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The ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider reports a search for charged-lepton-flavour violation in decays of Z bosons into a τ lepton and an electron or muon of opposite charge.

Tree mortality has been shown to be the dominant control on carbon storage in Amazon forests, but little is known of how and why Amazon forest trees die. Here the authors analyse a large Amazon-wide dataset, finding that fast-growing species face greater mortality risk, but that slower-growing individuals within a species are more likely to die, regardless of size.

Nucleocytoplasmic large DNA viruses (NCLDV) exhibit a large genomic repertoire and complex evolutionary history. Here, the authors generate 501 metagenome-assembled genomes from diverse environments and show NCLDVs to harbor a wide range of potential metabolic capabilities.

Understanding the emergence, evolution, and transmission of antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) is essential to combat antimicrobial resistance. Here, Munk et al. analyse ARGs in hundreds of sewage samples from 101 countries and describe regional patterns, diverse genetic environments of common ARGs, and ARG-specific transmission patterns.

Age-associated B cells (ABC) have been shown to be associated with autoimmunity and ageing. Here the authors examine whether ABC are transcriptionally or functionally altered in participants with reduced immune cell function and show that, being transcriptionally similar, high pre-vaccine levels are associated with poor vaccine response.

Epidemiological analyses coupled with immunological phenotyping suggest that humoral immunity induced by COVID-19 vaccines wanes more rapidly in individuals with severe obesity compared to individuals with a BMI within the normal range.

A cross-scale analysis of paired-stressor effects on biological variables of European freshwater ecosystems shows that in 39% of cases, significant effects were limited to single stressors, with nutrient enrichment being the most important of these in lakes. Additive and interactive effects were similarly frequent (ca. 30% each), this frequency being independent of the spatial scale of analysis for lakes but increasing with scale for rivers.

A synthetic yeast-based therapeutic that secretes an ATP-degrading enzyme in response to pro-inflammatory extracellular ATP in the gut reduces intestinal inflammation, fibrosis and dysbiosis in mouse models of colitis and enteritis.

Genome-wide analysis identifies variants associated with the volume of seven different subcortical brain regions defined by magnetic resonance imaging. Implicated genes are involved in neurodevelopmental and synaptic signaling pathways.

In this study, Aggarwal and colleagues perform prospective sequencing of SARS-CoV-2 isolates derived from asymptomatic student screening and symptomatic testing of students and staff at the University of Cambridge. They identify important factors that contributed to within university transmission and onward spread into the wider community.

Cancer whole-genome and transcriptome sequencing (cWGTS) has been challenging to implement in clinical settings. Here, the authors develop a workflow to deliver robust cWGTS analyses and reports within clinically-relevant timeframes for paediatric, adolescent and young adult solid tumour patients.

Patients with chronic lung disease (CLD) have an increased risk for severe coronavirus disease-19 and poor outcomes. Here the authors compare the transcriptomes of single cells isolated from healthy and CLD lungs to identify molecular characteristics of lung cells that may account for worse COVID-19 outcomes in these patients.

A study of the evolution of the SARS-CoV-2 virus in England between September 2020 and June 2021 finds that interventions capable of containing previous variants were insufficient to stop the more transmissible Alpha and Delta variants.

The first operation of the European X-ray free-electron laser facility accelerator based on superconducting technology is reported. The maximum electron energy is 17.5 GeV. A laser average power of 6 W is achieved at a photon energy of 9.3 keV.

This study finds that West African ecosystems are generally more productive than equivalent ecosystems in Amazonia. It also suggests that a semi-deciduous forest site in Ghana is the world’s most productive forest measured to date.

Ecosystem services provided by dung beetles are an underappreciated component of terrestrial ecosystems. Here, the authors report a standardized distributed experiment which shows that dung removal rate, a key ecosystem process in pastures, is greater under high beetle functional diversity regardless of grazing intensity.

Post-international travel quarantine has been widely implemented to mitigate SARS-CoV-2 transmission, but the impacts of such policies are unclear. Here, the authors used linked genomic and contact tracing data to assess the impacts of a 14-day quarantine on return to England in summer 2020.

The genetic prehistory of central America has not been well explored. Here, the authors find evidence from ancient DNA from twenty individuals who lived in Belize 9,600 to 3,700 years ago of a migration from the south that coincided with the first evidence for forest clearing and the spread of maize horticulture.

Long-lived, self-renewing ‘progenitor-like’ CD8⁺ T cells can arise during chronic viral infection or in cancer. Wu and colleagues identify the transcription factor TOX as essential to endow ‘stemness’ and long-term persistence in the face of chronic infection.

The semileptonic decay channels of the Λc baryon can give important insights into weak interaction, but decay into a neutron, positron and electron neutrino has not been reported so far, due to difficulties in the final products’ identification. Here, the BESIII Collaboration reports its observation in e+e- collision data, exploiting machine-learning-based identification techniques.

The authors show that large endogenous viral elements derived from giant viruses are prominent components of green algal genomes.

The Omicron variant evades vaccine-induced neutralization but also fails to form syncytia, shows reduced replication in human lung cells and preferentially uses a TMPRSS2-independent cell entry pathway, which may contribute to enhanced replication in cells of the upper airway. Altered fusion and cell entry characteristics are linked to distinct regions of the Omicron spike protein.

Genome-wide association analyses of blood glucose measurements under nonstandardized conditions provide insights into the biology of glucose regulation, diabetes complications and pathways for treatment stratification.

Individuals over eighty years of age are less likely to mount a good immune response against SARS-CoV-2 (measured by neutralization titres) after the first dose of the BNT162b2 mRNA vaccine, but achieve good neutralization after the second dose.

Cortex morphology varies with age, cognitive function, and in neurological and psychiatric diseases. Here the authors report 160 genome-wide significant associations with thickness, surface area and volume of the total cortex and 34 cortical regions from a GWAS meta-analysis in 22,824 adults.

City-level analysis of data from the SALURBAL project shows vast heterogeneity in life expectancy across cities within the same country, in addition to substantive differences in causes of death among nine Latin American countries, revealing modifiable factors that could be leveraged by municipal-level policies aimed toward improving health in urban environments.

Ultra-high-energy gamma-ray emission from the microquasar V4641 Sagittarii is reported, suggesting that large-scale jets from microquasars could be more common than previously thought and also could be a notable source of galactic cosmic rays.

Genome-wide analysis of matched human IVF embryonic stem cells (IVF ES cells), induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS cells) and nuclear transfer ES cells (NT ES cells) derived by somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) reveals that human somatic cells can be faithfully reprogrammed to pluripotency by SCNT; NT ES cells and iPS cells derived from the same somatic cells contain comparable numbers of de novo copy number variations, but whereas DNA methylation and transcriptome profiles of NT ES cells and IVF ES cells are similar, iPS cells have residual patterns typical of parental somatic cells.

Drought impacts on tropical forest soil carbon and greenhouse gas dynamics are poorly understood. Here, the authors investigate the impacts of the 2015 drought in a forest in Puerto Rico and find that it caused shifts in soil carbon dioxide and methane emissions and led to a decrease in available phosphorus.

Experiments at the Joint European Torus tokamak show improved thermal ion confinement in the presence of highly energetic ions and Alfvénic instabilities in the plasma.

Tuoqi Wu and colleagues show that the transcriptional repressor BACH2 is required early after chronic viral infection to enforce a stem-like fate in activated CD8⁺ T cells. BACH2 acts to suppress genes that lead to the exhausted cell state.

The dynamic process behind the low-speed drop-impact erosion remains challenging to understand. Cheng et al. develop a method of high-speed microscopy, revealing the fast propagation of self-similar stress maxima underneath impacting drops and the formation of surface waves on impacted substrates.

Global patterns of regional plant diversity are relatively well known, but whether they hold for local communities is debated. This study created multi-grain global maps of alpha diversity for vascular plants to provide a nuanced understanding of plant diversity hotspots and improve predictions of global change effects on biodiversity.

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.

Analysis of 2,170 SARS-CoV-2 sequences from the first wave of the COVID-19 epidemic in Spain provides insights into transmission patterns and the effects of lockdown on the emergence of new variants.

The hippocampus in mammalian brain varies in size across individuals. Here, Hibar and colleagues perform a genome-wide association meta-analysis to find six genetic loci with significant association to hippocampus volume.

The Amazon rainforest is dominated by relatively few tree species, yet the degree to which this hyperdominance influences carbon cycling remains unknown. Here, the authors analyse 530 forest plots and show that ∼1% of species are responsible for 50% of the aboveground carbon storage and productivity.

Plasma levels of liver enzymes provide insights into hepatic function and related diseases. Here, the authors perform a genome-wide association study on three liver enzymes, identifying genetic variants associated with their plasma concentration as well as links to metabolic and cardiovascular diseases.

High-spatial-resolution images of the bright points at Occator crater on Ceres, taken during the second extended Dawn mission, allowed reconstruction of the chronology of their formation. The area experienced extensive cryovolcanism less than nine million years ago that lasted several million years, indicating recent geological activity.

The icy dwarf planet Makemake has projected axes of 1,430 ± 9 and 1,502 ± 45 km and a V-band geometric albedo larger than Pluto’s but smaller than Eris’s, with no global Pluto-like atmosphere.

Contrary to the view that urbanization is a major driver of the global rise in obesity, the global increase in body-mass index is shown to be mostly due to increases in the body-mass indexes of rural populations.

Analysis of the spread of the 20E (EU1) variant of SARS-CoV-2 through Europe suggests that international travel and insufficient containment, rather than increased transmissibility, led to a resurgence of infections.

The shape and internal structure of bilobate comet 67P is controlled by shear deformation inducing mechanically driven erosion along shear fracture networks, according to a 3D analysis of images from the Rosetta mission.