, and how microbes can benefit their hosts.

Nicola Stead, Associate Editor

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10.1371/journal.pone.0001759

PLOS ONE SirT1 Regulates Energy Metabolism and Response to Caloric Restriction in Mice
March 12, 2008 Gino Boily, Erin L. Seifert, Lisa Bevilacqua, Xiao Hong He, Guillaume Sabourin, Carmen Estey, Cynthia Moffat, Sean Crawford, Sarah Saliba, Karen Jardine, Jian Xuan, Meredith Evans, Mary-Ellen Harper, Michael W. McBurney
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EveryONE Blog Staff Editors’ Favorites: Nicola Stead
January 12, 2017 Caloric restriction is known to increase lifespan in many animals and research in lower eukaryotes, such as yeast and fruit flies, had already shown that sirtuins played a key role in expanding lifespan under caloric restriction. When this paper was published, it was one of the first studies to show a similar dependence on sirtuins in mammals.

Jenna Wilson, Associate Editor

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10.1371/journal.pone.0001565

PLOS ONE Reproducible, Ultra High-Throughput Formation of Multicellular Organization from Single Cell Suspension-Derived Human Embryonic Stem Cell Aggregates
February 13, 2008 Mark D. Ungrin, Chirag Joshi, Andra Nica, Céline Bauwens, Peter W. Zandstra
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EveryONE Blog Staff Editors’ Favorites: Jenna Wilson
January 12, 2017 This paper reported a new method for forming three-dimensional cellular aggregates in a high-throughput manner, enabling studies of cellular self-organization and behavior in a more physiologically-relevant microenvironment. The described technology has since been commercialized and is widely used by stem cell and cancer researchers. My PhD wouldn’t have been possible without it!

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