Search

The authors defined a roadmap for investigating the genetic covariance between structural or functional brain phenotypes and risk for psychiatric disorders. Their proof-of-concept study using the largest available common variant data sets for schizophrenia and volumes of several (mainly subcortical) brain structures did not find evidence of genetic overlap.

Genomic fitness profiling of Acinetobacter baumannii treated with ten clinically relevant biocides using TraDIS reveals a common mechanism of action through dissipation of membrane potential that can promote antibiotic tolerance.

Climate change assessment reports are increasing in complexity as the knowledge base grows exponentially. In this Perspective, the authors advocate, and provide recommendations, for knowledge synthesis to become more common as a way to better inform such assessments.

A genome-wide association study of critically ill patients with COVID-19 identifies genetic signals that relate to important host antiviral defence mechanisms and mediators of inflammatory organ damage that may be targeted by repurposing drug treatments.

Hedgehog (Hh) signaling molecules are involved in multiple developmental processes. Hedgehog-interacting protein (Hhip) binds and inhibits vertebrate Hh proteins. Structures of HHIP in complex with SHH and DHH now show a distinct binding site from previous ligand structures, with metal-binding sites having a role in interaction.

Known genetic loci account for only a fraction of the genetic contribution to Alzheimer’s disease. Here, the authors have performed a large genome-wide meta-analysis comprising 409,435 individuals to discover 6 new loci and demonstrate the efficacy of an Alzheimer’s disease polygenic risk score.

The intercalated disc (ICD) is a membrane structure of the cardiac muscle involved in normal heart function. Here the authors report that knockdown of the ICD-bound transmembrane protein 65 results in impaired ICD structure, abnormal cardiac electrophysiology and cardiomyopathy in mice.

Model projections suggest that shallow groundwater temperatures will increase by 2.1 °C by the end of the century, with groundwater expected to exceed drinkable temperatures in a number of populated regions under a medium-emissions pathway.

Phase-resolved mid-infrared observations from JWST of the hot gas giant WASP-43b detect a day–night difference of 659 ± 19 K. Comparison with climate models shows that the observations are compatible with cloudy skies, at least on the nightside, and the lack of methane detection suggests the presence of disequilibrium chemistry.

Determining stratospheric ozone levels from before instrumental records began has proved difficult. Measurements of the chemical composition of plant spore walls suggest that ultraviolet-B-absorbing compounds have the potential to act as a proxy for past changes in ultraviolet-B radiation and stratospheric ozone.

Van Haute et al describe autosomal recessive TEFM variants that impair mitochondrial transcription elongation and reduce the levels of promoter distal mitochondrial RNA transcripts, leading to heterogeneous mitochondrial diseases with a treatable neuromuscular transmission defect.

Halving average drainage depths in agricultural peatlands could reduce greenhouse gas emissions by the equivalent of 1 per cent of all anthropogenic emissions.

This study uses gene expression predictors for the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and other brain regions to perform a transcriptomic imputation analysis of schizophrenia, identifying 413 genic associations across 13 brain regions and 36 significantly enriched pathways.

Evaluation of mitigation actions often focuses on cost and overlooks the direct effects on well-being. This work shows demand-side measures have large mitigation potential and beneficial effects on well-being outcomes.

Nanowire networks with memristive properties are promising for neuromorphic applications. Here, the authors observe the formation of a preferred conduction pathway which uses the lowest possible energy to get through the network and could be exploited for the design of optimal brain-inspired devices.

A region on chromosome 19p13 is associated with the risk of developing ovarian and breast cancer. Here, the authors genotyped SNPs in this region in thousands of breast and ovarian cancer patients and identified SNPs associated with three genes, which were analysed with functional studies.

The role of neutrophils in cancer development is not widely appreciated. Here, the authors show that NF-κB-deficient hepatocytes overproduce chemokines, leading to hepatocellular carcinoma due to excessive neutrophil recruitment, and that neutrophil depletion prevents liver cancer in these mice.

Mutations in PTEN have been associated with various human disease, including autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and cancer. Here, the authors assess the function of 106 PTEN variants in yeast, invertebrate models and cell culture and report that PTEN variants generally decrease protein stability.

An analysis of when children develop a sense of fairness (receiving less or more than a peer) is compared across seven different societies; aversion to receiving less emerges early in childhood in all societies, whereas aversion to receiving more emerges later in childhood and only in three of the seven societies studied.

Intrinsic water-use efficiency (W _i ) reconstructions using tree rings often disregard developmental changes in W _i as trees age. Here, the authors compare W _i across varying tree sizes at a fixed CO₂ level and show that ignoring developmental changes impacts conclusions on trees’ W _i responses to CO₂ or climate.

Pronounced increases in winter temperature result in lower seasonal temperature differences, with implications for vegetation seasonality and productivity. Research now indicates that temperature and vegetation seasonality in northern ecosystems have diminished to an extent equivalent to a southerly shift of 4°– 7° in latitude, and may reach the equivalent of up to 20° over the twenty-first century.

Kyle Gaulton, Mark McCarthy, Andrew Morris and colleagues report fine mapping and genomic annotation of 39 established type 2 diabetes susceptibility loci. They find that the set of potential causal variants is enriched for overlap with FOXA2 binding sites in human islet and liver cells, and they show that a likely causal variant near MTNR1B increases FOXA2-bound enhancer activity, providing a molecular mechanism to explain the effect of this locus on disease risk.

FKRP mutations cause muscular dystrophies with varied clinical presentations. The target of FKRP is α-dystroglycan, but here the authors show that FKRP also directs sialylation of fibronectin, a process that is essential for recruitment o collagen to the muscle basement membrane.

Toll-like receptor 7 (TLR7) normally recognizes exogenous single-stranded RNA for the activation of innate immunity. Here the authors show that TLR7 may also contribute, via the modulation of mast cell functions, to experimental, cigarette smoke-induced mouse models of emphysema, thereby hinting TLR7 as a potential therapeutic target for human lung inflammation.

Emerging limitations on climate and low-carbon technology would require adjusting our 15.C climate change mitigation pathways. However, this could increase average annual emissions reductions to around 3GtCO₂/year using a broad portfolio of mitigation measures.

In this study, Massachusetts Consortium for Pathogen Readiness (MassCPR) investigators assess the relationship between SARS-CoV-2 viral load and COVID-19 disease severity and report that the levels of detectable viral RNA, especially in plasma, correlates with severity of respiratory disease, inflammatory markers and predicted risk of death.

Laplace NMR provides complementary information to traditional NMR, such as details of molecular motion. Here, the authors report a correlation experiment capable of providing information on the physical environment of molecules while enhancing the chemical resolution and greatly reducing the experiment times.

Genetic, structural and biochemical analysis identifies GacH as a glycerol phosphate transferase that modifies N-acetylglucosamine components of group A carbohydrates (GAC) in streptococcal cell walls.

Here, the authors characterise Acinetobacter baumanii and Klebsiella pneumoniae isolated from a single human lung infection and proceed to define their interactions to shed light on how this impacts their evolution, growth parameters, metabolism and antimicrobial responses.