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Microbial maximum growth rates vary widely across species, and their measurement is challenging, especially for uncultivated organisms. Here, Xu, Zakem & Weissman present Phydon, a framework for genome-based maximum growth rate prediction that combines codon statistics and phylogenetic information to enhance the precision of the estimates.

Zoning reform has become a widespread push across US cities to improve social and environmental sustainability, but it has been difficult to quantify the implications of adoption of new codes. Using natural language processing to analyze a large body of zoning documents, Salazar-Miranda and Talen find that form-based codes exhibit clear themes connected to sustainability outcomes.

Ticks adhere firmly to their host by secreting a protein-rich saliva that eventually forms a solid bioadhesive, but the mechanism underlying this phase transition is not understood. Now it has been shown that a disordered glycine-rich protein present in tick saliva undergoes liquid–liquid phase separation, followed by a liquid-to-gel transition, and exhibits adhesive properties.

Distinguishing band and Mott insulators experimentally represents a longstanding challenge. Here, the authors demonstrate a momentum-resolved signature of a dimerized Mott-insulator in the out-of-plane spectral function of Nb₃Br₈.

A pangenome of the Cannabis genus including 193 genomes demonstrates high variability in most of the genome but low diversity in cannabinoid synthesis genes and provides a resource for future genetic studies and crop optimization.

Leveraging RNA-targeting dCas13d enables selective interference with phage protein translation and facilitates measurement of phage gene fitness at a transcriptome-wide scale.

Early expression of intraneuronal amyloid-β (not phospho-tau) and inflammatory and glycosylation pathway transcripts distinguish neocortical RORB⁺ and GAD1⁺ neurons selectively vulnerable to neurodegeneration in Alzheimer’s disease.

In the UK, there is a strong public preference for carbon dioxide removal in meeting national climate targets, but support is moderated by concerns about biochar, peatland restoration, and perennial biomass crops, according to an analysis that uses data from workshops and nationally-representative surveys.

Whole-genome sequencing, transcriptome-wide association and fine-mapping analyses in over 7,000 individuals with critical COVID-19 are used to identify 16 independent variants that are associated with severe illness in COVID-19.

Integrated Ocean Discovery Program Expedition 402 drilled two in-situ long mantle sections in the Tyrrhenian Sea, revealing that retention of large quantities of melts at mantle levels delayed the birth of an ocean basin.

Literature produced inconsistent findings regarding the links between extreme weather events and climate policy support across regions, populations and events. This global study offers a holistic assessment of these relationships and highlights the role of subjective attribution.

This study uncovered genetic associations with environmental sensitivity in psychiatric and neurodevelopmental traits in an international collaboration using data from more than 21,000 monozygotic twins—the largest genetic study of monozygotic twin differences to date.

Oby, Degenhart, Grigsby and colleagues used a brain–computer interface to challenge monkeys to override their natural time courses of neural activity. They found the time courses to be highly robust, suggestive of network-level computational mechanisms.

Covalent inhibitors that selectively target bacterial enzymes are potential antibiotic drug candidates. Here, the authors apply high-throughput screening to identify selective covalent inhibitors that target serine hydrolases in Staphylococcus aureus

The WNT/β-catenin signaling pathway regulates key physiological processes. Here, the authors show that FZD-LRP6 association alone is insufficient to activate β-catenin signaling, as seen with WNT−16B, but effective signaling instead requires higher-order receptor clustering to trigger the pathway.

Siddiqui et al. explore the role of islet-specific XBP1 expression in type 2 diabetes (T2D) and glycemic traits across diverse ancestries. XBP1 eQTL is associated with T2D, beta-cell function, HbA1c and drug response in East and South Asians in whom this variant is common and beta-cell dysfunction is a significant driver of early onset T2D.

Genome-wide association analysis of gout and urate identifies 148 new loci, implicating biological pathways and prioritizing candidate genes involved in inflammatory processes.

Controlled breaking of a chemical bond by mechanical forces can provide key insight into reaction mechanisms. Here the authors, using atomic force microscopy and computations, measure the forces involved in breaking a single dative bond between a CO molecule and a ferrous phthalocyanine complex.

Saloner et al. used large-scale cerebrospinal fluid proteomics to uncover molecular signatures in frontotemporal dementia, revealing RNA splicing and synaptic protein candidate markers for genetic and sporadic disease progression.

Tsusaka et al. discover that histone deacetylases, which are well known to remove protein modifications, such as lysine acetylation and β-hydroxybutyrylation, can also reverse their chemical activity to add lysine modifications.

Analyses of genome and exome sequencing data identify rare coding and structural variants associated with atrial fibrillation and highlight genetic links between atrial fibrillation and cardiomyopathies.

Eggerthella lenta is a prominent human gut bacterium implicated in several physiological processes, but its study has remained limited. Here, by developing a genetic toolbox for E. lenta, the authors provide insights into how the bacterium regulates drug and dietary compound metabolism.

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.

A modular anti-albumin nanobody conjugated to a STING agonist enhances antitumour immunity by improving pharmacokinetics, tumour accumulation and immune responses, inhibiting murine tumour growth and enhancing cancer immunotherapies.

Histone H3-mutant gliomas are deadly brain tumours and the tumour microenvironment is not fully understood. Here the authors profile the immune microenvironment from human samples and mouse models and implicate myeloid cells in immune suppression and show inhibition of myeloid cells and checkpoint blockade demonstrates therapeutic benefits in mice.

An integrated analysis of de novo and inherited coding variants in 42,607 individuals with autism spectrum disorder identifies 60 risk genes of which five have not previously been associated with neurodevelopmental disorders.

Retinoic acid is known to be effective against bone marrow metastatic neuroblastoma cells, but not primary tumors. Here, authors discover that bone morphogenetic protein signaling is responsible for determining neuroblastoma cell fate and sensitivity to retinoic acid.

By affecting which form of a gene is expressed, alternative splicing is a major source of diversity in the nervous system. Here, the authors present an atlas of splice variants across neurons, and explore its impacts and mechanisms in the nematode nervous system.

The authors collate literature on the responses of bird assemblages to forest loss and show that locations with a more variable natural environment and a longer history of agricultural land use have bird assemblages that are more tolerant to forest loss.

Dense calcium imaging combined with co-registered high-resolution electron microscopy reconstruction of the brain of the same mouse provide a functional connectomics map of tens of thousands of neurons of a region of the primary cortex and higher visual areas.

In this new study, the authors analyzed data from a longitudinal US-based survey during the first year of the pandemic, focusing on social distancing, psychiatric vulnerability and loneliness in adults.

A genomic constraint map for the human genome constructed using data from 76,156 human genomes from the Genome Aggregation Database shows that non-coding constrained regions are enriched for regulatory elements and variants associated with complex diseases and traits.

GIANT, a genetically informed brain atlas, integrates genetic heritability with neuroanatomy. It shows strong neuroanatomical validity and surpasses traditional atlases in discovery power for brain imaging genomics.

Analysis of colorectal cancer bulk gene expression data at the pathway level identifies a poor-prognosis subtype associated with cell differentiation. The subtypes are reproducible in single-cell data and offer biological insights beyond existing stratification strategies.

Cas12a represents the next generation of gene editing. Here, the authors present the generation and validation of a Cas12a transgenic mouse model. Additionally, the authors create whole-genome Cas12a knockout libraries, and demonstrate their utility across multiple in vitro and in vivo screens.

Laser-based time transfer with near quantum-limited acquisition and timing is demonstrated that can support femtosecond precision over 102 dB link loss, more than sufficient for future time transfer to geosynchronous orbits for future optical clock networks.

An analysis of ancient mitochondrial and nuclear DNA shows evidence of matrilocal communities in Iron Age Britain.

Whole-genome sequencing of 962 clear cell renal cell carcinomas from 11 countries shows geographic variations in somatic mutation profiles, including a mutational signature of unknown cause in 70% of cases from Japan.

Rare Mendelian disorders pose a major diagnostic challenge, but evaluation of automated tools that aim to uncover causal genes tools is limited. Here, the authors present a computational pipeline that simulates realistic clinical datasets to address this deficit.

Mutations at two key positions in the TERT promoter are frequent drivers of cancer, but the role of rare, atypical mutations in this region remains unclear. Here, the authors demonstrate that atypical TERT promoter mutations develop after canonical ones due to locally elevated UV-induced DNA damage.

POLG mutations impair mitochondrial DNA replication and cause diverse mitochondrial diseases. Here, the authors show that structural differences in the POLγB subunit between humans and mice modulate mutation severity.

Dorsal striatal dopamine release develops plateau responses to reward cues, but lacks outcome release medially and transitions to both outcome and rewarded cue laterally. Here the authors suggest the need for reconsideration of reward prediction error models for striatal dopamine release.