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The advantage of living in cities compared with rural areas with respect to height and BMI in children and adolescents has generally become smaller globally from 1990 to 2020, except in sub-Saharan Africa.

Petroni et al. report that the infiltration of IL-17A-secreting γδ T cells in the tumor microenvironment coupled with the accumulation of immunosuppressive macrophages is associated with resistance to CDK4/CDK6 inhibition in HR⁺HER2⁻ breast cancer.

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).

Álvarez-Cubela et al. show that a BMP-7-like peptide induces β-cell regeneration and lowers hyperglycemia in diabetic mice, and reveal the transition of ductal cells into insulin-expressing cells. These results have potential therapeutic implications

The development of scalable chiral photonic structures is a challenging task. Here, the authors use soft lithography with colloidal plasmonic inks to create chiral plasmonic arrays that enable nanophotonic films with strong chiroptical response.

Analysis of HbA1c and FPG levels across 117 population-based studies demonstrates regional variation in prevalence of previously undiagnosed screen-detected diabetes using one or both measures and suggests that use of elevated FPG alone could underestimate diabetes prevalence in low- and middle-income countries.

The paper describes a Genome in a Bottle benchmark for the X and Y chromosomes enabled by complete chromosome assemblies. This benchmark enables users to evaluate small variant accuracy in challenging repetitive regions of the sex chromosomes.

Ecosystem services provided by dung beetles are an underappreciated component of terrestrial ecosystems. Here, the authors report a standardized distributed experiment which shows that dung removal rate, a key ecosystem process in pastures, is greater under high beetle functional diversity regardless of grazing intensity.

From 1980 to 2018, the levels of total and non-high-density lipoprotein cholesterol increased in low- and middle-income countries, especially in east and southeast Asia, and decreased in high-income western countries, especially those in northwestern Europe, and in central and eastern Europe.

Assessment of the evolution of plant-virus interactions suggests rapid reshaping of plant viromes after land colonization, along with rerouting of general defense responses to newly acquired vascular tissues that became focal for viral infections.

Genotype and exome sequencing of 150,000 participants and whole-genome sequencing of 9,950 selected individuals recruited into the Mexico City Prospective Study constitute a valuable, publicly available resource of non-European sequencing data.

Long-term characterisation of SARS-CoV-2 antibody kinetics is needed to understand the protective role of the immune response. Here the authors describe antibody levels and neutralisation activity in healthcare workers over seven months and investigate the role of immunity to endemic human coronaviruses.

Contrary to the view that urbanization is a major driver of the global rise in obesity, the global increase in body-mass index is shown to be mostly due to increases in the body-mass indexes of rural populations.

Analysis of 2,170 SARS-CoV-2 sequences from the first wave of the COVID-19 epidemic in Spain provides insights into transmission patterns and the effects of lockdown on the emergence of new variants.

Chiquihuite Cave (Zacatecas, Mexico) provides evidence of human presence in the Americas between about 33,000–31,000 and 14,000–12,000 years ago, and expands the cultural variability known from sites of this date.

Variant detection in problematic genes is facilitated with a curated benchmark.

The sensitivity of nitrogenase to oxygen is a major barrier to engineer biological nitrogen fixation into cereal crops by direct nif gene transfer. Here the authors use yeast to show that targeting nitrogenase Fe protein to the mitochondrial matrix overcomes the O₂sensitivity impediment.

A key development in the history of technology was the transition to hand-axes and bifacial chopping tools during the Early Pleistocene (about 1.5 million years ago) in Africa. Puzzlingly, the earliest records in Europe of hand-axes lag behind this date by a million years, at around 0.5 million years ago. Here, palaeomagnetic analysis of two sites in southeastern Spain where hand-axes have been found yields revised dates of up to 0.9 million years ago, significantly closing the time gap.

The growth of gold nanoparticles has been manipulated using amino acids and peptides to produce twisted structures that alter the rotation of light. The method could simplify the development of optical devices.

Pérez et al. evaluate whether antibody levels and neutralization titers correlate with protection against SARS-CoV-2, including Omicron sub-variants BQ.1 and XBB, in a cohort of Spanish healthcare workers. They find an association that wanes over time, highlighting the need for updated vaccination strategies.

The molecular mechanisms underlying metastasis in pheochromocytoma/paraganglioma (mPPGL) remain to be explored. Here, the authors perform genomic and immunogenomic profiling of mPPGL tumors and suggest potential biomarkers for risk of metastasis and immunotherapy response.

Non-invasive and precise methods are critical for monitoring paediatric brain cancers. Here the authors show that the molecular alterations and heterogeneity of paediatric medulloblastomas can be reliably detected in circulating tumour DNA from the cerebrospinal fluid – a routinely collected sample.

Deep tissue imaging has been limited by the low brightness of probes emitting in the second near-infrared window. Here, the authors use femtosecond laser irradiation to grow a protective shell on Ag₂S nanoparticles, achieving 80-fold quantum yield enhancement and imaging with low excitation intensities.

Genetic and Structural analysis of COVID patients cohort reveals a correlation between mitochondrial haplogroup and SARS-CoV-2 severity.

Dry-season climate variability is a primary driver of tropical tree growth, according to observations from a pantropical tree-ring network.

Mutations in LSM11 and RNU7-1, which encode components of the replication-dependent histone pre-mRNA–processing complex, cause an autoinflammatory syndrome due to enhanced interferon signaling mediated by the cGAS–STING pathway, showing an essential role for nuclear histones in suppressing the immunogenicity of self-DNA.

ADHD is often found to be comorbid with disruptive behavior disorders, but the genetic loci underlying this comorbidity are unknown. Here, the authors have performed a GWAS meta-analysis of ADHD with disruptive behavior disorders, finding three genome-wide significant loci in Europeans, and replicating one in a Chinese cohort.

Analysis of the spread of the 20E (EU1) variant of SARS-CoV-2 through Europe suggests that international travel and insufficient containment, rather than increased transmissibility, led to a resurgence of infections.

Here the authors show that extremes in the summer jet stream position over Europe create a beech forest productivity dipole between northwestern and southeastern Europe and can result in regional anomalies in forest carbon uptake and growth.

We analysed 149,842 environmental genomes from multiple habitats and compiled a curated catalogue of 404,085 functionally and evolutionarily significant novel gene families exclusive to uncultivated prokaryotic taxa spanning multiple species.

Among 9578 individuals diagnosed with COVID-19 in the SCOURGE study, individuals with clonal mosaic events (clonal mosaicism for chromosome alterations and/or loss of chromosome Y) showed an increased risk of COVID-19 lethality.

Identification of safe and effective broad-spectrum antivirals based on modified chitosan sulfate derivatives.

Exploiting synthetic lethality is a promising approach for cancer therapy. Here, the authors present an approach to identifying such interactions by finding genetic minimal cut sets (gMCSs) that block cancer proliferation, and apply it to study the lethality of RRM1 inhibition in multiple myeloma.