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A NutNet global grassland study finds that leaf N, P and K consistently respond to soil nutrient additions, but leaf morphological traits, such as specific leaf area, are inconsistent indicators of anthropogenic perturbations.

The authors use artificial intelligence approaches to explore the predictive value of whole exome sequencing in forecasting clinical outcomes following surgery for congenital heart defects. Findings include that damaging genotypes in chromatin-modifying and cilia-related genes are associated with an increased risk of adverse post-operative outcomes such as mortality, cardiac arrest, and prolonged mechanical ventilation.

Unlike Amazonian forests, African forests have maintained their carbon sink until recently but by 2030 the African carbon sink will have shrunk by 14 per cent and the Amazonian sink will reach almost zero.

A large empirical assessment of sequence-resolved structural variants from 14,891 genomes across diverse global populations in the Genome Aggregation Database (gnomAD) provides a reference map for disease-association studies, population genetics, and diagnostic screening.

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.

Wang et al. show how glucose sensing via O-GlcNAcylation drives the assembly of a glycolytic metabolon on the mitochondrial surface to couple metabolic efficiency with neuronal activity.

PTSD has been associated with DNA methylation of specific loci in the genome, but studies have been limited by small sample sizes. Here, the authors perform a meta-analysis of DNA methylation data from 10 different cohorts and identify CpGs in AHRR that are associated with PTSD.

It is unclear how often genetic mosaicism of chromosome X arises. Here, the authors examine women with cancer and cancer-free controls and show that X chromosome mosaicism occurs more frequently than on autosomes, especially on the inactive X chromosome, but is not linked to non-haematologic cancer risk

Integrated multi-omic analyses using samples from the TRACERx study highlight cross-talk between DNA hypermethylation and genomic lesions in non-small cell lung cancer.

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.

An investigation using various methods reports an association between adeno-associated virus 2 and paediatric hepatitis of unknown aetiology.

Using a cryogenic 300-mm wafer prober, a new approach for the testing of hundreds of industry-manufactured spin qubit devices at 1.6 K provides high-volume data on performance, allowing optimization of the complementary metal–oxide–semiconductor (CMOS)-compatible fabrication process.

Iris Heid, Gonçalo Abecasis, Sudha Iyengar and colleagues report the results of a large genome-wide association meta-analysis of macular degeneration based on over 43,000 subjects. They identify 16 new risk loci, including some very rare coding variants.

Multi-ancestry genome-wide analyses identify new risk loci for age-related macular degeneration. Ancestry-specific analyses identify distinct effects at major risk loci, including smaller effect sizes for CFH risk alleles in haplotypes of African ancestry.

A floating-gate memristive device fabricated in a commercial 180 nm CMOS process can be integrated into a selector-free memristive array and used to demonstrate basic neuromorphic applications.

Different functional variants in ADH1B (and elsewhere) in Europeans and Africans strongly affect risk for alcohol dependence. Dependence only partly genetically correlates with consumption, with strong correlations to other psychiatric disorders.

During mitosis, complementary actin-based mechanisms ensure equal and random distributions of mitochondria among daughter cells following symmetrical cell division.

A survey of sharks and rays on coral reefs within 66 marine protected areas across 36 countries showcases that the conservation benefits of full MPA protection to sharks almost double when accompanied by effective fisheries management.

Segmentation accuracy of serial section electron microscopy (ssEM) images can be limited by the step of aligning 2D section images to create a 3D image stack. Here the authors report a computational pipeline for aligning ssEM images and apply this to a whole fly brain dataset.

Optical aberrations can hinder fluorescence imaging of thick samples, reducing image signal, contrast, and resolution. Here, the authors introduce a deep learning-based strategy for aberration compensation, improving image quality without slowing image acquisition or introducing more optics.

With redox-linked synthetic biology and electrobiofabrication, electronic information can be transmitted in a bidirectional manner between biology and electronics. Here the authors design an electrogenetic platform that allows real time electronic control of biological functions from proteins and gene circuits to cell consortia.

Temporal multi-omic analysis of tissues from rats undergoing up to eight weeks of endurance exercise training reveals widespread shared, tissue-specific and sex-specific changes, including immune, metabolic, stress response and mitochondrial pathways.

In this study, Aggarwal and colleagues perform prospective sequencing of SARS-CoV-2 isolates derived from asymptomatic student screening and symptomatic testing of students and staff at the University of Cambridge. They identify important factors that contributed to within university transmission and onward spread into the wider community.

Analysis of whole-genome sequencing data across 2,658 tumors spanning 38 cancer types shows that chromothripsis is pervasive, with a frequency of more than 50% in several cancer types, contributing to oncogene amplification, gene inactivation and cancer genome evolution.

A neuron-specific isoform of PGC-1α is regulated independently from other isoforms and is repressed with age. Here, the authors show PGC-1α is central in a growth and metabolism networks directly relevant to brain aging.

This study reveals sex-dependent dominance reversal across a large autosomal supergene in the rainbow trout, a mechanism for the resolution of sexual conflict in a species that lacks differentiated sex chromosomes.

Neural networks in the brain often exhibit chaotic dynamics that can be captured by a small number of dimensions. Farrell et al. find that recurrent neural networks trained with gradient-based learning rules exhibit similar features. This helps form robust but generalizable input representations.

The authors summarize the history of the ENCODE Project, the achievements of ENCODE 1 and ENCODE 2, and how the new data generated and analysed in ENCODE 3 complement the previous phases.

The role of inferotemporal cortex in coding two-dimensional patterns has been extensively studied, but the more difficult problem of three-dimensional shape representation has been relatively unexplored. Yamane and colleagues use new techniques for adaptive stimulus presentation and response modeling to extensively characterize neural coding for three-dimensional objects.

Montserrat Garcia-Closas and colleagues report a genome-wide association study for bladder cancer. They identify three new susceptibility loci on chromosomes 22q13.1, 19q12 and 2q37.1.

It remains unclear whether exotic and native species are functionally different. Using a global grassland experiment, Seabloomet al. show that native and exotic species respond differently to two globally pervasive environmental changes, addition of mineral nutrients and alteration of herbivore density.

Medulloblastoma is the most common malignant brain tumour in children; having assembled over 1,000 samples the authors report that somatic copy number aberrations are common in medulloblastoma, in particular a tandem duplication of SNCAIP, a gene associated with Parkinson’s disease, which is restricted to subgroup 4α, and translocations of PVT1, which are restricted to Group 3.

By modelling the radio, optical, UV and X-ray data of the unusually bright cosmological explosion AT 2022cmc, Pasham et al. argue for the presence of a highly collimated jet moving at ≳99.99% the speed of light.

Analysis of mitochondrial genomes (mtDNA) by using whole-genome sequencing data from 2,658 cancer samples across 38 cancer types identifies hypermutated mtDNA cases, frequent somatic nuclear transfer of mtDNA and high variability of mtDNA copy number in many cancers.

Efficient, large-scale genomic analysis is facilitated on the cloud by a computational tool with error-diagnosing and self-healing capabilities.

Shifts in species’ migration timing as a result of climate change can result in mismatched temporal overlap with their critical resources. Here the authors show that the magnitude and direction of shifts in juvenile Pacific salmon migration timing vary among species and populations, resulting in variable mismatch with marine productivity, which has implications for climate change vulnerability.

Swanton and colleagues present a clonal expression signature, ORACLE, which, in combination with clinicopathological and molecular risk factors, can predict survival of patients with lung adenocarcinoma, and they prospectively validate its prognostic value.

Our understanding of the functional link between differential DNA methylation and type 2 diabetes and obesity remains limited. Here the authors present a blood-based EWAS of fasting glucose and insulin among 4808 non-diabetic Europeans and identify nine CpGs not previously implicated in glucose, insulin homeostasis and diabetes.

The Omicron variant evades vaccine-induced neutralization but also fails to form syncytia, shows reduced replication in human lung cells and preferentially uses a TMPRSS2-independent cell entry pathway, which may contribute to enhanced replication in cells of the upper airway. Altered fusion and cell entry characteristics are linked to distinct regions of the Omicron spike protein.

Sera from vaccinated individuals and some monoclonal antibodies show a modest reduction in neutralizing activity against the B.1.1.7 variant of SARS-CoV-2; but the E484K substitution leads to a considerable loss of neutralizing activity.

The GREGoR consortium provides foundational resources and substrates for the future of rare disease genomics.

A catalogue of predicted loss-of-function variants in 125,748 whole-exome and 15,708 whole-genome sequencing datasets from the Genome Aggregation Database (gnomAD) reveals the spectrum of mutational constraints that affect these human protein-coding genes.

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.

In this study, the authors use electronic health record data from the US to characterise post-acute sequelae of SARS-CoV-2 infection (PASC). They identify 17 common PASC conditions and find an overall ~12% increase in risk of PASC conditions in the post-acute period among people with a SARS-CoV-2 positive test compared to matched test-negative controls.

Ribosomes have evolved to polymerize L-α-amino acids into proteins comprising a peptide backbone. Here, a pyridazinone backbone is formed using ribosomes in vitro, producing a variety of sequence-defined alternating block-copolymers.