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Deconstruction of rubber is achieved using C–H amination and aza-Cope rearrangement to provide precursors for epoxy resins.

Up to 20% of bacterial genomes are made up of cryptic prophages, but their function is relatively unknown. In this study, the authors demonstrate that prophages influence the response of the host cell to stress and provide a competitive growth advantage in the presence of antibiotics.

Energetic constraints produce a fundamental tradeoff in starvation and recovery rates, impacting eco-evolutionary dynamics. Here, Yeakel et al. develop a nutritional state-structured model that predicts population size as a function of body mass known as Damuth’s law, and a mechanism for Cope’s rule, the evolutionary trend towards larger body mass.

Sweet potato weevils (SPWs) pose one of the most significant challenges to sweet potato production. This study identifies two major SPW-resistant genes, SPWR1/2, and provides new insights into the mechanism of sweet potato defence against SPWs.

The structure of a Stig cyclase, HpiC1, reveals how it catalyzes Cope rearrangement and 6-exo-trig cyclization, including how it controls the position of electrophilic aromatic substation that distinguishes hapalindole from fischerindole alkaloids.

MiRNAs and natural antisense transcripts can both regulate gene expression and plant development. Here, the authors show that cis-NATs to MIR398 repress processing of pri-miR398 and that cis-NAT expression is downregulated at high temperatures, contributing to miR398 mediated thermotolerance responses.

Drought stress threatens global food security. This study shows that drought-induced changes in wheat metabolites selectively enrich drought-tolerant bacteria in the rhizosphere, which enhance plant growth through key functional traits, offering promising avenues to strengthen crop resilience and sustain food production under climate change.

Phaeocystales are ecologically significant nanoplankton whose evolutionary history and functional diversity remain incompletely characterized. Here, the authors integrate genomic and transcriptomic data to reveal their lineage diversification, metabolic plasticity, and adaptation to polar and temperate regimes.

Imaging through complex media is challenging because scattering results in image blurring. By introducing a fingerprint operator and applying it to the measured reflection matrix, information on a target within a complex medium becomes accessible.

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.

High-resolution computed tomography is used to reconstruct and analyse fossils of the herbivorous tritylodontid Polistodon and a newly named morganucodontid species called Camurocondylus, providing key insights into the evolution of the mammalian jaw joint.

Proteome allocation to anabolic and catabolic functions is significantly regulated by growth rate in the model bacterium Escherichia coli. By contrast, this article shows that proteome allocation is only partially controlled by growth rate, and metabolic rates are primarily controlled post-translationally, in the thermophilic acetogen Thermoanaerobacter kivui.

Coastal settlement retreat reflects human behavioural adaptation to increasing coastal climate hazards. Using night-time light data over 1992–2019, this study finds that over half of global coastal settlements have retreated, driven by insufficient infrastructure protection and adaptive capacity.

The diversity of ponerine ants varies widely across the globe. This study finds that the origin and early colonization in Gondwana’s tropical regions mainly shaped this distribution, while differences in diversification and dispersal have balanced regional diversity over time.

This study shows grey infrastructure (economy-linked) dominates flood control in normal rains. During extremes, its efficacy declines while green infrastructure/topography (less economy-aligned) become crucial for urban flood mitigation.

A sampling-based manifold learning method is proposed to study the cluster structure of high-dimensional data. Its applicability and scalability have been verified in single-cell data analysis and anomaly detection in electrocardiogram signals.

Many montane birds seasonally migrate between elevations. This study shows two bird species exhibit phenotypic plasticity in response to this altitude shift: the small-scale elevational migrant shows greater temperature-driven plasticity, while the large-scale migrant displays stronger hypoxia-driven plasticity.

Researchers reveal mechanisms underlying non-Arrhenius temperature scaling of early embryonic cell cycle timing, using modeling, cross-species data, and reconstituted oscillations in frog egg extract.

This study reveals that CYBDOM proteins promote drought tolerance by regenerating apoplastic ascorbic acid (AsA) and activating autophagy through interaction with RbohD, and link AsA redox, ROS and selective autophagy in plant stress responses

The authors introduce a novel method (AC-QUDIT) for achieving high-fidelity transport of quantum wavepackets in the presence of dissipation and leakage to the continuum. This method provides an alternative to shortcuts to adiabaticity (or counter-diabatic driving), with more general applicability and better performance.

Stereogenic sp³-hybridized carbon centres are the principal building blocks of chiral organic molecules. Usually, these centres are configurationally fixed. Now, low-energy pericyclic rearrangements have been used to create rigid cage molecules with fluxional sp³-stereochemistry, influencing chiral information transfer. The sp³-carbon stereochemistry of the cages is inverted through strain-assisted Cope rearrangements.

In this study, Yang et al. compile a global dataset to uncover the degree to which plants coordinate root and seed traits. They report a global positive correlation between root diameter and seed size, driven by dual roles of arbuscular mycorrhiza in phosphorus uptake and pathogen defence.

Intermolecular Coulombic decay is an electronic decay process in weakly bound systems. Here the authors show that its efficiency in liquid water is suppressed compared to the water dimer due to competing proton transfer and non-adiabatic relaxation.

Cultivation of tropical soil microorganisms combined with physiological experiments and bioinformatics analyses identify a family of clade III lactonase-type nitrous oxide reductases with low sequence identity but high 3D structural similarity to known nitrous oxide reductases.

Human gut bacteria bioaccumulate per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), commonly known as forever chemicals, in intracellular aggregates. Colonization of gnotobiotic mice with bioaccumulating bacteria increases faecal PFAS excretion.

The authors assess the impacts of tropical deforestation and its subsequent local warming on human heat-related mortality. They estimate that deforestation-related warming (+0.27 °C) is associated with approximately 28,000 heat-related deaths per year.

Here the authors show that Plasmodium falciparum egress products disrupt endothelial barrier and activate JAK-STAT and interferon type response in a 3D blood-brain barrier model. Vascular disruption is reversed by Ruxolitinib, a JAK-STAT inhibitor.

A randomized controlled trial found no difference in paranoid ideations between virtual reality-based and gold-standard cognitive behavioral therapy for patients with schizophrenia spectrum disorders, in contrast to previous trials using wait-list or passive controls.

When a robot grips and moves a delicate object, it can slip from grasp. Instead of gripping the object with more force, a method is proposed here to move the object in a way that prevents slippage.

Previous ophthalmic foundation models have struggled to generalize effectively to diverse and rare fundus diseases, restricting their clinical applicability. Here, the authors introduce a vision-language foundation model that demonstrates superior performance in diagnosing both common and rare fundus conditions.

Iminium-catalysed cycloaddition is a prominent example of organocatalytic reactivity, yet a biological counterpart has not been identified. Now, the authors report biochemical, structural and computational evidence for iminium catalysis by the natural Diels–Alderase SdnG.

Climate change is transforming the water cycle and impacting the availability of food and water—effects that are most severe in low- and middle-income countries, where they can impact child mortality substantially. Analyses of rainfall patterns indicate that although increased annual rainfall is associated with improved child survival, these benefits depend on seasonal stability and the absence of extreme weather events.

A report from the first 2,000 newborns enrolled in the Early Check program, which offered genome screening covering 198 genes associated with early-onset diseases, shows the feasibility and potential clinical utility of the approach, leading to 28 true positive results.

Atmospheric dryness is increasing as air temperatures rise because of climate change. This Review explores temporal trends and spatial heterogeneity in global atmospheric dryness and the implications for plant growth, productivity and terrestrial carbon cycling.

In people with severe brain injuries, stimulation restored consciousness by engaging a deep brain circuit for wakefulness—revealing a target that may also guide treatment in stroke and epilepsy.

This study reveals that processing negative words in pun-humor sentences elicits mixed feelings, in which neural representations of negativity and amusement coexist within a shared temporal window, demonstrating the highly simultaneous pattern.

Newman et al. find that higher education is consistently associated with better health indicators, while higher income correlates with greater well-being, based on a large-scale Ecological Momentary Assessment study.

Coastal migration under sea level rise is more likely in higher- than in lower-income contexts. Key determinants of migration include flood risk, response efficacy, self-efficacy, place attachment, and age. Important trade-offs exist between migration and in-situ flood adaptation.

New fern transcriptomes reveal repeated whole-genome duplications, unique gene families and distinct lignocellulosic evolution, providing a comprehensive database that underscores the ancient divergence and genetic uniqueness of ferns.

In this prospective longitudinal study of alcohol consumption and patterns in heavy drinking young adults, significant reductions in alcohol use quantity, frequency and problems were observed from pre- to post-pandemic onset.