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In maize, ZmDapF1 suppresses the activity of ZmMDH6 in chloroplasts, exacerbating oxidative damage under drought. Knocking out ZmDapF1 or using its favourable allele with lower gene expression enhances drought resilience without yield penalty.

Japonica subspecies has a lower nitrogen use efficiency (NUE) than that of indica rice. Here, the authors show that natural variations in the NIN-like protein 4 (OsNLP4) encoding gene are responsible for the divergence and introgression of the indica OsNLP4 allele into elite japonica cultivar can increase NUE and grain yield.

Seed traits are critical for soybean yield and quality. Here, the authors report a NF-YA transcription factor gene SW14 regulates soybean seed traits without affecting other agronomic traits by inhibiting GmLEC1-mediated transcriptional activation.

The inferior heterojunction quality and misaligned energy levels at the buffer/absorber layer hinders development of antimony selenosulfide solar cells. Here, authors introduce low-work-function tantalum pentoxide dielectric layer for field-effect passivation, achieving device efficiency of 10.95%.

Experimentally assessing entropy production in nanosystems is challenging. Now, the dissipation is visualized in a time-dependently driven non-Markovian quantum-dot blinking process in real time.

Earth’s core dynamo, which produces the magnetic field, may have been influenced by spatial variations in heat flux across the core–mantle boundary, according to combined palaeomagnetic datasets and geodynamo simulations.

This study shows how a simple voltage can repeatedly open and close nanoscale pores in a solid membrane, revealing new ways to control ion flow at the atomic scale for advanced nanofluidic technologies.

Genetic basis of the drought tolerance of upland rice is unclear. Here, the authors report the cloning of a COBRA-like protein encoding gene DROT1 and reveal that it is repressed by ERF3 and activated by ERF71 to help control the balance between growth and drought tolerance in upland rice.

Introgression shapes eukaryotic genomes, yet its prevalence in nature remains unclear. Sequencing 216 Neotropical S. cerevisiae genomes reveals that recurrent introgression is widespread and a major driver of lineage evolution within a structured population.

Most kiwifruit species are vulnerable to high levels of heat stress. Here, the authors report natural variation at the GATA transcription factor binding site of EGY3 gene mediates chloroplastic ROS homeostasis to confer kiwifruit thermotolerance.

Operating a photonic chip that integrates quantum dots with lithium niobate resonators at an exceptional point allows for spontaneous single-photon emission with an exceptional-point-induced transparency window, a squared-Lorentzian line shape or a Fano-asymmetric line shape.

Mouse models show that lymphoedema caused by impaired lymphatic drainage is ameliorated by removal of cholesterol deposits, which promotes the regeneration of lymphatic vessels.

Soft electrostatic actuators are crucial for advancing robotic systems that require adaptability and safety in unstructured environments. This study introduces ultralight soft electrostatic actuators utilizing solid-liquid-gas architectures, achieving significant improvements in power-to-weight ratio and actuation speed, exemplified by a 60% increase in jump height in a jumping robot compared to traditional designs.

Vocal fold cancer tumours lose some of their malignant traits when mechanically stimulated by physiological stretch or vibrations, mimicking the opening and closing of vocal folds and phonation.

EuCo₂Al₉ is identified as a metallic spin supersolid with high thermal conductivity, exhibiting coexisting spin orders, strong quantum fluctuations and a giant magnetocaloric effect enabling efficient sub-Kelvin refrigeration.

Cryogenic transport measurements of CsV₃Sb₅ nanobeams show a zero-field Josephson diode effect and radio-frequency rectification with power-dependent quantized voltage output.

Excess nitrogen fertilization in maize production harms the environment and society, yet farmers face yield risks when reducing inputs. Using field trials across the US Corn Belt, this study suggests that nitrogen rates can be reduced by 12–16% with minimal yield risk, reducing emissions and leaching.

Aadvanced computer simulations of three-dimensional turbulence reveal that the ab initio generation of large-scale magnetic fields is driven by shear-flow-induced jets; an analytical model is derived which reproduces the essential features of the flow- and field-generation mechanisms.

This study presents a clinical-grade autonomous pipeline combining high-resolution whole-slide tomography, edge computing and artificial intelligence, achieving high accuracy in cervical cytology and enabling scalable and objective diagnostics.

A customizable, flexible patch enables accurate three-dimensional in vivo magnetic localization across diverse medical settings and shows reliable performance in vascular and gastrointestinal studies.

Astrocytes in the basolateral amygdala dynamically track fear state and support fear memory retrieval and extinction.

In vivo base editing of a causative mutation that leads to the neurodevelopmental disorder Snijders Blok–Campeau syndrome restores protein dosage and ameliorates molecular and behavioural deficits in a humanized mouse model of the condition.

Ultrafast electron transfer at metal–semiconductor interfaces governs photocatalytic efficiency. Here, the authors report that platinum modification enables a direct, ultrafast electron injection pathway that suppresses trapping and enhances charge separation and photoelectrochemical performance.

Optical spin orientation of itinerant ferromagnets in twisted MoTe₂ homobilayers is demonstrated, enabling control of topological Chern numbers with circularly polarized light.

The authors study a topological insulator (TI) sandwiched between two magnetic TIs. By keeping one of the magnetic TIs insulating, while tuning the other one into a metallic regime, they find half quantized anomalous Hall conductance, a boundary signature consistent with a quantized axion field.

Negative regulator of thermotolerance 1 (NAT1) is identified as a negative regulator of thermotolerance in rice through the NAT1–bHLH110–CER1/CER1L module. Modifying NAT1 by targeted gene editing increases wax deposition and enhances thermotolerance in rice.

Sweat sensors are important in personalized healthcare using natural oxidase to target biomolecules but these reactions are susceptible to external interference. Here, the authors report tryptophan- and histidine-treated copper metal-organic frameworks which show highly selective activity for ascorbate oxidation and can serve as an efficient ascorbate oxidase-mimicking material in sensitive sweat sensors.

The authors developed a specialized objective lens that corrects GRIN lens aberrations, enabling in vivo, large–field-of-view, two-photon volumetric calcium imaging of more than 1,000 neurons deep within mouse brains.

Scanning nitrogen-vacancy microscopy unveils super-moiré spin textures emerging in twisted double-bilayer CrI₃ and provides real-space evidence of antiferromagnetic Néel-type skyrmions spanning multiple moiré cells.

Data from long-term experiments in Finnish peatlands shows that warming induces a metabolic response in boreal Sphagnum peatlands that enhances accumulation of soil carbon, in contrast to the carbon losses in response to warming in boreal forests and tundra.

Here, authors experimentally demonstrate broadband far-field phonon coupling in a valley metamaterial integrated with a Dirac-strip, achieving coupling at a five-wavelength distance.

Mechanically reconfigurable mechanisms offer a cost-effective, low-complexity approach to build high-capacity multiplexing wavefront modulation devices, yet current studies achieve insufficient channel numbers for practical applications due to limited mechanical transformations and suboptimal optimization models. Here, authors propose a diffractive magic cube network to address this challenge.

From 2014–2017, marine heatwaves caused global mass coral bleaching, where the corals lose their symbiotic algae. The authors find, this event exceeded the severity of all prior global bleaching events in recorded history, with approximately half the world’s reefs bleaching and 15% experiencing substantial mortality.

How the brain supports speaking and listening during conversation of its natural form remains poorly understood. Here, by combining intracranial EEG recordings with Natural Language Processing, the authors show broadly distributed frontotemporal neural signals that encode context-dependent linguistic information during both speaking and listening..

Alloy anodes can boost the energy density of Na-ion batteries but suffer from instability, and current strategies trade off performance and scalability. Here the authors develop a high-loading Sn anode reinforced with single-walled carbon nanotube networks, achieving high capacity and long-term cycling performance.

By leveraging the superconducting phase transition of Nb, a near-field thermal diode that operates near liquid helium temperature is demonstrated.

This multidisciplinary response to investigate the large outbreak of unknown febrile illness in the Panzi Health Zone in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in late 2024 suggests that the outbreak was largely associated with malarial cases and concurrent viral respiratory infections.

Urban ecology traditionally focuses on single cities, yet cities play key roles in ecological processes such as migration. Radar analysis across the continental USA reveals that nearly half of stopover hotspots concentrate in metropolitan areas, linked to urbanization.

Coherent spin waves—quantized into magnons—can be emitted as Cherenkov radiation, but their experimental realization is hindered by the lack of fast-moving magnetic perturbations. Now, a picosecond strain pulse is shown to induce this effect.

Symbioses can form heritable partnerships, yet assessing partner fidelity remains difficult owing to limited symbiont exchange. This study shows how genetic compatibility, transmission fidelity, and local adaptation stabilize co-diversified symbioses.

Biodegradable enzymatic microbubble robots self-propel in urea, are magnetically or chemotactically guided, provide ultrasound imaging and enhance intratumoural drug delivery with focused ultrasound.

The S44 locus is a unique quadripartite (RID, RIR, RIA and RIS) distorter–restorer system governing reproductive isolation between O. longistaminata and other rice lineages, and knockout of RID can universally overcome S44-mediated reproductive barriers in the AA genome.

The depiction of crop exposure to heat stress is fundamental for reliably quantifying extreme-heat-induced yield loss and crop failure. Using more than 130,000 subnational yield records, this study estimated spatially explicit extreme degree day thresholds for maize and soybean across major Northern Hemisphere breadbaskets, revealing strong geographic heterogeneity.

It is unclear whether the harsh abiotic conditions of drylands hinder biological invasions. This global analysis shows that drylands are vulnerable to non-native plants and are likely to become more so as native plant diversity declines and grazing pressure intensifies.

The meningeal compartment communicates with the brain to modulate homeostatic functions. Here, the authors demonstrate that natural killer (NK) cells and innate lymphoid cells (ILC) 1 shape synaptic neuronal transmission and affect mouse behavior.

A quasi-melting transfer technique enables clean, sequential transfer of graphene and hexagonal boron nitride monolayers from germanium substrates under vacuum conditions. Controlled lattice alignment yields atomically precise, wrinkle-free superlattices with tunable stacking and twist angles, enabling scalable fabrication of high-quality 2D heterostructures for advanced electronics.

Seed size plays an important role in determining soybean yield. Here, the authors report GmSW17, encoding a homolog of Arabidopsis UBP22 that plays a role in deubiquitination, as a positive regulator of soybean seed width and seed weight through inhibition of the G1-to-S transition by interacting with GmSGF11 and GmENY2.