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For archival pathogens, like pH1N1 Influenza A virus the causative agent of 1918/19 pandemic, only few whole genome sequences exist. Here, Patrono et al. provide one complete and two partial genomes from Germany and find variation in two sites in the nucleoprotein gene in pandemic samples compared to pre-pandemic samples, that are associated with resistance to host antiviral response, pointing at a possible viral adaptation to humans.

The xylosyltransferase isoenzymes XT1 and XT2 catalyze the first glycosylation step in the biosynthesis of proteoglycans. Now, bump-and-hole engineering of XT1 and XT2 enables substrate profiling and modification of proteins as designer proteoglycans to modulate cellular behavior.

Dark-field momentum microscopy makes it possible to spatio-temporally and spatio-spectrally resolve the dark-exciton dynamics in a twisted transition metal dichalcogenide heterostructure.

Pyramidal neuron-driven mechanisms actively promote the survival and terminal differentiation of their associated interneuron subtypes.

The dynamical axion quasiparticle, which is directly analogous to the hypothetical fundamental axion particle, is observed in two-dimensional MnBi₂Te₄, and has implications for quantum chromodynamics, cosmology and string theory.

The relation between magnetooptical activity and chirality has previously been confused. Chiral polymer films are presented with state-of-the-art Verdet constants, revealing the role of chirality, and a strategy to enhance the magnetooptical B term.

A cavity-array microscope is realized using intra-cavity lenses to create a two-dimensional array of over 40 modes, each coupled to a single atom in free-space.

Transition metal dichalcogenides exhibit diverse and tunable electronic states. Here the authors reveal a cascade of phase transitions upon increasing hydrostatic pressure in the few-layer 1T’-WS₂, including a re-entrant superconducting phase emerging from a normal state exhibiting anomalous Hall effect.

The study used snMultiome-seq to map gene expression and chromatin accessibility in human central amygdala cells from people with and without AUD. Here, the authors show that inhibitory neurons are most affected, with KLF16-driven regulatory changes and AUD-risk variants disrupting gene activity.

Transferrin receptor (TfR) and CD98hc are increasingly used to enable more effective drug delivery to the central nervous system. Here, the authors reveal comprehensive and distinct brain cellular and whole body biodistribution patterns of TfR- and CD98hc-binding molecules.

Using a large cosmological sample of FRBs, Connor et al. have located many of the Universe’s unseen baryons, finding that most reside in the diffuse intergalactic medium, not galaxies—confirming the strong astrophysical feedback seen in simulations.

The magnetocaloric effect could allow for more efficient refrigeration compared to traditional vapour compression, however, it requires materials with large magnetocaloric coefficients, and these typically require rare-earths. Herein, Levinsky et al. demonstrate a large magnetocaloric effect in a rare-earth free layered coordination polymer.

Viscoelasticity is a universal mechanical feature of the extracellular matrix. Here the authors show that the extracellular matrix viscoelasticity guides tissue growth and symmetry breaking, a fundamental process in morphogenesis and oncogenesis.

A biophysical model uses knockdown or overexpression data to infer splicing factor activity.

NextBrain is an open source, probabilistic atlas of the entire human brain, assembled using artificial-intelligence-enabled registration and segmentation methods to reconstruct the multimodal serial histology of five human half brains, and which can be used to automatically segment brain MRI scans into 333 regions.

In single-particle cryo-EM, datasets often contain molecules that exist in a heterogeneous mix of states. Here, the authors compare different computational tools to study this heterogeneity and derive metrics to quantitatively compare their results.

Multi-trait genome-wide analyses identify variants associated with comorbid lung diseases. Polygenic scores leveraging shared components of heritable risk improve prediction of asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and lung cancer in a multi-ancestry cohort.

The type VI secretion system (T6SS) and Eag chaperones deliver toxic membrane protein effectors into rival cells. However, it is unknown how Eags and their effectors dissociate. Here, the authors show Eag chaperones bind effectors tightly and may release them via a subtle conformational change.

Learning-to-learn refers to progressive speedup in solving a series of problems with shared structure. This study shows that it emerges in recurrent neural networks from the reuse and refinement of a neural state subspace underlying schema formation.

Magnetic skyrmions are topological spin textures, most notably occurring in magnetic materials. So far, the skyrmions that have been reported correspond to topological textures of magnetic dipole moments. Zhang et al show theoretically that quantum effects can lead to a distinct type of skyrmion that combines dipolar and quadrupolar moments, proposing a variety of materials, including magnets and quantum paramagnets, where such textures can be stabilized.

Empirically based models of disease progression in familial frontotemporal dementia reveal the relative ordering of clinical, neuroimaging, and fluid biomarker changes and facilitate novel clinical trial designs

DeepCellMap, a deep-learning tool, maps microglial organisation in the developing brain, revealing their spatial diversity, clustering patterns, and associations with blood vessels. DeepCellMap is available as an open-source software.

The ATLAS Collaboration reports a measurement of the ratio of the decay rates of W bosons to τ leptons and muons, in agreement with universal lepton couplings as postulated in the standard model of particle physics.

Using a grating-based mode-splitting and reflector approach, a bidirectional chip-scale nanophotonic Kerr-resonator circuit that consumes 97% of the pump power to generate a soliton frequency comb at approaching unit efficiency with 65% conversion efficiency is reported.

A study of the evolution of the SARS-CoV-2 virus in England between September 2020 and June 2021 finds that interventions capable of containing previous variants were insufficient to stop the more transmissible Alpha and Delta variants.

Volcano plots are useful catalyst design tools for acidic oxygen reduction reaction, but have proved less successful for alkaline oxygen reduction reaction. Here, a modified volcano plot for this environment is developed and used to design PdH_x@Pt nanosheets with high oxygen reduction reaction performance.

Around 1 in 136 pregnancies is lost due to a pathogenic small sequence variant genotype in the fetus.

Citizen-science data on bird observations from eastern North America show that the timing of spring arrival of migratory birds is broadly correlated with fluctuations in vegetation green-up but that the varying sensitivity of different bird species to this phenological event is linked to their different migratory strategies.

Here Yan et al. assess the community dynamics that are driving biodiversity-ecosystem function relationships across the world’s reef fishes. While reef fish abundances and species richness have similar impacts on productivity in temperate regions, productivity in the tropics is driven by abundances.

An atomic stencilling method based on the co-adsorption of iodide and 2-naphthalenethiol on gold is described, yielding more than 20 different types of nanoparticle with masked and painted regions and patchy particle morphologies not reported previously.

The authors report an enhancement of the superconducting onset temperature in nanometer-thin YBa₂Cu₃O₇-δ films grown on substrates with nanofaceted surfaces. They theoretically show that the enhancement is mainly driven by electronic nematicity and unidirectional charge density waves, and further suggest that the nanofacets themselves may promote these effects.

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is characterized by heterogeneous phenotypes. Disruption of the gut–brain axis (GBA) has been implicated in ASD although with limited reproducibility across studies. In this study, the authors propose a framework to leverage multi-omic datasets and investigate how the GBA influences ASD.

Marine animals play a key role in locking carbon deep in the ocean, slowing climate change. This study finds that fishing has already cut this service in half, with climate change expected to further reduce it in the future.

It is unclear if rates of autism and other neurodevelopmental and psychiatric diagnoses are elevated in transgender and gender-diverse individuals compared to cisgender individuals. Here, the authors use data from five different large-scale datasets to identify elevated rates of autism diagnoses, diagnoses of other neurodevelopmental and psychiatric conditions, and elevated traits related to autism in transgender and gender-diverse individuals, compared to cisgender individuals.

The microbial metabolite trimethylamine (TMA), the precursor of TMAO, which is associated with adverse cardiometabolic outcomes, is shown to have beneficial metabolic and anti-inflammatory effects in the host in the context of obesity.

Large-scale genome-wide analyses identify hundreds of genetic loci associated with hypothyroidism and thyroid hormone levels, demonstrating the potential of using polygenic risk scores to predict disease onset and progression.

A three-site Kitaev chain, constructed from three semiconducting quantum dots coupled by superconducting segments in a hybrid InSb/Al nanowire, shows enhanced robustness of edge zero-energy modes against variations in the coupling strengths or electrochemical potentials compared with a chain containing only two quantum dots.

Differential isoform usage is identified with high statistical power from spatial transcriptomics data.

This work reports an inverse design approach that can spectrally shape Kerr microcombs by imprinting a nanophotonic dispersion filter to a microresonator to engineer solitonic frequency-comb states in the resonator with an optimization algorithm.

In genome-wide association meta-analysis, it is often difficult to find an independent dataset of sufficient size to replicate associations. Here, the authors have developed MAMBA to calculate the probability of replicability based on consistency between datasets within the meta-analysis.

Inversion asymmetry imparts rich condensed matter phenomena in inorganic systems, and transmission of chirality across structural motifs is an attractive design strategy to break symmetry. Here, the authors use chiral organic cations to transfer structural chirality to inorganic layers in hybrid perovskites.

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.

Gene regulatory network architecture and complex dosage effects from paralogue diversification converge to shape phenotypic space, producing the potential for both strongly buffered phenotypes and sudden bursts of phenotypic change.

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.

CA1 neurons encode an animal's position within the environment. Here the authors identified in hippocampal neuronal activity a detrimental type of noise that limits accuracy of spatial position, relative to body size.

Protected areas are meant to defend species from direct exploitation and habitat loss, but they might also reduce climate change impacts. Here, the authors show that marine protected areas mitigate the impacts of marine heatwaves on reef fish communities.