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Archaeological discoveries from Malta suggest that humans were present on the Maltese islands from around 8,500 years ago, providing evidence that Mesolithic hunter-gatherers made sea crossings as long as 100 km.

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.

Hunter syndrome is a lysosomal storage disease caused by mutations in the enzyme iduronate-2-sulfatase (IDS). Here, the authors present the IDS crystal structure and give mechanistic insights into mutations that cause Hunter syndrome.

Genetic and environmental factors affect genome-wide patterns of epigenetic variation. Here, the authors show that while current habitat and historical lifestyle impact the methylome of rainforest hunter-gatherers and sedentary farmers, the biological functions affected and the degree of genetic control differ.

By developing wireless sensors to track social interactions among hunter-gatherers in the Republic of the Congo and the Philippines, Migliano et al. find that a few strong friendship ties connecting unrelated families lead to more efficient social networks.

High-coverage exomes from 300 central African hunter-gatherers and farmers reveal recent population trends and gene flow, as well as insight into the effects these trends have had on their respective mutational loads.

Formal education systems rarely include the knowledge and skills of hunter-gatherer societies. This can lead to cultural erosion and knowledge decline. For education to be both high quality and sustainable, Indigenous knowledge should be recognized and valued.

A case of inter-group violence among hunter-gatherers on the shores of Lake Turkana in Kenya 10,000 years ago.

Genome-wide sequencing of 180 ancient individuals shows a continuous gradient of ancestry in Early-to-Mid-Holocene hunter-gatherers from the Baltic to the Transbaikal region and distinct contemporaneous groups in Northeast Siberia, and provides insights into the origins of modern Uralic and Yeniseian speakers.

Late Bronze Age and Early Iron Age dairy pastoralists in Mongolia are associated with diverse mortuary practices. Here, the authors analyze aDNA from 30 individuals and identify two genetic groups associated with distinct mortuary traditions that seem to have mixed rarely, pointing to complexities in these pastoralist societies.

Wildlife hunting can support diets and socio-economic well-being in communities around the world, but overexploitation can have cascading ecosystem effects. This study examines socio-cultural, economic and landscape factors associated with wildlife hunting in tropical forests in Africa.

Whole-genome sequencing analysis of 81 prehistoric individuals reveals how the genetic makeup of people from the North Pontic region was influenced by waves of migration during the Eneolithic period and Early Bronze Age.

Polyamides (PAs) or nylons are types of plastics with wide applications, but due to their accumulation in the environment, strategies for their deconstruction are of interest. Here, the authors screen 40 potential nylon-hydrolyzing enzymes (nylonases) using a mass spectrometry-based approach and identify a thermostabilized N-terminal nucleophile hydrolase as the most promising for further development, as well as crucial targets for progressing PA6 enzymatic depolymerization.

Ancient DNA reveals how the explosive expansion of Yamnaya steppe pastoralists began with a small community north of the Black Sea speaking ancestral Indo-European, and detects genetic links with Anatolian speakers, stemming from a common Indo-Anatolian homeland in the North Caucasus–lower Volga region.

Integrated data, including 100 human genomes from the Mesolithic, Neolithic and Early Bronze Age periods show that two major population turnovers occurred over just 1,000 years in Neolithic Denmark, resulting in dramatic changes in the genes, diet and physical appearance of the local people, as well as the landscape in which they lived.

Genome-wide ancient DNA data from 225 individuals who lived in southeastern Europe between 12000 and 500 bc reveals that the region acted as a genetic crossroads before and after the arrival of farming.

Here, the authors show that the skin microbiome of a remote hunter-gatherer Yanomami community harbors environmental microbes that help maintain skin barrier integrity and combat oxidative stress—functions that are reduced by industrial lifestyles.

Here the authors apply ZooMS, radiocarbon, and stable isotope analyses to whale bones from the Bay of Biscay. They find that humans were utilizing the remains of at least five species of whales from 20,000 years ago, and that those whale communities may have resembled today’s arctic waters.

Bioactive sesquiterpenes accumulating in petunia stigmas are synthesized in the floral tube and then transported to the pistil via natural fumigation within the internal airspace of the developing flower.

Ancient DNA from the eastern Maghreb (Tunisia and Algeria) dating between 15,000 and 6,000 years ago shows that this region was far less affected by external gene flow than the rest of the Neolithic Mediterranean, including not only Europe but also the western Maghreb (Morocco).

Genome-wide ancestry profiles of four individuals, dating to 8,000 and 3,000 years before present, from the archaeological site of Shum Laka (Cameroon) shed light on the deep population history of sub-Saharan Africa.

Natural products populate areas of chemical space not occupied by average synthetic molecules. Here, an analysis of more than 180,000 natural product structures results in a library of 2,000 natural-product-derived fragments, which resemble the properties of the natural products themselves and give access to novel inhibitor chemotypes.

The population history of Europe is complex and its very north has not yet been comprehensively studied at a genetic level. Here, Mittnik et al. report genome-wide data from 38 ancient individuals from the Eastern Baltic, Russia and Scandinavia to analyse gene flow throughout the Mesolithic and Bronze Age.

Analyses of imputed ancient genomes and of samples from the UK Biobank indicate that ancient selection and migration were large contributors to the distribution of phenotypic diversity in present-day Europeans.

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 complementary analysis of DESI DR2 distance measurements along with supernova and CMB data shows consistent, moderate evidence that dark energy changes over time rather than behaving as a simple cosmological constant.

High-coverage and low-coverage genomic data for some of the earliest modern humans in Europe provide insights into recent admixture with Neanderthals and familial relationship links with distant communities approximately 45,000 years ago.

Here, based on phylogeny analyses using sequences from six viral genome databases, the authors study the biodiversity and evolution of a new bacteriophage lineage, Candidatus order Heliusvirales, and identify heliusviruses in 82% of 5,441 individuals across 39 studies, and in nine metagenomes from humans that lived in Europe and North America between 1,000 and 5,000 years ago, revealing associations with human diseases.

Hunter et al. use RNA labelling to investigate RNA transfer between organs in mice. They show that RNA potentially moves en masse from liver to kidney and that this movement is augmented in acute liver injury, although the physiological relevance of the phenomenon is not yet known.

Oakhurst rockshelter in South Africa documents marked cultural change during the Holocene, but genome-wide data from ancient human individuals at the site now demonstrate a remarkable degree of genetic continuity over the last 9,000 years: the contemporary ‡Khomani San and Karretjiemense from South Africa still show direct signs of relatedness to the Oakhurst hunter-gatherers.

The impact of structural variation on the evolution of the amylase genes is explored using human pangenome resources and ancient DNA data.