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Breeding crops with delayed senescence could plausibly increase grain yield. Here the authors show that variation at the rice SGR locus contributes to differences in senescence between indica and japonica subspecies and show that introgression can increase yield in an elite indica rice variety.

CURT1/CurT proteins, known for shaping thylakoid membranes in photosynthetic organisms, play a newly found role in coordinating cell division and symmetry. Being shared in cyanobacteria and green algae this role is likely phylogenetically ancient.

Engineering structurally and functionally complex synthetic cells remains a key challenge. Here DNA condensate synthetic cells combine phase separation and DNA nanostructures to reveal how switchable artificial cytoskeletons assemble in viscoelastic confinements. These cytoskeletons improve the mechanical properties of synthetic cells and enable stable mechano-interfaces with mammalian cells.

Klein and colleagues characterize 04_A06, a new V_H1-2-encoded broadly neutralizing antibody that has marked breadth and potency against extended multiclade HIV-1 pseudovirus panels and can maintain full viral suppression in HIV-1-infected humanized mice.

A complementary analysis of DESI DR2 distance measurements along with supernova and CMB data shows consistent, moderate evidence that dark energy changes over time rather than behaving as a simple cosmological constant.

Cortical networks switch from asynchronous firing to sudden synchronized population events. Here, the authors show that differential excitatory short-term synaptic plasticity onto either excitatory or inhibitory targets establishes and shapes the dynamics of these population events.

Crystal structures of HIV Env trimer with native glycosylation in complex with neutralizing antibodies reveal a glycan shield of high-mannose and complex-type N-glycan and indicate a path for germline-targeting vaccine design.

Different types of SETBP1 variants cause variable developmental syndromes with only partial clinical and functional overlaps. Here, the authors report that SETBP1 variants outside the degron region impair DNA-binding, transcription, and neuronal differentiation capacity and morphologies.

Understanding collective behaviour is an important aspect of managing the pandemic response. Here the authors show in a large global study that participants that reported identifying more strongly with their nation reported greater engagement in public health behaviours and support for public health policies in the context of the pandemic.

Here they perform a systematic dissection of OCT4 and reveal how intrinsically disordered regions can be used to serve specific functions during reprogramming and embryonic development. This can be exploited to engineer more efficient and specific reprogramming factors.

Reliable measuring the voltage dynamics of individual neurons in the intact brain is significantly challenging. Here authors developed an all-optical method combining two-photon voltage imaging and optogenetics to measure and induce synaptic plasticity in vivo, revealing LTP of inhibition in cerebellar circuits and providing a blueprint to link synaptic changes to learning.

Defining the spatial organization of tissues and organs like the brain from large datasets is a major challenge. Here, authors introduce CellTransformer, an AI tool that defines spatial domains in the mouse brain based on spatial transcriptomics, a technology that measures which genes are active in different parts of tissue.

Natural products inspire the development of pseudo-natural products through combinations of fragments of compound classes that are chemically and biologically distinct. Here, the authors report a library of 244 pseudo-natural products, evaluate them in the cell painting essays and identify the phenotypic role of individual fragments.

Plasma proteomics plays a key role in advancing clinical research and biomarker discovery. Here, the authors show in a large MSCoreSys multicenter benchmark study that DIA outperforms DDA, delivering robust, precise, and reproducible label-free protein quantification across sites.

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.

Boccella, Yu and colleagues reveal that the transmembrane protein ANTXR1 regulates post-infarction fibrotic remodeling, and its inhibition blocks collagen turnover and improves heart function.

Here, the authors present archaeological excavations from two sites paired with life-size rock engravings from 12,800 to 11,400 years ago in the Nefud desert of northern Arabia. These engravings, depicting camels, ibex and more, combined with stone tools from associated archaeological deposits and sediment analyses of playa deposits, provide evidence of human populations exploiting seasonal waterbodies.

Analysis combining multiple global tree databases reveals that whether a location is invaded by non-native tree species depends on anthropogenic factors, but the severity of the invasion depends on the native species diversity.

In plants, oxidosqualene cyclases (OSCs) perform a highly complex single reaction to generate the basis of all triterpenoid diversity. Here the authors leverage genome mining and transient expression to uncover multiple evolutionary and mechanistic insights for OSCs across the plant kingdom.

A study of several longitudinal birth cohorts and cross-sectional cohorts finds only moderate overlap in genetic variants between autism that is diagnosed earlier and that diagnosed later, so they may represent aetiologically different conditions.

Lee et al. use an aggregation-prone CLN4 mutant that causes lysosomal damage in neurons and show that in non-neurons, the ubiquitin ligase CHIP prevents CLN4-dependent lysotoxicity via microautophagy.

The authors introduce a method that combines physics and machine learning to design dynamic unstructured proteins with tunable ensemble properties like size, shape, sensing and binding.

An inherently explainable AI trained on 1,015 expert-annotated prostate tissue images achieved strong Gleason pattern segmentation while providing interpretable outputs and addressing interobserver variability in pathology.

Cangkrama et al. show that tumor cells from various cancer types use the mitochondrial trafficking protein MIRO2 and nanotubes to transfer mitochondria into surrounding fibroblasts, thereby inducing cancer-associated fibroblast differentiation and subsequent tumor growth.

Defective neurotransmission is a hallmark of spinal muscular atrophy (SMA). Here, the authors show that local presynaptic Munc13-1synthesis is defective in SMA and that modification of the Munc13-1 mRNA rescues presynaptic architecture and excitability.

Lapique, Kim, and colleagues present an open-source approach together with an online probe design platform for in situ RNA and protein analysis. This is an easy-to-use approach that enables vast feature detection, with cycling times under 20 minutes per feature.

PROTACs induce degradation by bridging a target protein and E3 ubiquitin ligase. Here, authors show that protein interface frustration correlates with cooperativity, offering a structural metric to prioritize PROTAC candidates prior to synthesis.

EXO1 performs multiple roles in DNA replication and DNA damage repair (DDR), but its role in DDR-deficient cancers remains unclear. Here, the authors find EXO1 loss as synthetic lethal with many DDR genes involved in various cancers, including genes from Fanconi Anaemia pathway, BRCA1-A complex, and spliceosome factor ZRSR2; such interactions represent potential clinical targets.

Membrane budding plays pivotal roles in cellular processes, but a fully artificial system mimicking natural budding processes remains elusive. Here, the authors report a DNA origami-based membrane budding system that recapitulates key aspects of clathrin-mediated endocytosis without relying on components of cellular budding machineries.

This study incorporates local ancestry into the Genome Aggregation Database (gnomAD) to improve allele frequency estimates for admixed populations, enhancing variant interpretation and enabling more accurate and equitable genomic research and clinical care.

Enterololin is a narrow-spectrum antibiotic that selectively kills Enterobacteriaceae in vitro and in a mouse model of adherent-invasive Escherichia coli gut infection. AI-guided mechanism-of-action studies identified LolCDE as its molecular target.

A 1,024-channel microelectrode array is delivered to the brain cortex via a minimally invasive incision in the skull and dura, and allows recording, stimulation and neural decoding across large portions of the brain in porcine models and human neurosurgical patients.

Liu et al. show that SPIN90 dimerizes and binds two Arp2/3 complexes to nucleate two bidirectional actin filaments and the dimerization domain is conserved in multicellular animals, suggesting that the mechanism of bidirectional actin filament nucleation is conserved.

Massively parallel reporter assay in primary human CD4⁺ T cells and bulk and single-cell CRISPR-interference screens identify candidate causal variants linked to autoimmune disease risk that modulate T cell gene expression and proliferation.

A super-pangenome analysis incorporating 123 newly sequenced bryophyte genomes reveals that bryophytes exhibit a larger number of unique and lineage-specific gene families than vascular plants.

Over 20 species of geographically and phylogenetically diverse bird species produce convergent whining vocalizations towards their respective brood parasites. Model presentation and playback experiments across multiple continents suggest that these learned calls provoke an innate response even among allopatric species.

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.

A single-phase chromium–molybdenum–silicon alloy is described that exhibits compression ductility at room temperature as well as resistance to oxidation, pesting, nitridation and scale spallation at temperatures up to at least 1,100 °C.

Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy-causing mutations in cardiac myosin disrupt its auto-inhibited OFF state, leading to hypercontractility. Here, the authors show that disease-linked mutations remote from intramolecular OFF state interfaces can allosterically impair myosin autoinhibition

Limited diagnostic capacity for asymptomatic individuals hinders malaria elimination efforts in Africa. Here, the authors present a near point-of-care method based on colorimetric LAMP detection that outperforms expert microscopy and commercial rapid diagnostic tests for Plasmodium detection in asymptomatic and submicroscopic individuals.

Functional and structural characterization of PtmA2 reveals that it is an unusual non-adenylating acyl-CoA ligase and part of a system wherein the canonical acyl-CoA ligase reaction is separated into two half-reactions performed by distinct enzymes.

The extracellular matrix provides a critical scaffold for the epidermal layers of the skin. Here, He and Boraas et al. discover that the foundation for resilient skin healing in embryos lies in the supportive matrix beneath stem cells.

Neuroinflammation following intracortical microelectrode implantation impairs long-term brain-machine interface performance. Here, the authors developed a nanoparticle-based therapy that improves local hemostasis and delivers dexamethasone, reducing inflammation.

The Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC) since the Last Interglacial is reconstructed, showing orbital-scale shifts in ACC position driven by eccentricity and precession, possibly counteracting the predicted southward shift due to global warming.

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.

Infant KMT2A-rearranged acute lymphoblastic leukemia is associated with poor overall survival rates. Here, the authors use WGS and WES of 36 relapsed KMT2A-rearranged ALL and AML patients and find alterations in drug response genes in ALL, which may correspond with relapse time. Longitudinal analyses of >250 samples could track residual leukemia cells, clonal drug responses, and the upcoming relapse.

Neoadjuvant immunochemotherapy against NSCLC has been tested in clinical trials. Here, the authors follow up longer-term survival and measure immune cell phenotype changes in a single-arm phase II clinical trial of neoadjuvant immunochemotherapy, indicating association of intratumoural TCR diversity and CD8 T cell positioning.

Chronic care manages long-term, progressive conditions, while acute care handles short-term ones. Here, authors show chronic conditions account for most of the global health burden, with 68% of DALYs and 93% of YLDs attributed to chronic care needs.

Analysis of human Robertsonian chromosomes originating from 13, 14 and 21 reveal that they result from breaks at the SST1 macrosatellite DNA array and recombination between homologous sequences surrounding SST1.