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Upward depletion of ophiolitic mantle is produced by melt-peridotite reaction with lateral melt/rock ratio variations in an asthenospheric upwelling column, which flows to become the horizontal oceanic lithospheric mantle under spreading centers.

A cultural assembly of traits at a 40,000-year-old archaeological site at Xiamabei, China supports a model of repeated early human expansions, cultural exchange and innovation in east Asia.

Salivary elicitors secreted by herbivorous insects can be perceived by host plants to trigger plant immunity. Here, the authors show that the small brown planthopper salivary sheath protein LsSP1 binds to salivary sheath proteins and contributes to insect feeding by manipulating rice plant defenses.

Magnetic hysteresis in multiferroic heterostructures formed from the two-dimensional magnetic insulator chromium germanium telluride and a thin ferroelectric polymer can be electrically controlled with voltages of around 5 V.

This paper reports the discovery of two fossils of Rhamnaceae preserved in amber that provide evidence of fire adaptation in Cretaceous angiosperms.

The cereal endosperm is a major determinant of seed size and shape. Here the authors show that a lncRNA, MISSEN, is expressed from the maternally derived allele in rice seeds and regulates a helicase family protein to support efficient nuclear division, distribution and cellularization in the endosperm.

Non-retroviral endogenous viral elements are widely dispersed in eukaryotic genomes, but their functions remain largely unknown. Here, Huang et al show that one such element in planthoppers has been co-opted and contributes to insect fitness..

TcpC is a well characterised multifunctional virulence factor expressed by uropathogenic Eschericia coli. Here the authors show that TcpC also targets neutrophil NETosis via its E3 ligase functionality promoting the degradation of PAD4, and represents an additional immune evasion function of this bacterially derived virulence factor.

Using highly sensitive and selective in situ techniques to investigate the dynamics of intermediates formation is key to better understand reaction mechanisms but investigating the early stages of solid-state reactions or transformations is still challenging. Here the authors use in situ fluorescence spectroscopy to observe the evolution of intermediates during a two-step [2 + 2] photocycloaddition process in a coordination polymer.

21-nucleotide phased secondary siRNAs are expressed in the developing rice anthers during meiosis. Here, the authors show that phasiRNAs can cleave target mRNA and act to ensure the progression of meiosis and fertility in rice.

Decreased temperatures lengthen C. elegans lifespan by mechanisms that are not fully understood. Here the authors show that autophagy activation contributes to lifespan extension at low temperatures and that this involves adiponectin receptor PAQR-2 signaling.

Current inhibitors of platelet integrin αIIbβ3 cause excessive bleeding, which limited their clinical use in cardiac patients. Here the authors design pure orthosteric αIIbβ3 inhibitors that prevent platelet aggregation and thrombosis without causing bleeding in humanized mouse models of thrombosis

A LaCl₃-based lithium superionic conductor is developed that has excellent interfacial compatibility with lithium metal electrodes, with its optimized Li_0.388Ta_0.238La_0.475Cl₃ electrolyte exhibiting good Li⁺ conductivity and low activation energy.

Negative longitudinal magnetoresistance refers to a decrease in resistance with the external magnetic field when the field direction is applied parallel to the current direction. It is considered an experimental signature of topological semimetals. Here, Zhang et al find clear and robust quadratic and linear negative longitudinal magnetoresistance in Pt₃Sn and Pt₃Sn_xFe_1-x films.

In acoustic metamaterials, unconventional chiral quasiparticles exhibit multifold band degeneracy points, each carrying non-zero topological charges, giving rise to the topologically protected negative surface refraction.

Photonic crystals used for many optical devices are the materials made of nanoscaled periodic structures that diffract light. Yue et al. design and fabricate a soft mechanochromic hydrogel that exhibits a fast colour switching rate at 0.1 ms in a full-colour band.

Certain soil fungi form specialized cellular structures or 'traps' to feed on nematodes, which in turn eat bacteria. Here, the authors show that urea released from bacteria induces trap formation in the fungi and this promotes nematode elimination.

Solid-state photochemical reactions of olefinic compounds provide access to organic cyclic molecules with specific configurations but the precise control of the stereochemistry in these reactions remains challenging. Here, the authors demonstrate control of the regiospecific configurations of C=C groups and the intermediates by varying temperatures in multi-step thermal and photoinduced ring opening and closing reactions using a single-crystal coordination polymer platform.

Voltage control of magnetic order is one of the keys to energy-efficient spintronic applications. Voltage gating using a solid-state hydrogen pump now allows for reversible control of ferrimagnetic order, external-field-free 180° magnetic switching and ferrimagnetic spin texture writing.

Sputtered Bi_xSe_(1–x) thin films can generate very large current-induced spin–orbit torque, capable to switch both in-plane and out-of-plane magnetized CoFeB-based structures deposited on top, at room temperature.

It is challenging to characterize the mechanical properties of soft surfaces owing to the coupling between surface deformation and elasticity of bulk materials. Here, Inoue et al. use motile cytoskeletal filaments as active probes, whose direction reflects the stress field experienced by the surface.

A small molecule that disrupts interaction between Nur77 and LKB1 leads to LKB1 exit from the nucleus to activate cytoplasmic AMPK and, ultimately, reduces blood glucose and insulin in diabetic mice.

Profiling the total RNA of 220 invertebrate species leads to the discovery of almost 1,500 new species of RNA virus, revealing that the RNA virosphere is much more diverse than was previously thought.

The molecular mechanisms underpinning how fasting inhibits tumourigenesis are not completely elucidated. Here, the authors show that fasting upregulates the cholesterogenic gene FDFT1 which leads to decreased AKT/mTOR/HIF1a signalling and glycolysis reduction in colorectal cancer.

Ischemic reperfusion or nutrient deprivation that produces reactive oxygen species can lead to a loss of muscle contractile function. Here the authors show that glutathionylation of the lysine methyltransferase SMYD2 contributes to degradation or disassembly of sarcomeres.

The authors aimed to provide new insights into the pathogenesis and treatment of cutaneous burns. They show that the plant polyphenol resveratrol contributes to cell proliferation and migration in lipopolysaccharide-stimulated human epidermal keratinocyte cells. Resveratrol promotes wound healing in a mouse skin wound model via regulation of the miR-212/CASP8 axis.

A new autoinducer–receptor pair, 3,5-dimethylpyrazin-2-ol (DPO)–VqmA, acts in parallel to canonical Vibrio cholerae quorum-sensing pathways. Downstream of VqmA is the small RNA target VqmR, which, like DPO, represses genes required for biofilm formation and toxin production.

The orphan nuclear receptor Nur77 blocks inflammation through inhibition of p65 DNA binding and is suppressed by p38α-mediated phosphorylation. A small-molecule compound, PDNPA, disrupts p38α-Nur77 interactions and alleviates mouse models of sepsis.