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The legume’s history in West Africa is intimately linked with conquest.

Archaeogenetic study of ancient DNA from medieval northwestern Europeans reveals substantial increase of continental northern European ancestry in Britain, suggesting mass migration across the North Sea during the Early Middle Ages.

Labrador Sea Water (LSW) is an important determinant of the strength of the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation and thus of the main oceanic mechanism of energy redistribution. By using a combination of neutral buoyancy floats and modelling 'e-floats', the dominant pathway of export of LSW into the North Atlantic is shown to be via internal pathways rather than the Deep Western Boundary Current, as previously thought.

South America was the last habitable continent to be colonized by humans; using a database of 1,147 archaeological sites and 5,464 radiocarbon dates spanning 14,000 to 2,000 years ago reveals two phases of the population history of the continent—a rapid expansion through the continent at low population sizes for over 8,000 years and then a second phase of sedentary lifestyle and exponential population growth starting around 5,000 years ago.

Without artificial-intelligence technologies, balancing human-caused greenhouse-gas emissions with carbon removals by 2050 is out of reach. Action in five areas is needed to keep this goal alive.

Autoantibodies are found in neuropsychiatric conditions but without clear cellular mechanism and disease relevance. This study shows higher prevalence of autoantibodies against NMDAR receptors in schizophrenia patients, and patient-associated antibody can alter synaptic receptor trafficking and plasticity.

Mechanical force can facilitate thermodynamically unfavourable reactions. Here, the authors found that a stretching force can promote the SN2 cleavage of a protein disulfide bond by weak nucleophilic thiols, and that removing this force reverses the reaction yielding the original disulfide bond.

Estimates from the Global Dietary Database indicated that 2.2 million new type 2 diabetes and 1.2 million new cardiovascular disease cases were attributable to sugar-sweetened beverages worldwide in 2020, with the highest burdens in sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean.

Astroblastoma (AB) is an uncommon brain tumour and its origin remains unknown. Here, the authors perform integrative molecular analysis of 35 AB-like tumours and provide evidence that these arise in the context of epigenetic and genetic changes in neural progenitors occurring during brain development.

FAM72A differentially controls mutation rates by regulating uracil processing at different stages of the cell cycle, thereby regulating somatic hypermutation and class-switch recombination in B cells.

Viral DNA packaging motors must generate large forces to package the viral capsid. Here, Migliori et al.provide functional and computational evidence that electrostatic interactions between subdomains of the T4 packaging motor provide the driving force for DNA packaging.

The most common protein modification in eukaryotes is N-terminal acetylation, but its functional impact has remained enigmatic. Here, the authors find that a key role for N-terminal acetylation is shielding proteins from ubiquitin ligase-mediated degradation, mediating motility and longevity.

Here, the authors compared measurements between 34 laboratories from 19 countries, to quantify by mass spectrometry four ceramides of clinical relevance in human blood plasma Standard Reference Materials. The main goals were to evaluate concordance obtained in a large inter-laboratory trial and to report absolute concentrations of four circulating lipids in a publicly available standard.

Cities may host surprisingly diverse and functionally distinct biological communities. This global analysis on 5302 vertebrate and invertebrate species finds evidence of 4 trait syndromes in urban animal assemblages, modulated by spatial and geographic factors.

Recent estimates of sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs) intake are generally unavailable. Here the authors show a global SSBs intake of 2.7 servings/week in 2018 in adults (range: 0.7 South Asia, 7.8 Latin America/Caribbean); intakes were higher among males, younger, more educated, and urban adults.

The bacterium Helicobacter pylori, often found in the human stomach, can be classified into distinct subpopulations associated with the geographic origin of the host. Here, the authors provide insights into H. pylori population structure by collecting over 1,000 clinical strains from 50 countries and generating and analyzing high-quality bacterial genome sequences.

Empirically based models of disease progression in familial frontotemporal dementia reveal the relative ordering of clinical, neuroimaging, and fluid biomarker changes and facilitate novel clinical trial designs

For scientists who want a career in law, the options are greater than ever — and some don't even involve going back to school, says Amy Wilson.

Prostate cancer often does not progress to invasive disease and thus markers predicting the course of the disease progression are critical for optimal treatment choices. Here the authors show that variants at two genetic loci correlate with the aggressiveness of prostate cancer.

In this immunological ancillary study of the PREVAC trial, the authors show that approved Ebola virus vaccines induce memory T-cell responses that persist during the five year follow-up after initial vaccination.

Riccardo Velasco and colleagues report the genome sequence of the 'Golden Delicious' domesticated apple. These data shed new insight into the genomic events that preceded the origin of this crop.

Dietary quality is reported at the global, regional and national level across 185 countries. Though diet quality increased modestly since 1990 at the global level, in South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa it did not improve. In some regions, children’s dietary quality is lower than that of adults.

Gene duplication and subsequent paralogue diversification are major obstacles to genotype-to-phenotype predictability.

A chemical screen identified BET bromodomain inhibitors as promoters of keratinocyte regenerative function and skin wound healing. Specifically, low-dose transient treatment with BET inhibitors imposes an activated, migratory state in keratinocytes.

Building crystal structures into the electron density is an important step in protein structure solution. Here, the authors recruit online game players, students, and experienced crystallographers to compete in a competition to solve a new structure, and find that crowdsourcing model-building works.

Bagley et al. conduct a phase 1 trial to study safety and tolerability of CAR T-EGFRvIII cells administered concomitantly with PD-1 inhibition via pembrolizumab in patients with glioblastoma and show tolerability, but without signs of efficacy.

Global phylogenetic analyses of Shigella dysenteriae isolates uncover the transcontinental transmission events and evolution of antibiotic resistance behind the major dysentery epidemics in the modern era.

Typhoid fever is caused by Salmonella enterica serovar Typhi (S. Typhi). This study examines ∼2,000 clinical isolates of S. Typhi to show highly structured/geographically restricted genomes except rapidly disseminating H58 subclade, and design a genotyping framework for tracking the disease.

Richard Houlston, Melissa Bondy and colleagues identify variants at five loci associated with glioma susceptibility, providing insights into the etiology of this primary brain tumor. The risk loci include common variants near TERT, CDKN2A-CDKN2B and RTEL1.

CRISPR–Cas9 knockout screens in chemotherapy-treated acute myeloid leukemia cells help map the drug-dependent genetic basis of fitness trade-offs (antagonistic pleiotropy) for the design of evolutionary traps that target drug resistance in cancer.

The rate at which proteins are imported into the nucleus of a cell is shown to be regulated by their mechanical unfolding, a mechanism that identifies the nuclear pore machinery as a highly sensitive force detector.

Springtails are omnipresent soil arthropods, vital for ecosystems. In the first global assessment of springtails, this study shows a 20-fold biomass difference between the tundra and the tropics, with distinct temperature-related patterns for diversity and metabolism that suggest climate change may restructure the functioning of soil biodiversity.

Influenza A viruses pose a continuing pandemic threat to humans. Le Sage, et al. describe a pandemic triage pipeline to evaluate the pandemic risk of emerging viruses and utilize it to characterize two widespread swine influenza A viruses.

Germline biallelic pathogenic MUTYH variants predispose patients to colorectal cancer (CRC); however, approaches to identify MUTYH variant carriers are lacking. Here, the authors evaluated mutational signatures that could distinguish MUTYH carriers in large CRC cohorts, and found MUTYH-associated somatic mutations.

Protein S-sulfenylation is a posttranslational modification that can act as a sensor of redox oxidative stress. Here the authors show that, following mechanical unfolding, sulfenic acid drives disulfide bond reformation and guides non-enzymatic oxidative folding.

Post-translational modifications modulate nanomechanics of proteins. Here the authors use single-molecule force-clamp spectroscopy supported by density functional theory calculations to show how reactive low-weight molecular thiol compounds directly affect mechanical protein folding.

A quantitative high-throughput screen identified an inhibitor of phosphoglycerate dehydrogenase (PHGDH), a key enzyme for serine synthesis. This inhibitor limits one-carbon unit availability for nucleotide synthesis.

Angiotensin II type 1 receptor (AT1R)-mediated acute catecholamine release is modulated by β-arrestin. Here the authors show that β-arrestin-1 recruits the Ca²⁺channel TRPC3 and the PLCγ to the AT1R-β-arrestin complex, triggering G protein-independent calcium influx and catecholamine secretion.

In metalloproteins, a metal cofactor participates in the formation of the correct fold. Here the authors demonstrate—using single molecule force spectroscopy and the native copper centre as an embedded internal reporter—that the blue-copper proteins azurin and plastocyanin unfold via two independent competing pathways under force.

Modeling analysis from the Global Dietary Database estimated that 70% of new global cases of type 2 diabetes are attributable to suboptimal intake of 11 dietary factors, with substantial differences in dietary risks across world regions and nations.

Violence in the Democratic Republic of the Congo has interrupted clinical trials and forced scientists to change how they immunize people.

Linking microscale cellular structures to macroscale features of the brain is required to fully understand its structure and function. Here, the authors present a resource which combines multi-contrast microscopy and MRI of a single whole macaque brain to facilitate multimodal analyses.

Meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies on Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias identifies new loci and enables generation of a new genetic risk score associated with the risk of future Alzheimer’s disease and dementia.

Cities affect biological evolution, but traditionally researchers focus on the biophysical influence of urban environments. Instead, this Review explores how the social processes of religion, politics and war drive wildlife evolution by shaping urban conditions.

Understanding the emergence, evolution, and transmission of antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) is essential to combat antimicrobial resistance. Here, Munk et al. analyse ARGs in hundreds of sewage samples from 101 countries and describe regional patterns, diverse genetic environments of common ARGs, and ARG-specific transmission patterns.

A diverse, multidisciplinary panel of 386 experts in COVID-19 response from 112 countries provides health and social policy actions to address inadequacies in the pandemic response and help to bring this public health threat to an end.