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Here, the authors combine bioinformatic, mass spectrometric, and sequencing-based mapping tools to identify previously undescribed phosphorothioate epigenetic systems widespread in the human gut microbiome.

Wastewater-based surveillance tends to focus on specific pathogens. Here, the authors mapped the wastewater virome from 62 cities worldwide to identify over 2,500 viruses, revealing city-specific virome fingerprints and showing that wastewater metagenomics enables early detection of emerging viruses.

A key challenge for compact accelerators is boosting an electron beam’s energy without

sacrificing its brightness. Here, the authors demonstrate the concept of a plasma wakefield

‘dual transformer’, which simultaneously increases both beam energy and brightness of an

electron bunch injected from the plasma at SLAC.

The variability in clinical outcomes of SARS-CoV-2 infection is partly due to deficiencies in production or response to type I interferons (IFN). Here, the authors describe a FIP200-dependent lysosomal degradation pathway, independent of canonical autophagy and type I IFN, that restricts SARS-CoV-2 replication, offering insights into critical COVID-19 pneumonia mechanisms.

The use of nitrogen vacancy (NV) centers in diamond is a powerful approach for quantum sensing and can enhance the sensitivity of other techniques such as nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR). Here, the authors present a dynamic nuclear polarization technique, which enhances the efficiency of polarisation transfer from the NV centre at volumes suitable for NMR without being disrupted by other defects within the diamond.

Apoptotic cells often release extracellular vesicles that aid in their clearance and provide molecular information to cellular neighbours. Here, the authors show that some adherent apoptotic cells also create vesicles that remain attached at the site of death.

Two physicists say they have forced hydrogen to become an exotic metal thought to exist only in the hearts of giant planets. Now they must face their critics.

Metallization of pure hydrogen via overlapping of electronic bands requires high pressure above 3 Mbar. Here the authors study the Ba-H system and discover a unique superhydride BaH₁₂ that contains molecular hydrogen, which demonstrates metallic properties and superconductivity below 1.5 Mbar.

Poly(ADP-ribose) glycohydrolase catabolises poly(ADP-ribose), which is covalently attached to proteins following post-translational modification. In this study, the structure of poly(ADP-ribose) glycohydrolase fromTetrahymena thermophilais reported in complex with the small molecule inhibitor RBPI-3.

High-throughput chemical ligand discovery is challenged by false positives. Here, authors introduce a scalable enantioselective affinity-selection mass spectrometry approach for proteome-wide ligand discovery with high sensitivity and selectivity

Lightning Pose is an efficient pose estimation approach that requires few labeled training data owing to its semi-supervised learning strategy and ensembling.

Point defects in solids have potential applications in quantum technologies, but the mechanisms underlying different defects’ performance are not fully established. Nagy et al. show how the wavefunction symmetry of silicon vacancies in SiC leads to promising optical and spin coherence properties.

Does self-administered mindfulness effectively reduce stress? In a study across 37 sites involving 2,239 participants, four mindfulness exercises significantly reduced short-term, self-reported stress.

Kekulé vortices in hexagonal lattices can host fractionalized charges at zero magnetic field, but have remained out of experimental reach. Here, the authors report a Kekulé vortex in the local density states of graphene around a chemisorbed hydrogen adatom.

Ionization of highly compressed ammonia has previously been predicted by computation. Here, the authors provide experimental evidence for this autoionization process at high pressures, showing the transformation of molecular ammonia into ammonium amide.

Ternary heterometallic clusters often display intriguing structures and bonding. Here the authors prepare four [Sn₂Sb₅]³⁻-based clusters stabilized by coordination of a transition metal ion; analysis of their electronic structure reveals that the resulting cluster displays globally aromatic or antiaromatic character depending on the transition metal ion.

Molecular hydrogen is expected to display metallic properties under high pressures, but so far experiments performed at low temperatures ( 100 K) have showed that hydrogen remains insulating up to 300 GPa. A transformation of normal molecular hydrogen to a conductive and metallic state at room temperature is now observed above 220 GPa.

Several solid-state defect platforms have been proposed for application as a spin-photon interface in quantum communication networks. Here the authors report spin-selective optical transitions and narrow inhomogeneous spectral distribution of V centers in isotopically-enriched SiC emitting in the telecom O-band.

Chagas disease, caused by Trypanosoma cruzi, lacks an effective vaccine. Here, the authors report the cryo-EM structure of TcPOP, a potential vaccine antigen, in open and closed states and validate its immunogenic potential for invasion-blocking antibodies.

This paper shows that under about 5-fold compression, sodium transforms into an optically transparent phase. Thus, about ten years after the basic effect was first predicted it is now shown that high pressure can turn an archetypal simple metal such as sodium into a dense insulating material with a rather complex structure and lacking a metallic sheen.

The relationship between the structural configurations of M-N-C electrocatalysts and their performances in neutral environments has been insufficiently investigated. Here the authors demonstrate that an ultralow metal-loaded Co-N-C electrocatalyst, featuring the asymmetric Co-C/N/O configuration, exhibit exceptional efficiency in electrochemically producing hydrogen peroxide under neutral conditions.

Ester-linked modifications are common but difficult to detect. Here, the authors present methods based on ester preservation and a sensitive antibody to reveal DNA damage-induced mono-ADP-ribosylation on aspartate and glutamate. This signal, part of the first wave of PARP1 signaling, is removed by PARG.

Understanding the transfer of heat currents, specifically, neutral heat modes which do not carry net charge, is of great interest. Here, the authors study the transmission of upstream neutral modes through a quantum point contact in order to render the relative spatial distribution of these chargeless modes.

Chimeric antigen receptor engineering in T cells has been shown to be of great potential therapeutic benefit in a range of immune pathologies, although the functionality of such cell therapies can be limited due to tonic signalling and the induction of dysfunction. Here the authors show transient inhibition of mTOR can rescue their 41-BB-CAR-Tregs from tonic signalling-induced dysfunction.

Fragment-based drug discovery employs screening of small polar compounds typically exhibiting low affinity towards protein targets. Here, the authors combine the use of protein-based binding pharmacophores with the theory of protein hotspots to develop a design protocol for fragment libraries, called SpotXplorer, and validate their approach on common and emerging drug targets.

Geospatial estimates of the prevalence of anemia in women of reproductive age across 82 low-income and middle-income countries reveals considerable heterogeneity and inequality at national and subnational levels, with few countries on track to meet the WHO Global Nutrition Targets by 2030.

Hydrogen-rich superhydrides are promising high-temperature superconductors which have been observed only at pressures above 170 GPa. Here the authors show that CeH₉ can be synthesized at 80-100 GPa with laser heating, and is characterized by a clathrate structure with a dense 3-dimensional atomic hydrogen sublattice.

Helium is generally recognized as being chemically inert. A thermodynamically stable compound of helium and sodium, Na₂He, has been predicted computationally and then synthesized at high pressure. It exists as an electride, where strongly localized electrons serve as anions located at the centre of Na₈ cubes.

Whether actin and associated molecules have roles in the nucleus is an active area of study. Here Shi et al. report a nuclear function of the actin-based motor myosin VI in protecting stalled replication forks from nuclease-mediated degradation.

Extracellular matrix (ECM) remodeling is a hallmark of fibrosis thought to be driven by mesenchymal cells. Here, the authors discover that YAP-TEAD/LOX axis is activated in distal lung epithelial cells, which contributes to ECM remodeling in pre-clinical models of pulmonary fibrosis.

The sexually transmitted human parasite Trichomonas vaginalis belongs to a clade of host-switching trichomonads that parasitize mammals, birds, livestock, and pets. Here the authors describe a chromosome-scale genome for T. vaginalis and assemblies of other bird and mammal-infecting species, identifying gene functions implicated in the spillover of trichomonads from birds to humans.

The effect of strong interactions on the physics hosted by flat bands remains largely unexplored in atomic systems. An experiment in a synthetic flat-band lattice now demonstrates an interaction-driven transition from localization to delocalization.

Customized soft electrode arrays that are well adjusted to specific anatomical environments, functions and experimental models can be rapidly prototyped via the robotically controlled deposition of conductive inks and insulating inks.

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

The authors find that male mosquitofish with greater inhibitory control and better spatial learning ability gain a significantly higher share of paternity than do more impulsive males, suggesting that these cognitive abilities are under direct sexual selection in male mosquitofish.

Symbiont-housing structures are well-studied in multicellular eukaryotes but rarely in unicellular protists. This study shows that low-oxygen-adapted Anaeramoebae have symbiosomes positioning sulfate-reducing bacteria near hydrogenosomes, with genomic analyses suggesting likely metabolic interactions.

Candidate materials containing magnetic Weyl fermions remain rare. Here, the authors report evidence of a magnetic Weyl state and observe the surface Fermi arcs in YbMnBi₂.

Using a genome-wide CRISPR knock-out screen, the authors defined the repertoire of genes that are required for proerythroblast survival and for terminal erythroid differentiation.

Dysfunctions of the mitochondrial OXPHOS system lead to severe human disorders. Here, the authors analyzed a mouse mutant that mimics a mitochondrial disorder patient and find that reactive oxygen species trigger RNA release and inflammatory pathway in liver.