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Recharge net metering is an adaptable, performance-based incentive for groundwater recharge. It costs less than most methods, supports distributed recharge and imparts substantial benefits to both groundwater basins and programme participants.

Embryonal tumour with multilayered rosettes (ETMR) is a rare and aggressive paediatric brain tumour. Here, the authors analyse intratumour heterogeneity and the tumour microenvironment in ETMR using single-cell and spatial transcriptomics, in vitro cultures, and a 3D forebrain organoid model, finding important aspects – such as the communication with pericytes – for ETMR development and response to therapy.

Analysing >1,700 inventory plots from the Amazon Tree Diversity Network, the authors show that the majority of Amazon tree species can occupy floodplains and that patterns of species turnover are closely linked to regional flood patterns.

Inventory data from more than 1 million trees across African, Amazonian and Southeast Asian tropical forests suggests that, despite their high diversity, just 1,053 species, representing a consistent ~2.2% of tropical tree species in each region, constitute half of Earth’s 800 billion tropical trees.

The highly biodiverse Brazilian Atlantic Forest has a long history of deforestation and only a small portion of the original forest remains. This study examines the spatial and temporal patterns of this deforestation to understand the effectiveness of current laws at curbing forest loss.

A genome-wide association study including over 76,000 individuals with schizophrenia and over 243,000 control individuals identifies common variant associations at 287 genomic loci, and further fine-mapping analyses highlight the importance of genes involved in synaptic processes.

Combined high-throughput protein engineering with machine learning to curate libraries of CRISPR genome-editing enzymes with distinct genome targeting properties is described.

The advantage of living in cities compared with rural areas with respect to height and BMI in children and adolescents has generally become smaller globally from 1990 to 2020, except in sub-Saharan Africa.

Although polycystic ovary syndrome is the most common cause of female infertility, its etiology remains poorly understood. Here, the authors report a rat model that spontaneously exhibits the clinical heterogeneity of this syndrome and demonstrate that the phenotype is developmentally programmed.

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.

Lanzavecchia and colleagues use single-cell B cell receptor sequencing to examine the clonal structure, stability and dynamics of the B cell repertoire and the relationship between memory B cells and newly generated plasma cells in humans.

Whole-genome sequencing, transcriptome-wide association and fine-mapping analyses in over 7,000 individuals with critical COVID-19 are used to identify 16 independent variants that are associated with severe illness in COVID-19.

A cross-ancestry genome-wide association meta-analysis of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) including 29,612 patients with ALS and 122,656 controls identifies 15 risk loci with distinct genetic architectures and neuron-specific biology.

How expression of tissue-restricted self-antigens (TRA) is coordinated in medullary thymic epithelial cells (mTECs) remains unclear. Steinmetz and colleagues use single-cell RNA-sequencing to describe clusters of co-expressed TRAs.

Structural and functional characterization of an NF-κB-targeting bacterial toxin reveals an unconventional structure and mechanisms of membrane interaction and translocation.

Incidence of COVID-19 has been high in parts of South America including Brazil, and information on effective intervention strategies is needed. Here, the authors use mathematical modelling to show that reductions in social distancing should be made gradually to avoid a severe second peak of cases.

Emerging variants of SARS-CoV-2 raise concerns about vaccine efficiency. Here, the authors present a post-hoc analysis for the ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 (AZD1222) vaccine trial in Brazil and provide efficacy against symptomatic COVID-19 caused by the Zeta (P.2) and other variants.

The ATLAS Collaboration reports the observation of the electroweak production of two jets and a Z-boson pair. This process is related to vector-boson scattering and allows the nature of electroweak symmetry breaking to be probed.

A region on chromosome 19p13 is associated with the risk of developing ovarian and breast cancer. Here, the authors genotyped SNPs in this region in thousands of breast and ovarian cancer patients and identified SNPs associated with three genes, which were analysed with functional studies.

Here, the authors describe the key characteristics of the different antigen-presenting cell (APC) populations that govern T cell development in the thymus. They discuss how the interactions that occur between thymocytes and thymic APCs shape the mature T cell repertoire, and how they subsequently affect the nature of peripheral immune responses.

A genome-wide association study of critically ill patients with COVID-19 identifies genetic signals that relate to important host antiviral defence mechanisms and mediators of inflammatory organ damage that may be targeted by repurposing drug treatments.

Measurements of the inelastic cross section of anti-³He allow the estimation of the transparency of the Milky Way to the propagation of these light antinuclei produced in either cosmic-ray collisions or annihilation of dark-matter particles.

The direct measurement of the QCD dead cone in charm quark fragmentation is reported, using iterative declustering of jets tagged with a fully reconstructed charmed hadron.

Breast cancer risk for BRCA1/BRCA2 mutation carriers varies depending on other genetic factors. Here, the authors perform a case-only genome-wide association study and highlight novel loci associated with breast cancer risk for BRCA1/BRCA2 mutation carriers.

Using 13 functional traits we characterize the Amazonian trees and the communities they form. Amazonian tree communities are distributed along a fast-slow-spectrum. This results in clear differences in traits among these forests, as well as their biomass and biomass productivity.

Changes to subsets of dendritic spines are thought to be important for memory formation. Here, the authors develop a hybrid RNA/protein tool that allows for optogenetic stimulation of single synapses that have been tagged in an activity-dependent manner

Correlations in momentum space between hadrons created by ultrarelativistic proton–proton collisions at the CERN Large Hadron Collider provide insights into the strong interaction, particularly the short-range dynamics of hyperons—baryons that contain strange quarks.

Here, the authors present results of the ZiBRA-2 project (https://www.zibra2project.org) which is an arbovirus surveillance project, across the Midwest of Brazil using a mobile genomics laboratory, combined with a genomic surveillance training program that targeted post-graduate students, laboratory technicians, and health practitioners in universities and laboratories.

To investigate the sensory contributions of barrel cortex, the authors estimate spatiotemporal receptive fields by reverse correlation of multi-whisker stimulation to synaptic inputs. Complex stimuli revealed dramatically sharpened receptive fields, largely due to adaptation, and suggest the potential importance of surround facilitation through adaptation for discriminating complex shapes and textures during natural sensing.

Including participants from 45 countries, Bago et al. find that the situational factors that affect moral reasoning are shared across countries, with diminished observed cultural variation.

Contrary to the view that urbanization is a major driver of the global rise in obesity, the global increase in body-mass index is shown to be mostly due to increases in the body-mass indexes of rural populations.

Ten years after the discovery of the Higgs boson, the ATLAS  experiment at CERN probes its kinematic properties with a significantly larger dataset from 2015–2018 and provides further insights on its interaction with other known particles.

The South American Cerrado has an estimated ~1605 tree species, yet > 2% make up half of all trees. Since 1995, the savanna lost 24 billion trees, threatening its biodiversity. Urgent conservation is needed to prevent irreversible loss.

G-quadruplexes (G4s) are noncanonical four-stranded secondary structures of DNA or RNA that play key roles in numerous biological processes, however, G4-related proteins (G4RPs) remain understudied. Here, the authors use a proteomics-based fishing-for-partners approach to profile the interactors of G4-forming DNA sequences from the promoter regions of four cancer-related genes, identifying 86 G4RPs and validating five of them through an in vitro binding assay.

Roman et al. demonstrate that crosslinking and contraction of myofibrils mediate the movement of nuclei to the periphery of myofibres, and describe a role for Arp2/3 in organizing desmin.

Tree species turnover across Amazonian forests unveils sharp floristic transitional zones, that are linked with changes in soil fertility and climate.

Physical inactivity is common during periods of self-isolation, but for patients with rheumatic diseases, there are crucial benefits to be gained from maintaining an active lifestyle throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. Patients should be provided with support to maintain physical activity and avoid prolonged periods of time spent sitting.

A study mapping the tree species richness in Amazonian forests shows that soil type exerts a strong effect on species richness, probably caused by the areas of these forest types. Cumulative water deficit, tree density and temperature seasonality affect species richness at a regional scale.