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Invariant natural killer T cells are known to be composed of a number of phenotypic and functionally distinct populations. Here the authors use transcriptomic and epigenomic analysis to further characterize the peripheral iNKT compartment before and after antigenic stimulation.

The Somatic Mosaicism across Human Tissues Network aims to create a reference catalogue of somatic mosaicism across different tissues and cells within individuals.

A region on chromosome 19p13 is associated with the risk of developing ovarian and breast cancer. Here, the authors genotyped SNPs in this region in thousands of breast and ovarian cancer patients and identified SNPs associated with three genes, which were analysed with functional studies.

The Amazon rainforest is dominated by relatively few tree species, yet the degree to which this hyperdominance influences carbon cycling remains unknown. Here, the authors analyse 530 forest plots and show that ∼1% of species are responsible for 50% of the aboveground carbon storage and productivity.

A genome-wide association study for attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) identifies 12 loci and implicates neurodevelopmental pathways and conserved regions of the genome as being involved in underlying ADHD biology.

In decision circuits, inhibitory neurons signal animal choices. Here, the authors show that choice-selective inhibition can stabilize the circuit dynamics or promote competition depending on inhibitory output connections, affecting choice behavior.

Conducting a simulated turtlegrass herbivory experiment across 650 experimental plots and 13 seagrass meadows, the authors show that the negative effects of herbivory increase with latitude, driven by low levels of light insolation at high latitudes.

Evolutionary modelling and expert review are applied to integrate experimentally supported knowledge accumulated in the Gene Ontology knowledgebase to create a draft human gene ‘functionome’.

Breast cancer risk for BRCA1/BRCA2 mutation carriers varies depending on other genetic factors. Here, the authors perform a case-only genome-wide association study and highlight novel loci associated with breast cancer risk for BRCA1/BRCA2 mutation carriers.

A genome-wide-association meta-analysis of 18,381 austim spectrum disorder (ASD) cases and 27,969 controls identifies five risk loci. The authors find quantitative and qualitative polygenic heterogeneity across ASD subtypes.

Microfluidic experiments reveal that surface-attached Pseudomonas aeruginosa cells directly sense differences in chemical concentration across the length of their cell bodies to guide pili-based chemotaxis.

Over 170 susceptibility loci have been identified by genome-wide association studies in breast cancer. Here, the authors interrogated the role of risk-associated variants from non-breast tissue, and using expression quantitative trait loci, identify potential target genes of known breast cancer susceptibility variants, as well as 11 regions not previously known to be associated with breast cancer risk.

When excitons in light-harvesting materials meet, they recombine and dissipate their energy. Here, the authors show that pairs of excitons can co-exist in aggregated materials and only annihilate when the aggregates are chemically connected.

Studies to identify maternal variants associated with preeclampsia have been limited by sample size. Here, the authors meta-analyze eight GWAS of 9,515 preeclamptic women, identifying five variants associated with preeclampsia and showing that genetic predisposition to hypertension is a major risk factor for preeclampsia.

A combination of fluorescent antibodies is used to build visual maps of all myeloid cells in the bone marrow, providing new insight into how the bone marrow microenvironment regulates cell-fate decisions.

Most Amazon tree species are rare but a small proportion are common across the region. The authors show that different species are hyperdominant in different size classes and that hyperdominance is more phylogenetically restricted for larger canopy trees than for smaller understory ones.

Asynchronous flight in all major groups of insects likely arose from a single common ancestor with reversions to a synchronous flight mode enabled by shifts back and forth between different regimes in the same set of dynamic parameters.

Patients with sickle cell disease or β-thalassemia are treated with drugs that aim to reactivate production of fetal hemoglobin, but these drugs are not effective in all patients and have side effects. Lihong Shi et al. identify a new therapeutic strategy for these anemias, showing that a drug used to treat depression, tranylcypromine, can raise fetal hemoglobin levels in human erythroid cells and transgenic mice harboring the human β-globin locus, most likely by inhibiting a lysine demethylase that controls fetal globin gene expression.

Bacteria respond to nutrients and other compounds via chemotaxis, but little is known of their responses to antibiotics. By tracking cells in antibiotic gradients, the authors show that surface-attached Pseudomonas aeruginosa move towards antibiotics in what appears to be a suicidal attack strategy.

NKG7 is a molecule well associated with NK cells but of unknown function. Engwerda and colleagues demonstrate that NKG7 is also associated with T_H1 cells and is essential for type I and cytotoxic responses.

A randomized trial in patients hospitalized with COVID-19 showed no benefit and potentially increased harm associated with the use of convalescent plasma, with subgroup analyses suggesting that the antibody profile in donor plasma is critical in determining clinical outcomes.

Post-traumatic epilepsy is a major driver of disability associated with traumatic brain injury. This article reviews the epidemiology and clinical features of post-traumatic epilepsy and discusses how an understanding of the underlying epileptogenic mechanisms might inform the development of anti-epileptogenic medications.

The vibrational states emerging at the interface in oxide superlattices are characterized theoretically and at atomic resolution, showing the impact of material length scales on structure and vibrational response.

The mouse neocortex supports sensory performance through transient increases in sensory coding redundancy, neural codes that are robust to cellular variability, and inter-area fluctuation modes that transmit sensory data and task responses in non-interfering channels.

Synthetic heterodimers provide a platform to demonstrate molecular design principles of vibronic coupling. Now, it has been shown that quantum beating caused by vibronic coupling can be controlled by packing a structurally flexible heterodimer on single-walled carbon nanotubes. This quantum beating requires a vibration to be resonant with the energy gap between excited states and structural rigidity.

LncRNAs modulate diverse physiological cellular processes, however, their involvement in heme-dependent processes are not yet clear. Here the authors reveal the role of lncRNA UCA1 in erythroid cell development.

During photosynthesis, energy is transferred from photosynthetic antenna to reaction centers via ultrafast energy transfer. Here the authors track energy transfer in photosynthetic bacteria using two-dimensional electronic spectroscopy and show that these transfer dynamics constrain antenna complex organization.

The Tohoku Medical Megabank Organization establishes a biobank with detailed patient health care and genome information. Here the authors analyse whole-genome sequences of 1,070 Japanese individuals, allowing them to catalogue 21 million single-nucleotide variants including 12 million novel ones.

Respirasomes are supercomplexes of mitochondrial electron transport chain complexes that are responsible for cellular respiration and energy production; cryo-electron microscopy structures of mammalian (sheep) respirasomes are presented.

During cardiac tissue formation it is unclear whether newly generated myocytes originate from cardiac progenitor cells or from pre-existing cardiomyocytes. Here, the authors use a stochastic four-colour reporter system (Rainbow) to identify the source of new cardiomyocytes during mouse development.

Roger Milne and colleagues conduct a genome-wide association study for estrogen receptor (ER)-negative breast cancer combined with BRCA1 mutation carriers in a large cohort. They identify ten new risk variants and find high genetic correlation between breast cancer risk for BRCA1 mutation carriers and risk of ER-negative breast cancer in the general population.

Breen et al. map RNA editing profiles in cortical samples from individuals with schizophrenia and controls, and find links between altered RNA editing in glutamatergic and postsynaptic density genes and schizophrenia genetic risk architecture.

Georgia Chenevix-Trench and colleagues report meta-analyses of genome-wide association studies identifying six loci newly associated with epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC). They also test variants at the 12 known and 6 new EOC susceptibility loci for association in BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutation carriers.

The Cancer Genome Atlas reports on molecular evaluation of 295 primary gastric adenocarcinomas and proposes a new classification of gastric cancers into 4 subtypes, which should help with clinical assessment and trials of targeted therapies.