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Using whole-genome data for single-nucleotide polymorphism and results from genome-wide association studies, the authors show that people’s preference for pairing with those with similar phenotypic traits has genetic causes and consequences.

Several animals and plants get their often spectacular colouration and iridescence from structural colouration. Here, Hsiung et al. show the 3-dimensional nanostructures that produce the rainbow colours on the abdomen of miniature peacock spiders.

Tree-based machine learning models are widely used in domains such as healthcare, finance and public services. The authors present an explanation method for trees that enables the computation of optimal local explanations for individual predictions, and demonstrate their method on three medical datasets.

This overview of the ENCODE project outlines the data accumulated so far, revealing that 80% of the human genome now has at least one biochemical function assigned to it; the newly identified functional elements should aid the interpretation of results of genome-wide association studies, as many correspond to sites of association with human disease.

Cabozantinib, an inhibitor of multiple receptor tyrosine kinases, has efficacy in a mouse model of neurofibromatosis type I and has clinical activity in reducing plexiform neurofibroma volume in a phase II trial of patients with NF1.

Integrated analyses reveal that multiomics captured the heterogeneity of metabolic states accompanying obesity and changes in metabolic health in response to lifestyle intervention that are not apparent in body mass index measurements.

Exposure to volatile chemical products happens during or in the vicinity of product use and through ambient air; the latter pathway is neglected in exposure estimates. This study shows that both pathways should be considered in efforts to develop safer and more sustainable products and to achieve cleaner air.

Nanoparticles are a promising approach to increase immunogenicity of protein antigens for vaccines. Here, Brouwer et al. design self-assembling, two-component protein NPs that present native-like SOSIP trimers of HIV envelope protein and determine immunogenicity in a small animal model.

Jeremy Reiter and colleagues show that Tctn1 is a component of a transition zone complex that regulates ciliogenesis and ciliary membrane composition. They also identify a likely causal mutation in TCTN1 in two siblings with Joubert syndrome.

The induction of ulcerative colitis in mice with targeted disruptions of a G protein-encoding gene establishes yet another genetic link between G proteins and disease.

In 1966, Frank Westheimer proposed that the large shift in the pK_a of a key lysine residue (Lys 115) in the active site of the enzyme acetoacetate decarboxylase was because of the neighbouring charge of another lysine reside (Lys 116); this is said to be a classic example of enzymatic 'microenvironment effects'. Here, the X-ray crystal structure of acetoacetate decarboxylase is solved, revealing that the shift in pK_a cannot be due to Lys 116 but is instead due to the presence of a long hydrophobic funnel near Lys 115.

Immunoglobulin E (IgE)-mediated food allergy is a major issue that affects 2–10% of infants. Here the authors study the epigenetic regulation of the naive CD4+ T cell activation response among children with IgE-mediated food allergy finding epigenetic dysregulation in the early stages of signal transduction through the T cell receptor complex.

Ontologies are powerful tools that facilitate the integration of large and disparate data sets. Here, researchers from the Kidney Precision Medicine Project provide an introduction to ontologies, including those developed by the consortium, describing how these will be used to improve the annotation of kidney-relevant data, eventually leading to new definitions of kidney disease in support of precision medicine.

A single dose of the ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 vaccine elicits antibodies and cytokine-producing T cells that might help control or prevent SARS-CoV-2 infection.

Squeezed states of light have been experimentally demonstrated to improve the performance of the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO) in astrophysically relevant frequency regions. This enhanced performance may help to reach the sensitivity required for detecting gravitational waves.

Genome-wide DNA methylation analysis of metastatic biopsies from patients with castration-resistant prostate cancer reveals marked epigenetic differences between samples with adenocarcinoma and neuroendocrine histologies.

A cortical parcellation technique accurately maps functional organization in individual brains. Functional networks mapped by this approach are highly reproducible and effectively capture individual variability. The algorithm performs well across different populations and data types and is validated by invasive cortical stimulation mapping in surgical patients.

A stochastic background of gravitational waves is expected to arise from a superposition of a large number of unresolved gravitational-wave sources and should carry unique signatures from the earliest epochs of the Universe. Limits on the amplitude of the stochastic gravitational-wave background are now reported using the data from a two-year science run of the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory. These limits rule out certain models of early Universe evolution.

The cellular effects of cold preservation in heart transplantation and how warm ischaemia leads to damage are unclear. Here the authors identify succinate accumulation as a major damaging metabolic change in warm ischaemia.

‘Squeezed light’ enables quantum noise in one aspect of light to be reduced by increasing the noise, or more accurately the quantum uncertainty, of a complementary aspect. This has now been used to push the detectors at the heart of the GEO600 gravitational wave observatory to unprecedented levels of sensitivity.

Meta-analysis of exome sequencing data identifies new recurrently mutated driver genes for prostate cancer. Comparison of primary and metastatic tumors further identifies genomic markers for advanced prostate cancer that may inform risk stratification.

During the 2004–16 shale-gas development in the Appalachian basin, United States, premature mortality from lower air quality and employment followed a boom-and-bust cycle, whereas climate impacts will persist for generations beyond the activity.

The structures of three intermediate states of photosystem II, which is crucial for photosynthesis, have been solved at room temperature, shedding new light on this process.

An in vivo transposon screen in a pancreatic cancer model identifies frequent inactivation of Usp9x; deletion of Usp9x cooperates with Kras^G12D to accelerate rapidly pancreatic tumorigenesis in mice, validating their genetic interaction.

Comparison of DNA methylation profiles from isolated cell types of cord and adult blood reveals that lymphoid cells develop antigen-driven epigenetic variability during maturation, while myeloid cells, especially monocytes, are more stable.

A meta-analysis of 117 studies to determine the impacts of land tenure security on socio-environmental outcomes and sustainable development.

Advances in next generation sequencing have made it possible to precisely characterize the coding mutations that occur during the development and progression of individual cancers. Here, this technique is used to sequence the genomes and transcriptomes of an oestrogen-receptor-α-positive metastatic lobular breast cancer; significant evolution is found to occur with disease progression.