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An analysis involving the shotgun sequencing of more than 300 ancient genomes from Eurasia reveals a deep east–west genetic divide from the Black Sea to the Baltic, and provides insight into the distinct effects of the Neolithic transition on either side of this boundary.

A multiproxy record of Gigantopithecus blacki provides insights into the ecological context of this species, which became extinct around 250,000 years ago, when increased seasonality led to a change in forest cover.

A high-resolution, global atlas of mortality of children under five years of age between 2000 and 2017 highlights subnational geographical inequalities in the distribution, rates and absolute counts of child deaths by age.

The genomic landscape of hereditary SDHB-mutant pheochromocytomas (PC) and paragangliomas (PG) remains to be explored. Here, the authors perform multiomic analysis on 94 tumours from 79 patients and identify the molecular features of metastatic disease and treatment response.

Dense calcium imaging combined with co-registered high-resolution electron microscopy reconstruction of the brain of the same mouse provide a functional connectomics map of tens of thousands of neurons of a region of the primary cortex and higher visual areas.

We show methanogenic growth by a member of the lineage Korarchaeia and, following cultivation, methanol reduction to methane using hydrogen as an electron donor, which could be critical for a thorough evaluation of methanogens.

Eight structures of human neutralizing antibodies that target the SARS-CoV-2 spike receptor-binding domain are reported and classified into four categories, suggesting combinations for clinical use.

Gutierrez-Martinez et al. show that an impaired DNA damage response and reduced apoptotic priming in old haematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) contribute to the survival and expansion of damaged HSCs in the bone marrow of aged mice.

Structural, functional and in silico analyses of the chloroquine-resistance transporter PfCRT of Plasmodium falciparum suggest that distinct mechanistic features mediate the resistance to chloroquine and piperaquine in drug-resistant parasites.

The structure of oceanic plateaux is unclear, as they are remote and submerged beneath the seas. Seismic images of the Tamu Massif, part of the Shatsky Rise oceanic plateau in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, show that it is a single immense volcano, potentially the largest on Earth.

A protein condensate formed by multivalent interactions between the long non-coding RNA Xist and specific RNA-binding proteins drives the compartmentalization required to perpetuate gene silencing on the inactive X chromosome.

Columnar joints in lavas form during cooling, but the temperature this occurs at is unclear. Here, the authors perform thermo-mechanical experiments on basaltic rocks to examine the temperature of columnar joints in lavas and find that failure occurs at 890–840 °C, which is below the solidus temperature of 980 °C.

Different phosphorylation patterns created by GRK2 and GRK5 on the C-terminal tail of ACKR3 lead to distinct structural arrangements and dynamics of G-protein-coupled receptor–arrestin complexes, potentially explaining diverse cellular outcomes.

Improvements in European freshwater biodiversity occurred mainly before 2010 but have since plateaued, and communities downstream of dams, urban areas and cropland were less likely to experience recovery.

By bringing together whole exome and genome sequencing data from five cohorts, the authors assess the contribution of rare germline variants to prostate cancer risk and severity, further validating previously reported genes, and implicating a role for genes not previously reported.

Peer review information

Nature Communications thanks the anonymous reviewer(s) for their contribution to the peer review of this work. A peer review file is available.

This study explores apelin receptor’s role in cardiovascular function, identifying residues critical for binding through genetic variants, AlphaFold2 modelling and base editing in cardiomyocytes. Co-crystallization with biased agonist CMF-019 shows a unique binding mode versus endogenous peptides.

Joint force measurements with entangled optical probes on two optomechanical sensors are demonstrated. The force sensitivity is improved by 40% in the shot-noise-dominant regime. The sensing bandwidth is improved by 20% in the thermal noise limit.

The Amazon rainforest is dominated by relatively few tree species, yet the degree to which this hyperdominance influences carbon cycling remains unknown. Here, the authors analyse 530 forest plots and show that ∼1% of species are responsible for 50% of the aboveground carbon storage and productivity.

Devices with greater freedom are desired in nanophotonics. Here, the authors demonstrate theoretically and experimentally that the generalized Brewster effect can be observed in an all-dielectric metasurface potentially for any angle, wavelength and polarization, due to electric and magnetic dipole interference.

A survey of sharks and rays on coral reefs within 66 marine protected areas across 36 countries showcases that the conservation benefits of full MPA protection to sharks almost double when accompanied by effective fisheries management.

Seamounts that have subducted beneath a mantle wedge allow the study of trace element recycling and mantle flow in subduction zones. Here, a geochemical analysis of central Tonga–Kermadec arc lavas suggests primarily trench-normal mantle flow in the mantle wedge beneath the central Tonga–Kermadec arc.

The authors previously showed that a histidine nucleophile and a flexible arginine can work in synergy to accelerate the Morita Baylis-Hillman (MBH) reaction. Here, they report another efficient MBHase that employs a non-canonical N_δ-methylhistidine nucleophile paired with a catalytic glutamate, providing an alternative mechanistic solution for MBH catalysis.

Whole-genome sequencing and phenotype data sharing are introduced in a national health system to streamline diagnosis and to discover coding and non-coding variants that cause rare diseases.

How much methane will be emitted from the boreal-Arctic region under climate change is not well constrained. Here the authors show that accounting for distinct wetland and lake classes leads to lower estimates of current methane loss as some classes emit low amounts of methane.

Many advanced snakes use fangs to inject venom into their prey. The fangs may be either at the front or rear of the upper jaw, but biologists have been unable to agree whether these two arrangements are evolutionarily related. It is now shown that front fangs develop in the rear part of the jaw, and that the resemblances between front and rear fangs are so striking during their development that homology is probable.

Here, Ratmann et al. show how viral deep sequencing data can be used to reconstruct HIV-1 transmission networks and to infer the direction of transmission in these networks.

This study tracks dragonfly head and body movements during high-velocity and high-precision prey-capture flights, and shows that the dragonfly uses predictive internal models and reactive control to build an interception trajectory that complies with biomechanical constraints.

Examination of archaeological pottery residues and modern genes suggest that environmental conditions, subsistence economics and pathogen exposure may explain selection for lactase persistence better than prehistoric consumption of milk.

Leishmania use large (5–10 kb) transcriptional start regions, where the chromatin is highly enriched for acetylated histones, to drive the expression of polycistronic gene arrays. Here the authors show bromodomain-containing protein BDF5 is enriched at transcriptional start sites and its depletion leads to cell death in vitro and in murine infections, and they identify its interactors.

The evolutionary water-to-land transition involved the separation of the skull from the pectoral girdle, though these musculoskeletal changes have not been deeply characterised. Here they show that the neck evolved from muscle groups present in fishes which were co-opted to acquire novel functions adapted to terrestrial lifestyle.

Persistent DNA lesions can occur throughout the human lifespan and can remain in the genome of affected cells for several years and generate a substantial proportion of the mutational burden.

Here the authors report that the Taf2 and Taf14 subunits of the yeast TFIID complex interact and mediate binding to chromatin. Binding of Taf2 to Taf14 promotes a conformational rearrangement in Taf14, resulting in a release of the linker region for the engagement with the nucleosome and their association with DNA is essential for transcriptional regulation.

Subtypes of cancer associated fibroblasts can both promote and suppress tumorigenesis. Here, the authors investigate how p53 status in pancreatic cancer cells affects their interaction with cancer associated fibroblasts, and report perlecan as a mediator of the pro-metastatic environment.

Deep permafrost soils produce comparable amounts of greenhouse gases as shallow soils in response to warming, according to incubation experiments of deep Arctic lake sediments.

Spin defects in 2D hBN are promising for magnetic field sensing but suffer from short spin coherence times. Here the authors extend the coherence time for an ensemble of spins in hBN to 4 microseconds by using a continuous microwave drive and demonstrate qubit control in a protected spin space.

The authors assess the current and future burden of mental and behavioural disorders across Australia. They show that high temperatures contributed 1.8% of Australia’s mental and behavioural disorder burden in the 2010s with expected increases to 2.4–2.8% by the 2050s and highlight the need for both adaptation and mitigation.

This work quantifies the impact of sound ordinances on the wind energy capacity in the United States. It finds existing sound ordinances reduce the capacity by 8% over standard setbacks and explores impacts of other hypothetical ordinance scenarios.

Phylogenomic analysis of 7,923 angiosperm species using a standardized set of 353 nuclear genes produced an angiosperm tree of life dated with 200 fossil calibrations, providing key insights into evolutionary relationships and diversification.

Biomphalaria glabrata is a fresh water snail that acts as a host for trematode Schistosoma mansoni that causes intestinal infection in human. This work describes the genome and transcriptome analyses from 12 different tissues of B glabrata, and identify genes for snail behavior and evolution.

The authors summarize the data produced by phase III of the Encyclopedia of DNA Elements (ENCODE) project, a resource for better understanding of the human and mouse genomes.

A cross-ancestry meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies identifies association signals for stroke and its subtypes at 89 (61 new) independent loci, reveals putative causal genes, highlighting F11, KLKB1, PROC, GP1BA, LAMC2 and VCAM1 as potential drug targets, and provides cross-ancestry integrative risk prediction.