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People may rely on emotion as much as reason deciding moral dilemmas.

Stable adipocytes resist lipolysis in healthy states but are highly susceptible to a catecholamine-independent, neurosystemic pathway-driven catabolic state.

Here the authors show that persistent antigen stimulation drives the generation of CD8⁺ tissue-resident exhausted T cells with distinct developmental origins, function and therapeutic responsiveness when compared to CD8⁺ tissue-resident memory T cells.

The RNA methyltransferase activity of SPOUT1/CENP-32 is crucial for accurate mitotic spindle organization. Here, the authors describe a neurodevelopmental disorder caused by bi-allelic pathogenic SPOUT1 variants with reduced activity and compromised function in spindle organization.

De novo and inherited dominant variants in genes encoding U4 and U6 small nuclear RNAs are identified in individuals with retinitis pigmentosa. The variants cluster at nucleotide positions distinct from those implicated in neurodevelopmental disorders.

In celebration of the fifth year anniversary of Nature Reviews Earth & Environment, we ask authors of some of our most impactful articles (with respect to news stories, social media engagement, Altmetric scores, citations, policy mentions and article accesses) to reflect on the successes of their Reviews.

Neutrophil ontogeny in zebrafish may be a continuum or consist of distinct lineages. Here the authors characterise neutrophils derived from rostral blood island and caudal haematopoietic tissue lineages and show differential gene expression and function in steady state and during wound healing.

Cryo-EM structures of radial spokes and nexin−dynein regulatory complex (N-DRC) attached to doublet microtubules isolated from Chlamydomonas reinhardtii provide a model for mechanoregulation of motile cilia.

The gH-associated tropism and entry (GATE) complex consists of glycoprotein H, UL116 and UL141. This complex is abundant on human cytomegalovirus virions and enables entry into human endothelial cells.

Using data from the CoVPN 3008 study, the authors show that the neutralizing antibody correlate of risk holds in people living with HIV. However, the nAb correlate was weaker and shorter-lived in a vaccine-immunity versus hybrid-immunity population.

Vertebra lengths differ from the neck to the tail tip and differ between species, evidenced by extreme differences in mouse and jerboa tails. Here, Weber and colleagues identify cellular mechanisms and candidate genes that shape vertebral proportion.

Expected air moisture is missing over drier areas worldwide, possibly because climate models undervalue the effects of plants and other life. This finding could be a fingerprint of human-caused land degradation, which would underscore calls to solve climate, biodiversity and water availability together.

The SMC5/6 complex is critical for genome stability. Here, the authors identify mutations in SLF2 and SMC5 as cause of Atelís Syndrome characterized by microcephaly, short stature, anemia, segmented chromosomes and mosaic variegated hyperploidy.

Eric Green, the new head of the US National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI), has been involved with genomics since the term was first coined in the 1980s. Erica Westly spoke with Green about where he sees the genomics field heading and what role he thinks the NHGRI should have in the American health care system.

Metabolites in the tumor microenvironment, including adenosine, have been shown to suppress anti-tumor immune responses. Here, the authors show that T cell expression of the adenosine transporter ENT1 is involved in this immunosuppression and can be targeted to boost T cell function, tumor killing and immune checkpoint blockade.

Loss-of-function variants in thyroid hormone transporter MCT8 cause a neurodevelopmental and metabolic disorder. Here the authors identify genotype-phenotype relationships, advance insights in MCT8 (dys)function and create a pathogenicity-severity variant classifier.

In a phase 1 dose-escalation trial in patients with nine different types of solid tumors, MAGE-A4-specific T cells had an acceptable safety profile and exhibited an encouraging overall response rate in patients with synovial sarcoma.

A soundtrack to our lives.

Knock-in mice conditionally or constitutively expressing Cas12 variants enable a wide range of ex vivo and in vivo applications requiring multiplexed genome engineering.

INO80-C and SWR-C are chromatin remodelling enzymes with roles in transcription pathways. Here, the authors show that they both have similar architectures displaying a ‘tail’ domain and a heterohexameric ‘head’ domain, with conformational changes influencing nucleosomal binding and enzyme activity.

The crystal structure of Ebola virus glycoprotein is shown in complex with a neutralizing antibody. The structure suggests that the antibody prevents infection by preventing conformational changes of GP2 required for fusion.

Advancements in congenital heart surgery stress the need for durable biomaterials. Here, the authors compare tissue-engineered vascular grafts (TEVGs) with traditional polytetrafluoroethylene grafts, revealing TEVGs’ superior durability and reduced calcification, promising improved long-term success for surgeries.

The surface glycoprotein of the distinct ebolavirus responsible for the largest outbreak yet described (Sudan Gulu) has been crystallized in complex with a novel, neutralizing antibody. The crystal structure and accompanying in vitro and in vivo experiments demonstrate that the antibody functions after virus entry and illustrates a key hotspot for ebolavirus neutralization.

An amplicon-based sequencing protocol that includes synthetic DNA spike-ins improves the quality and efficiency of SARS-CoV-2 high-throughput sequencing and detects common errors in genomic data.

Experimental and computational analyses indicated that positively charged nanoparticles experience pH- and lipid-coating-dependent transformations in plants that modify their impact on RuBisCO photosynthetic protein corona formation and function.

The physiological role of endogenous neural protenitor cells of the subventricular zone in adult stage is not fully understood. Here the authors show that in mice, these cells tune neuronal activity of the striatum via insulin-like growth factor binding protein-like 1 and cognitive functions.

Armfield X-linked disability (XLID) disorder has previously been linked to a locus in Xq28. Here, the authors report rare missense variants in FAM50A at Xq28, show that FAM50A interacts with the spliceosome, and that mis-splicing is enriched in knockout zebrafish suggesting it is a spliceosomopathy.

Neurons in the nidopallium caudolaterale of crows represent endogenous attention and enhance information quality in a working memory task.

The beetle Tribolium castaneum is a commonly used laboratory model, combining the ease of systematic RNAi experiments like those in Caenorhabditis elegans, with biology that is more representative of most insects than Drosophila melanogaster. A large consortium has sequenced and analysed the genome of the red flour beetle, creating a resource for biologists everywhere.

Here, by high-resolution SARS-CoV-2 sequencing, genomic and transcriptomic analyses from tissue samples, Normandin et al. investigate viral dynamics in fatal cases of COVID-19, revealing persistent infection in distinct anatomical sites, including the heart and testis.

The genomic features of precursor conditions of multiple myeloma provide multiple biological insights into disease origins and evolution, together with opportunities to identify those at highest risk of progression.

The authors show that unlike body sensory neurons, craniofacial nociceptive neurons directly synapse with noxious-stimulus-activated lateral parabrachial neurons (PB_L), which in turn project to multiple limbic centers processing emotions and affects. This monosynaptic pathway is both sufficient and necessary for craniofacial-pain-activated aversive behaviors.

This multisite study detects a link between brain dynamic functional network connectivity and current and future post-traumatic stress symptom severity with a stronger effect in the female group.

The authors report crystallographic and computational studies that detail how SARS-CoV-2 3CLpro cleaves the host NF-κB Essential Modulator in addition to its canonical viral substrates. The association with the high fitness of SARS-CoV-2 in humans is discussed.

The cryoEM structures of Ebola virus GP and sGP in complex with GP-specific and GP/sGP cross-reactive antibodies provides insight into the oligomeric arrangement of sGP and a comparison of its structure and epitope presentation with GP.

Antibody-based Wnt agonists are able to phenocopy Wnt signaling in vivo resulting in increased bone density, repair, and strength. Here, the authors show that Wnt agonists can reverse bone loss associated with ovariectomy and build stronger bone when administered after fracture.

Using magnetoencephalography, this study reveals developmental specialization of face perception networks for happy, angry, and neutral faces, highlighting distinct functional roles of alpha/beta and gamma oscillations during implicit emotional face processing.

The authors use an integrative clustering approach to identify two laryngeal cancer clusters with distinct prognosis and show that mutations damaging the NSD1 and NSD2 methyltransferases segregate to the cluster with favorable prognosis, and independently predict longer survival in patients with laryngeal, but not other head and neck cancers.

Michael Talkowski, David FitzPatrick, Erica Davis and colleagues report rare inherited or de novo missense variants in SMCHD1 in arhinia patients. Some of the same mutations in SMCHD1 are known to cause a phenotypically distinct muscular dystrophy disorder, FSHD2, and the distinct clinical features of the two disorders suggests that additional genes interact with SMCHD1 to cause arhinia.

The interplay between blood vessel (BV) and epithelial tissue is crucial for organogenesis. Here, the authors co-culture hiPSC-derived liver progenitors on artificial BV to establish functional human bile ducts for modeling congenital biliary disease.

New animal models of Zika virus (ZIKV) infection are imperative to accelerating efforts to treat or prevent disease in humans. Adams Waldorf et al. now report that ZIKV infection of a pregnant female pigtailed macaque caused brain lesions in the developing fetus, suggesting that this model may be useful for understanding ZIKV-associated congenital abnormalities in humans.