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Wood density is a key control on tree biomass, and understanding its spatial variation improves estimates of forest carbon stock. Sullivan et al. measure >900 forest plots to quantify wood density and produce high resolution maps of its variation across South American tropical forests.

Here the authors perform a trans expression quantitative trait locus meta-analysis study of over 3,700 people and link a USP18 variant to expression of 50 inflammation genes and lupus risk, highlighting how genetic regulation of immune responses drives autoimmune disease and informs new therapies.

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).

The number of individuals in a given space influences animal interactions and network dynamics. Here the authors identify general rules underlying density dependence in animal networks and reveal some fundamental differences between spatial and social dynamics.

Polygenic scores for body mass index and obesity constructed using data from 5 million people with different ancestries were associated with distinct weight gain trajectories from early childhood to adulthood.

A large genome-wide association study of more than 5 million individuals reveals that 12,111 single-nucleotide polymorphisms account for nearly all the heritability of height attributable to common genetic variants.

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.

How tree diversity effects on ecosystem functioning vary along climatic gradients is unclear. Here, analysing data from 15 experimental forest sites, the authors show that tree growth responses to neighbourhood species diversity are stronger in wetter climates but are unaffected by interannual climatic variation within sites.

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.

Immuno-oncology was hotly pursued by investors in 2015, along with drug delivery platforms. In the agbiotech world, a systems biology company set up shop.

A pan-Amazon study of forests shows large variations in drought tolerance traits and finds that forests in regions of pronounced climate change are losing biomass and may be operating beyond their hydraulic limits.

The authors analyse tree responses to an extreme heat and drought event across South America to understand long-term climate resistance. While no more sensitive to this than previous lesser events, forests in drier climates showed the greatest impacts and thus vulnerability to climate extremes.

Microbial pre-emption of mineralized soil P limits the capacity of trees for increased P uptake and assimilation under elevated CO₂ and therefore restricts their capacity to sequester extra C.

Here, the authors reveal that protozoal communities shape rumen microbiome structure, offering fresh insights into how these complex communities coordinate essential metabolic tasks across multiple microbial domains.

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.

This large meta-analysis of 11 GWAS identified 7 genetic loci associated with strabismus, esotropia and exotropia. Mendelian randomisation provided genetic evidence of the causal link between maternal smoking to increased strabismus risk in offspring.

A generalizable, functional-trait-based approach for quantifying the effects of disturbances to ecosystem services and economic outcomes, including under climate change, highlights the need for incorporating disturbances in ecosystem services assessments.

A high-resolution local palaeoclimatic archive is correlated to the early Holocene human behavioural record at the British Mesolithic site of Star Carr. Despite environmental stresses at this time, intensive human activity persisted over centuries, suggesting resilience to climate change.

The genetic susceptibility to breast cancer remains understudied in non-European populations. Here, the authors analyse pathogenic variants associated with breast cancer susceptibility in Hispanic/Latina women using genomics, and find that loss of function variants in FANCM are strongly associated with ER-negative breast cancer risk.

Here the authors apply ZooMS, radiocarbon, and stable isotope analyses to whale bones from the Bay of Biscay. They find that humans were utilizing the remains of at least five species of whales from 20,000 years ago, and that those whale communities may have resembled today’s arctic waters.

Vessel elements arise from cambium stem cells and support plant growth by supplying water and nutrients. This study reveals that strigolactone signalling inhibits vessel formation in response to drought, affecting transpiration and drought resistance.

A trans-ancestry meta-analysis of GWAS of glycemic traits in up to 281,416 individuals identifies 99 novel loci, of which one quarter was found due to the multi-ancestry approach, which also improves fine-mapping of credible variant sets.

Ethnic disparities in severe outcomes of COVID-19 were observed from early in the pandemic. Here, the authors investigate whether differences in mortality and cardiovascular disease outcomes persisted until 2.5 years after the start of the pandemic using electronic health record data from England and Wales.

Tropical deforestation rates are linked to large-scale land investments, according to georeferenced land deal records and remote sensing of forest loss over the past two decades.

Over-reliance on charcoal sourced from native forests rather than plantations doubled CO₂ emissions from Brazil’s steel industry between 2000 and 2007.

Bisphenol A (BPA) is an essential building block for manufacturing plastics, but its adverse health effects have become a major concern. Here the authors show a zeolite-catalysed synthetitic route to bio-renewable BPA alternatives that feature excellent safety and preserve efficacy of function.

Natural gas reservoirs in the oceanic subsurface sustain complex communities of anaerobic microbes. Here, Seitz et al. describe a previously unknown archaeal phylum, Helarchaeota, belonging to the Asgard superphylum and with the potential for oxidation of hydrothermally generated short-chain hydrocarbons.

Using a globally distributed standardized aerial sampling of fungal spores, we show that the hyperdiverse kingdom of fungi follows globally highly predictable spatial and temporal dynamics, with seasonality in both species richness and community composition increasing with latitude.

Microbial communities, exposed to early Earth-like conditions in a modern microbialite reef, change cyclically due to seasonal environmental variations, implying evolved metabolic processes in microbialites over time, based on multiple chemical, physical, and biological analyses.

A genome-wide association meta-analysis study of blood lipid levels in roughly 1.6 million individuals demonstrates the gain of power attained when diverse ancestries are included to improve fine-mapping and polygenic score generation, with gains in locus discovery related to sample size.

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.

Sub-metre-resolution satellite imagery is used to identify the presence of nearly 2.8 million baobab trees in the Sahel, with 94% of rural buildings in Senegal having at least one baobab tree in their immediate surroundings. The abundance of baobabs is associated with a higher likelihood of people consuming highly nutritious dark green leafy vegetables.

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.

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.

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

Arctic warming is thought to lead to large losses in soil carbon stocks. Here a 35-year-long fertilization experiment in Alaska shows that increased shrub productivity and changes in plant–microbial feedbacks may eventually reverse trends of carbon loss and restore the soil carbon sink.

Carbon dioxide enrichment of a mature forest resulted in the emission of the excess carbon back into the atmosphere via enhanced ecosystem respiration, suggesting that mature forests may be limited in their capacity to mitigate climate change.

Polygenic scores and partitioned polygenic scores related to insulin resistance derived in multiancestry populations show distinct association with neurological outcomes

A genome-wide association study of critically ill patients with COVID-19 identifies genetic signals that relate to important host antiviral defence mechanisms and mediators of inflammatory organ damage that may be targeted by repurposing drug treatments.

A catalogue of the vascular flora of New Guinea indicates that this island is the most floristically diverse in the world, and that 68% of the species identified are endemic to New Guinea.