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The APOE-ε4 allele is the strongest genetic risk factor for late-onset Alzheimer’s disease, but it is not deterministic. Here, the authors show that common genetic variation changes how APOE-ε4 influences cognition.

A multiancestry phenome-wide analysis of copy number variants in the UK Biobank genomes increases power to detect genetic associations with complex traits across human populations.

The flagship paper of the ICGC/TCGA Pan-Cancer Analysis of Whole Genomes Consortium describes the generation of the integrative analyses of 2,658 cancer whole genomes and their matching normal tissues across 38 tumour types, the structures for international data sharing and standardized analyses, and the main scientific findings from across the consortium studies.

Analyses of 2,658 whole genomes across 38 types of cancer identify the contribution of non-coding point mutations and structural variants to driving cancer.

Humanity’s Last Exam, a multi-modal benchmark at the frontier of human knowledge, is designed to be an expert-level closed-ended academic benchmark with broad subject coverage.

Standard first line therapy in patients with non-small cell lung cancer is immunotherapy but responses vary and consistent predictive biomarkers are lacking. Here, using RNA-sequencing data from a large clinical trial in NSCLC patients, the authors define four molecular subsets with distinct tumour-intrinsic and -extrinsic features with differing outcomes to immunotherapy combinations.

Understanding deregulation of biological pathways in cancer can provide insight into disease etiology and potential therapies. Here, as part of the PanCancer Analysis of Whole Genomes (PCAWG) consortium, the authors present pathway and network analysis of 2583 whole cancer genomes from 27 tumour types.

The authors summarize the data produced by phase III of the Encyclopedia of DNA Elements (ENCODE) project, a resource for better understanding of the human and mouse genomes.

With the generation of large pan-cancer whole-exome and whole-genome sequencing projects, a question remains about how comparable these datasets are. Here, using The Cancer Genome Atlas samples analysed as part of the Pan-Cancer Analysis of Whole Genomes project, the authors explore the concordance of mutations called by whole exome sequencing and whole genome sequencing techniques.

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) variability and its phenotypic consequences aren’t well studied in relation to viral replication fitness and disease severity. Here, the authors identify a replication-enhancing domain in non-structural protein 5A, linking high replication fitness to severe disease outcomes, with implications for understanding HCV pathogenesis in immunocompromised patients.

The role of MYC in transcriptional reprogramming in prostate cancer remains poorly characterized. Here, MYC overexpression antagonizes the canonical AR transcriptional program leading to prostate tumor initiation and progression by disrupting transcriptional pause release at AR-regulated genes.

Analysis of cancer genome sequencing data has enabled the discovery of driver mutations. Here, as part of the ICGC/TCGA Pan-Cancer Analysis of Whole Genomes (PCAWG) Consortium the authors present DriverPower, a software package that identifies coding and non-coding driver mutations within cancer whole genomes via consideration of mutational burden and functional impact evidence.

The characterization of 4,645 whole-genome and 19,184 exome sequences, covering most types of cancer, identifies 81 single-base substitution, doublet-base substitution and small-insertion-and-deletion mutational signatures, providing a systematic overview of the mutational processes that contribute to cancer development.

During the Last Glacial Maximum, the deep Northwest Atlantic was only about 2 °C colder than today, suggesting sustained production of relatively warm North Atlantic Deep Water during the Last Glacial Maximum.

Metagenomic analysis of the gut microbiome of people with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), from three distinct cohorts, revealed infection- and antiretroviral drug-linked alterations, which may contribute to HIV-associated non-infectious comorbidities.

Multi-omics datasets pose major challenges to data interpretation and hypothesis generation owing to their high-dimensional molecular profiles. Here, the authors develop ActivePathways method, which uses data fusion techniques for integrative pathway analysis of multi-omics data and candidate gene discovery.

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.

Workers in social insects such as honey bees, bumble bees, and ants are expected to spend their lives helping their mother reproduce. Here the authors show that workers of several bumble bee species can in fact mate and lead colonies of their own.

A study reports whole-genome sequences for 490,640 participants from the UK Biobank and combines these data with phenotypic data to provide new insights into the relationship between human variation and sequence variation.

An analysis of 2,954 genomes from 38 cancer subtypes identified 19,166 retrotransposition events in 35% of samples. Aberrant LINE-1 retrotranspositions can lead to the deletion of tumor-suppressor genes as well as the amplification of oncogenes.

An extensive experimental analysis of resistance to antibiotics in development or introduced post-2017 in ESKAPE bacteria reveals the dynamics of resistance acquisition, mutational targets and the presence of mutations in clinical and environmental isolates.

The molecular processes that lead to neuroendocrine prostate cancer after treating prostate adenocarcinoma (PRAD) are not well understood. Here the authors show that regulation by FOXA1 and changes in the epigenomic profile drive the transition from PRAD to a neuroendocrine phenotype.

Ataxia telangiectasia and Rad3-related kinase (ATR) is a rational radiosensitization target. This trial evaluates the combination of the ATR inhibitor, ceralasertib, with palliative radiotherapy in 27 patients with advanced solid tumors.

Cancers evolve as they progress under differing selective pressures. Here, as part of the ICGC/TCGA Pan-Cancer Analysis of Whole Genomes (PCAWG) Consortium, the authors present the method TrackSig the estimates evolutionary trajectories of somatic mutational processes from single bulk tumour data.

The authors present SVclone, a computational method for inferring the cancer cell fraction of structural variants from whole-genome sequencing data.

Whole-genome sequencing data for 2,778 cancer samples from 2,658 unique donors across 38 cancer types is used to reconstruct the evolutionary history of cancer, revealing that driver mutations can precede diagnosis by several years to decades.

Leng et al. establish CRISPRi screens in astrocytes to dissect pathways controlling inflammatory reactivity. They uncover two distinct inflammatory reactive signatures that are inversely regulated by STAT3 and validate that these exist in human disease.

Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is highly prevalent among the Ashkenazi Jewish population. Here, the authors identify novel IBD-associated variants and genes, validated by transcriptomic and phenome-wide associations.

Goel and colleagues show that CDK4/6 inhibition induces global chromatin changes mediated by AP-1 factors, which mediate key biological and clinical effects in breast cancer.

Vallentgoed et al. integrate clinical and multiomic data from persons with matched initial and recurrent IDH-mutant astrocytomas to identify progression-associated mechanisms and report a DNA methylation-based signature associated with survival.

Ellis and colleagues show that combination of EZH2 inhibition and anti-PD-1 can increase antitumor immune responses in typically ‘immune cold’ prostate cancer, by increasing EZH2-regulated dsRNA–STING–ISG response signaling.

Anaplastic oligodendrogliomas are rare and incurable primary brain tumours with few treatment options. Here Labrecheet al. perform whole-exome sequencing and identify recurring mutations in transcription factor TCF12, which are associated with aggressive tumours.

Analyses of epigenomic datasets spanning transitions from normal prostate epithelium to localized prostate cancer to metastases show that latent developmental programs are reactivated in metastatic disease and that prostate lineage-specific regulatory elements are strongly enriched for prostate cancer risk heritability.

We present the complete 62,460,029-base-pair sequence of a human Y chromosome from the HG002 genome (T2T-Y) that corrects multiple errors in GRCh38-Y and adds over 30 million base pairs of sequence to the reference.

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.

For sexually reproducing organisms, experimental models to study the evolution of primary sex-determining loci are scarce. This study shows male-determining loci on  proto-Y chromosomes of the housefly, containing the same gene, can genomically diverge into regions of various complexity.

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.

The role of histone mutations in leukemogenesis remains largely unexplored. In this study of AML, the authors show that histone mutations are early events that drive a more aggressive phenotype.

Some cancer patients first present with metastases where the location of the primary is unidentified; these are difficult to treat. In this study, using machine learning, the authors develop a method to determine the tissue of origin of a cancer based on whole sequencing data.

Claudia Langenberg, James Meigs and colleagues apply a joint meta-analysis approach that accounts for differences in body mass index to identify variants associated with glycemic traits. They report six new loci associated with fasting insulin levels and provide insights into the genetic basis of insulin resistance.

Genome-wide association meta-analyses identify 26 risk loci for epilepsy, including 19 loci specific to genetic generalized epilepsy. Prioritized candidate genes implicate synaptic processes and overlap with targets of antiseizure medications.

Genome-wide association and fine-mapping analyses in ancestrally diverse populations implicate candidate causal genes and mechanisms underlying type 2 diabetes. Trans-ancestry genetic risk scores enhance transferability across populations.

Gelareh Zadeh, Kenneth Aldape and colleagues present an integrative genomic analysis of schwannomas. In addition to finding recurrent mutations in ARID1A, ARID1B and DDR1, they identify a recurrent SH3PXD2A-HTRA1 fusion that confers increased proliferation, invasion and in vivo transformation, and is associated with sensitivity to MEK inhibition.

A meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies of type 2 diabetes (T2D) identifies more than 600 T2D-associated loci; integrating physiological trait and single-cell chromatin accessibility data at these loci sheds light on heterogeneity within the T2D phenotype.

Constitutional mismatch repair deficiency (CMMRD) is associated with high cancer incidence early in life. Here, the authors perform a genomic analysis of CMMRD-associated tumors and find mutational patterns influenced by the affected mismatch repair gene, tumour type, and treatment history.