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Natural variation in the courtship song of Drosophila is mapped to the intronic insertion of a retroelement at the slowpoke locus, which encodes an ion channel.

Spatiotemporal control over the assembly of intracellular peptide nanofibres using visible light is reported. The photolysis-promoted monomer generation correlates the structure formation kinetics to the toxicity in cells.

The underlying physics of the strange metal phase observed in many strongly correlated materials is not well understood. Now, evidence emerges that antiferromagnetic spin fluctuations play an important role.

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.

The Macaque Biobank initiated by Zhang et al. provides a comprehensive genetic and phenotypic characterization of Chinese rhesus macaques (CRMs). This resource enhances our understanding of the genetic diversity of CRMs and holds potential for biomedical research.

Metasurfaces are arrays of subwavelength structures that are tailored to produce specific optical responses. Rozin et al.show that large-area metasurfaces can be readily fabricated by self-assembly of colloidal nanocrystals of different geometries, producing tunable reflectance and absorbance properties.

Membrane-free complex coacervate microdroplets are compelling models for primitive compartmentalization, but it is unclear how molecular co-operativity influences physicochemical properties and activity of membrane-free compartments. Here, the authors use RNA/peptide coacervates as a model to reveal the relationship between coacervate properties and ribozyme activity.

Electric vehicles are increasingly adopted in the USA, with concurrent expansion of charging infrastructure and electricity demand. This Review details these trends and discusses their drivers and broader implications.

Bone marrow adipose tissue accounts for almost 10% of human fat mass, but its roles remain unclear. Here, Xu et al. identify more than 45 diseases linked to marrow adiposity in over 48,000 people, including causal roles in musculoskeletal disease.

The evolutionary history of barley is analysed using ancient and modern DNA.

This study employs a citizen science approach to identify and classify over 230,000 light sources in German city centers, suburbs and villages. The results underscore the pivotal role of citizen science in expanding knowledge of artificial light emissions and bolstering policymaking efforts to mitigate urban light pollution.

Interim trial results of MYR-101, a novel recombinant vector with selective tropism for oligodendrocytes, support its tolerability and indicate improved myelination and reduced cerebrospinal fluid N-acetyl-aspartic acid concentrations in children with Canavan disease.

Human transplantation with allogeneic donor organs results in non-matching of MHC and differential presentation of T cell antigens. Here the authors show that in a lung transplanted SARS-CoV-2 infected patient T cell responses generated from the host may not be able to recognise infected cells within the graft and this may contribute to virus persistence.

Rizzollo et al. show that BDH2 participates in iron distribution between cellular compartments, which sets the threshold for the ferroptosis vulnerability of the melanoma cell phenotypes, ultimately affecting their metastatic capacity

The authors report resonant soft x-ray scattering and polarimetry measurements on epitaxial thin films of La3Ni2O7. They find a diagonal bicollinear double spin stripe order, with no evidence of charge modulation.

The A3 adenosine receptor is a promising drug target for cancer, inflammation, and glaucoma. Here, authors determine atomic structures of the human A3 receptor, identifying a previously hidden binding pocket that will aid in the development of more effective A3 receptor-targeted medicines.

Direct human actions such as hunting and bird deterrence at aquaculture sites kill up to 10% of the populations of some shorebird species migrating along China’s coast each year, suggesting that this direct mortality is an overlooked threat to migratory populations.

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

Little is known about how mutations in genes encoding tumor suppressors influence metastatic site selection and whether sustained inactivation of such genes influences tumor maintenance at these sites. A new study shows that restoration of Smad4 expression in extant pancreatic metastases has anti-tumor effects in the liver but pro-tumor effects in the lungs.

Hutchinson-Gilford Progeria Syndrome is characterized by premature aging with cardiovascular disease being the main cause of death. Here the authors show that inhibition of the NAT10 enzyme enhances cardiac function and fitness, and reduces age-related phenotypes in a mouse model of premature aging.

The authors demonstrate strain-induced morphotropic phase boundary-like nanodomains in lead-free NaNbO₃ thin films, enabling multi-state switching and large enhancements in dielectric susceptibility and tunability over a broad frequency range.

The authors highlight inconsistencies and divergencies in the literature reporting data on indirect calorimetry for studies on whole-body energy homeostasis, and propose harmonization of standards to facilitate data comparison and interpretation across different datasets.

Gut bacteria digest dietary fiber and release molecules as energy for the host. Here, Yu et al. find that the ability of certain gut bacteria to digest different fibers influences host consumption of food containing these fibers.

Blue light-emitting diodes with a light extraction efficiency of 73% are reported. The InGaN–GaN devices use a photonic-crystal structure for superior optical mode control; their performance has been characterized experimentally and modelled theoretically.

Competition for light has profound effects on plant performance in virtually all terrestrial ecosystems. An experimental study in a temperate forest understorey suggests that low light levels limit warming-induced changes in the composition of the forest floor plant community.

The authors report Acheulean hominin occupation of eastern Britain during glacial marine isotope stages 17–16 and again in glacial marine isotope stage 12 via stone tools in sediments dated to 712,000 to 424,000 years ago.

Iridoids are terpenoid metabolites found in thousands of plants. Using single-cell transcriptomics, the authors discovered an unexpected enzyme that has been neofunctionalized to catalyse the cyclization required to form the iridoid scaffold.

Engineering a mutant-specific customized base editor precisely corrects a mutation while minimizing bystander edits, leading to substantial phenotypic recovery in mouse models of multisystemic smooth muscle dysfunction syndrome.

In strongly correlated systems, how magnetic excitations are renormalized by charge carriers remains an open question. An experiment now reports the observation of magnon-polarons—magnons dressed by doped holes—in a Fermi–Hubbard quantum simulator.

Species’ traits and environmental conditions determine the abundance of tree species across the globe. Here, the authors find that dominant tree species are taller and have softer wood compared to rare species and that these trait differences are more strongly associated with temperature than water availability.

The authors analyze rare coding variants in 1990 individuals with congenital kidney anomalies, finding diagnostic variants in 14.1% of cases. They identify two new causal genes, ARID3A and NR6A1, along with 38 candidate genes, providing evidence for shared genetics with other developmental disorders.

Nematicity, the spontaneous breaking of lattice rotational symmetry, plays an important role in kagome metals. Here, the authors report on a nematic phase within seven Kelvin below the charge density wave transition in the bilayer kagome metal ScV₆Sn₆.

The field of cellular agriculture has relied on 3D bioprinting for the generation of sophisticated products. Here, the authors employ chaotic bioprinting to create plant and animal cell-based hybrid noodles, thereby opening avenues to produce complex culinary designs and to explore diverse nutritional alternatives.

A fluidic system with spatially reconfigurable hot spots generated by optical pumping of plasmonic nanorods is demonstrated, creating virtual barriers by generating local heating via photothermal conversion, for potential applications in chemical synthesis, lab-on-chip devices and microbiology.

Infection of mosquito immune cells by dengue and Zika virus enhances the spread of virus infection to mosquito tissues, such as the salivary glands, to promote virus transmission and highlights conserved roles of immune cells in virus dissemination.

Extracellular vesicles (EVs), a diverse range of membrane-delimited particles, have multiple cellular functions and, when released by cancer cells, can promote tumour growth and metastatic dissemination. The authors of this Review describe advances in the development of EVs as biomarkers and cancer therapeutics, focusing on clinical translation of EVs into diagnostic and therapeutic clinical tools.

Designer box H/ACA RNA-guided pseudouridylation can target both mRNA and tRNA. Modifying the first U of a stop codon and U36 of the matching anticodon forms one Ψ–Ψ and two Watson–Crick pairs, enabling efficient and specific stop codon readthrough.

Brain age gaps (BAGs) highlight deviations from healthy brain aging, yet their biophysical underpinnings in aging and dementia are not well understood. Here, the authors use EEG connectivity and generative modeling across diverse populations to reveal that BAGs are influenced by geography, income, sex and education, with implications for understanding accelerated aging and dementia.

Here, the authors show that physiological alpha-synuclein supports mitochondrial ATP homeostasis via interactions with ATP synthase and AK2, whereas its disease-linked mutants, truncated forms, and aggregates lose these interactions.

Commensal Candida albicans enhances the virulence and dissemination of Salmonella enterica subsp. enterica serovar Typhimurium.

The cortex fuels essential physiological processes with glucose-derived carbon, while gliomas fuel their aggressiveness by rerouting glucose carbon pathways and scavenging alternative carbon sources such as environmental amino acids, providing a potential therapeutic target.

Brown et al. show that mouse islet progenitors with different transcriptomes produce distinct β-cell subtypes and maternal diet alter the subtype proportions. Similar β-cell subsets exist in humans, with a subset enriched in genes related to β cell function reduced in diabetes.

Current mineral-based theories do not fully address how enzymes emerged from prebiotic catalysts. Now, iron–sulfur clusters can be synthesized by UV-light-mediated photolysis of organic thiols and photooxidation of ferrous ions. Iron–sulfur peptides may have formed easily on early Earth, facilitating the emergence of iron–sulfur-cluster-dependent metabolism.

Here, the authors find that BMAL1, best known for controlling the body clock, partners with TRIM28 in naïve pluripotent stem cells to repress retrotransposons.

Lowering the levels of coagulation factor XII may prevent thrombosis without increasing the risk of bleeding. Here, Haj et al. use a large human dataset to show that this is the case for people carrying mutations that lower the levels of factor XII.