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The Vertebrate Genome Project has used an optimized pipeline to generate high-quality genome assemblies for sixteen species (representing all major vertebrate classes), which have led to new biological insights.

Mechanisms explaining the milder clinical syndrome that is observed in children with SARS-CoV-2 infection.

There is a need to control molecular activities at high spatial precision. Here the authors report a real-time precision opto-control technology that detects a chemical-specific optical response from molecular targets, and precisely control photoswitchable microtubule polymerization inhibitors in cells.

Reward seeking behaviors involve dopamine (DA) release but the circuits underlying avoidance behavior remain comparatively understudied. Here the authors show that phasic increases in DA release in rats are higher for reward and avoidance cues compared with neutral cues and are positively correlated with poor avoidance.

Amidst the collective push to establish nature conservation initiatives, little attention has been paid to ensuring that they persist over time. The abandonment of conservation commitments is a blind spot that threatens progress towards global environmental goals.

Dynamic interface printing is a new form of 3D printing that leverages an acoustically modulated, constrained air–liquid boundary to rapidly generate centimetre-scale 3D structures within tens of seconds.

Understanding the forces behind the successful governance of common-pool resources is crucial to sustainable development. This study reveals the importance of establishing and enforcing ‘access rights’ in the face of intergroup conflicts over resources to facilitate the evolution of sustainable ‘use rights’.

Genome-wide analysis of the malaria vector Anopheles darlingi from Rondônia State, Brazil, explores genetic diversity, insecticide resistance, and signatures of natural selection in this mosquito species.

Detailed neutron scattering, magnetic susceptibility and muon spin relaxation studies indicate the absence of long-range magnetic order in the quantum magnet TbInO₃ down to 0.46 K— an observation consistent with quantum spin liquid behaviour.

Applications of atom interferometry require sufficiently long coherence times. Now, confining atoms in an optical lattice shows that the decoherence rate slows down markedly at hold times that exceed tens of seconds.

A clinical review of all pediatric deaths in England from March 2020 to February 2021 attributes 25 deaths to SARS-CoV-2 infection and identifies risk factors to guide interventions.

The genetic basis of how cells replicate their DNA is not well understood. Here, the authors identify >1000 genetic elements that control human replication and reveal a complex epigenetic system that regulates replication origin activities.

Results from screening hundreds of compounds on panels of primary human cells supports the use of such data for chemical safety testing.

Chen and colleagues report that the third enzyme in the oxidative pentose phosphate pathway (PPP), 6PGD, controls cancer cell proliferation by regulating LKB1–AMPK signalling. Inhibitors of 6PGD decrease tumorigenesis in mouse xenografts.

Analyses of multiregional tumour samples from 421 patients with non-small cell lung cancer prospectively enrolled to the TRACERx study reveal determinants of tumour evolution and relationships between intratumour heterogeneity and clinical outcome.

Structural insights demonstrating small-molecule-mediated dimerization of BRD4 bromodomains led to the development of biBET, a compound that potently inhibits BRD4–acetyl-lysine interactions by bivalent binding to tandem bromodomains.

Fernando Rivadeneira and colleagues in the Genetic Factors for Osteoporosis Consortium report a large-scale meta-analysis identifying new loci associated with bone mineral density (BMD) and risk of fracture. Thirty-two new loci are found to be associated with BMD, and 6 loci confer higher risk for low-trauma bone fracture.

Known genetic loci account for only a fraction of the genetic contribution to Alzheimer’s disease. Here, the authors have performed a large genome-wide meta-analysis comprising 409,435 individuals to discover 6 new loci and demonstrate the efficacy of an Alzheimer’s disease polygenic risk score.

Suchacki et al. show that serotonin suppresses human brown adipose tissue (BAT) activation, and that inhibition of the serotonin transporter (SERT) potentiates the suppressive action of extracellular serotonin on BAT by preventing serotonin uptake.

In a preclinical study, the delivery of an AAV-based gene therapy encoding GDNF in the brain prevented the return to alcohol use behaviors in a non-human primate model.

The PSA (KLK3) genetic variant rs17632542 is associated with reduced prostate cancer risk and lower serum PSA levels, although the underlying reasons are unclear. Here, the authors show that this PSA variant reduced proteolytic activity and leads to smaller tumours, but also increases invasion and bone metastasis, indicating its dual risk association depending on tumour context; the variant is associated with both lower risk and poor clinical outcomes.

This study presents the genomes of 2,101 emm28 Streptococcus pyogenes invasive strains, of which 492 were transcriptionally profiled, and 50 were assessed for virulence. GWAS, eQTL analysis, and study of isogenic mutant strains identified an intergenic region that alters global transcript profiles and bacterial virulence.

Marginal twisting of 2D semiconductor crystals enables the emergence of room temperature interfacial ferroelectricity.

Polygenic risk scores for Alzheimer’s disease derived from individuals of European ancestry can show improved performance in multiancestry settings after incorporating genome-wide association summary statistics from diverse populations.

Vaccination is effective in protecting from COVID-19. Here the authors report immune responses and breakthrough infections in twice-vaccinated patients receiving anti-TNF treatments for inflammatory bowel disease, and find dampened vaccine responses that implicate the need of adapted vaccination schedules for these patients.

Candida species are the most common cause of opportunistic fungal infection worldwide. Here, the genomes of six Candida species are sequenced and compared with each other and with related pathogens and non-pathogens; providing insight into the genetic features that underlie the diversity of Candida biology, including pathogenesis and the architecture of mating and meiotic processes.

Understanding oscillation phenomena in catalysis is a long-standing challenge. Here the authors report a temporally and spatially resolved operando analysis of CO oxidation over Rh/Al₂O₃, revealing the interplay of Boudouard reaction and carbon combustion in generating the oscillations.

Humans are less sensitive to the therapeutic effects of botulinum neurotoxin B (BoNT/B) than the animal models it is tested on due to differences between the human and the mouse receptors. Here, the authors engineer BoNT/B to improve its affinity to human receptors and enhance its therapeutic efficacy.

Shotgun metagenomic sequencing (using the MinION platform) of mock microbial communities and faecal samples from healthy and ill preterm infants can be used to identify pathogens and their antimicrobial resistance gene profiles in real time, indicating the potential for translation into clinical settings.

Whole-genome sequence data for 108 individuals representing 28 language groups across Australia and five language groups for Papua New Guinea suggests that Aboriginal Australians and Papuans diverged from Eurasian populations approximately 60–100 thousand years ago, following a single out-of-Africa dispersal and subsequent admixture with archaic populations.

Comparison of multiple genome assemblies from wheat reveals extensive diversity that results from the complex breeding history of wheat and provides a basis for further potential improvements to this important food crop.

The risk of intensive care unit admission among children with COVID-19 or its sequelae is affected by age, ethnicity and comorbidities. Understanding these modifiers might help identify at-risk children and guide interventions.

Characterization of the genomes of the parasite Onchocerca volvulus, the causative agent of river blindness, and its Wolbachia symbiont reveals potential therapeutic targets.

Bladder cancer can often exhibit genomic and morphological heterogeneity. Here, the authors use genomics analysis to show lineage plasticity of bladder cancers with squamous differentiation, and identify key transcription factors related to this morphological and immune heterogeneity.

Savage and colleagues identify a population of CD4⁺ T cells within the endogenous repertoire that exhibit hallmarks of overt self-reactivity, spontaneously adopt a follicular helper T cell phenotype and are enriched in non-lymphoid organs following sustained T_reg cell depletion.

Combination of epidemiology, preclinical models and ultradeep DNA profiling of clinical cohorts unpicks the inflammatory mechanism by which air pollution promotes lung cancer

Here, Brotherton and colleagues sequence 39 mitochondrial genomes from ancient human remains. They track population changes across Central Europe and find that the foundations of the European mitochondrial DNA pool were formed during the Neolithic rather than the post-glacial period.

A modular quantum system-on-chip architecture integrates thousands of individually addressable spin qubits in two-dimensional quantum microchiplet arrays into an integrated circuit designed for cryogenic control, supporting full connectivity for quantum memory arrays across spin–photon channels.

Helical nanofilaments—composed of achiral, bent core molecules—have been shown to assemble into left- and right-handed structures. Here, the authors show diastereomeric interactions on the mesocale between chiral liquid crystal guest compounds and helical nanofilament-based pores.

Gene discovery and polygenic predictions from a genome-wide association study of educational attainment in 1.1 million individuals.

Samples of different body regions from hundreds of human donors are used to study how genetic variation influences gene expression levels in 44 disease-relevant tissues.

An integrated analysis of de novo and inherited coding variants in 42,607 individuals with autism spectrum disorder identifies 60 risk genes of which five have not previously been associated with neurodevelopmental disorders.

A longitudinal evolutionary analysis of 126 lung cancer patients with metastatic disease reveals the timing of metastatic divergence, modes of dissemination and the genomic events subject to selection during the metastatic transition.

Genome sequences of human-infective tapeworm species reveal extreme losses of genes and pathways that are ubiquitous in other animals, species-specific expansions of non-canonical heat shock proteins and families of known antigens, specialized detoxification pathways, and metabolism that relies on host nutrients; this information is used to identify new potential drug targets.

Trait introgression requires universal markers, but cross-species transferability of current SNP markers can be as low as 2%. Here, the authors use an AmpSeq haplotype strategy targeting the collinear core genome for marker development and show transferability increases to 91.4% in the Vitis genus.

Theory predicts that organisms in varied environments should evolve to be more phenotypically flexible. Evidence combining genetic and physiological variation with thermal acclimation experiments shows that the thermogenic flexibility of wild juncos is greatest in populations where temperatures are most variable.

Patients with BRAF^V600E-mutated colorectal cancer have encouraging overall response rates to inhibition of PD-1, BRAF and MEK, with translational analyses suggesting that induction of tumor-intrinsic programs and immune programs contributes to improved outcomes via MAPK inhibition.