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Combining bioinformatics data and atomistic simulations, this study develops a sequence-dependent coarse-grained model for biomolecular phase separation. This model achieves a quantitative agreement with experimental observations. Extensive benchmarks exemplify its performance.

Polygenic risk scores for Alzheimer’s disease derived from individuals of European ancestry can show improved performance in multiancestry settings after incorporating genome-wide association summary statistics from diverse populations.

Correlations between tree species diversity and tree abundance are well established, but the direction of the relationship is unresolved. Here the authors use path models to estimate plausible causal pathways in the diversity-abundance relationship across 23 global forests regions, finding a lack of general support for a positive diversity-abundance relationship, which is prevalent in the most productive lands on Earth only

The adaptation of APEX2-dependent proximity biotinylation for use in bacteria enables the identification of binding partners of TssA, which controls T6SS sheath assembly. This approach identifies TagA as a TssA partner that stops sheath polymerization and clamps the extended sheath to the membrane.

p53 is a tumour suppressor that is mutated in a large number of cancers and its expression is controlled largely by the ubiquitin ligase MDM2. Here, the authors show that the homeoprotein, Six1, can regulate p53 in an MDM2- independent manner via regulation of miR-27a and the RNA binding protein, RPL26.

Brassica oleracea is plant species comprising economically important vegetable crops. Here, the authors report the draft genome sequence of B. oleracea and, through a comparative analysis with the closely related B. rapa, reveal insights into Brassicaevolution and divergence of interspecific genomes and intraspecific subgenomes.

Methylotrophic metabolism enables growth on methanol, an alternative to sugar fermentation. Here the authors use adaptive laboratory evolution to uncover native methylotrophy capacity in Saccharomyces cerevisiae.

Blum et al. performed single-nucleus RNA sequencing of the adult mouse spinal cord. This analysis revealed heterogeneity in the autonomic and skeletal motor systems and provides a resource to study motor neurons in health and disease.

Ajona and colleagues report that short-term starvation synergizes with anti-PD-1 blockade to reduce lung tumor growth and metastasis. This antitumor effect is mediated through the reduction of plasma IGF-1 levels and IGF-1R levels on tumor cells.

Genotype and exome sequencing of 150,000 participants and whole-genome sequencing of 9,950 selected individuals recruited into the Mexico City Prospective Study constitute a valuable, publicly available resource of non-European sequencing data.

The capacity to create an equitable and sustainable ‘blue economy’ from ocean resources will be determined by addressing social conditions, governance and infrastructure, not just resource availability, as shown by a fuzzy logic model incorporating multidisciplinary criteria.

Expression of HNF1A and KRT81 stratifies pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma tumors into different subtypes, and expression of cytochrome P450 3A5 mediates basal and/or drug-induced therapy resistance in each subtype.

Was sonar responsible for a spate of whale deaths after an Atlantic military exercise?

There is currently no disease-modifying treatment for Parkinson’s disease, a common neurodegenerative disorder. Here, the authors use genetic variation associated with gene and protein expression to find putative drug targets for Parkinson’s disease using Mendelian randomization of the druggable genome.

Knight and colleagues report altered granulopoiesis and increased frequency of immature neutrophil subsets with immunosuppressive properties in a subset of patients with sepsis with poor outcome.

The first total synthesis of conolidine — representing the first asymmetric synthesis of a C5-nor-stemmadenine — is described. The chemical synthesis proceeds in just nine steps and gives an 18% overall yield from a commercially available pyridine — an achievement that led to the discovery that (+)-, (–)- and (±)-conolidine are potent non-opioid analgesics.

Sirtuins are involved in the regulation of responses to diverse types of cellular stress. Here the authors describe the SirT6-dependent cysteine monoubiquitination of the histone methyltransferase Suv39h1 as part of a regulatory circuit for the NF-κB pathway.

An approach, CorALS, is proposed to enable the construction and analysis of large-scale correlation networks for high-dimensional biological data as an open-source framework in Python.

Celià-Terrassa and colleagues identify LCOR-low cancer stem cells driving tumor immunity and propose LCOR induction with mRNA therapy as an enhancer of immunotherapy response.

The transcription factor XBP1 is associated with endoplasmic reticulum stress. Glimcher and colleagues show that XBP1 is expressed during eosinophil differentiation and is uniquely required for the production of granule proteins and eosinophil survival.

The pathogen Pseudomonas aeruginosa undergoes complex trait adaptation within cystic fibrosis patients. Here, Bartell, Sommer, and colleagues use statistical modeling of longitudinal isolates to characterize the joint genetic and phenotypic evolutionary trajectories of P. aeruginosa within hosts.

Drug induced liver injury (DILI) is an important cause acute liver failure. Here the authors report that serum Mg2+ serum levels decrease in patients with DILI as well as in preclinical animal models treated with acetaminophen overdose, and that early intervention targeting the Mg2+ transporter Cyclin M4 may be beneficial for acetaminophen overdose in preclinical models.

Elucidating the molecular driving forces underlying liquid–liquid phase separation is a key objective for understanding biological function and malfunction. Here the authors show that a wide range of cellular proteins, including FUS, TDP-43, Brd4, Sox2, and Annexin A11, which form condensates at low salt concentrations, can reenter a phase-separated regime at high salt concentrations.

Transcriptomic, proteomic and immune repertoire profiling reveals distinct peripheral features of MIS-C and pediatric COVID-19, including elevated soluble spike protein levels, more pronounced type II IFN-dependent gene expression and a higher B cell mutation rate in patients with MIS-C.

The inaugural Klebsiella Epidemiology and Biology Symposium (KLEBS) took place in November 20-22, 2024, at the Institut Pasteur in Paris. It covered a broad multidisciplinary range of topics from fundamental biology to public health aspects, including epidemiology and public health burden, One Health and clinical aspects, genomics, host-pathogen interactions, vaccines, and therapeutics. This report describes research presented during keynote presentations, plenary sessions and a panel discussion. A recording of the conference is available at: https://www.klebs-2024.conferences-pasteur.org/replay.

Controlling the self-assembly of large coordination cages is challenging owing to entropic costs and difficulties in error correction. Now an array of large cages prepared by the rational design of alterations that allow for the tuning of the dihedral angle between pentagonal subunits is reported.

Knowledge of genomic features specific to humans may be important for understanding disease. Here the authors demonstrate a potential role for these human-lineage-specific sequences in brain development and neurological disease.

Habitat complexity influences the sensory ecology of predator-prey interactions. Here, the authors show that habitat complexity also affects the use of different decision-making paradigms, namely habit- and plan-based action selection. Simulations across habitat types show that only savanna-like terrestrial habitats favor planning during visually-guided predator evasion, while aquatic and simple terrestrial habitats do not.

Predicting atmospheric ice formation from aerosol particles for cloud and climate modelling remains challenging. This Review summarizes recent fundamental advances on the governing parameters that lead to ice nucleation from liquid droplets and solid substrates, applying experiments and computational theory.

Given a choice between food and water outcomes on a T-maze, rats preferred the outcome they did not have access to overnight, yet the content of awake hippocampal replay was consistently shifted away from the preferred outcome.

Biological organic-inorganic materials, such as self-assembling metal-reinforced mussel holdfast threads, remain a popular source of inspiration for materials design and engineering. Here the authors show that metal-coordinate polymer networks can be utilized as simple composite scaffolds for direct in situ crosslink mineralization.

Crop wild relatives’ genetic diversity is usually not considered in conservation planning. Here, the authors introduce an approach to identify conservation areas based on evolutionary and threat processes, by developing proxies of genetic differentiation, and including taxa’s habitat preferences.

Regulation of gene expression and splicing are thought to be tissue-specific. Here, the authors obtain genomic and transcriptomic data from putamen and substantia nigra of 117 neurologically healthy human brains and find that splicing eQTLs are enriched for neuron-specific regulatory information.

The presence of bivalent epigenetic active and repressive histone marks control lineage-specific differentiation in embryonic stem cells. Here, the authors reveal that bivalent marks repress the differentiation gene IHH in colorectal cancer-initiating cells, and can be targeted by EZH2 inhibition

Brain microglial cells can be replenished by blood-derived monocytes, but many aspects of this repopulation remain unclear. Here the authors show that the brain microglial niche can be replaced both by proliferating, residential microglia as well as differentiated Ly6C^hi monocytes, with the latter having overlapping but distinct characteristics.