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A pangenome analysis of 76 wild and domesticated barley accessions in combination with short-read sequence data of 1,315 barley genotypes indicates that allelic diversity at structurally complex loci may have helped crop plants to adapt to agricultural ecosystems.

In global drylands, soils tend to be more fertile beneath tree, shrub and grass islands. Soil fertility was greater beneath taller and wider plants but was unaffected by either grazing pressure or the type of herbivore.

A NutNet global grassland study finds that leaf N, P and K consistently respond to soil nutrient additions, but leaf morphological traits, such as specific leaf area, are inconsistent indicators of anthropogenic perturbations.

CrSBr is a van der Waals layered antiferromagnet. Unlike many other van der Waals magnetic materials it is air stable, and in addition hosts a rich array of magneto-optical responses. Here, Tabataba-Vakili et al demonstrate that the magnetic and optical response of CrSBr is sensitive to gating, allowing electrical control of the magneto-optical properties.

The magnetoresistance suggests an exotic topological phase in LaBi, but the evidence is still missing. Here, Nayaket al. report the existence of surface states of LaBi through the observation of three Dirac cones, confirming it a topological semimetal.

The spins of single molecules and defect centres possess properties which can be strongly influenced by their material contacts in electrical junctions. Here, the authors study the coupling between cobalt hydride complexes and a Rh(111) contact, mediated through a hexagonal boron nitride layer.

Alien species of animals and plants can invade new regions of the earth. This study performs a global analysis of temporal dynamics and spatial patterns of alien species introductions over the past 200 years, and reports no saturation in the rate at which these invasion are increasing.

Analyses of the relationships between temperature, moisture and seven key plant functional traits across the tundra and over time show that community height increased with warming across all sites, whereas other traits lagged behind predicted rates of change.

Here, Saha et al. show that self-intercalation of e₂Cr atoms in CrTe₂ create an asymmetry in the number of atoms intercalated in the van der Waals gaps between the layers of CrTe₂. This inversion symmetry breaking leads to non-collinear spin-textures and Néel-type magnetic skyrmions over a wide temperature range.

The family of topological materials has been growing rapidly but most members bare limitations hindering the study of exotic behaviour of topological particles. Here, Schoop et al. report a Fermi surface with a diamond-shaped line of Dirac nodes in ZrSiS, providing a promising candidate for studying two-dimensional Dirac fermions.

Owing to its very low magnetization, small currents suffice to write a ferrimagnetic Heusler memory layer in complementary metal–oxide–semiconductor-compatible magnetic tunnel via spin-transfer torque, which can help in shrinking the memory cell and extending the application space for magnetic random-access memory.

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.

External driving of Rabi oscillations is a first step in the coherent manipulation of spin systems. Here the authors use ultrafast optical pulses to produce classical Rabi oscillations in ferromagnetic CoFeB, enabling the exploration of coherent phenomena in dense ferromagnetic ensembles.

An integrated structural biology approach encompassing solid-state NMR and molecular dynamics simulations was implemented to obtain an atomic view of the ordered polyglutamine core and fuzzy coat of the amyloid-like protein aggregates implicated in Huntington’s disease.

Examination of archaeological pottery residues and modern genes suggest that environmental conditions, subsistence economics and pathogen exposure may explain selection for lactase persistence better than prehistoric consumption of milk.

Melinda Mills, Nicola Barban, Harold Snieder, Marcel den Hoed and colleagues perform a meta-analysis of data from over 300,000 individuals for age at first birth and number of children ever born. They identify 12 significant loci that associate with these traits, providing insights into the genetic basis of human reproductive behavior.

Large genome-wide meta-analysis of clinically diagnosed late-onset Alzheimer’s disease (LOAD) from 94,437 individuals identifies new LOAD risk loci and implicates Aβ formation, tau protein binding, immune response and lipid metabolism.

Pompe disease (PD) is a rare disorder that leads to progressive muscle weakness if left untreated. Here, the authors use multispectral optoacoustic tomography (MSOT) to map and quantify the composition of affected muscle tissue to determine disease severity and potentially monitor future therapies.

Liquid crystals that consist of rod-like molecules currently dominate the materials used in industry for display and photonic applications. Here, the authors demonstrate electro-optic grey-scale switching based on the spontaneous formation of a short-pitch helix in a tilted smectic phase of achiral bent-core molecules.

Soil organism biodiversity contributes to ecosystem function, but biodiversity and function have not been equivalently studied across the globe. Here the authors identify locations, environment types, and taxonomic groups for which there is currently a lack of biodiversity and ecosystem function data in the existing literature.

Remotely sensed NDVI data and contemporary field data from 84 grasslands on 6 continents show increasing divergence in aboveground plant biomass between sites in different bioclimatic regions.

This study uses gene expression predictors for the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and other brain regions to perform a transcriptomic imputation analysis of schizophrenia, identifying 413 genic associations across 13 brain regions and 36 significantly enriched pathways.

The One Thousand Plant Transcriptomes Initiative provides a robust phylogenomic framework for examining green plant evolution that comprises the transcriptomes and genomes of diverse species of green plants.

Using a sample of more than 1 million individuals, Hatoum et al. identify genomic loci associated with general and substance-specific addiction risk.

Based on Bader charge descriptors, a Cu2ZnSnS4 nanosheet with S defects is developed for photocatalytic CO2 reduction. Under visible light irradiation, C2H4 is produced from CO2 with a yield of 25.16 µmol g-1 h-1 with ~50% selectivity.

Exome sequencing within a structured diagnostic process for rare diseases in Germany shows how facial image analysis and machine learning can guide variant prioritization and uncover many ultrarare diseases.

Artificial intelligence has become popular as a cancer classification tool, but there is distrust of such systems due to their lack of transparency. Here, the authors develop an explainable AI system which produces text- and region-based explanations alongside its classifications which was assessed using clinicians’ diagnostic accuracy, diagnostic confidence, and their trust in the system.

The authors analyse the coordination and trade-off of the aboveground and fine-root traits of vascular plants using global trait databases.

The mainstream passivation strategies routinely rely on crystalline materials for perovskite photovoltaics. Here, authors utilize a solid phase reaction to prepare an amorphous (lysine)₂PbI₂ layer to neutralize surface and interface defects, achieving device efficiency of over 26% for solar cells.

Species’ range shifts projections are usually based on climate and land cover variables. Here, the authors use long-term records for bird species to show that species distribution models accounting for climate and land cover often fail to predict observed range shifts.

The technological application of ultrafast terahertz magnons in itinerant ferromagnetic nanostructures is currently limited by magnon relaxation due to Landau damping. Here, Qin et al. demonstrate suppressed Landau damping and enhanced magnon lifetimes in ultrathin films of Fe–Pd alloy.

It remains unclear whether exotic and native species are functionally different. Using a global grassland experiment, Seabloomet al. show that native and exotic species respond differently to two globally pervasive environmental changes, addition of mineral nutrients and alteration of herbivore density.

By twisting two bilayers of CrSBr, which is a 2D antiferromagnet, a >700% nonvolatile tunnelling magnetoresistance at zero field is shown, demonstrating a new strategy for constructing all-antiferromagnetic tunnel junctions down to the atomic limit.

A chip-compatible beamsplitter that can separate left- and right-handed circularly polarized light is promising for constructing more sophisticated integrated optical circuits. The prism-shaped device, which operates around the telecommunication wavelength of 1.5 μm, consists of a photonic crystal composed of an array of helical structures.

Springtails are omnipresent soil arthropods, vital for ecosystems. In the first global assessment of springtails, this study shows a 20-fold biomass difference between the tundra and the tropics, with distinct temperature-related patterns for diversity and metabolism that suggest climate change may restructure the functioning of soil biodiversity.

The species threat abatement and restoration (STAR) metric quantifies the contributions that abating threats and restoring habitats offer towards reducing species’ extinction risk in specific places.

Extreme flood risk can be predicted based on stream network organization and flow regime, according to analysis of hydroclimatic observational records.

This Consensus Statement presents the standards for technical reporting in environmental and host-associated microbiome studies (STREAMS) guidelines.

The tunable control of the interaction among oscillators usually requires additional electronic components. Here, Li et al. show that the thermal coupling synchronizes neighboring VO₂ oscillators without any extra electronic components, reducing the energy consumption.

Integration of GWAS and single-cell transcriptomic data from the entire nervous system systematically identifies cell types underlying brain complex traits and provides insights into the etiology of Parkinson’s disease.

Sexual dimorphism in genetic vulnerability to schizophrenia, systemic lupus erythematosus and Sjögren’s syndrome is linked to differential protein abundance from alleles of complement component 4.

Trees come in all shapes and size, but what drives this incredible variation in tree form remains poorly understood. Using a global dataset, the authors show that a combination of climate, competition, disturbance and evolutionary history shape the crown architecture of the world’s trees and thereby constrain the 3D structure of woody ecosystems.

Christopher Newton-Cheh and colleagues report genome-wide association analyses for QT interval, an electrocardiographic measure reflecting myocardial repolarization, in 100,000 individuals. They identify 35 loci associated with QT interval and highlight a role for calcium regulation in myocardial repolarization.

Genome-wide association analyses of two oral glucose tolerance test-derived measures of postprandial insulin resistance discover ten new loci. Functional characterization identifies nine candidate genes implicated in the regulation of GLUT4.