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A genome-wide association study in rice identifies variation in SBRR1 associated with sheath blight resistance. Introducing the SBRR1-R allele into a commercial rice variety reduces yield loss under severe exposure to sheath blight disease.

Most kiwifruit species are vulnerable to high levels of heat stress. Here, the authors report natural variation at the GATA transcription factor binding site of EGY3 gene mediates chloroplastic ROS homeostasis to confer kiwifruit thermotolerance.

Fungal diseases threaten crops worldwide. By resolving the cryo-EM structure of fungal succinate dehydrogenase, researchers designed an inhibitor with broad antifungal activity, strong field performance, and reduced environmental toxicity.

Induction of hypothermia during hibernation/torpor enables certain mammals to survive under extreme conditions. Here, the authors show that the natural product P57 induces hypothermia by targeting pyridoxal kinase and has a potential application in therapeutic hypothermia.

Van Hove singularities in crystals and the boson peak in glasses are both deviations from the Debye theory of phonons. A unified model for the vibrational density of states now shows when these two phenomena have distinct phononic origins.

Mohri et al. show that, in response to genotoxic stress, melanocyte stem cells undergo senescence-associated differentiation, causing their depletion and protecting them against melanomagenesis. This process is suppressed by carcinogens.

CAR-T cells engineered with αPD-L1–IL-12 fusion proteins show antitumour activity in mouse models of prostate and ovarian cancer.

GeSn alloys hold promise for spintronics and quantum computing due to their scalable fabrication and spin manipulation capabilities. Here, the authors study a two-dimensional hole gas in a Ge/GeSn quantum well, revealing enhanced spin-orbit interactions and g-factors, providing key insights for designing GeSn-based spintronic devices.

Artificial neurons typically have functional parameters that are mismatched with their biological counterpart. Here, the authors develop artificial neurons that emulate biological neurons in functions and match their parameters such as signal amplitude, spiking energy, temporal features, and frequency response.

Realizing >5 V batteries is hindered by the instability of electrolytes. Here, a fluoride shielding layer, LiCl-4Li₂TiF₆, enables high-voltage, high-capacity all-solid-state batteries because of its combined oxidative stability and Li⁺ conductivity.

High-resolution computed tomography is used to reconstruct and analyse fossils of the herbivorous tritylodontid Polistodon and a newly named morganucodontid species called Camurocondylus, providing key insights into the evolution of the mammalian jaw joint.

Precise separation of ions with similar valence and size is critical. Here, authors designed a selective membrane that precisely extract Li+ from Na+ and Ca²⁺ interferences. The high selectivity and permeability enable energy-efficient, precise, and chemical-free lithium extraction using the electrodialysis process.

MiRNAs and natural antisense transcripts can both regulate gene expression and plant development. Here, the authors show that cis-NATs to MIR398 repress processing of pri-miR398 and that cis-NAT expression is downregulated at high temperatures, contributing to miR398 mediated thermotolerance responses.

CURT1/CurT proteins, known for shaping thylakoid membranes in photosynthetic organisms, play a newly found role in coordinating cell division and symmetry. Being shared in cyanobacteria and green algae this role is likely phylogenetically ancient.

The interfacial energy losses at the perovskite/electron selective contact interface remain an obstacle for perovskite/silicon tandem solar cells to approach its theoretical efficiency limit. Here, authors employ a cage-like diammonium chloride molecule to modulate interfacial dipole.

Germanium (Ge) has potential as a dopant suitable for the hematite-based photoelectrochemical water splitting system. Here, the authors report the fabrication of Ge doped porous hematite and demonstrate an efficient tandem system of Ge doped porous hematite and the perovskite solar cell.

Recombinant MHC class II molecules are instrumental in antigen-specific T-cell identification assays and showed efficacy as experimental medicines. Here, the authors engineer MHC class II molecules with species-specific knob-into-hole heteromerization domains, enabling a translatable purification process with improved stability, yields, and biological potency.

A coherent 909-Hz quasi-periodic oscillation was potentially detected in GRB 230307A, the second brightest gamma-ray burst to date, indicating that a millisecond magnetar formed after the merger powered the burst.

Circulating metabolites reflect key physiological states, but their genetic basis remains incompletely defined. Here, the authors show over 24,000 variant-metabolite associations and highlight rare coding variants and disease-linked metabolites through integrated analyses.

Novel Cas protein discovery is vital in CRISPR-Cas technology. Here, authors develop AIL-Scan, an AI-assisted Cas detection strategy using the ESM model, and discover seven unreported Cas12a subtypes with distinct DNA cleavage and PAM recognition, enabling SNP detection and precise gene editing.

Osteoporosis was revealed to pyroptosis-related inflammation. Here, the authors show multifunctional microsphere can retard osteoporosis by restoring bone homeostasis thorough pyroptosis blockade and hydrogen-mediated modulation of inflammation.

The authors present evidence based on satellite observations that the local cooling effect of potential forestation in Europe has intensified over the past two decades, driven by the reduced winter snow cover and declining summer soil moisture under global warming.

This study demonstrated that different types of HC-Pros from potyviruses exhibit varying capacities to inhibit HEN1. This results in distinct levels of autophagic AGO1 degradation, which in turn leads to differences in RNA silencing suppression efficiency.

The authors reveal that even within a few-nanometre thin films, ultrafast all-optical magnetisation switching is spatially inhomogeneous along the depth and driven by the picosecond propagation of a transient domain boundary.

Construction of chiral nanostructures is impeded by the entropic barrier of dissymmetric blocks. Here, the authors report a dynamic assembly/disassembly strategy to yield single-unit organometallic helices for enantioselective amyloid inhibition.

The incidence of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and accumulation of circulating free (cf) DNA increase with age but it is unknown whether DNA fragments cause joint inflammation. Here authors show that cf DNA levels are higher in RA patients and that in a rat adjuvant-induced arthritis model, the exonuclease TREX1 suppresses synovial inflammation via promoting the degradation of cf DNA and inhibiting a senescence-like cellular state.

Clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC) usually metastasizes to the lungs. Here, the authors discover that SWI/SNF ATPase subunit SMARCA4 silencing of HLF regulates ccRCC lung metastasis by modulating the integration of collagen's mechanical cues with the actin cytoskeleton through leupaxin.

The hydrovoltaic effect offers a promising route for ion sensing but is limited by a long response time. Here, the authors leverage rapid ion transport within nanochannels to achieve a high voltage output of 4.0 V with a response time of just 0.17 s.

A synthetic protein ligand enables the recognition of surface proteins on unwanted cells, targeting them for engulfment and elimination in vivo.

The authors proposed a Silicon technology-compatible approach to convert Germanium from an indirect bandgap to a direct bandgap via doping. This is done to expand the lattice to produce tunable effective tensile strain, aiming towards the on-chip light sources.

In this work the authors present an alternative method for accurate and precise estimation of enzyme inhibition constants from a single inhibitor concentration, enhancing efficiency, reducing bias, and supporting broad applications in drug development and safety testing.

Measuring vector quantities in nanoscale systems is challenging — often only scalar magnitudes can be experimentally obtained. Now, a multi-frequency atomic force microscopy method for probing the 3D force response of a Ge(001) surface is reported.

Alloy anode materials are receiving renewed interest. Here the authors show the design of Ge-Zn nanofibers for lithium ion batteries. Featured by a homogeneous composition at the atomic level and other favorable structural attributes, the materials allow for impressive electrochemical performance.

Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR)-T cell is a promising therapy for hematological malignancy, but further optimization is still desirable. Here the authors show that incorporating CD99, a membrane protein expressed on activated T cells, transmembrane and juxtamembrane domains into CAR design helps improve CAR-T efficacy in vitro and in vivo in mice.

In this work, authors use cryo-EM and live-cell BRET assays to show that GPR3 can form constitutive dimers.

Olfactory deficits occur early in Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Here, the authors identify that loss of locus coeruleus axons in the olfactory bulb underlies impaired olfaction in an AD mouse model and provide translational evidence for similar deficits in humans.

Germanium’s electronic structure and large, tunable spin-orbit coupling makes it a good material for constructing hole-based quantum devices. Here the authors demonstrate the fabrication and two-axis control of a hole spin qubit in a germanium double quantum dot.

Long-range interactions in many-body quantum systems may induce dissipation channels described by non-Hermitian dynamics. Here, the authors report the observation of higher-order exceptional points, a hallmark of non-Hermitian physics, in a Rydberg atom gas. This enables design of quantum dynamics around these points, providing insight into phase transitions.

Silane, which is a precursor to the sandy surfaces of rocky planets and dusty clouds on gas giants, is seen directly in another world—a low-metallicity brown dwarf in which oxidation is slow and gas mixing is fast.

Stereoisomers can exhibit distinct chemical behaviors despite identical formulas. Here, the authors reveal how geometric isomers of electrolyte additives tailor solvation and interphasial chemistry, enhancing Zn-ion kinetics and long-term stability in aqueous zinc metal batteries.

The intrinsic high-concentration Ge vacancies in GeTe-based thermoelectric materials hinder their performance maximization. Here, the authors find that defect structure engineering strategy is effective for performance enhancement.

Phenomena that bridge magnetism and extremely large magnetoresistance in materials have the potential to expand fundamental research towards practical technological innovations. The authors synthesize Fe-Ge single crystal demonstrating high temperature ferromagnetism and magnetoresistance. These results disclose novel pathways to implement advanced spintronic devices.

Electronic spins in Si are potentially useful in the development of solid-state quantum devices, but its degenerate valley states limits this potential. Zhang et al.use a genetic algorithm to identify a Ge/Si-multilayer-clad Si quantum structure whose valley splitting is increased by an order of magnitude.

Some rhizosphere microbes protect plants from phytopathogens through unclear molecular mechanisms. Here, Zhang et al. show that a rhizosphere bacterium displays antimicrobial activity against phytopathogenic fungi by reducing the activity of the fungal NatA acetyltransferase complex, thus inducing protein degradation and apoptosis.