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Tus protein bound to Ter sites on circular bacterial chromosomes provides a way to avoid random crashes of opposing replication forks. DNA-unzipping experiments show that the Tus–Ter–induced lock during unzipping at the nonpermissive face requires only DNA-strand separation.

Resistance noise in memristive devices is often described as a thermally activated process across simple energy barriers, but this can underestimate the role of entropy in a complex free energy landscape. Quantifying transition rates between discrete resistance states during resistance fluctuations in nanoscale GeTe shows that entropic contributions can strongly shape the free energy barriers.

Stranded assets could pose a challenge to food system transformation. Estimates of the stranded agricultural assets that may arise from a shift to plant-based diets in the European Union and UK underscore the need to refocus support mechanisms for ensuring a just transition.

Liquid crystal elastomers have potential as 4D-printing actuators, but it is difficult to achieve complex shape changes in structures. Here, the authors report a 4D-printing strategy that combines vat polymerization-based 3D printing with a two-stage UV-curable resin.

Polyamines prevent the action of kinases on acidic phosphorylatable motifs in spliceosomal proteins, thus providing a mechanism for metabolite-mediated regulation of alternative splicing in cells.

Proteomic data from natural isolates of Saccharomyces cerevisiae provide insight into how these cells tolerate aneuploidy (an imbalance in the number of chromosomes), and reveal differences between lab-engineered aneuploids and diverse natural yeasts.

A spin current is injected from a ferromagnet into a nonmagnetic metal at magnetic resonance. Here, the authors show that this current has both a direct-current and a much larger alternating-current component, indicating that these structures could be useful for high-frequency spintronics.

Combining nonlinear optical processes and photoswitching is a challenging goal, driven by significant application potential. Here, the authors report a strategy combining T-type negative photoswitches and two-photon absorption for a four-photon-like fluorescence response.

Graphene systems have the potential to host Wigner crystal states at zero magnetic field. Here, the authors report transport signatures consistent with Wigner crystallization in AB-stacked bilayer graphene at both zero and finite magnetic fields.

X-ray crystallography, cryo-electron microscopy, structural modelling, biochemistry, cell biology, and evolutionary analysis enable characterization of ORF2p, the reverse transcriptase of the ancient ‘parasitic’ LINE-1 retrotransposon that has written around one-third of the human genome.

A key step in the evolution of the nitrogen-fixing root nodule symbiosis, occurring 100 million years ago, subjected the control of Nodule Inception (NIN) gene expression to a protein complex that regulated transcription much earlier in the arbuscular mycorrhiza symbiosis.

Programmable self-assembly can help construct complex nanostructures. Now a mathematical framework can identify if and how a particular structure can be assembled.

Perception can occur in the absence of report. Here, the authors use intracranial recordings to show that sequential sampling of sensory evidence in the ventral visual cortex supports perception beyond report.

The authors demonstrate that the collective electron oscillations driven by light in a quantum nanodevice can be measured directly in the time domain, by recording the photo-assisted tunnelling currents using the technique of homodyne beating.

The coupling of magnetism and ferroelectricity is of relevance for applications such as sensing, but occurs only rarely in bulk materials. The large magnetically induced ferroelectric polarization observed here in CaMn₇O₁₂establishes a new approach to achieve a strong magnetoelectric coupling.

Imaging heart development is challenging due to constant tissue movement and changing physical landmarks. Here the authors present an algorithm capable of maintaining phase-locked imaging throughout a 24 hour timespan, enabling long term timelapse imaging studies of zebrafish heart development, repair and regeneration.

The authors demonstrate a very stable yet broadly tunable photonic THz source, characterized from 2 GHz to 1.4 THz. A very narrow Lamb dip feature is observed in a water absorption line, showcasing its potential for sub-kHz resolution spectroscopy.

Tripartite ATP-independent periplasmic (TRAP) transporters use an extra substrate binding protein to transport a variety of substrates in bacteria and archaea. Here the authors use a disulfide engineering approach to lock the TRAP transporter HiSiaPQM from H. influenzae in different conformational states for characterisation.

Government spending for COVID-19 recovery could have enhanced society’s resilience to environmental shocks, but it is unclear whether this was adequately reflected in policies. A study now sheds light on this issue by applying a fiscal policy taxonomy for climate change adaptation and resilience to policies across different countries.

Measuring the mass of individual microbial cells remains challenging. Here, the authors present a cell balance to monitor the proliferation of single budding yeast cells under culture conditions in real time, showing that single cells increase total mass in multiple linear segments of constant growth rates.

Inhibitor-induced kinase degradation is a common event that positions supercharging of endogenous degradation circuits as an alternative to classical proximity-inducing degraders.

The dynamical axion quasiparticle, which is directly analogous to the hypothetical fundamental axion particle, is observed in two-dimensional MnBi₂Te₄, and has implications for quantum chromodynamics, cosmology and string theory.

In this Protocol, three dual adeno-associated viral strategies for delivery of large transgenes are presented—by reconstitution at the genomic, transcript or protein level—together with instructions for the design, production and evaluation of dual adeno-associated viral vectors.

ParABS systems partition chromosomal DNA and low-copy plasmids in bacteria. Here, the authors elucidate the mode of interaction between ParA and ParB and clarify how ParB stimulates the ATPase activity of ParA to drive the segregation process.

This work challenges the view of nucleation governing halide perovskite grain morphology, showing that most additives act post-nucleation by boosting ion mobility across grain boundaries, triggering grain coarsening, similar to post-processing effects.

Conventional design of perovskite heterojunctions face challenges in precisely controlling interfacial phase purity at nanoscale. Here, the authors introduce dimethyl sulfide as a soft Lewis base additive in organic cation solution, achieving certified efficiency of 26.48% in stable solar cells.

Andreev reflection is normally known to occur at a metal-superconductor interface. Here, Hashisaka et al. observe an Andreev-like process in a narrow junction between fractional and integer quantum Hall states originating from a topological quantum many-body effect instead of superconductivity.

Heller et al. showed dense longitudinal imaging in four females, including one with endometriosis and one using oral contraceptives, and the finding that different hormonal milieus influence widespread brain volume changes linked to progesterone or estradiol.

The development of innovative strategies for the capture and biodegradation of nanoplastics is sought after. Now, artificial hydrolytic active sites are incorporated into non-catalytic membrane nanopores generating pore-based biocatalytic nanoreactors that depolymerize polyethylene terephthalate plastic nanoparticles.

The pathogenic avian flu H5N1 virus remains stable in raw milk and throughout the cheese-making process, but contaminated cheese fed to ferrets did not lead to infection, whereas raw milk did.

The Zika viral protease NS2B-NS3 is a crucial target for antiviral drug development due to its role in processing viral polyproteins. Here, the authors utilize crystallographic fragment screening and deep mutational scanning to identify binding sites for resistance-resilient inhibitors.

Lattices of cubic building blocks that deform anisotropically and that are designed to fit together like a three-dimensional jigsaw puzzle are 3D printed to create aperiodic, frustration-free, mechanical metamaterials; these metamaterials act as programmable shape-shifters and are able to perform pattern analysis.

To understand how water in the channel made of the influenza B M2 protein mediates proton transport across the lipid membrane, Gelenter et al. investigate the water orientation and dynamics. This study suggests that faster dynamics and higher orientational order of water molecules in the open channel compared to the closed one establish the water network structure that is necessary for proton hopping.

Time-domain spectroscopy with terahertz frequencies typically requires complex and bulky systems. Here, the authors present an opto-electronics-based, frequency-domain terahertz sensing technique which offers competitive measurement performance in a much simpler system.

The COP9 signalosome (CSN) regulates Cullin-RING Ligase 2 (CRL2) but the molecular basis for their interaction is unknown. Here the authors use structural mass spectrometry and cryo-EM approaches to assess the structures and dynamics of CSN-CRL2 complexes.

Experimental evidence of coherent charge transport in the normal state of the kagome metal CsV₃Sb₅ is presented, revealing the nature of correlated order in kagome metals and new directions for exploring quantum coherence in correlated electron systems.

PARP enzymes play key roles in human biology, but their regulation remains poorly understood. This study shows that PARP15 is activated through dimerization of its catalytic domain and reveals how this event primes the domain for ADP-ribosyl transfer.

The combination of adaptive optics with an improved isoSTED nanoscope allows imaging of cells and tissues with sub-50-nm isotropic resolution.

Water window imaging with high-harmonic generation is achieved using soft X-ray coherence tomography (SXCT), revealing the cross-sectional structure of buried nanolayers with 12 nm axial resolution.

The decision of whether and when a cell divides is tightly controlled. Here, the authors show in yeast that there is a multi-step competition between different phosphorylation states and sites in the S phase CDK-Sic1 complex, which controls Sic1 degradation and coordinates the precise timing of the G1/S transition.

Monolayer graphene can support the quantum Hall effect up to room temperature. Here, the authors provide evidence that graphene encapsulated in hexagonal boron nitride realizes a novel transport regime where dissipation in the quantum Hall phase is mediated predominantly by electron-phonon scattering rather than disorder scattering.

RNA-binding proteins (RBPs) considerably expand the information content of the genome and can determine the lifespan, localization and function of RNA, thereby controlling when, where and how much protein is produced. There is a growing body of evidence that links RBPs to specialized functions of immune cells and they can also mediate cell-autonomous immunity to foreign RNA and to misfolded self-RNAs. This Review examines how RBPs regulate the biogenesis and fate of mRNAs to mediate immune cell function and cell-autonomous immunity and their roles in immunodeficiency, autoimmunity and chronic inflammation.

Atomic clocks using optical transitions have much better frequency stability compared to microwave counterparts, but are also more complex, which means their use has been mostly lab-based so far. Here, the authors demonstrate successful operation of three different optical atomic clocks on a ship at sea for three weeks.