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A genome-wide association study in rice identifies variation in SBRR1 associated with sheath blight resistance. Introducing the SBRR1-R allele into a commercial rice variety reduces yield loss under severe exposure to sheath blight disease.

Japonica subspecies has a lower nitrogen use efficiency (NUE) than that of indica rice. Here, the authors show that natural variations in the NIN-like protein 4 (OsNLP4) encoding gene are responsible for the divergence and introgression of the indica OsNLP4 allele into elite japonica cultivar can increase NUE and grain yield.

Grain chalkiness is an undesirable trait that severely compromises rice quality. Here, the authors report the cloning of an E3 ubiquitin ligase encoding gene Chalk9 and reveal its crucial role in regulating grain chalkiness through mediating the ubiquitination-dependent degradation of OsEBP89.

Bacterial ATP-binding cassette (ABC) transporters can be utilized and engineered to transport non-canonical amino acids into Escherichia coli for highly efficient synthesis of proteins with novel functions.

ER membranes tune protein degradation to lipid composition. Using reconstitution approaches, the authors show that the ubiquitin conjugating enzyme UBE2J2 senses lipid packing, modulating its own and partner enzyme activities; together, they integrate lipid saturation and cholesterol signals.

K11/K48 branched ubiquitin chains regulate protein degradation and cell cycle progression. Here, the authors report the structural basis of how such a branched ubiquitin chain is recognized by the human 26S proteasome, revealing a multivalent binding mode that underlies selective recognition.

Native top-down proteomics reveals epidermal growth factor receptor–estrogen receptor-alpha (EGFR–ER) signaling crosstalk in breast cancer cells and dissociation of nuclear transport factor 2 (NUTF2) dimers to modulate ER signaling and cell growth.

Polygenic risk scores can help identify individuals at higher risk of type 2 diabetes. Here, the authors characterise a multi-ancestry score across nearly 900,000 people, showing that its predictive value depends on demographic and clinical context and extends to related traits and complications.

A nucleic acid-based therapeutic uses short Staple oligomers to hybridize with target mRNAs and induce an RNA G-quadruplex, suppressing protein translation.

Aging is a risk factor for neurodegenerative diseases associated with protein aggregation. Here the authors identify age-related hyperactivation of EPS8/RAC signaling in C. elegans as a driver of pathological protein aggregation, highlighting EPS8 and its regulators as potential therapeutic targets.

Developing strategies for reducing carbon emissions in municipal solid waste management is essential to achieve the net-zero target. Here the authors systematically assess strategy options of different countries for achieving net-zero municipal solid waste management.

Cartilage-targeted gene therapy is dependent on delivery efficiency. Here, the authors develop non-pathogenic, virus-inspired lipopeptide-based nanoplatforms to deliver nucleic acids to cartilage with increased transfection efficiency over conventional lipid nanoparticles.

A proteotoxic stress response specific to exhausted T cells, governed by AKT signaling and accompanied by increased protein translation, represents a mechanistic vulnerability and a new therapeutic target to improve cancer immunotherapies.

Limited therapeutic options are available for pulmonary fibrosis because its molecular pathogenesis remains unclear. Here, the authors show that the CCL20– integrin α5β1–TGF β signaling cascade could be a potential therapeutic target for pulmonary fibrosis.

Structural and biochemical studies of the β-barrel-assembly machinery from Flavobacterium johnsoniae reveal a subunit composition and assembly that are distinct from those of the canonical Escherichia coli complex.

The genetic basis underlying resistance to Sclerotinia stem rot (SSR) in oilseed rape remains elusive. Here, the authors identify BnaA07.MKK9 as a pivotal regulator of SSR resistance in oilseed rape by GWAS, providing new insights into plant defense mechanisms against necrotrophic pathogens.

Achieving high selectivity in CO₂-to-methanol conversion remains challenging. This study uses defect-engineered In₂O₃/ZrO₂ catalysts featuring abundant oxygen vacancies, significantly boosting methanol productivity and selectivity.

In this study, the authors present optimization and efficacy testing of apolipoprotein-based lipid nanoparticles for delivering various nucleic acid therapeutics in vivo to immune cells and their progenitors in the bone marrow.

Khawaja et al. show sex-specific differences in neuronal-activity regulation by chaperone-mediated autophagy and that loss of chaperone-mediated autophagy leads to defective neuronal physiology and increased seizure susceptibility, linking chaperone-mediated autophagy to neuronal excitability.

The activity of the membrane-bound enzyme pMMO depends on copper but the location of the copper centers is still under debate. Here, the authors reconstitute pMMO in nanodiscs and use native top-down MS to localize its copper centers, providing insights into which sites are essential for activity.

Inhibitors of the protein kinase Wee1 are promising drugs for cancer therapy. Here, the authors show that these drugs activate the integrated stress response via GCN2, synergising with mRNA translation defects. They suggest strategies such as PROTACs or ISR inhibitors to improve WEE1 mediated toxicity.

BamA is the catalytic core of the BAM complex, which inserts proteins into bacterial outer membranes. Here, the authors show that hinge flexibility between BamA’s β-barrel and POTRA domains is vital, demonstrating how evolution has fine-tuned the BamA sequence and structure for function.

Biomolecular condensates of Eps15 recruit and assemble clathrin. In turn, clathrin assembly restricts condensate growth while imposing the preferred curvature of the clathrin lattice.

Mutation of conserved prolines enhances correct pairing of light and heavy chains for bispecific IgG-like antibody production.

Myeloperoxidase, a highly expressed neutrophil protein, disassembles nucleosomes, facilitating neutrophil extracellular trap (NET) formation, and binds stably to NETs extracellularly.

Alternative polyadenylation is involved in plant responses to various stresses. Here, the authors show how a cis-natural antisense RNA promotes proximal polyadenylation of its cognate SlSPX5 gene in response to phosphate starvation in tomato.

NatD is an acetyltransferase responsible for N-α-terminal acetylation of the histone H4 and H2A and has been linked to cell growth. Here the authors show that NatD-mediated acetylation of histone H4 serine 1 competes with the phosphorylation by CK2α at the same residue thus leading to the upregulation of Slug and tumor progression.

The condensation of repeat-containing RNAs can have neurotoxic effects but is challenging to study. Now a NMR approach termed condensate detection by semi-solid magnetization transfer (CONDENSE-MT) can be used to study RNA condensate dynamics, proton–solvent exchange kinetics and condensate hydration.

Engineered aminoacyl-tRNA synthetase (aaRS) mutants have been developed that facilitate ultrafast bioorthogonal noncanonical amino acid tagging (BONCAT) of newly synthesized proteins in diverse bacteria, including ESKAPE pathogens. The substrate polyspecificity of the aaRS mutants enables pulse-chase BONCAT and differential tagging of temporally distinct nascent proteomes in cells.

Sun et al. reveal that root-knot nematode attack activates a phyB-HY5 cascade that integrates light and GLR3.5-CaM2 signals to boost JA synthesis in tomato, with HY5 moving from leaves to roots to sustain signaling and trigger JA-mediated defense.

Biochemical research on methane oxidation in anaerobic methanotrophic archaea is hampered by the lack of cultured isolates. Here, Müller et al. present atomic-resolution snapshots of the methane-oxidising enzymes purified from enrichment cultures, providing molecular insights into the process and revealing unusual post-translational modifications.

Apoptotic cells often release extracellular vesicles that aid in their clearance and provide molecular information to cellular neighbours. Here, the authors show that some adherent apoptotic cells also create vesicles that remain attached at the site of death.

Here they perform a systematic dissection of OCT4 and reveal how intrinsically disordered regions can be used to serve specific functions during reprogramming and embryonic development. This can be exploited to engineer more efficient and specific reprogramming factors.

Greda et al. show that sortilin and apolipoprotein E3 mediate import and utilization of long-chain fatty acids as a metabolic fuel in neurons after glucose restriction.

Bacterial antigens, such as lipopolysaccharides, are complex structures which remain difficult to synthesise or purify for antibody generation. Here, authors present a platform technology using Citrobacter rodentium - an enteric mouse pathogen - to both produce and present complex antigens for antibody generation.

The enzyme ABHD18 is shown to have a key role in cardiolipin metabolism in mitochondria, offering a potential route for a small-molecule treatment of the rare genetic disease Barth syndrome.

Dual cyclin A/B RxL inhibitors selectively kill small cell lung cancer cells and other cancer cells with high E2F activity.

This study discovers human SERF2 as a key partner in stress granule formation by binding specific RNA G-quadruplexes. SERF2 and these RNAs provide a detailed structural model of protein-RNA interactions driving liquid-liquid phase separation in condensates.

Convergent evolution of proteins has been extensively studied at the levels of amino acid residues and local domain structures. Here, authors unveil a global structural convergence of protein complexes among fusion protein families in nature.

Grain protein content determines rice nutrition quality. Here, the authors show that a single nucleotide polymorphism in the promoter region of OsGluA2, encoding a glutelin type-A2 precursor, is responsible for glutelin content difference between the indica and japonica rice subspecies.

APC/C activity is transiently inhibited to generate a pulse of glycolysis that is required for mammalian cell cycle entry.

Here, the authors provide molecular insight into the remarkable ability of Tardigrades to withstand high levels of radiation by demonstrating that their Dsup protein interacts with multiple surfaces of the nucleosome to protect the genome from oxidative DNA damage.

Enhanced polyamine depletion in neuroblastoma models decreases translation of mRNA codons with adenosine in the third position, reprogramming the tumour proteome away from cell cycle progression and towards differentiation.

Embryonic stem cells for chicken and seven other avian species are derived.

BPTF is known to regulate chromatin accessibility and self-renewal in mammary epithelial stem cells. Here, the authors discover that BPTF inhibition delays tumor formation, re-activates ERα expression, increases sensitivity to tamoxifen treatment, and inhibits metastatic development.

The authors describe the isolation and characterization of broadly cross-neutralizing monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) against diverse H5Nx viruses from individuals who received a monovalent H5N1 vaccine 15 years ago. They identify five mAbs that potently neutralized the majority of H5 clades and protected against lethal 2.3.4.4b H5N1 infection in mice.

Here, the authors demonstrate increased global lactylation levels and in the joints of rheumatoid arthritis patients. NFATc2 is identified as a key target gene regulated by histone H3 lysine 9 lactylation that exacerbates disease progression by enhancing the cartilage invasive function of fibroblast-like synoviocytes.

R-loops formed by RNA hybridization to DNA template strand during transcription influence HIV-1 integration into the CD4⁺ T cell genome. The unwinding of R-loops by splicing helicase Aquarius facilitates integration into speckle-associated domains.