PLOS Pathogens - Informace o časopisu

PLOS Pathogens (eISSN 1553-7374, ISSN 1553-7366) is an open-access, peer-reviewed journal published monthly by PLOS, a nonprofit organization.

Bacteria, fungi, parasites, prions and viruses cause a plethora of diseases that have important medical, agricultural, and economic consequences. Moreover, the study of microbes continues to provide novel insights into such fundamental processes as the molecular basis of cellular and organismal function.

PLOS Pathogens reflects the full breadth of research in these areas by publishing outstanding original articles that significantly advance the understanding of pathogens and how they interact with their host organisms. Topics include (but are not limited to) adaptive and innate immune defenses as well as pathogen countermeasures, emerging pathogens, evolution, genomics and gene regulation, model host organisms, pathogen-cell biology, pathogenesis, prions, proteomics and signal transduction, rational vaccine design, structural biology, and virulence factors.

Editors-in-Chief

Kasturi Haldar
University of Notre Dame
Notre Dame, Indiana, USA
E-mail: khaldar@plos.org

Grant McFadden
University of Florida
Gainesville, FL, USA
E-mail: gmcfadden@plos.org

Section Editors

Raul Andino
University of California, San Francisco
San Francisco, CA, USA
RNA virus replication, interaction with the host, RNAi, virus evolution

Alex Andrianopoulos
University of Melbourne
Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
gene regulation, fungal morphogenesis, fungal development, fungal germination

François Balloux
University College London
London, United Kingdom
spatial population genetics, spatial epidemiology, organisms with unusual mating systems and complex life-cycles

Ralph S. Baric
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Chapel Hill, NC, USA
genetics of RNA virus transcription, replication, persistence, cross species transmission.

William Bishai
Johns Hopkins School of Medicine
Baltimore, MD, USA
Mycobacterium tuberculosis, gene regulation, drugs, vaccines, diagnostics

Vern B. Carruthers
University of Michigan
Ann Arbor, MI, USA
Parasitology, apicomplexa, Toxoplasma, Trypanosomes, pathogenesis, virulence, cell biology, genetics

Ambrose Cheung
Dartmouth University School of Medicine
Hanover, NH, USA
gram-positive bacteria, virulence determinants in Staphylococcus aureus, virulence genes

Blossom Damania
University of North Carolina At Chapel Hill
Chapel Hill, NC, USA
gammaherpesviruses, signal transduction, innate immunity, oncogenesis, primate herpesviruses

Kirk Deitsch
Weill Medical College, Cornell University
New York, NY, USA
antigenic variation, eukaryotic chromatin, epigenetic regulation, transcription, Plasmodium

Michael S. Diamond
Washington University School of Medicine
St. Louis, MO, USA
RNA viruses, innate immunity, adaptive immunity

Shou-Wei Ding
University of California, Riverside
Riverside, CA, USA
plant virology, invertebrate RNA viruses, RNAi, RNA silencing, viral suppressors of RNAi

Sabine Ehrt
Weill Cornell Medical College
New York, NY, USA
Pathogenesis of tuberculosis, Mycobacterium macrophage interaction, regulation of gene expression

Michael Farzan
Harvard University School of Medicine
Southborough, MA, USA
enveloped viruses, receptors, entry, restriction

Scott G. Filler
Harbor-UCLA Medical Center
Torrance, CA, USA
mammalian fungal infections, fungal biology, cell biology of endothelial and epithelial cells

JoAnne Flynn
University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine
Pittsburgh, PA, USA
tuberculosis, lung, immunology

Ron A.M. Fouchier
Erasmus Medical Center
Rotterdam, The Netherlands
influenza, negative strand viruses, evolution, emerging viruses

Klaus Frueh
Oregon Health and Sciences University
Beaverton, OR, USA
immune evasion, Poxvirus, Herpesvirus, antigen presentation, innate immunity

Michael Gale Jr.
University of Washington
Seattle, WA, USA
hepatitis, flavivirus, innate immunity, interferon, host defense

Adolfo Garcia-Sastre
Mount Sinai School of Medicine
New York, NY, USA
Influenza, negative strand RNA viruses, innate immunity, antiviral host response, viral vaccines

Thomas J. Hope
Northwestern University
Chicago, IL, USA
viral post-transcriptional regulatory elements and cell biology of HIV

Ralph Isberg
Tufts University School of Medicine
Boston, MA, USA
molecular mechanisms of bacterial uptake, intravacuolar growth in host cells, Yersinia pseudotuberculosis

Jae Jung
University of Southern California School of Medicine
Los Angeles, CA, USA
apoptosis, autophagy, interferon, signal transduction, oncogenic herpesvirus

James Kazura
Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine
Cleveland, OH, USA
malaria, helminth, immunology, genetic susceptibility

Kami Kim
Albert Einstein College of Medicine
New York, NY, USA
parasitology, Plasmodium, Toxoplasma gondii pathogenesis, cell biology, and genetics

Richard Koup
National Institutes of Health, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases
Bethesda, MD, USA
HIV, immunity, vaccines

Neil A. Mabbott
Roslin Institute and Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies University of Edinburgh
Edinburgh, United Kingdom
immune system, host-pathogen interactions, TSE agents

Hiten Madhani
University of California, San Francisco
San Francisco, CA, USA
fungal pathogenesis, Cryptococcus neoformans, MAP kinase signaling, epigenetic regulation, transcriptional control, genomics

Michael H. Malim
King's College London
London, United Kingdom
retroviruses, HIV

John M. Mansfield
University of Wisconsin-Madison
Madison, WI, USA
immunobiology of african trypanosomiasis, trypanosome virulence and pathology

Aaron Mitchell
Carnegie Mellon University
Pittsburgh, PA, USA
biofilm formation, fungal genetics, transcriptional regulation

Karl Münger
Harvard University
Boston, MA, USA
papillomaviruses, polyomaviruses, DNA tumor viruses, viral oncology

Peter D. Nagy
University of Kentucky
Lexington, KY, USA
plant viruses, RNA virus replication, RNA virus recombination, host-virus interactions

Jing-hsiung James Ou
University of Southern California
Los Angeles, CA, USA
hepatitis B virus, hepatitis C virus, hepatocellular carcinogenesis

Edward Pearce
Washington University
Saint Louis, MO, USA
helminth parasites, immune responses

Craig R. Roy
Yale University
New Haven, CT, USA
cell biology, biochemistry, immunology, microbiology

Nina Salama
Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center
Seattle, WA, USA
epsilon proteobacteria, recombinational repair, bacterial cell wall/cell shape, comparative genomics, functional genomics

H. Steven Seifert
Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine
Chicago, IL, USA
Neisseria pathogenesis, pili, antigenic variation, bacteria genetics

Barbara Sherry
North Carolina State University
Raleigh, NC, USA
dsRNA viruses, type I interferons, myocarditis

Samuel H. Speck
Emory University
Atlanta, GA, USA
gammaherpesviruses, regulation of viral gene expression, role of DNA methylation in gammaherpesvirus infection

Guy Tran Van Nhieu
Institut Pasteur
Paris, France
bacterial pathogenesis, Shigella, bacterial-induced actin cytoskeletal reorganization

Michael Wessels
Harvard Medical School
Cambridge, MA, USA
Streptococcal pathogenesis

David Westaway
University of Alberta
Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
mammalian prion proteins (cell biology & biochemistry), host control of prion pathogenesis, prion protein life-cycle

Thomas A. Wynn
National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases
Bethesda, MD, USA
helminths, microbiology/parasitology, immunology, allergy and hypersensitivity

Opinions and Viewpoints Editor

Glenn Rall
Fox Chase Cancer Center
Philadelphia, PA, USA

Reviews Editors

Chetan Chitnis
International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology
New Delhi, India

Tom Hobman
University of Alberta
Edmonton, Canada

Pearls Editors

Richard Condit
University of Florida
Gainesville, FL, USA

William Goldman
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Chapel Hill, NC, USA

Joseph Heitman
Duke University Medical Center
Durham, NC, USA

Laura J. Knoll
University of Wisconsin-Madison
Madison, WI, USA

Virginia Miller
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Chapel Hill, NC, USA

Vincent Racaniello
Columbia University
New York, NY, USA

Heather True
Washington University School of Medicine
Saint Louis, MO, USA

Genomics Editors

Raul Andino
Section Editor
Evolutionary virology

François Balloux
Section Editor
Evolutionary biology

Aaron Mitchell
Section Editor
Mycology

Denise Monack
Associate Editor
Bacteriology

David Sibley
Associate Editor
Parasitology

Xin-zhuan Su
Associate Editor
Parasitology

Brett Tyler
Associate Editor
Plant Pathogens

David Wang
Associate Editor
Virology

Associate Editors

Umberto Agrimi
Instituto Superiore di Sanità
Rome, Italy
prion strains, pathogenesis of prion diseases, genetics of prion diseases

Christopher Aiken
Vanderbilt University School of Medicine
Nashville, TN, USA
HIV replication, mechanisms of resistance and susceptibility, host-virus interactions

Frederick M. Ausubel
Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School
Boston, MA, USA
innate immunity, host response, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Salmonella typhimurium, Enterococcus faecalis

Michelle Barry
University of Alberta
Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
DNA viruses, poxviruses, apoptosis, ubiquitination, nuclear factor kappa B

Jason Bartz
Creighton University Medical School
Omaha, NE, USA
Environmental fate of prions, Prion pathogenesis, Prion strains

Christopher F. Basler
Mount Sinai School of Medicine
New York, NY, USA
filoviruses, influenza viruses, interferon

Marcel A. Behr
McGill University
Montreal Canada
Tuberculosis, BCG, Crohn's disease, mycobacterium avium, bacterial genomics

Nora J. Besansky
University of Notre Dame
Notre Dame, IN, USA
mosquito evolutionary genetics and genomics

Stephen Beverley
Washington University School of Medicine
St. Louis, MO, USA
Leishmania and trypanosomatid protozoa, molecular genetics, parasite virulence and evolution

Michael J. Blackman
National Institute for Medical Research
London, UK
parasitology, invasion, proteomics, chemical genomics

Steven R. Blanke
University of Illinois
Urbana, IL, USA
Helicobacter pylori, Bacillus anthracis, Bacillus cereus group pathogens, Campylobacter jejuni, VacA, CDTs

Debra Bessen
New York Medical College
Valhalla, NY, USA
Streptococcal pathogenesis, bacterial evolution, molecular epidemiology

Helena Boshoff
National Institutes of Health
Bethesda, MD, USA
identification and validation of drug targets, tuberculosis, DNA repair, antibiotic resistance, Metabolomics

Kenneth A. Bradley
University of California Los Angeles
Los Angeles, CA, USA
Bacillus anthracis, cytolethal distending toxins, cholesterol dependent cytolysins

William J. Britt
University of Alabama at Birmingham
Birmingham, AL, USA
virus structure and assembly, viral protein trafficking, herpes virology

Mark L. Buller
Saint Louis University
Saint Louis, MO, USA
poxviruses, antivirals, host-range

Jenifer Coburn
Medical College of Wisconsin
Milwaukee, WI, USA
spirochetes, Borrelia, Leptospira, ticks

Pascale Cossart
Institut Pasteur
Paris, France
bacterial regulation, cell biology of infections

Leah E. Cowen
University of Toronto
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
fungal pathogenesis, antifungal drug resistance, stress response, morphogenesis

Bryan R. Cullen
Duke University Medical Center
Durham, NC, USA
retroviral molecular biology, viral microRNAs, innate antiviral immunity, APOBEC3 proteins, RNA interference

Jeff Dangl
University of North Carolina At Chapel Hill
Chapel Hill, NC, USA
plant-pathogen interactions, bacterial pathogens, type III systems, oomycetes

Vojo Deretic
University of New Mexico
Albuquerque, New Mexico
autophagy, tuberculosis, HIV, innate immunity, Crohn's disease, lung

Frank R. DeLeo
National Institutes of Health, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Hamilton, MT, USA
host defense, bacterial pathogenesis, neutrophil

Ronald C. Desrosiers
Harvard University
Boston, MA, USA
AIDS, SIV/HIV, neutralizing antibodies, AIDS vaccine, gamma herpesviruses

Tamara Doering
Washington University School of Medicine
Saint Louis, MO, USA
pathogenic fungi, Cryptococcus neoformans, glycobiology, glycan synthesis

Daniel Douek
National Institutes of Health, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases
Bethesda, MD, USA
human immunology, t cells, HIV, thymus, mucosalimmunology

Michael Emerman
Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center
Seattle, WA, USA
HIV replication, retroviruses, evolution of virus-host interactions

Roger Everett
University of Glasgow
Glasgow, Scotland
herpesviruses, PML nuclear bodies, SUMO, ubiquitin E3 ligase, viral replication

Marta Feldmesser
Albert Einstein College of Medicine
Bronx, NY, USA
fungal immunology, fungal pathogenesis, antibody-mediated immunity

Neil M. Ferguson
Imperial College London
London, UK
Epidemiology, epidemic modeling, population biology, infectious diseases

Michaela Gack
Harvard Medical School
Boston, MA, USA
innate immune sensing, signal transduction of RIG-I-like receptors, viral evasion by influenza viruses

Jorge Galan
Yale University School of Medicine
New Haven, CT, USA
Salmonella typhimurium, type III protein translocation system, host cell responses

Denise A. Galloway
Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center Seattle, WA, USA
papillomaviruses, mechanisms of cellular immortaliztion, E6 and E7, papillomavirus/polyomavirus
serology

Andrea Gamarnik
Fundación Intituto Leloir-CONICET
Buenos Aires, Argentina
dengue virus replication, flaviviruses, RNA virus replication, RNA virus translation

Shou-Jiang Gao
University of Southern California
Los Angeles, CA, USA
human and primate gammaherpesviruses, emphasis on KSHV and AIDS-related malignancies, non-coding RNA

Michael S. Gilmore
Harvard Medical School
Boston, MA, USA
gram positive bacteria, enterococci and staphylococci

Shengyang He
Michigan State University
East Lansing, MI, USA
Plant innate immunity, type III secretion, jasmonate signaling, stomatal function, vesicle traffic

Mark Heise
University of North Carolina At Chapel Hill
Chapel Hill, NC, USA
pathogenesis of virus-induced disease, mosquito-borne and respiratory viruses, viral evasion of the host innate immune system and virus-induced immune pathology

Michael J. Imperiale
University of Michigan
Ann Arbor, MI, USA
small DNA tumor viruses, polyomavirus, adenovirus, papillomavirus

Patricia Johnson
University of California, Los Angeles
Los Angeles, CA, USA
trichomonad biology: organelle evolution & biogenesis, gene expression and pathogenesis

Yoshihiro Kawaoka
University of Wisconsin-Madison and University of Tokyo
Madison, WI, USA; Tokyo, Japan
RNA viruses, influenza viruses, filoviruses

Barbara Kazmierczak
Yale University School of Medicine
New Haven, CT, USA
Bacterial pathogens, host-pathogen interaction, immune activation and defense, innate immunity

Bruce S. Klein
University of Wisconsin-Madison
Madison, WI, USA
fungal immunology and pathogenesis

Theresa Koehler
University of Texas-Houston Medical School
Houston, TX, USA
Bacillus, anthrax, spore, toxin, gram positive capsule

Hans-Georg Kräusslich
Universität Heidelberg
Heidelberg, Germany
HIV, assembly, maturation, protease, entry

Tomoko Kubori
Osaka University
Suita, Japan
Legionella, Salmonella, bacterial effectors, bacterial flagella, Secretion systems

Jean Langhorne
National Institute for Medical Research
London, United Kingdom
mechanisms of protection and pathogenesis of infectious diseases,molecular immunology, malaria

Bruce R. Levin
Emory University
Atlanta, GA, USA
population dynamics and evolution of E. coli and Streptococcus pneumoniae

Jeffrey D. Lifson
SAIC-Frederick
Frederick, MD, USA
retrovirology, HIV/SIV, retroviral immunology, AIDS vaccines, non-human primate models

Michael Linden
King's College London School of Medicine
London, UK
parvoviruses, adeno-associated virus, bocavirus, genome integration, DNA replication

Jeremy Luban
University of Massachusetts Medical School
Worcester, MA, USA
HIV, retroviruses, replication, immunity

Guangxiang "George" Luo
University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Medicine
Birmingham, AL, USA
hepatitis viruses (B, C, D and E), flaviviruses, influenza, RSV, viral entry and replication, and antiviral drugs

David Mackey
Ohio State University
Columbus, OH, USA
Arabidopsis, Pseudomonas, type III effector, resistance protein, innate immunity

Robin C. May
University of Birmingham
Birmingham, United Kingdom
fungal infections, innate immunity

Alison McBride
National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases
Bethesda, MD, USA
papillomavirus, keratinocyte biology, epigenetic modifications, genome integration

Bruce A. McDonald
ETH Zurich
Zurich, Switzerland
Mycology, plant pathology, population genetics, evolutionary biology

Denise Monack
Stanford University School of Medicine
Stanford, CA, USA
Shigella life cycle, protease-dependent mechanism for mediating actin-based motility

Karen Mossman
McMaster University
Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
Innate immunity, interferon, signal transduction, virus-host interactions, oncolytic viruses, Herpesviruses

Maria Mota
Instituto de Medicina Molecular
Lisbon, Portugal
malaria, host-plasmodium interactions, malaria pathology, hepatocyte infection

Ingrid Müller
Imperial College
London, United Kingdom
Leishmania, macrophages, role of arginase in the immune system, cytokines, T cells, innate immunity

Xavier Nassif
University Paris Descartes
Paris, France
bacterial meningitis, Neisseria pathogenesis, blood brain barrier

Jay A. Nelson
Oregon Health and Science University
Portland, OR, USA
molecular pathogenesis, viruses including herpesviruses, flaviviruses, cytomegalovirus

Howard Ochman
University of Arizona
Tucson, AZ, USA
bacterial evolution, genomics, population genetics, lateral gene transfer, phylogenetics

Carlos Javier Orihuela
The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio
San Antonio, TX, USA
S. pneumoniae, bacterial pathogenesis, mechanisms of bacterial adhesion, community-acquired pneumonia in the elderly, innate immunity

Matthew Parsek
University of Washington
Seattle, WA, USA
Quorum sensing biofilms, microbial communities

Andrew Pekosz
Johns Hopkins University
Baltimore, MD,USA
Influenza virus, hantavirus, coronavirus, virus-host cell interactions, virus assembly

Andreas Peschel
University of Tubingen
Tubingen, Germany
Peptidoglycan metabolism, Staphylococcus aureus, teichoic acids, evasion, proinflammatory bacterial molecules

William A. Petri, Jr.
University of Virginia
Charlottesville, VA
Entamoeba, E. histolytica, amebiasis, ameba, amebic colitis, amebic liver abscess, diarrhea, enteric infection, giardia, cryptosporidia, malnutrition, mucosal immunology, enteric vaccine

Dana J. Philpott
University of Toronto
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
nod-like receptor (NLR) family, bacterial infection

Ted Pierson
National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases
Bethesda, MD, USA
envelope proteins of alphaviruses and flaviviruses, vector borne infections

Oliver Pybus
University of Oxford
Oxford, United Kingdom
RNA virus, phylogeny, evolution, adaptation, influenza

Lalita Ramakrishnan
University of Washington
Seattle, WA, USA
tuberculosis, gene expression and regulation, zebrafish

Félix Rey
Institute Pasteur
Paris, France
structural virology, viral envelope glycoproteins, particle assembly

Charles M. Rice
The Rockefeller University
New York, NY, USA
RNA viruses, flaviviruses, hepatitis C, alphaviruses

Eleanor M. Riley
London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine
London, United Kingdom
immunology, malaria, pathology, epidemiology

Susan R. Ross
University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine
Philadelphia, PA, USA
retroviruses, genetics of resistance/susceptibility to infection (viral or bacterial), immune responses to viruses

David Sacks
National Institutes of Health, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases
Bethesda, MD, USA
intracellular parasite biology , immunology and cell biology of leishmanial infections

Connie Schmaljohn
U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases
Fort Detrick, Maryland, USA
DNA vaccines, hantaviruses, filoviruses, anthrax, Venezuelan equine encephalitis virus, vaccinia virus

David S. Schneider
Stanford University
Palo Alto, CA, USA
innate Immunity, model systems of infection (Drosophila and mosquitoes), malaria, Listeria and Salmonella

L. David Sibley
Washington University School of Medicine
St. Louis, MO, USA
genetics, genomics, cell biology, intracellular parasites, calcium

Aleem Siddiqui
University of California, San Diego
San Diego, CA, USA
HCV-induced lipid metabolism, RNA replication, HBV, golgi trafficking, steatosis, liver oncogenesis

Luis J. Sigal
Fox Chase Cancer Center
Philadelphia, PA, USA
viral immunology, antigen presentation

Anita Sil
University of California, San Francisco
San Francisco, CA, USA
fungal pathogenesis, macrophage innate immune response, gene regulation, fungal development

Guido Silvestri
Emory University
Atlanta, GA, USA
AIDS pathogenesis, HIV, SIV, non-human primates, mucosal transmission, co-infections

Joseph Smith
Seattle Biomedical Research Institute
Seattle, WA, USA
Plasmodium falciparum, antigenic variation, var genes, cytoadherence, erythrocyte invasion

Dominique Soldati-Favre
University of Geneva Geneva, Switzerland
apicomplexa, cell biology, invasion, trafficking, metabolism

Mary M. Stevenson
McGill University Montreal Canada
malaria immunology, malaria pathogenesis, helminth-induced immunosuppression

Xin-zhuan Su
National Institutes of Health, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Rockville, MD, USA
parasites, malaria, genetics, genomics, drug resistance, sexual development

Kanta Subbarao
National Institutes of Health Bethesda, MD, USA
influenza, SARS coronavirus, vaccines

Bill Sugden
University of Wisconsin-Madison Madison, WI, USA
molecular biology of the human tumor virus, Epstein-Barr virus

Paul Sullam
University of California, San Francisco San Francisco, CA, USA
viridans group streptococci, platelets, endocarditis, endovascular infections

Surachai Supattapone
Dartmouth University School of Medicine Hanover, NH, USA
Biochemistry of infectious mammalian prions, especially: non-PrP cofactors such as lipids and polyanionic molecules, in vitro prion propagation, structural basis of prion infectivity, molecular basis for prion strain diversity

Volker Thiel
Cantonal Hospital St-Gallen / Institute of Immunobiology St. Gallen, Switzerland
coronaviruses, reverse genetics, RNA synthesis, pathogenicity factors

Alexandra Trkola
University Hospital Zürich Zürich, Switzerland
HIV, virus entry,humoral immunity

Brett Tyler
Virginia Tech Blacksburg, VA, USA
Oomycete and fungal plant pathogens, plant innate immunity, eukaryotic microbe genomics and bioinformatics

Elisabetta Ullu
Yale University School of Medicine New Haven, CT, USA
gene expression, RNA metabolism, RNA interference

Raphael Valdivia
Duke University Medical Center Durham, NC, USA
Chlamydia, cellular microbiology, membrane transport, cell signaling, cytoskeleton

Kenneth Vernick
Institut Pasteur Paris, France
vector biology, mosquito, genomics, genetics

Christopher M. Walker
The Research Institute at Nationwide Childrens Hospital Columbus, OH, USA
immune response, viral pathogenesis, gene therapy

David Wang
Washington University St. Louis, MO, USA
characterization of novel viruses, C. elegans virus infection system, astroviruses, nodaviruses

John Wherry
University of Pennsylvania Philadelphia, PA, USA
chronic viral infection, T cell exhaustion, T cell memory, viral pathogenesis, T cell differentiation

Claus O. Wilke
University of Texas at Austin Austin, TX
molecular evolution, RNA viruses, mathematical modeling, lethal mutagenesis

Jin-Rong Xu
Purdue University West Lafayette, Indiana, USA
fungal genetics and pathogenesis, pathogen-plant interactions

John A. T. Young, Founding Editor
The Salk Institute for Biological Studies San Diego, CA, USA
mechanisms of retroviral and anthrax toxin entry into cells

Jian-Min Zhou
National Institute of Biological Sciences Beijing, China Pla
thogens, signal transduction, effector, innate immunity, protein phosphorylation

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1. About PLOS Pathogens

Bacteria, fungi, parasites, prions and viruses cause a variety of diseases that have important medical, agricultural, and economic consequences. Moreover, the study of microbes continues to provide novel insights into such fundamental processes as the molecular basis of cellular and organismal function. PLOS Pathogens reflects the full breadth of research in these areas by publishing outstanding original articles that significantly advance the understanding of pathogens and how they interact with their host organisms. PLOS Pathogens provides immediate free access to all content, ensuring that authors reach the widest possible audience as soon as a manuscript is published. Topics include (but are not limited to) adaptive and innate immune defenses as well as pathogen countermeasures, emerging pathogens, evolution, genomics and gene regulation, model host organisms, pathogen-cell biology, pathogenesis, prions, proteomics and signal transduction, rational vaccine design, structural biology, and virulence factors. For further information, please see the journal scope.

2. Open Access

PLOS applies the Creative Commons Attribution License (CCAL) to all works we publish. Under the CCAL, authors retain ownership of the copyright for their article, but authors allow anyone to download, reuse, reprint, modify, distribute, and/or copy articles in PLOS journals, so long as the original authors and source are cited. No permission is required from the authors or the publishers.

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4. Criteria for Publication

To be considered for publication in PLOS Pathogens, any given manuscript must satisfy the following criteria:

• Originality
• High importance to researchers in the field
• High importance and broad interest to the community of researchers studying pathogens and pathogen-host interactions
• Rigorous methodology
• Substantial evidence for its conclusions

5. Overview of the Editorial Process

Our aim is to provide all authors with an efficient, courteous, and constructive editorial process. To achieve its required level of quality, PLOS Pathogens is highly selective in the manuscripts that it publishes; rejections rates are high. To ensure the fairest and most objective decision-making, the editorial process is run as a partnership between the PLOS Pathogens Editor-in-Chief, a Deputy Editor, a team of Section Editors (SEs), and a group of academic experts who act as Associate Editors (AEs). These individuals are leaders in their fields and represent the full breadth of pathogen-related research.

Submitted manuscripts are first reviewed by a group of relevant SEs, who may decide to reject the paper or send it on to an AE for further review. The AE is most often a member of the PLOS Pathogens Editorial Board, but occasionally a guest of the Board is invited to serve in this capacity. The AE evaluates the paper and decides whether it describes a sufficient body of work to support a major advance in a particular field. If so, the paper is sent out for external peer review, at which stage the technical and scientific merits of the work are carefully considered. Once the reviews have been received and considered by the editors, a decision letter to the corresponding author is drafted and sent.

The decision will be within one of the following categories:

• Reject
• Major revision
• Minor revision
• Accept

Appeals of Decisions

PLOS Pathogens encourages input from the community regarding editorial and publishing policies. However, appeals against manuscript decisions must be a) limited to the specific manuscript in question, b) made only by the corresponding author, and c) sent by e-mail to plospathogens@plos.org. Telephone calls or other informal appeals are discouraged and will not be considered. Appeals will only be considered when a reviewer or editor is thought to have made a significant factual error or when his/her objectivity is compromised by a documented competing interest, and when a reversal based on either of these grounds would change the original decision. The journal staff will ask for confirmation of the reason(s) in the first instance. If the authors proceed, the original editor(s) will usually be asked to consider the appeal. Additional editorial board members may also be consulted. Each appeal is treated on its merits and the journal cannot make any guarantees about the turnaround time or outcome. Appeals of decisions made before review will only be considered in exceptional circumstances. Appeals of decisions noted as final will not be considered.

6. Presubmission Inquiries

When authors are unsure whether their work satisfies the basic requirements for publication in PLOS Pathogens, we are happy to consider presubmission inquiries. If you would like to submit an informal presubmission inquiry to see if a manuscript is appropriate in principle, please login or register for a new account within our online submission system, choosing 'Submit Presubmission Inquiry' from the list of Author Tasks. Required for all Presubmission Inquiries are contact information, a cover letter, and an abstract.

Responses to these inquiries are normally provided within one week. Responses may take longer if consultation between members of the editorial board is required. If you are invited to submit your manuscript, we will do our best to provide an expeditious initial assessment of the complete manuscript for suitability and then, if warranted, external peer review.

To be of most use to authors and editors, presubmission enquiries should consist of the following:

A) A COVER LETTER of approximately 600 words that provides brief answers to the following questions:

1. What is the scientific question you are addressing?
2. What is the key finding that answers this question?
3. What is the nature of the evidence you provide in support of your conclusion?
4. What are the three most recently published papers that are relevant to this question?
5. What significance do your results have for the field?
6. What significance do your results have for the broader community in the area of Pathogens and/or Pathogenesis?
7. What other novel findings do you present?
8. Is there additional information that we should take into account?

B) A REFERENCED ABSTRACT of approximately 300 words. For the purpose of the presubmission enquiry submission form, the referenced abstract should include up to 10 key references that put your work into context. Please do not submit your entire manuscript. The abstract should be structured as follows:

Background

This section should describe clearly the rationale for the study being done and the previous work relevant to the study. It should end with a statement of the specific question or hypothesis being addressed.

Methodology/Principal Findings

Mention the techniques used without going into extensive methodological detail, and outline the most important results. Include sample sizes for key experiments as appropriate. Please also outline any limitations of the study that may have a bearing on the results.

Conclusions/Significance

Provide the take-home message of your article as clearly as possible. You may also include a brief, more general interpretation of the results and / or specific recommendations for future research. Please note, however, that the editors will pay most attention to the direct conclusions of the work being presented, rather than some possible future avenues being opened.

7. Preparation of Research Articles

PLOS Pathogens publishes original research that clearly demonstrates novelty, importance to a particular field, biological significance, and conclusions that are justified by the study.

Our aim is to make the editorial process rigorous and consistent, and to offer the best possible support to our authors throughout this process. Authors are encouraged to decide how best to present their ideas, results, and conclusions. The writing style should be concise and accessible. Editors may make suggestions for how to achieve this, as well as suggestions for cuts or additions that could be made to the article to strengthen the argument.

Although we encourage submissions from around the globe, we require that manuscripts be submitted in English. As a step towards overcoming language barriers, we encourage authors fluent in other languages to provide copies of their full articles or abstracts in other languages. Translations should be submitted as supporting information and listed, together with other supporting information files, at the end of the article text.

Organization of the Manuscript

Most Research Articles published in PLOS Pathogens are organized into the following sections: Title, Authors, Affiliations, Abstract, Author Summary, Introduction, Results, Discussion, Materials and Methods, Acknowledgments, References, Figure Legends, and Tables. Uniformity in format facilitates the experience of readers and users of the journal. To provide flexibility, however, authors are also able to include the Materials and Methods section before the Results section or before the Discussion section. Please also note that the Results and Discussion can be combined into one Results/Discussion section. All manuscripts must contain line numbers. Although we have no firm length restrictions for the entire manuscript, we urge authors to present and discuss their findings concisely.

Title (150 characters or less, including spaces)

The title should be specific to the project, yet concise. It should be comprehensible to readers outside your field. Avoid specialist abbreviations, if possible. Titles should be presented in title case, meaning that all words except for prepositions, articles, and conjunctions should be capitalized. Please ensure the title in the manuscript is the same as that entered into our submission form. Please also provide, in the submission form only, a brief Short Title (or "running head") of no more than 50 characters.

Example title:
Detection of Specific Sequences among DNA Fragments Separated by Gel Electrophoresis

Authors and Affiliations

Provide the first names or initials (if used), middle names or initials (if used), surnames, and affiliations—department, university or organization, city, state/province (if applicable), and country—for all authors. One of the authors should be designated as the corresponding author. It is the corresponding author's responsibility to ensure that the author list, and the summary of the author contributions to the study, is accurate and complete. If the article has been submitted on behalf of a consortium, all consortium members and affiliations should be listed after the Acknowledgments.

Abstract

The abstract of the paper should be succinct; it must not exceed 300 words. Authors should mention the techniques used without going into methodological detail and should summarize the most important results. While the abstract is conceptually divided into three sections (Background, Methodology/Principal Findings, and Conclusions/Significance), please do not apply these distinct headings to the abstract within the article file. Please do not include any citations and avoid specialist abbreviations.

Author Summary

We ask that all authors of research articles include a 150–200 word non-technical summary of the work as part of the manuscript to immediately follow the abstract. This text is subject to editorial change, should be written in the first-person voice, and should be distinct from the scientific abstract. Aim to highlight where your work fits within a broader context; present the significance or possible implications of your work simply and objectively; and avoid the use of acronyms and complex terminology wherever possible. The goal is to make your findings accessible to a wide audience that includes both scientists and non-scientists. Authors may benefit from consulting with a science writer or press officer to ensure they effectively communicate their findings to a general audience. Examples are available at:

Mosquitoes Inoculate High Doses of West Nile Virus as They Probe and Feed on Live Hosts

Introduction

The introduction should put the focus of the manuscript into a broader context. As you compose the introduction, think of readers who are not experts in this field. Include a brief review of the key literature. If there are relevant controversies or disagreements in the field, they should be mentioned so that a non-expert reader can delve into these issues further. The introduction should conclude with a brief statement of the overall aim of the experiments and a comment about whether that aim was achieved.

Results

The results section should provide details of all of the experiments that are required to support the conclusions of the paper. There is no specific word limit for this section, but details of experiments that are peripheral to the main thrust of the article and that detract from the focus of the article should not be included. The section may be divided into subsections, each with a concise subheading. Large datasets, including raw data, should be submitted as supporting files; these are published online alongside the accepted article. The results section should be written in the past tense.

Discussion

The discussion should spell out the major conclusions of the work along with some explanation or speculation on the significance of these conclusions. How do the conclusions affect the existing assumptions and models in the field? How can future research build on these observations? What are the key experiments that must be done? The discussion should be concise and tightly argued. The results and discussion may be combined into one section, if desired.

Materials and Methods

This section should provide enough detail for reproduction of the findings. Protocols for new methods should be included, but well-established protocols may simply be referenced. While we do encourage authors to submit all appendices, detailed protocols, or details of the algorithms for newer or less well-established methods, please do so as Supporting Information files. These are not included in the typeset manuscript, but are downloadable and fully searchable from the HTML version of the article.

Acknowledgments

People who contributed to the work but do not fit the criteria for authors should be listed in the Acknowledgments, along with their contributions. You must also ensure that anyone named in the Acknowledgments agrees to being so named.

Details of the funding sources that have supported the work should be confined to the funding statement provided in the online submission system. Do not include them in the Acknowledgments.

References

Only published or accepted manuscripts should be included in the reference list. Papers that have been submitted but not yet accepted should not be cited. Limited citation of unpublished work should be included in the body of the text only as “unpublished data.” All “personal communications” citations should be supported by a letter from the relevant authors.

Style information:

• PLOS uses the numbered citation (citation-sequence) method and first five authors, et al.
• References are listed and numbered in the order that they appear in the text.
• In the text, citations should be indicated by the reference number in brackets.
• The parts of the manuscript should be in the correct order before ordering the citations: body, boxes, figure captions, tables, and supporting information captions.
• Abstracts and author summaries may not contain citations.
• Journal name abbreviations should be those found in the NCBI databases: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/nlmcatalog/journals.

Because all references will be linked electronically as much as possible to the papers they cite, proper formatting of the references is crucial. For convenience, a number of reference software companies supply PLOS style files (e.g., Reference Manager, EndNote).

Published Papers
1. Hou WR, Hou YL, Wu GF, Song Y, Su XL, et al. (2011) cDNA, genomic sequence cloning and overexpression of ribosomal protein gene L9 (rpL9) of the giant panda (Ailuropoda melanoleuca). Genet Mol Res 10: 1576-1588.

Note: Use of a DOI number for the full-text article is acceptable as an alternative to or in addition to traditional volume and page numbers.

Accepted, unpublished papers
Same as above, but “In press” appears instead of the page numbers.

Electronic Journal Articles
1. Huynen MMTE, Martens P, Hilderlink HBM (2005) The health impacts of globalisation: a conceptual framework. Global Health 1: 14. Available: http://www.globalizationandhealth.com/content/1/1/14. Accessed 25 January 2012.

Books
1. Bates B (1992) Bargaining for life: A social history of tuberculosis. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. 435 p.

Book Chapters
1. Hansen B (1991) New York City epidemics and history for the public. In: Harden VA, Risse GB, editors. AIDS and the historian. Bethesda: National Institutes of Health. pp. 21-28.

Figure Legends

The aim of the figure legend should be to describe the key messages of the figure, but the figure should also be discussed in the text. An enlarged version of the figure and its full legend will often be viewed in a separate window online, and it should be possible for a reader to understand the figure without switching back and forth between this window and the relevant parts of the text. Each legend should have a concise title of no more than 15 words that can stand alone, without the use of figure part labels. The overall legend itself should be succinct, while still explaining all figure parts, symbols and abbreviations. Avoid lengthy descriptions of methods.

Tables

Tables should be included at the end of the manuscript file and cited sequentially in the text. All tables should have a concise title. Footnotes can be used to explain abbreviations. Citations should be indicated using the same style as outlined above. Tables should not occupy more than one printed page; larger tables can be published as online supporting information. Tables must be cell-based; do not use picture elements, text boxes, tabs, or returns in tables. Please ensure that all tables conform to our Guidelines for Figure and Table Preparation when preparing them.

Nomenclature

The use of standardized nomenclature in all fields of science and medicine is an essential step toward the integration and linking of scientific information reported in published literature. We will enforce the use of correct and established nomenclature wherever possible:

• We strongly encourage the use of "SI units". If you do not use these exclusively, please provide the SI value in parentheses after each value.
• Species names should be italicized (e.g., Homo sapiens) and the full genus and species must be written out in full, both in the title of the manuscript and at the first mention of an organism in a paper; after that, the first letter of the genus name, followed by the full species name may be used.
• Genes, mutations, genotypes, and alleles should be indicated in italics. Use the recommended name by consulting the appropriate genetic nomenclature database, e.g., "HUGO" for human genes. It is sometimes advisable to indicate the synonyms for the gene the first time it appears in the text. Gene prefixes such as those used for oncogenes or cellular localization should be shown in roman: v-fes, c-MYC, etc.
• The Recommended International Non-Proprietary Name (rINN) of drugs should be provided.

Accession Numbers

All appropriate datasets, images, and information should be deposited in public resources. Please provide the relevant accession numbers (and version numbers, if appropriate). Accession numbers should be provided in parentheses after the entity on first use. Suggested databases include, but are not limited to:

• "ArrayExpress"
• "BioModels Database"
• "Database of Interacting Proteins"
• "DNA Data Bank of Japan [DDBJ]"
• "DRYAD"
• "EMBL Nucleotide Sequence Database"
• "GenBank"
• Gene Expression Omnibus [GEO]"
• Protein Data Bank"
• "UniProtKB/Swiss-Prot"
• "ClinicalTrials.gov"

In addition, as much as possible, please provide accession numbers or identifiers for all entities such as genes, proteins, mutants, diseases, etc., for which there is an entry in a public database, for example:

• "Ensembl"
• "Entrez Gene"
• "FlyBase"
• "InterPro"
• "Mouse Genome Database (MGD)"
• "Online Mendelian Inheritance in Man (OMIM)"
• "PubChem"

Providing accession numbers allows linking to and from established databases and integrates your article with a broader collection of scientific information.

Abbreviations

Please keep abbreviations to a minimum and define them upon first use in the text. Non-standard abbreviations should not be used unless they appear at least three times in the text.

8. Materials Required for Manuscript Submission

Cover Letter

It is important that you include a cover letter with your manuscript. Please explain why this manuscript is suitable for publication in PLOS Pathogens; why will your paper inspire the other members of your field, and how will it drive research forward? You are free to recommend a suitable Associate Editor to handle your submission; however, the editors reserve the right to contact an alternative—either from the board or a guest editor—if it is considered more appropriate. Please note that the cover letter will be available to the editors and to external peer reviewers as necessary, so be careful not to reveal anything of a confidential nature.

Author Status

It is the responsibility of the corresponding author to ensure that all authors are aware of and approve the submission of the manuscript, its content, authorship, and order of authorship. Confirmation of this action is required at submission of all manuscripts.

The involvement of any professional medical writer in publication must be declared. We encourage authors to consult the "European Medical Writers' Association Guidelines" on the role of medical writers. For all PLOS journals, the corresponding author must submit the manuscript, related files, and all required data and information. From the point of submission through to publication, all communication related to that manuscript will be directed to and received from the corresponding author only.

PLOS Pathogens bases its criteria for authorship on those outlined in the "Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals", which are summarized below. The contributions of all authors must be described. Contributions that fall short of authorship should be mentioned in the acknowledgments.

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"Authorship credit should be based on

1. substantial contribution to conception and design, or acquisition of data, or analysis and interpretation of data;
2. drafting the article or revising it critically for important intellectual content; and
3. final approval of the version to be published

Authors should meet conditions 1, 2, and 3.

When a large, multi-center group has conducted the work, the group should identify the individuals who accept direct responsibility for the manuscript (3). These individuals should fully meet the criteria for authorship defined above and editors will ask these individuals to complete journal-specific author and competing interests disclosure forms. When submitting a group author manuscript, the corresponding author should clearly indicate the preferred citation and should clearly identify all individual authors as well as the group name.

Acquisition of funding, collection of data, or general supervision of the research group, alone, does not justify authorship. All persons designated as authors should qualify for authorship, and all those who qualify should be listed. Each author should have participated sufficiently in the work to take public responsibility for appropriate portions of the content."

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PLOS journals follow the "COPE guidelines" covering changes in authorship. Please note that if any changes to the list of authors of a manuscript are necessary after the initial submission of a manuscript to a PLOS journal but before its publication, the corresponding author may be asked to provide written confirmation that all authors consent to the change(s). The journal also reserves the right to request written confirmation from all authors (including those added, removed, or moved in the author order). Such written consent may be required before the revised submission is sent to the editors.

Financial Disclosure

This section should describe sources of funding that have supported the work. Please include relevant grant numbers and the URL of any funder's Web site. Please also include this sentence: "The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript." If this statement is not correct, you must describe the role of any sponsors or funders, and amend the aforementioned sentence as needed.

Competing Interests

The submitting author is asked at submission to declare, on behalf of all authors, whether there are any financial, personal, or professional interests that could be construed to have influenced the paper. The information entered here will appear in the published version, so please do not include the same in the manuscript file. Reviewers are also asked to declare any interests that might interfere with their objective assessment of a manuscript. Any relevant competing interests of authors must be available to editors and reviewers during the review process and will be stated in published articles. Read more about PLOS's "Competing Interests Policy."

Electronic Formats

Our submission system supports a limited range of formats for text and graphics. The following file formats/types and manuscript information are required before submission. If you are concerned about the suitability of your files, please contact us at plospathogens@plos.org.

Manuscript and Table Files

Articles can be submitted for review in DOC, DOCX, RTF, or PDF. Any articles that have been prepared in LaTeX will be accepted for review, but only in PDF format. After acceptance, only text files (RTF or DOC) of the revised manuscript and tables can be accepted for use in the production process.

Math Equations and DOCX

If your manuscript is or will be in DOCX and contains equations, you must follow the instructions below to make sure that your equations are editable when the file enters production.

If you have not yet composed your article, you can ensure that the equations in your DOCX file remain editable in DOC by enabling “Compatibility Mode” before you begin. To do this, open a new document and save as Word 97-2003 (*.doc). Several features of Word 2007/10 will now be inactive, including the built-in equation editing tool. You can insert equations in one of the two ways listed below.

If you have already composed your article as DOCX and used its built-in equation editing tool, your equations will become images when the file is saved down to DOC. To resolve this problem, re-key your equations in one of the two following ways.

• Use MathType to create the equation. MathType is the recommended method for creating equations.
• Go to Insert > Object > Microsoft Equation 3.0 and create the equation.

If, when saving your final document, you see a message saying “Equations will be converted to images,” your equations are no longer editable and PLOS will not be able to accept your file.

LaTeX

Articles prepared in LaTeX may be submitted in PDF format for use during the review process. After acceptance, however, .tex files and formatting information will be required as a zipped file. Please consult our "LaTeX Guidelines" for a list of what will be required.

Tables

"Guidelines for Figure and Table Preparation" and placed at the end of the article DOC or RTF file. Accepted LaTeX submissions only should have table files—which must also conform to these guidelines—uploaded individually into the online submission system.

Figure Files

For the article to be accepted for publication, the author will need to supply high-resolution versions of the figures in TIF or EPS format only. When preparing your figures, please ensure that the files conform to our "Guidelines for Figure and Table Preparation". Please do not upload panels for a single figure separately (for example, Figure 1A, Figure 1B-1D, Figure 1E); each figure file should be a single montage of all panels. Queries can be sent to figures@plos.org.

If you are uploading your files in EPS format, please use the "create outlines" option under the type menu in Illustrator so that all text and fonts appear as intended in print. If you need additional help with figure preparation, please contact figures@plos.org.

PLOS does not accept vector EPS figures generated using LaTeX. We only accept LaTeX generated figures in TIFF format. Export your LaTeX files as PDFs, and then open them in GIMP or Photoshop and save as TIFF. In general, Figures must be generated in a standalone graphics application such as Adobe Illustrator, InkScape, PyMol, MatLab, SAS, etc. Please see our "Figure Guidelines" for more information.

All figures will be published under a "Creative Commons Attribution License", which allows them to be freely used, distributed, and built upon as long as proper attribution is given. Please do not submit any figures that have been previously copyrighted unless you have express written permission from the copyright holder to publish under the CCAL license.

Multimedia Files and Supporting Information

We encourage authors to submit essential supporting files and multimedia files along with their manuscripts. All supporting material will be subject to peer review, and should be smaller than 10 MB in size because of the difficulties that some users will experience in loading or downloading files of a greater size.

Supporting files should fall into one of the following categories: Dataset, Figure, Table, Text, Protocol, Audio, or Video. All supporting information should be referred to in the manuscript with a leading capital S (e.g., Figure S4 for the fourth supporting information figure). The numbered title and caption for each supporting information file should be included in the main article file, after the titles and captions for the main figures.

Supporting files will not be included in the typeset PDF, but will be referenced in the text and hosted online.

Supporting files may be submitted in a variety of formats, but should be publication-ready, as these files are not copyedited. Carefully consider whether your supporting information needs to be searchable and/or editable, and choose the most suitable format accordingly. See the "Figure Guidelines" for more detail about our requirements for multimedia files and the file formats we accept.

Ready to Submit Your Manuscript?

We have provided a "Submission Checklist" to help you prepare your materials for submission and to make the online submission process as straightforward as possible. Please take the time to look through the list before submitting your article.

Please login or register at our "online submission system" to begin the submission process. Files can be uploaded individually or together in a single ZIP file, and are automatically combined into a single PDF file, which must be approved by the author at the end of the submission process. This merged PDF is for internal and external peer review only. Original source files will be used to prepare accepted articles for publication.

9. Reviews, Opinions, Editorials, and Pearls

The front section of PLOS Pathogens is a forum for the publication of articles of broad interest to the community of researchers studying pathogens and pathogen-host interactions. Articles in the magazine section will mostly be commissioned, but we welcome your ideas for articles. If you would like to write a Review or Opinion please first submit a "presubmission inquiry". There are no publication charges associated with these articles.

Reviews: These are peer-reviewed articles on rapidly advancing or topical areas in pathogen research and of broad interest to the entire pathogens community. Generally such pieces will canvass briefly any existing literature on a particular topic and speculate on future directions of this course of study. These articles should be no more than 3000 words with 5 figures and a maximum of 100 references.

Opinions: The Opinions section is intended to provide a place for the expression of views on topical, emerging or controversial issues ranging from experimental science to those involving science and public-health policy, education and training. It is also a forum in which colleagues can respond, with room for speculation, to previously stated opinions or observations. A successful Opinion piece will make a compelling case for a particular point of view, but will do so, mindful of existing controversies or alternative views, and will make an effort to integrate these into the discussion. While primary data are typically not included in these submissions, if the author chooses to include data, it should be subjected to rigorous review as would any research article. These articles should be no more than 1000 words with 3 figures and a maximum of 100 references.

Editorials: Written by the journal's editors, these occasional pieces can cover announcements, highlights of journal content, position statements, and journal updates.

Pearls: The goal of a "Pearl" is to describe within a short space a small number of significant and interesting facts about a topic in the world of pathogens. While articles are meant to be current, the audience is meant to be broad. Thus, an article should be readable by scientists working on a completely different pathogen, and they should avoid details relevant only to insiders in a field. Rather they should summarize succinctly the key exciting and important facts on a topic at a level that would allow it to be used in a graduate course. Pearls should be no more than 1500 words with 1-2 figures/tables and a maximum of 20 references.

Pearls may take one of the two following formats:

1. "Five facts about X" In this format, authors list significant facts about a topic and then summarize the evidence for them.
2. "Q&A" In this format, each paragraph involves a question followed by an answer – a more conversational style that may suit some topics better.

10. Overview of the Production Process

Before formal acceptance of the article for publication, the manuscript and all related files will be checked by PLOS staff to ensure that they comply with all essential formatting and manuscript preparation requirements. Please note that manuscripts are not subject to detailed copyediting. Therefore, please carefully review your manuscript, paying special attention to spelling, punctuation, and grammar, as well as scientific content. Authors who believe their manuscripts would benefit from in-depth professional copyediting are encouraged to use language-editing and copyediting services, such as the ones offered below (in alphabetical order):

• American Journal Experts
• Asia Science Editing
• Bioedit Ltd
• BiomEditor
• BioScience Writers
• Blue Pencil Science
• Boston BioEdit
• Carpe Diem Biomedical Writing and Editing
• English Manager Science Editing
• International Science Editing
• Life Science Publishing
• Online English
• Professional Editing Services
• Scienceditors.com
• SciTechEdit International
• Scitext Cambridge
• Scribendi
• Squirrel Scribe
• Stallard Scientific Editing
• Write Science Right

PLOS neither endorses nor takes responsibility for contracting with any of these individuals/companies, but we do recognize the value of the services they provide.

When an article has been accepted for publication, the manuscript files are transferred into our production system and will be published in PDF and HTML formats, with an XML download option. Articles are published online on a weekly schedule and archived in PubMed Central/PubMed within 5 to 10 days of publication.

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