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Understanding collective behaviour is an important aspect of managing the pandemic response. Here the authors show in a large global study that participants that reported identifying more strongly with their nation reported greater engagement in public health behaviours and support for public health policies in the context of the pandemic.

An analysis of 24,202 critical cases of COVID-19 identifies potentially druggable targets in inflammatory signalling (JAK1), monocyte–macrophage activation and endothelial permeability (PDE4A), immunometabolism (SLC2A5 and AK5), and host factors required for viral entry and replication (TMPRSS2 and RAB2A).

DnaB helicases are motor proteins that couple ATP-hydrolysis to the movement of the protein along single-stranded DNA leading to a separation of double-stranded DNA at the replication fork. Here authors use solid-state NMR spectroscopy and reveal DnaB’s conformational responses to ATP hydrolysis and the resulting DNA loading and translocation.

Genomic analyses applied to 14 childhood- and adult-onset psychiatric disorders identifies five underlying genomic factors that explain the majority of the genetic variance of the individual disorders.

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.

A global network of researchers was formed to investigate the role of human genetics in SARS-CoV-2 infection and COVID-19 severity; this paper reports 13 genome-wide significant loci and potentially actionable mechanisms in response to infection.

Cortex morphology varies with age, cognitive function, and in neurological and psychiatric diseases. Here the authors report 160 genome-wide significant associations with thickness, surface area and volume of the total cortex and 34 cortical regions from a GWAS meta-analysis in 22,824 adults.

The study identifies the L704F mutation in Arabidopsis ABCG36 as a key factor that uncouples the export of the auxin precursor indole-3-butyric acid from the defense compound camalexin. It highlights L704 as a crucial residue in the extracellular gate that influences substrate identity and balances growth-defense trade-offs in the Brassicaceae family.

Multiple GTP-binding proteins (GTPBPs) aid ribosome maturation. Here, authors pinpoint GTPBP8’s involvement in human mitoribosome maturation, demonstrating its specific binding to mitoribosomal large subunit RNA, which is necessary for ribosome assembly and protein synthesis.

Menstrual disturbance has been reported as a symptom of post-acute COVID-19 while other long COVID symptoms may vary across the menstrual cycle. Here, the authors investigate this possible bidirectional relationship in a series of observational studies of women in the UK.

Ribosome collisions serve as proxy for aberrant translation to initiate rescue and quality control pathways. Here, authors elucidate the molecular mechanism of collided ribosome clearance by the ribosome quality control trigger complex.

Analysis of medulloblastomas in humans and mice shows that the functional consequences of ZIC1 mutations are exquisitely dependent on the cells of origin that give rise to different subgroups of medulloblastoma.

Mitochondrial ribosomes (mitoribosomes) are characterized by a distinct architecture and thus biogenesis pathway. Here, cryo-EM structures of mitoribosome large subunit assembly intermediates elucidate final steps of 16 S rRNA folding, methylation and peptidyl transferase centre (PTC) completion, as well as functions of several mitoribosome assembly factors.

Chronic infection with SARS-CoV-2 leads to the emergence of viral variants that show reduced susceptibility to neutralizing antibodies in an immunosuppressed individual treated with convalescent plasma.

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.

Using well-calibrated statistical methods the authors jointly analyze Undiagnosed Diseases Network genomes, identifying known and novel disease genes. Software is publicly available to support future cross-cohort rare disease discovery efforts.

WABS patient derived cells display loss of sister chromatid cohesion. Here the authors by analyzing WABS patient derived cells, reveal a role of the DDX11 helicase in resolving G-Quadruplex structures to support sister chromatid cohesion.

The non-coding RNA RNU4-2, which is highly expressed in the developing human brain, is identified as a syndromic neurodevelopmental disorder gene, and, using RNA sequencing, 5′ splice-site use is shown to be systematically disrupted in individuals with RNU4-2 variants.

Multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C) onsets in COVID-19 patients with manifestations similar to Kawasaki disease (KD). Here the author probe the peripheral blood transcriptome of MIS-C patients to find signatures related to natural killer (NK) cell activation and CD8+ T cell exhaustion that are shared with KD patients.

Satellite data and field observations show that global annual-scale vegetation indices are sensitive to the daily frequency and intensity of rainfall, independent of the total amount of rainfall per year.

The ubiquitin ligase, RNF168, promotes DNA break repair but must be regulated to prevent run-away ubiquitin signaling. Here, the authors identify a three-step post-translational cascade regulating RNF168 chromatin removal, acting to suppress excessive signaling and radiosensitivity.

A six-letter sequencing workflow can simultaneously detect genetic and epigenetic bases.

Dietary restriction promotes healthy brain aging, but the mechanism is unknown. Here, the authors show that OXR1 is upregulated by dietary restriction and confers age-related neuroprotection by maintaining retromer-mediated protein and lipid trafficking.

New methods and larger sample groups are used to precisely determine the alleles in the HLA complex which contribute susceptibility to type 1 diabetes.

A study of the evolution of the SARS-CoV-2 virus in England between September 2020 and June 2021 finds that interventions capable of containing previous variants were insufficient to stop the more transmissible Alpha and Delta variants.

Timothy Frayling, Joel Hirschhorn, Peter Visscher and colleagues report a meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies for adult height in 253,288 individuals. They identify 697 variants in 423 loci significantly associated with adult height and find that these variants cluster in pathways involved in growth and together explain one-fifth of the heritability for this trait.

The mechanisms responsible for clustering of surface fault earthquakes are often unclear. Here the authors find that differential stress fluctuates during fault/shear-zone interactions which can produce changes in strain-rate and slip-rate changes leading to earthquake clustering.

Satellite observations reveal that the Conger–Glenzer Ice Shelf collapse in East Antarctica occurred in four stages spanning a period of 25 years, culminating in its rapid disintegration in March 2022.

Whole-genome sequencing and phenotype data sharing are introduced in a national health system to streamline diagnosis and to discover coding and non-coding variants that cause rare diseases.

Algorithms to assess causal relationships in data sets have seen increasing applications in climate science in recent years. Here, the authors show that these techniques can help to systematically evaluate the performance of climate models and, as a result, to constrain uncertainties in future climate change projections.

Whole-genome sequencing analysis of individuals with primary immunodeficiency identifies new candidate disease-associated genes and shows how the interplay between genetic variants can explain the variable penetrance and complexity of the disease.

Mammalian DNA replication relies on various helicases and nucleases to ensure accurate genetic duplication, but how these enzymes are properly directed is unclear. Here, the authors identify USP50 as a key protein for promoting ongoing replication, restarting stalled forks, maintaining telomeres, and ensuring cell survival.

RNA-based viruses can be engineered to express artificial microRNAs (amiRNAs). Here, the authors identify a candidate amiRNA that confers a replicative advantage to oncolytic viruses, enhancing their anticancer potency, and show that intercellular transfer of extracellular vesicles carrying the amiRNA promotes bystander killing of uninfected cancer cells.

Bulky DNA adducts are important replication-blocking lesions. Here the authors reveal that homologous recombination at bulky adducts in mammalian cells involves post-replicative gap repair in a PrimPol dependent manner.

A transancestral exome-wide association study for body-fat distribution identifies protein-coding variants that are significantly associated with waist-to-hip ratio adjusted for body mass index.

Integration of GWAS and single-cell transcriptomic data from the entire nervous system systematically identifies cell types underlying brain complex traits and provides insights into the etiology of Parkinson’s disease.