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Analysis of soundscape data from 139 globally distributed sites reveals that sounds of biological origin exhibit predictable rhythms depending on location and season, whereas sounds of anthropogenic origin are less predictable. Comparisons between paired urban–rural sites show that urban green spaces are noisier and dominated by sounds of technological origin.

A region on chromosome 19p13 is associated with the risk of developing ovarian and breast cancer. Here, the authors genotyped SNPs in this region in thousands of breast and ovarian cancer patients and identified SNPs associated with three genes, which were analysed with functional studies.

Fine-mapping of causal variants and integration of epigenetic and chromatin conformation data identify likely target genes for 150 breast cancer risk regions.

While a large amount of genomic resources is available, the phylogeny of wild and cultivated beets remains unclear. Here, the authors use the k-mer-based Mash method to analyze resequenced genomes of 606 accessions of the genus Beta and reveal Greece as the domestication site of sugar beet.

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.

Nancy Jenkins, Neal Copeland and colleagues report the results of a Sleeping Beauty transposon mutagenesis screen in mice carrying a melanocyte-specific inducible Braf^V600E allele. Analysis of transposon insertion sites identified candidate genetic drivers of melanoma.

Here the authors identify age-associated changes in the epithelial cell compartment of the thymus that form high-density nonproductive microenvironmental niches that contribute toward thymic involution and inhibit its repair following injury.

This study finds that sST2 is a disease-causing factor for Alzheimer’s disease. Higher sST2 levels impair microglial Aβ clearance in APOE4⁺ female individuals. A genetic variant, rs1921622, is associated with a reduction in sST2 level and protects against AD in APOE4⁺ female individuals.

Nancy Jenkins and colleagues report the use of Sleeping Beauty transposon mutagenesis screens in mice to identify new genes involved in tumor progression in colorectal cancer. They identify 111 common transposon insertion sites present in all cohorts, including Znf292, a new tumor suppressor whose human counterpart is also mutated in human colorectal cancer.

Breast cancer risk for BRCA1/BRCA2 mutation carriers varies depending on other genetic factors. Here, the authors perform a case-only genome-wide association study and highlight novel loci associated with breast cancer risk for BRCA1/BRCA2 mutation carriers.

Alzheimer’s disease is heterogeneous in its neuroimaging and clinical phenotypes. Here the authors present a semi-supervised deep learning method, Smile-GAN, to show four neurodegenerative patterns and two progression pathways providing prognostic and clinical information.

The interplay between amyloid and tau pathology in Alzheimer’s disease is still not well understood. Here, the authors show that amyloid-related increased in soluble p-tau is related to subsequent accumulation of tau aggregates and cognitive decline in early stage of the disease.

In this study the authors identify a possible link between the gene FAM222A and brain atrophy. The protein it encodes is found to accumulate in plaques seen in Alzheimer’s disease, and functional analysis suggests it interacts with amyloid-beta.

Oligodendrogenesis is shown to be involved in reward learning, with dopaminergic neuronal activity-regulated myelin plasticity being an important reward circuit modification.

Many nematode worms, including Caenorhabditis elegans have XX/XO sex determination, while other species have XY. The authors use a new genome assembly of the filarial parasite Brugia malayi and published data to show that nematode sex chromosome evolution is highly plastic.

Oncogenic driver mutations are identified in single cells by a transposon-based sequencing method.

A risk score based on a 34-gene signature for outcome prediction in meningioma was developed and validated in large multi-institutional cohorts and showed better performance in discriminating postoperative menignioma outcomes compared with existing meningioma classification systems.

Sun et al. report human lifespan changes in the brain’s functional connectome in 33,250 individuals, which highlights critical growth milestones and distinct maturation patterns and offers a normative reference for development, aging and diseases.

The bacterial second messenger c-di-GMP is important for host association of microbes in C. elegans and beyond.

Tau accumulation is associated with disease progression in Alzheimer’s disease. Here the authors use resting state fMRI and tau-PET to demonstrate that baseline connectivity in Alzheimer's disease is associated with tau spreading.

The Somatic Mosaicism across Human Tissues Network aims to create a reference catalogue of somatic mosaicism across different tissues and cells within individuals.

Chiuppesi et al. demonstrate the use of a synthetic poxvirus-based platform to rapidly generate multi-antigenic vaccine candidates expressing spike and nucleocapsid antigens of SARS-CoV-2. Immunization of mice stimulates potent antigen-specific humoral and cellular immune responses, including neutralizing antibodies.

Condensates have been proposed to create a distinct chemical solvating environment. In vitro condensate screens suggest that condensate chemical environments influence the intracellular distribution of small molecules.

Several studies show that APOE-ε4 coding variants are associated with Alzheimer’s disease (AD) risk. Here, Zhou et al. perform fine-mapping of the APOE region and find AD risk haplotypes with non-coding variants in the PVRL2 and APOC1 regions that are associated with relevant endophenotypes.

Over 170 susceptibility loci have been identified by genome-wide association studies in breast cancer. Here, the authors interrogated the role of risk-associated variants from non-breast tissue, and using expression quantitative trait loci, identify potential target genes of known breast cancer susceptibility variants, as well as 11 regions not previously known to be associated with breast cancer risk.

In Alzheimer’s disease (AD) tau and neurodegeneration have complex regional relationships. Here, the authors show neuronal hypometabolism discordant with tau burden defines functional resilience or susceptibility to Alzheimer’s pathology via limbic/cortical axes. Susceptible groups have faster cognitive decline and evidence of non-Alzheimer’s pathologies.

The authors find that the insulin receptor forms dynamic clusters during insulin signaling and that these clusters become dysfunctional in insulin resistance. This dysfunction is partially rescued by metformin, a drug used to treat type 2 diabetes.

The tau protein is theorized to spread transneuronally in Alzheimers disease, though this theory remains unproven in humans. Our simulations of epidemic-like protein spreading across human brain networks support this theory, and suggest the spreading dynamics are modified by β-amyloid

Systematic characterization of longitudinal tau variability in human Alzheimer’s disease using an unbiased subtyping algorithm reveals four trajectories of tau deposition with distinct clinical features.

Alzheimer’s disease has been associated with increased structural brain aging. Here the authors describe a model that predicts brain aging from resting state functional connectivity data, and demonstrate this is accelerated in individuals with pre-clinical familial Alzheimer’s disease.