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A comprehensive phylogeny and taxonomy for the medically and ecologically important genus Artemisia remain unavailable. Here, the authors combine genomic data with morphological analyses to reconstruct the most comprehensive phylogeny and taxonomy of global Artemisia.

LGR4, RSPO and ZNRF3 are key regulators of the Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway. Here, the authors reveal cryo-EM structures of human LGR4, the LGR4-RSPO2 and LGR4-RSPO2-ZNRF3 complexes, thereby providing structural insights for their regulatory mechanism of Wnt/β-catenin signaling.

Analysis of samples from the asteroid Ryugu provide evidence of late fluid flow in a carbonaceous asteroid, indicating that such bodies may have retained two to three times more water than previously thought.

A single-cell multiomic immune cell atlas from 235 Japanese, including patients with COVID-19 and healthy individuals, linked with host genetics including germline and somatic mutation, plasma proteomics and metagenomics data reveals that immune cells are dynamically regulated in a cell state-dependent manner.

Cytotoxic T lymphocytes targeting ancestral SARS-CoV-2 recognise variants of concern, but deep molecular understanding of why these responses are conserved is hampered by the populational variability due to HLA-restriction. Here authors identify an HLA-C-restricted conserved immunodominant SARS-CoV-2 nucleocapsid epitope in COVID-19 convalescent donors from early waves of the pandemic and provide structural bases for its recognition by the T cell receptor.

Designer enzymes comprising an abiological molecule incorporated into a natural protein have been reported, but the use of proteins as ligands to construct abiological (multinuclear) metal centers is rare. Here, the authors report a designer multi-metalloenzyme with extrinsic and intrinsic functions obtained by grafting a synthetic trinuclear zinc complex inside a human cytokine macrophage migration inhibitory factor scaffold.

Mechanosensitive ion channels protect bacteria from a hypoosmotic shock. Here, Flegler et al. use electron microscopy to describe the gating transition of the MscS-like channel YnaI and a chimera generated from MscS and YnaI.

This study reveals that lysosomal dysfunction in senescent cells impairs lipid peroxidation and ferroptosis under cystine deprivation, uncovering a new mechanism of ferroptosis resistance linked to cellular senescence and providing a therapeutic strategy for age-related diseases.

Iwasaki and colleagues show that an intranasal booster with an unadjuvanted recombinant SARS-CoV-2 spike protein, after intramuscular immunization with an mRNA vaccine encoding the full-length SARS-CoV-2 spike protein, elicits protective mucosal immunity by retooling the lymph node-resident memory B cells in a manner dependent on the CD4⁺ T cells in the respiratory mucosa.

Analysis of the blood DNA virome in patients with COVID-19 and autoimmune disease associates endogenous HHV-6 (eHHV-6) and high anellovirus load with increased disease risk, most notably for systemic lupus erythematosus. eHHV-6 carriers show a distinct immune response.

Skyrmions are localized magnetic textures that form lattices in some magnetic materials. Neutron spin-echo measurements have now been able to observe topological effects on the low-energy collective excitations of a skrymion lattice.

Theoretical studies predict that the introduction of nitrogen atoms onto cycloparaphenylene frameworks would add fascinating properties but few partially N-doped carbon nanorings have been synthesized. Here, the authors report the synthesis of a cycloparaazine, where every para-connected aromatic moiety consists of a N-heterocycle, and two other highly N-doped carbon nanorings.

A genome-wide association study highlights a variant in DOCK2, which is common in East Asian populations but rare in Europeans, as a host genetic risk factor for severe COVID-19.

Climate change and increasing temperature have an impact on the flowering time of plants but models predicting these effects are lacking. Satake et al. provide a model based on differential gene expression to predict the response of plants to warmer temperatures and find that the flowering period is shortened.

Purely organic materials are generally insulating and while charge-carrier generation can provide electrical conductivity, it is rare for single-component systems. Here, symmetric hydrogen bonding between tetrathiafulvalene-based molecules gives rise to room-temperature conductivity and low pressure metallic state transitions.

Fluc-type channels—used by microorganisms to extrude toxic fluoride ions—have been suggested to adopt an unusual antiparallel topology across the membrane. Stockbridge et al.now provide the best evidence so far for this atypical arrangement, showing that specific monobodies block channel activity from both sides of the membrane.

Analysis of the 'Chicago' Archaeopteryx, a nearly complete and uncrushed specimen, reveals details of the skeleton, soft tissues and plumage of this taxon, providing information on the evolution to avian dinosaur.

Alfajaro et al identify that a bat MERS-like coronavirus HKU5 uses ACE2 as a receptor from its natural bat reservoir Pipistrellus abramus and American mink. Structural analyses demonstrate a unique interaction between the HKU5 receptor binding domain and bat ACE2. This highlights the receptor flexibility of merbecoviruses and identifies mink as potential intermediate hosts, informing viral surveillance and countermeasure development.

Yanagawa et al. show that the autophagy-related protein Rubicon recruits WIPI2d to endosomes to promote exosome biogenesis. Rubicon promotes both an increase in exosome release during ageing and the pro-senescent effects of these exosomes.

Characterizing infection, pathogenesis and transmission of BANAL-52 and BANAL-236 in primary respiratory cells, mice and hamsters shows how viruses closely related to SARS-CoV-2 present a threat for spillover.

Mitochondria with mutations in their DNA from cancer cells can be transferred to T cells in the tumour microenvironment, which leads to T cell dysfunction and impaired antitumour immunity.

Genetic mechanisms influencing COVID-19 susceptibility are not well understood. Here, the authors analyzed whole blood RNA-seq data of 465 Japanese individuals with COVID-19, highlighting thousands of fine-mapped variants affecting expression and splicing of genes, as well as the presence of COVID-19 severity-interaction eQTLs.

In a mouse model of glioblastoma, treatment with VEGF-C increases lymphatic drainage in the central nervous system and improves the immune response, suggesting that modulating meningeal lymphatics could enhance checkpoint inhibitor therapy.

Immune analyses against circulating SARS-CoV-2 variants show that mRNA vaccination induces robust neutralizing antibodies and boosts cross-variant neutralizing antibodies elicited by SARS-CoV-2 infection.

Synthetic methods for the preparation of perfluorinated aromatic compounds are desirable in materials science. Here, the authors synthesize perfluorocycloparaphenylenes, fully fluorinated carbon nanorings, through a nickel-mediated one-pot method.

In this study, authors examine Staphylococcus aureus adaptability in hospitals, highlighting how a lineage evolved to reversibly suppress Agr, enhancing antibiotic resistance and colonization.

A global network of researchers was formed to investigate the role of human genetics in SARS-CoV-2 infection and COVID-19 severity; this paper reports 13 genome-wide significant loci and potentially actionable mechanisms in response to infection.

Phosphate storage in foraminifera is found to be widespread, indicating that these organisms are probably relevant for marine phosphorus cycling and potentially buffer anthropogenic eutrophication in coastal environments.

Here, the authors unveiled a ‘super-silencer’ and its mechanisms of action. They revealed that a combined treatment of an enhancer of zeste homolog 2 inhibitor and a repressor element 1-silencing transcription factor inhibitor can disrupt super-silencers, potentially leading to cancer ablation.

The Birch reduction, although widely used and effective, suffers from significant limitations in the available nucleophiles, since in most cases only alkyl halides and silyl chlorides are available. Herein, the authors report a Birch reductive arylation by mechanochemical anionic activation using a lithium(0) wire followed by addition of various fluoroarenes.

Bistable materials, which exist in either one of two phases under identical conditions, are intriguing both from a fundamental perspective and for their practical applications. A cyanide-bridged [CoFe] coordination chain has now been prepared that shows both magnetic and electric bistabilities in the same temperature range, undergoing thermo- and photo-induced conversions between insulating, semiconducting and single-chain magnet-type phases.

A genital herpes simplex vaccine strategy of immunization using attenuated virus with peripheral local chemokine application can establish a population of protective tissue-resident memory T cells.

The aquaglyceroporin channels AQP3, AQP7, and GlpF permeate water and glycerol, but the structural diversity remains unclear. Here, authors present the AQP3-specific conformation in which a selective filter residue tyrosine is inserted into the pore.