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Combined analysis of new genomic data from 116 ancient hunter-gatherer individuals together with previously published data provides insights into the genetic structure and demographic shifts of west Eurasian forager populations over a period of 30,000 years.

Analysis of 1.32 billion records of medication data from England, Scotland and Wales reveals that the COVID-19 pandemic led to substantial declines in dispensing of antihypertensive and lipid-lowering medications, leading to increased risks for future cardiovascular disease.

Nutrient manipulation of low-phosphorus soil in an old growth Amazon rainforest shows that phosphorus availability drives forest productivity and is likely to limit the response to increasing atmospheric CO₂ concentrations.

Chamoli et al. identified MIC, a benzocoumarin molecule, that promotes longevity in C. elegans by inducing mitophagy via DAF-12/FXR and HLH-30/TFEB, and they demonstrate a conserved MIC efficacy in mammalian cells, indicating potential broader relevance.

By integrating healthcare and exome-sequencing data from parent–offspring trios of patients with developmental disorders, 28 genes that had not previously been associated with developmental disorders were identified.

Navigation requires integration of visual information with spatial memory representations. Steel et al. describe a new network of brain areas that facilitates the interaction between these perceptual and mnemonic neural systems.

An expanded GWAS of birth weight and subsequent analysis using structural equation modeling and Mendelian randomization decomposes maternal and fetal genetic contributions and causal links between birth weight, blood pressure and glycemic traits.

Genome-wide association meta-analyses of waist-to-hip ratio adjusted for body mass index in more than 224,000 individuals identify 49 loci, 33 of which are new and many showing significant sexual dimorphism with a stronger effect in women; pathway analyses implicate adipogenesis, angiogenesis, transcriptional regulation and insulin resistance as processes affecting fat distribution.

Ancient DNA analyses reveal that Viking Age migrations from Scandinavia resulted in differential influxes of ancestry to different parts of Europe, and the increased presence of non-local ancestry within Scandinavia.

A genome-wide association study and Metabochip meta-analysis of body mass index (BMI) detects 97 BMI-associated loci, of which 56 were novel, and many loci have effects on other metabolic phenotypes; pathway analyses implicate the central nervous system in obesity susceptibility and new pathways such as those related to synaptic function, energy metabolism, lipid biology and adipogenesis.

SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern continue to emerge, reducing vaccine efficacy and limiting therapeutic options. Here, Chen and colleagues describe the identification and design of shark nanobodies with pansarbecovirus activity.

Mars hosts the solar system’s largest volcanoes, but their formation rates remain poorly constrained. Here, the authors have measured the crystallization and ejection ages of meteorites from a Martian volcano and find that its growth rate was much slower than analogous volcanoes on Earth.

The role of the transcriptional effector SMAD4 in vertebrate embryo development remains unresolved. Here the authors show that in the absence of Smad4, dorsal/ventral embryo patterning is disrupted due to the loss of BMP signaling, while Nodal signaling is maintained, but insufficient for optimal endoderm specification.

Methane emission from a very cool brown dwarf, perhaps arising from an aurora, has been detected in James Webb Space Telescope observations.

Tryptophan metabolism through the kynurenine pathway changes with age and represents a potential intervention target for age associated disease. Here, the authors show that elevating physiological levels of the kynurenine pathway metabolite 3- hydroxyanthranilic acid can promote healthy aging.

By integrating the serum concentration of a broadly neutralizing antibody (bNAb) with its in vitro 80% inhibitory concentration, the PT₈₀ biomarker may be used to guide target levels of bNAbs for effective prevention of HIV-1 acquisition.

Micronuclei, which are common features of nuclei in cancer cells, can generate heritable sources of transcriptional suppression, a finding that establishes an inherent relationship between chromosomal instability and variation in chromatin state and gene expression.

GATA2 regulatory mutations are associated with hereditary congenital facial paresis in humans. A genetically engineered mouse model recapitulates the human phenotype, showing altered neuron-specific Gata2 expression and a bias in formation of inner-ear efferent neurons over facial branchial motor neurons.

Exome-wide analysis identifies rare and low-frequency coding variants associated with body mass index. Gene-based meta-analysis and functional studies implicate 13 genes, eight of which are novel, and neuronal pathways as factors in human obesity.

mRNAs export from the nucleus is thought to be regulated in part by three nucleoporins that comprise the nuclear basket, but whether and how distinct basket nucleoporins interact with the RNA export machinery is unclear. Here, the authors use rapid auxin-mediated degradation of basket nucleoporins Nup153, Nup50, and Tpr, and see that Tpr interacts with the TREX-2 mRNA export complex.

Pseudouridine (psi) is an RNA modification that can affect its physiology, including increased half-life. Here the authors identify sites of psi modification in the human transcriptome using direct RNA sequencing and provide a “ground truth” list of psi sites, sites of high psi occupancy, and transcripts that may be modified at multiple sites.

Protein-protein interactions underlie all aspects of a viral infection. Here the authors employ a pan-viral approach for systematic identification of motif-mediated interactions between viral and human proteins and show that the information can be used to find targets for antiviral drug development.

Patricia Munroe, Christopher Newton-Cheh, Andrew Morris and colleagues perform association studies in over 340,000 individuals of European ancestry and identify 66 loci, of which 17 are novel, involved in blood pressure regulation. The risk SNPs are enriched for cis-regulatory elements, particularly in vascular endothelial cells.

De novo loss of function mutations in the ubiquitin ligase-encoding gene Cullin3 (CUL3) lead to autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Here, the authors show that Cul3 is essential to regulate neuronal migration by tightly regulating Plastin3 (Pls3). Pls3 cell-autonomously regulates cell migration by regulating the actin cytoskeleton organization.

The expansion timing and dynamics of open vegetation are disputed. Here, the authors present a model of paleovegetation changes in North America, showing open vegetation beginning around 23 million years ago and accelerating at 5 million years ago to become the most prominent natural vegetation type in North America today.

It’s not always clear whether blood biomarkers are differentially expressed in the time course of viral infections. In this SARS-CoV-2 human challenge study, the authors identify distinct single-gene blood transcriptional biomarkers for early stages of infection or for symptomatic infection.

Analysis of autosomal recessive coding variants in 29,745 trios from the DDD study and GeneDx provides insights into the genetic architecture of developmental disorders across ancestrally diverse populations.

Here the authors identify an association between methylation of the suppressor of cytokine signaling 3 (SOCS3) and height in children from India, Gambia and the UK.

A genome-wide association study in ~3 million individuals identifies 3,952 independent variants associated with educational attainment. A polygenic index explains 12–16% of variance for this trait and contributes to risk prediction for ten diseases.

Genome-wide association analyses based on whole-genome sequencing and imputation identify 40 new risk variants for colorectal cancer, including a strongly protective low-frequency variant at CHD1 and loci implicating signaling and immune function in disease etiology.

Results from the phase 2/3 clinical trial of gantenerumab or solanezumab in dominantly inherited Alzheimer’s disease reveal no beneficial effects on cognitive measures despite a significant reduction in amyloid plaques and other key biomarkers in those treated with gantenerumab.

Flocking, schooling, and swarming prey are thought to benefit from a confusion effect. However, here the authors show that hawks attacking swarming bats avoid confusion by steering towards a fixed point in the swarm instead of targeting any one individual.

Phenotypic variation and diseases are influenced by factors such as genetic variants and gene expression. Here, Barbeira et al. develop S-PrediXcan to compute PrediXcan results using summary data, and investigate the effects of gene expression variation on human phenotypes in 44 GTEx tissues and >100 phenotypes.

A survey of SARS-CoV-2 RBD antibodies identifies those with activity against diverse SARS-CoV-2 variants and SARS-related coronaviruses, highlighting epitopes and features to prioritize in antibody and vaccine development.

The effect of sequence variants on phenotypes may depend on parental origin. Here, a method is developed that takes parental origin — the impact of which, to date, has largely been ignored — into account in genome-wide association studies. For 38,167 Icelanders genotyped, the parental origin of most alleles is determined; furthermore, a number of variants are found that show associations specific to parental origin, including three with type 2 diabetes.

Zhou et al. unveil a novel role for activated microglia and macrophages during wound healing after CNS injury. Microglia promote corralling and form a protective barrier at the injury penumbra via the axon guidance receptor Plexin-B2.

Stephanie London, Martin Tobin and colleagues report meta-analyses of genome-wide association studies for forced vital capacity (FVC), a spirometric measure of pulmonary function that reflects lung volume. They identify six regions newly associated with FVC and demonstrate that candidate genes at these loci are expressed in lung tissue and primary lung cells.

How heavy a person is and how much active brown fat they have depends on their father and the season in which they were conceived.

FRESH, a multi-lab collaboration, reveals how data quality, analysis pipelines, and researcher expertise influence reproducibility in fNIRS neuroimaging, highlighting key factors driving variability in hypothesis outcomes.

Major histocompatibility complex (MHC) loss of heterozygosity, allele-specific mutation and measurement of expression and repression (MHC Hammer) detects disruption to human leukocyte antigens due to mutations, loss of heterogeneity, altered gene expression or alternative splicing. Applied to lung and breast cancer datasets, the tool shows that these aberrations are common across cancer and can have clinical implications.

A mapping study covering over 50 years finds that landslide risk is much higher in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, due to more recent deforestation and more people living in more susceptible areas, than in similar landscapes in neighbouring countries.

The RNA endonuclease CPSF3 was identified as the cellular efficacy target of the small molecule JTE-607, revealing pre-mRNA processing as a vulnerability in cancers such as Ewing’s sarcoma that are characterized by aberrant transcription.

A giant planet candidate roughly the size of Jupiter but more than 14 times as massive is observed by TESS and other instruments to be transiting the white dwarf star WD 1856+534.

In studies using mouse models of psoriasis, a spectrum of innate lymphoid cell types is reconfigured and converges via multiple trajectories on a type 3-like state, demonstrating the range and flexibility of innate lymphoid cell responses in the skin.

From 1980 to 2018, the levels of total and non-high-density lipoprotein cholesterol increased in low- and middle-income countries, especially in east and southeast Asia, and decreased in high-income western countries, especially those in northwestern Europe, and in central and eastern Europe.

Mathieson et al. carried out a genome-wide association study of reproductive success (number of children born) in humans, revealing the importance of diverse neuro-endocrine and behavioural factors.