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Climate action could avoid over 1 million deaths globally from air pollution in 2040. However, it is suggested that cooperation is needed between developed and developing nations to ensure that disparities in air pollution are not perpetuated in the future.

The authors show that aging of metastable protein condensates can lead to amyloid formation and impair biochemical activity. Certain small molecule metabolites can selectively impede this transition, preserving condensate function.

Here, the authors show that 2’-O-methylated RNA fragments from ribosomal RNA naturally block TLR7 and TLR8, helping to avoid avoid harmful self-RNA detection and autoimmunity.

ATF6α activation in human and preclinical models of hepatocellular carcinoma is significantly associated with an aggressive tumour phenotype characterized by reduced survival, glycolytic reprogramming and local immunosuppression.

Here they show that FOXF2 is required for pericyte maturation and function during postnatal alveolar morphogenesis. FOXF2 is required in pericytes to induce angiogenesis after neonatal hyperoxic injury, revealing a link between pericyte-endothelial crosstalk and bronchopulmonary dysplasia pathogenesis.

Using a random regression model, the study shows there are varying genetic profiles that act on BMI from infancy to adolescence. Change in BMI across childhood is genetically correlated with several adult cardiometabolic traits.

Amorphous sulfurized polyacrylonitrile suppresses polysulfide shuttling in Li–S batteries, enabling long cycle life, but the structural processes involved during synthesis and initial cycling remained unclear. An operando pair distribution function, wide-angle scattering and sulfur absorption spectroscopy reveal S–C bond formation, π–π stacking and sulfur-chain shortening, which enable reversible sulfur redox.

The limited tunability of threshold voltage is a major obstacle for applying two-dimensional transistors in post-silicon electronics. Here, the authors show that bimetallic thiophosphates, such as LiInP₂S₆, enable programmable threshold voltages in both n-type and p-type 2D transistors, leading to low-power, high-speed complementary logic inverters.

Continuous monoculture of banana can result in proliferation of parasitic nematodes. Here the authors show that in the long term, soil can become suppressive to disease and this is associated with enrichment of free-living nematodes and Bacillus bacteria.

Surface plasmon-mediated steady-state and on-demand electronic spin modulation effectively activates light-driven plasmonic catalysis, facilitating polarization reactant activation and preferential reaction pathway modulation.

Molecular glue degraders have consistently been discovered retrospectively, despite their increasing importance. Herein, a high-throughput approach is described that modifies existing ligands into molecular glue degraders.

Cell division in many Gram-positive bacteria involves the synthesis of a peptidoglycan septum that is then hydrolyzed to facilitate cell separation. Here the authors show that, after septum formation, the cell wall at the division site is remodelled by transpeptidation as new poles form during daughter cell separation in Bacillus subtilis.

Cationic amino acids are essential to protein synthesis and cellular signaling. Here, authors determine the structure of the cationic amino acid transporter 1 and determined how it is co-opted as a receptor for leukemia-causing animal viruses.

Here the authors compare genetic testing strategies in rare movement disorders, improve diagnostic yield with genome analysis, and establish CD99L2 as an X-linked spastic ataxia gene, showing that CD99L2–CAPN1 signaling disruption likely drives neurodegeneration.

The authors present a genetically encoded tool based on a bifunctional enzyme that can regenerate NAD⁺ while executing an engineered glycerol shunt. The tool successfully restored redox imbalance and modulated lipid metabolism in vitro and in a mouse hepatic steatosis model.

By generating whole genomes of 150 participants representing 12 Khoe-San click-speaking groups, the authors, reveal over 1.3 million unknown DNA variants, distinct San and here described Damara genetic trajectories, while achieving century-long global predominance.

Chlorine electrosynthesis from seawater is limited by poor selectivity and stability under industrial-scale conditions. Here atomic-step-enriched ultrafine high-entropy alloy nanowires enable highly efficient chlorine evolution at 10 kA m⁻² for over 5,500 h through dynamic Pt–O active sites, reducing electricity consumption and feedstock costs for next-generation chlor-alkali processes.

Crystalline materials for optical applications are synthesized in living dinoflagellates.

Producing valuable hydrocarbons electrochemically from carbon monoxide (CO) is an energy-efficient pathway, but reliance on costly pure CO as a feedstock limits its economic viability. This article shows that abundant CO-rich syngas can be directly used to synthesize ethylene.

ASXL1 is often mutated in myeloid cancers. Here, the authors describe the molecular and structural mechanism by which ASXL1 associates with the transcriptional coactivator BRD4, helping to explain their high correlation in cancers.

Neuroinflammation triggers DNA damage and subsequent parthanatos-mediated neuron death. Inhibiting parthanatos in a mouse model of autoimmune inflammation is neuroprotective and reduces disease-associated paralysis.

The transcription factor ATF4 and its effector lipocalin 2 (LCN2) have a key role in immune evasion and tumour progression, and targeting the ATF4–LCN2 axis might provide a way to treat several types of solid tumour by increasing anti-cancer immunity.

Researchers report a solid that is amorphous in two dimensions but crystalline in the third, made of stacked disordered atomic layers. This shows that crystalline and amorphous order can coexist within a single material depending on direction.

A technique called condense-seq has been developed to measure nucleosome condensability and used to show that mononucleosomes contain sufficient information to condense into large-scale compartments without requiring any external factors.

Biocatalysis of the chemotherapy drug, doxorubicin, relies on the cytochrome P450 DoxA, which is inefficient. Here, the authors ameliorated the biosynthetic limitations by identifying DoxA redox partners and DnrV, which prevents product inhibition, helping improve microbial production.

Jacquemyn et al. identify key lipid determinants controlling ectosome shedding from neurons. They find that ectosomes are a major route for the intercellular transport of misfolded α-synuclein, with relevance to Parkinson’s disease pathology.

Ribosomes drive protein synthesis, but their dynamics are hard to visualize. Here, authors introduce RiboBright, a fluorescent probe that illuminates ribosomes in live and fixed cells, revealing cell-type-specific content, organization, and movement.

Population-level analyses and in vitro experiments show that a specific genetic variant of cyclin D3 inhibits the growth of the malaria-causing parasite Plasmodium falciparum in erythrocytes, and suggest that its high frequency in Sardinia was driven by past endemic malaria.

De novo domestication was performed on the brassica Thlaspi arvense (pennycress) by identifying and stacking CRISPR-induced mutations to create a new intermediate oilseed crop that can be grown in the off-season, with seed compositions similar to canola (low erucic acid and reduced glucosinolate).

Carboxysomes are cyanobacterial CO₂-concentrating compartments with a proteinaceous shell. The elucidation of the role of the shell adaptor protein ApN in stepwise β-carboxysome assembly will aid the engineering of these structures in plants.

Expression of agouti signalling protein in neurons in the medial preoptic area is increased by group housing and negatively associated with care, and overexpression of Agouti reduces care and enhances infanticide in previously tolerant mice.

Rafting dispersal can facilitate responses to environmental change. Here, authors integrate dispersal simulations, ecological genomics, and salinity stress experiments to elucidate the rafting dynamics and adaptive shifts of crustaceans.

It is unclear whether the harsh abiotic conditions of drylands hinder biological invasions. This global analysis shows that drylands are vulnerable to non-native plants and are likely to become more so as native plant diversity declines and grazing pressure intensifies.

CRISPR/Cas9 screens have identified genetic contributions to many phenotypes. However, studying combinations of genes or regulatory elements remains challenging. Here, the authors use CRISPR/Cas12a to overcome those challenges and enable new approaches to study combinatorial genetic mechanisms.

Mucosal administration of a multivalent, adjuvanted vaccine against Clostridioides difficile promoted bacterial clearance and protected against morbidity, mortality, tissue damage and recurrence in mice.

The authors find that distinct radial glia subtypes generate and support midbrain dopaminergic neurons, revealing specialized function and lineage relationships among the diverse cell types that shape dopamine neuron development.

The deep learning model STARLING can generate accurate ensembles of intrinsically disordered regions of proteins using only protein sequence as input.

The combination of within-species variation in pathogen load, the shape of the relationship between pathogen load and infectiousness, and vector feeding preferences shape transmission of multi-host vector-borne pathogens. Here, the authors use experimental and wild bird infection data to characterize the role of 17 host bird species in avian malaria transmission in Hawaii.

Donahue et al. show that ageing is associated with changes in ER morphology. ER-phagy drives age-associated ER remodelling through tissue-specific factors.

Immunopeptidomics identify CD4⁺ T cell epitopes from the conserved bacterial Hup protein that confer protection against multiple bacterial infections in mice suggesting potential for development of broader-spectrum vaccines against staphylococci and streptococci.

Greenwald, Nederlof and colleagues developed a computational pipeline analyzing multiplex imaging data and established spatial patterns within breast cancer microenvironment that are predictive of immune checkpoint blockade response across treatment time course.

Plasmas can unlock unconventional reactivity for established catalytic systems, but understanding the resulting mechanistic changes is a complex endeavour. Here in situ characterization techniques allow us to rationalize the promotional role of non-thermal plasma on the catalytic hydrogenation of CO₂ to methanol on Cu–Zn systems.

Conventional type 1 dendritic cells (cDC1) can boost the precursor exhausted T cell population thought to be essential for efficacy of immune checkpoint therapy. Here the authors enhance this cellular network using Flt3L to expand cDC1s and then map the movement of T cells and DCs between tumors and lymph nodes.

A high-temperature immiscible blend of two dipolar polymers that self-assemble into three-dimensional all-polymer nanocomposites allows markedly enhanced dielectric and energy storage performances over a broad temperature range.

Population-based studies from Sweden with replication in Norway identify associations between host genetic variants and gut microbial composition and implicate short-chain fatty acid chemosensors as modulators of gut microbial richness.

The isolation of catenated nitrogen compounds is difficult, in part because these chains can readily lose nitrogen, creating a strong thermodynamic push towards decomposition. Now, a series of molecules containing radical anions of four-atom nitrogen chains have been synthesized and studied under ambient conditions; the chain can cleave into N1 and N3 fragments, and can act as a source of nitrene radical anion.

Viral ribonucleoprotein–viral protein networks form pre-replication centres that nucleate viral factories and drive respiratory syncytial virus replication.

Interfacial water is of crucial importance in biology and engineering. Here, the authors identify structural transitions of interfacial water at graphite surfaces under varying electric fields and environmental conditions.

Circulating tumor cell (CTC) clusters are key drivers of metastasis, yet their formation in tumors lacking classical adhesion molecules is unclear. Here, the authors discover that hyaluronic acid promotes homotypic and heterotypic CTC clustering by initiating early cell contacts and stabilizing mature interactions.