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In participants with obesity and chronic kidney disease without diabetes, once-weekly administration of semaglutide 2.4 mg led to a reduction in albuminuria, body weight and systolic blood pressure compared with placebo, with no changes to creatinine or cystatin-C estimated glomerular filtration rate or measured glomerular filtration rate during the 24-week follow-up period.

This study uses a compilation of 58 population genetic studies of 47 phylogenetically divergent marine sedentary species over the Mediterranean basin to assess how genetic differentiation is predicted by different dispersal models. Multi-generation dispersal models reveal implicit links among siblings from a common ancestor (coalescent connectivity) that could improve spatial conservation planning.

A multi-ancestry genome-wide association study for age at menarche followed by fine mapping and downstream analysis implicates 665 pubertal timing genes, such as the G-protein-coupled receptor 83 (GPR83) and other genes expressed in the ovaries involved in the DNA damage response.

A dataset of the genomes of 363 species from the Bird 10,000 Genomes Project shows increased power to detect shared and lineage-specific variation, demonstrating the importance of phylogenetically diverse taxon sampling in whole-genome sequencing.

Poeck and colleagues identify a microbiome signature in patients receiving allogenic stem cell transplantation, which is associated with protective immune-modulatory metabolites, improved survival and less transplant-related mortality.

The goals, resources and design of the NHLBI Trans-Omics for Precision Medicine (TOPMed) programme are described, and analyses of rare variants detected in the first 53,831 samples provide insights into mutational processes and recent human evolutionary history.

Wendrich, Gallant and colleagues find that USP53 and USP54 are active deubiquitinases, with USP53 removing ubiquitin chains from substrate proteins in a chain-linkage-directed manner, and provide biochemical and structural insights into their mechanism, cellular substrates and disease implications.

Erik Ingelsson and colleagues report a large-scale genome-wide meta-analysis for associations to the extremes of anthropometric traits, including body mass index, height, waist-to-hip ratio and clinical obesity. They identify four loci newly associated with height and seven loci newly associated with clinical obesity and find overlap in the genetic structure and distribution of variants identified for these extremes of the trait distributions and for the general population.

Protection of nascent DNA from degradation provides a mechanism that can promote synthetic viability and drug resistance in Brca-deficient cells without restoring homologous recombination at double-strand breaks.

The search for antivirals against SARS-CoV-2 continue due to the emergence of variants of concerns, able to escape the vaccinal humoral response. In this work, authors pre-clinically explore the potential of kinetin against SARS-CoV-2, which could be used alone or in combination with other antivirals.

Multicriteria optimization identifies global priority areas for ecosystem restoration and estimates their benefits for biodiversity and climate, providing cost–benefit analyses that highlight the importance of optimizing spatial planning and incorporating several biomes in restoration strategies.

The biological understanding of poor prognosis associated with lymph node metastasis in head and neck cancer (HNC) remains crucial. Here, a proteomic characterisation of 140 multisite samples from a 59-HNC patient cohort and machine learning reveals potential biomarkers and metastasis related signatures.

DNA from ancient wolves spanning 100,000 years sheds light on wolves’ evolutionary history and the genomic origin of dogs.

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.

André Uitterlinden and colleagues report loci at 9q31.2 and LIN28B associated with age at menarche from a meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies including 17,510 females from eight different population-based cohorts.

Genome-wide association analyses of prostate cancer in men from sub-Saharan Africa identify population-specific risk variants and regional differences in effect sizes. Founder effects contribute to continental differences in the genetic architecture of prostate cancer.

Genomic and epidemiologic analyses revealed that a novel reassortant viral lineage of the Oropouche virus, which has been circulating in the western Amazon region of Brazil for about a decade, is associated with the recent human outbreaks between 2022 and 2024.

Urinary albumin-to-creatinine ratio (UCAR) is associated with various clinical outcomes such as kidney disease and cardiovascular disease. Here, the authors report genome-wide meta-analysis in over 500,000 individuals and find 68 UACR loci, followed by statistical fine-mapping, gene prioritization and experimental validation in flies.

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.

A multi-ancestry genome-wide gene–smoking interaction study identifies 13 new loci associated with serum lipids.

Across many North American forests, recent years with exceptional area burned are not unprecedented when considering the multi-century perspective offered by fire-scarred trees. Nevertheless, abundant evidence suggests that the severity of contemporary wildfire is unprecedented in its adverse impacts on forests and humans.

The presence of correlations can strongly affect the evolution of a quantum system. Here, the authors directly observe differences in the dynamics of two spins-1/2 systems in an NMR setup depending on the correlations of the initial state, including differences in energy flow and mutual information.

Inbreeding depression has been observed in many different species, but in humans a systematic analysis has been difficult so far. Here, analysing more than 1.3 million individuals, the authors show that a genomic inbreeding coefficient (FROH) is associated with disadvantageous outcomes in 32 out of 100 traits tested.

Planarians are model systems for stem cells and regeneration. This study provides new genome assemblies of the model species S. mediterranea and 3 relatives and uses comparative genomics of planarians to reveal that synteny is not an evolutionary constraint in flatworm genome evolution.

Although vaccination drops COVID-19 mortality in older adults, post-vaccine fatal COVID-19 in nursing home outbreaks was linked to Delta, Gamma and Mu variants, persistently detected in aerosols. Mortality was predicted by IFNB1 or age, ORF7a and ACE2 mRNAs.

There has been much interest recently in the transport mechanisms of metals from hydrothermal vents. Here the authors found that nanoparticulate pyrite is not removed from the plume and can account for over 50% of filtered iron one metre from the vent mouth.

Current preclinical models to investigate human HR + breast cancer progression and response to immunotherapy in vivo are limited. Here, the authors demonstrate that mammary tumours driven by a synthetic progestin combined with an oral carcinogen recapitulate several immunobiological features of human HR + breast cancers.

The record-breaking 2023 wildfire season in Canada ( ~ 15 Mha burned) was enabled by early snowmelt, drought, and extreme weather. It had profound impacts that included evacuation of >200 communities, millions exposed to hazardous smoke, and a strain on fire-fighting resources.

This study reports a motif of local field potentials that maps onto the anatomical layers of the cortex, is preserved across macaque cortical areas and across primates and may represent a ubiquitous layer-based and frequency-based cortical mechanism.

Long-read single-cell RNA sequencing is capable of detecting isoform-level gene expression and genomic alterations such as mutations and gene fusions, thereby providing cell-specific genotype-phenotype information. Here, the authors use long-read scRNA-seq on metastatic ovarian cancer samples and detect cell-type specific isoforms and gene fusions that may otherwise be misclassified in short-read data.

A genetic study identifies hundreds of loci associated with risk tolerance and risky behaviors, finds evidence of substantial shared genetic influences across these phenotypes, and implicates genes involved in neurotransmission.

Steve Brown and colleagues report an analysis of 20 phenotyping tests, including 413 data parameters, across 449 mutant mouse alleles. They identify widespread pleiotropy and assign putative functions to genes that lacked previous phenotypic annotation.

Although progress in the coverage of routine measles vaccination in children in low- and middle-income countries was made during 2000–2019, many countries remain far from the goal of 80% coverage in all districts by 2019.

The authors generate cell lines deficient for 22 BAF subunits, studying effects on complex composition, chromatin accessibility and gene expression. They identify synthetic lethal interactions between SMARCA4–ARID2, SMARCA4–ACTB and SMARCC1–SMARCC2.

The quest for miniaturisation of electromechanical nanosystems requires the use of single molecules as active components. Here, the authors develop a piezoresistor based on a single bullvalene molecule that changes its shape by a Cope rearrangement.

Attosecond interferometry measurements of photoionization delays in planar carbon-based molecules can provide information on the dimension and shape of the two-dimensional hole generated in the process.

The function of many bacterial processes depends on the formation of functional membrane microdomains (FMMs), which resemble the lipid rafts of eukaryotic cells. Here, Ukleja et al. show that FMMs mediate ATP-independent stabilization of unfolded proteins, which is essential for bacterial viability under cellular stress and during infection.

A combined record of direct observations, orthophotos and digital surface models spanning over 100 years suggests a deceleration of four Swiss rock glaciers due to a reduction in ice/water contribution from upstream glaciers and permafrost degradation

Functional diversity and phylogenetic diversity are expected to be positively correlated. Here the authors show that the covariation between these metrics in vascular plant communities around the world is often either inconsistent or negative.

Fine-scale geospatial mapping of overweight and wasting (two components of the double burden of malnutrition) in 105 LMICs shows that overweight has increased from 5.2% in 2000 to 6.0% in children under 5 in 2017. Although overall wasting decreased over the same period, most countries are not on track to meet the World Health Organization’s Global Nutrition Target of <5% in over half of LMICs by 2025.

Alternative stable states in forests have implications for the biosphere. Here, the authors combine forest biodiversity observations and simulations revealing that leaf types across temperate regions of the NH follow a bimodal distribution suggesting signatures of alternative forest states.

DNA nanotechnology is used to develop fully synthetic, programmable and printable 3D cell-culture matrices with stress-relaxation crosslinkers that encode (nano)mechanical stability. The hydrogel performs on par with solubilized animal-basement-membrane-derived cell-culture matrices.

Accurate non-invasive biomarkers to diagnose MASLD-related fibrosis are urgently needed. Here the authors show a disease mechanism-related blood-based biomarker panel consisting of three biomarkers which is able to accurately identify MASLD patients with mild or advanced hepatic fibrosis.

GWAS have identified more than 500 genetic loci associated with blood lipid levels. Here, the authors report a genome-wide analysis of interactions between genetic markers and physical activity, and find that physical activity modifies the effects of four genetic loci on HDL or LDL cholesterol.

Sleep duration is associated with an adverse lipid profile. Here, the authors perform genome-wide gene-by-sleep interaction analysis and find 49 previously unreported lipid loci when considering short or long total sleep time.

Examining drivers of the latitudinal biodiversity gradient in a global database of local tree species richness, the authors show that co-limitation by multiple environmental and anthropogenic factors causes steeper increases in richness with latitude in tropical versus temperate and boreal zones.

Most Brazilian rivers are found to have the potential for stream water losses into underlying aquifers, especially in drier climates, thicker aquifers, and regions with extensive groundwater pumping.

Assisted migration is the artificial movement of species and populations to increase forest resilience. Here the authors model how targeted assisted migration can preserve or enhance the European forest carbon sink under future climate scenarios.