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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.

Social memory integrates past experiences into social interactions by distinguishing familiar from novel conspecifics. In this study, the authors delineated a role of the cerebellum in organizing the neural matrix required for social memory.

The semileptonic decay channels of the Λc baryon can give important insights into weak interaction, but decay into a neutron, positron and electron neutrino has not been reported so far, due to difficulties in the final products’ identification. Here, the BESIII Collaboration reports its observation in e+e- collision data, exploiting machine-learning-based identification techniques.

Type 2 diabetes (T2D) is characterized by pancreatic beta-cell failure. Here, the authors show restoration of Phosphatidylinositol transfer protein alpha (PITPNA), a mediator of PtdIns-4-phosphate synthesis in the trans-Golgi network, in human T2D islets reverses impaired insulin granule maturation, exocytosis, and ER stress.

Investigating the inner structure of baryons is important to further our understanding of the strong interaction. Here, the BESIII Collaboration extracts the absolute value of the ratio of the electric to magnetic form factors and its relative phase for e + e − → J/ψ → ΛΣ decays, enhancing the signal thanks to the vacuum polarisation effect at the J/ψ peak.

3D heterostructures offer properties that are inaccessible in bulk single-phase solids, but synthetic approaches are limited. The authors use mechanochemical reshuffling of binary precursors and subsequent annealing to design structurally aligned misfit heterostructures with well-defined atomic arrangements.

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 high-throughput yeast-based assay is used to identify more than 1,500 activation domains (ADs) in Arabidopsis transcription factors, and a deep learning approach applied to this dataset can predict AD activity on the basis of sequence features.

Liver receptor homolog 1 (LHR-1) is a nuclear receptor involved in development, lipid homeostasis and metabolism. The crystal structures of the LHR-1 ligand-binding domain in its apo state and in complex with the phospholipid DLPC are now presented. The data, along with biophysical and functional analyses, reveal the highly dynamic nature of the apo receptor and show how DLPC binding affects co-regulator selectivity.

Using a sample of more than 1 million individuals, Hatoum et al. identify genomic loci associated with general and substance-specific addiction risk.

Light-induced ultrafast switching between the molecular isomers norbornadiene and quadricyclane can reversibly store and release a substantial amount of chemical energy. Two competing pathways have now been identified by which electronically excited quadricyclane molecules relax to the electronic ground state, facilitating interconversion between the two isomers on different timescales.

Photoinduced isomerization reactions, including ring-opening reactions, lie at the heart of many chemical processes in nature. The pathway and dynamics of the ring opening of a model heterocycle have now been investigated by femtosecond photoelectron spectroscopy combined with ab initio theory, enabling the visualization of rich dynamics in both the ground and excited electronic states.

This study demonstrates that the curvature of the cell membrane directly regulates the spatial distribution of Piezo1, a widely expressed mechanosensitive ion channel. Piezo1 may flatten upon activation and can mechanically inhibit membrane dynamics

The ATLAS Collaboration reports the observation of the electroweak production of two jets and a Z-boson pair. This process is related to vector-boson scattering and allows the nature of electroweak symmetry breaking to be probed.

A genomic and transcriptomic analysis of 2,754 childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemias identifies 376 putative driver genes, and associations between disease subtypes and prognosis.

Intense light pulses can create nonlinear ionization processes in atoms and molecules. Here the authors study the photoionization of xenon atoms using intense free-electron laser pulses that can create extremely high charge states and produce hollow atoms, featuring up to six simultaneous core-holes.

The authors report the high-resolution structure of human β-cardiac myosin in its sequestered state. The results provide insights into the cardiac regulation and represent a tool to investigate the development of inherited cardiomyopathies.

ORAI1 constitutes the store-operated Ca²⁺ release-activated Ca²⁺ (CRAC) channel, but how this channel is turned off through Ca²⁺-dependent inactivation (CDI) remained unclear. Here the authors identify a spatially-restricted Ca²⁺/cAMP signaling crosstalk critical for mediating CDI which in turn regulates cellular Ca²⁺ signals and NFAT activation.

The microvasculature is critical for delivery of oxygen and metabolites throughout tissues. Here they use human blood vessel organoids to show that CTGF is a critical paracrine regulator of microvascular integrity that can restore pericyte coverage and vessel structure.

Although the performance of sensitized TiO₂ solar cells has increased considerably over recent years, Leijtens et al. show that they are susceptible to a light-driven instability that degrades their performance over time. They go on to show that this instability can be overcome in mesoporous TiO₂-free devices.

This bi-ancestral genome-wide association study of major depressive disorder (MDD) identified 178 risk variants. The results advance understanding of the biology of MDD and hint at new treatment possibilities.

Measurements of the inelastic cross section of anti-³He allow the estimation of the transparency of the Milky Way to the propagation of these light antinuclei produced in either cosmic-ray collisions or annihilation of dark-matter particles.

The ATLAS Collaboration reports a measurement of the ratio of the decay rates of W bosons to τ leptons and muons, in agreement with universal lepton couplings as postulated in the standard model of particle physics.

The ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider reports a search for charged-lepton-flavour violation in decays of Z bosons into a τ lepton and an electron or muon of opposite charge.

O-GlcNAcylation is a post-translational modification catalyzed by O-GlcNAc transferase. Here, a high-throughput activity assay combined with mass spectrometric and crystallographic analyses sheds light on the substrate recognition and specificity of O-GlcNAc transferase.

Imaging of low-mass exoplanets can be achieved once the thermal background in the mid-infrared (MIR) wavelengths can be mitigated. Here, the authors present a ground-based MIR observing approach enabling imaging low-mass temperate exoplanets around nearby stars.

The direct measurement of the QCD dead cone in charm quark fragmentation is reported, using iterative declustering of jets tagged with a fully reconstructed charmed hadron.

Mutations in equilibrative nucleoside transporter 3 (ENT3), encoded by SLC29A3, cause a spectrum of human genetic disorders. Here, the authors show altered haematopoietic stem cell and mesenchymal stem cell fates in ENT3-deficient mice, due to misregulation of the AMPK-mTOR-ULK axis.

Correlations in momentum space between hadrons created by ultrarelativistic proton–proton collisions at the CERN Large Hadron Collider provide insights into the strong interaction, particularly the short-range dynamics of hyperons—baryons that contain strange quarks.

Population genetics studies continue to debate whether Ashkenazi Levites originated in Europe or the Near East. Here, Rootsi et al.use whole Y-chromosome DNA sequences to unravel the phylogenetic origin of the Ashkenazi Levite and suggest an origin for the Levite founder lineage in the Near East.

Zhou and colleagues demonstrate that thiopurine chemotherapy in mismatch repair-deficient ALL cells leads to R248Q TP53 mutations and clonal selection that favors on-treatment ALL relapse and chemoresistance.