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Regional differences in SARS-CoV-2 variants may affect treatment outcome. Here, the authors show that near-sourced convalescent plasma has higher efficacy, as defined by death within 30 days of transfusion, than plasma sourced more than 150 miles away.

The demethylase activity of KDM5A is allosterically enhanced by binding of histone H3 to its PHD1 reader domain, through an unknown mechanism. Here the authors show that the PHD1 domain drives ligand-induced allosteric stimulation by stabilizing the binding of substrate to the catalytic domain.

Conducting atom-optical experiments in space is interesting for fundamental physics and challenging due to different environment compared to ground. Here the authors report matter-wave interferometry in space using atomic BECs in a sounding rocket.

The cell cycle of the archaeon Saccharolobus islandicus displays similarities to that of eukaryotic cells. Here, the authors use transcriptomic analysis of synchronized cultures to show that various metabolic pathways, cell motility, and antiviral defense systems are cell cycle-regulated in this organism.

Blanc et al. uncover how chronic inflammation triggers an epigenetic switch in aged muscle stem cells, leading to iron accumulation and cell death by ferroptosis—offering insights into muscle aging and potential paths for regenerative therapies.

Recent genomic approaches are providing unprecedented opportunity to disentangle how genotype and environment affect organismal traits. The authors review the role of epigenetic variation in mediating the genotype–phenotype map across three scales: among individuals within a generation, across one or multiple generations, and long term over evolutionary time.

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.

A study reports whole-genome sequences for 490,640 participants from the UK Biobank and combines these data with phenotypic data to provide new insights into the relationship between human variation and sequence variation.

Bacteria have evolved numerous innate and adaptive defence mechanisms. Here, Beavogui et al characterise the impact of biogeography, genetic mobility, and clustering in defense islands, on the defence systems of soil, marine, and human gut bacterial populations genomes.

A genome-wide study by the Long COVID Host Genetics Initiative identifies an association between the FOXP4 locus and long COVID, implicating altered lung function in its pathophysiology.

Optimized infrared hyperspectral imaging can now detect methane gradients on a sub-m² scale. This can facilitate remote assessment of methane sources and sinks to improve understanding of the cycling of this important greenhouse gas.

Autonomous delivery of exogenous cargo into plant tissues is achieved by a nanocarrier system harnessing amino acid transporters, enabling force-free, species-independent uptake and ultra-low dose drought resistance in crops like soybean and maize.

Analysis of massively parallel reporter assays measuring the transcriptional activity of DNA sequences indicates that most transcription factor (TF) activity is additive and does not rely on specific TF–TF interactions. Individual TFs can have different gene regulatory activities.

An information-theoretic analysis of DNA methylation in samples from patients with paediatric acute lymphoblastic leukaemia reveals that a regulatory set of driver genes harbour the greatest differences in methylation stochasticity.

Disease risk variants can exert their influence on phenotypes by altering epigenome function. Here, Pelikan et al. show that variants inducing allelic imbalance in histone marks in lymphoblastoid cell lines from lupus patients are enriched in autoimmune disease haplotypes and influence gene expression.

Many mountain glaciers will disappear with warming. Here the authors assess how many glaciers will disappear per year under different warming scenarios, finding that a peak in glacier loss will happen during the mid-twenty-first century.

Kondo physics has been observed in moiré bilayers, but the expected magnetic transitions have not been reported. Now, a metal–insulator transition with ferromagnetic order that develops at nearly the same time is reported in a moiré bilayer.

The implementation of bio-inspired sparse coding algorithms aimed at image processing is demonstrated by exploiting 32 × 32 crossbar arrays of analogue memristors.

As modern humans migrated out of Africa, they encountered novel habitats. Here, Wedage et al. study the archaeological site of Fa-Hien Lena in Sri Lanka and show that the earliest human residents of the island practiced specialized hunting of small mammals, demonstrating ecological plasticity.

Environmental influences during prenatal development may have implications for health and disease later in life. Here, Czamara et al. assess DNA methylation in cord blood from new-born under various models including environmental and genetic effects individually and their additive or interaction effects.

Individuals show large variability in their capacity to lose weight and maintain this weight. Here, the authors perform GWAS in two weight loss intervention cohorts and identify two genetic loci associated with weight loss that are taken forward for Bayesian fine-mapping and functional assessment in flies.

Here, the authors develop a deep-learning algorithm to predict biomarkers from histopathological imaging in advanced urothelial cancer patients. This method detects suitable patients for targeted therapy clinical trials with a significant reduction in molecular testing, providing cost and time savings in real-world clinical settings.

Histone post-translational modifications are known key regulators of gene expression. Here, the authors characterize histone crotonylation at histone H3 lysine 18 in intestinal epithelia and find that it is a highly dynamic cell cycle regulated mark under the regulation of the HDAC deacetylases.

E2F transcription factors are primarily known for the regulation of the cell cycle and are often dysregulated in cancer. Here, the authors show that during cancer progression E2F1 recruits a Pontin/Reptin complex to E2F target genes to open chromatin and increase E2F transcriptional response.

Coding sequence variants in the MAB21L2 gene can cause human eye disorders. Here the authors show that a deletion upstream of MAB21L2 leads to similar eye anomalies in humans, zebrafish and frogs due to the disruption of evolutionarily conserved regulatory elements.

Stem or progenitor cells have so far remained elusive in sea anemones or corals. Here, the authors show that a population of cells that express Vasa2 and Piwi1 genes can generate both germ and somatic cells, for example neurons, in a sea anemone.

A multiomic atlas of human embryonic joint and cranium development enables detailed analysis of bone and cartilage maturation.

A genome-wide-association meta-analysis of 18,381 austim spectrum disorder (ASD) cases and 27,969 controls identifies five risk loci. The authors find quantitative and qualitative polygenic heterogeneity across ASD subtypes.

Archaeological discoveries from Malta suggest that humans were present on the Maltese islands from around 8,500 years ago, providing evidence that Mesolithic hunter-gatherers made sea crossings as long as 100 km.

The impact of non-coding somatic mutations in gastric cancer is unknown. Here, using whole genome sequencing data from 212 gastric tumors, the authors identify recurring mutations at specific CTCF binding sites that are common across gastrointestinal cancers and associated with chromosomal instability.

Reference assemblies of great ape sex chromosomes show that Y chromosomes are more variable in size and sequence than X chromosomes and provide a resource for studies on human evolution and conservation genetics of non-human apes.

CENP-A is a stable centromere mark, although active transcription poses a potential threat for retaining CENP-A through chromatin remodeling and nucleosome eviction. Here, the authors show that maintenance of the centromeric mark is preserved by Spt6, which recycles CENP-A nucleosomes.

Evidence of a transcriptional signature that marks precursors of long-lived CD8⁺ memory T cells in SARS-CoV-2 infection.

The combination of short-read sequence data, synthetic long reads and physical genome mapping allows for a phased de novo assembly of human genomes.

North Atlantic Deep Water formation was only moderately weaker than it is now during the last glacial period, even when freshwater inputs were high, according to an analysis of independent proxy records.

Understanding deregulation of biological pathways in cancer can provide insight into disease etiology and potential therapies. Here, as part of the PanCancer Analysis of Whole Genomes (PCAWG) consortium, the authors present pathway and network analysis of 2583 whole cancer genomes from 27 tumour types.

There’s an emerging body of evidence to show how biological sex impacts cancer incidence, treatment and underlying biology. Here, using a large pan-cancer dataset, the authors further highlight how sex differences shape the cancer genome.

Analyses of 2,658 whole genomes across 38 types of cancer identify the contribution of non-coding point mutations and structural variants to driving cancer.

In somatic cells the mechanisms maintaining the chromosome ends are normally inactivated; however, cancer cells can re-activate these pathways to support continuous growth. Here, the authors characterize the telomeric landscapes across tumour types and identify genomic alterations associated with different telomere maintenance mechanisms.

With the generation of large pan-cancer whole-exome and whole-genome sequencing projects, a question remains about how comparable these datasets are. Here, using The Cancer Genome Atlas samples analysed as part of the Pan-Cancer Analysis of Whole Genomes project, the authors explore the concordance of mutations called by whole exome sequencing and whole genome sequencing techniques.

The flagship paper of the ICGC/TCGA Pan-Cancer Analysis of Whole Genomes Consortium describes the generation of the integrative analyses of 2,658 cancer whole genomes and their matching normal tissues across 38 tumour types, the structures for international data sharing and standardized analyses, and the main scientific findings from across the consortium studies.

Whole-genome sequencing data from more than 2,500 cancers of 38 tumour types reveal 16 signatures that can be used to classify somatic structural variants, highlighting the diversity of genomic rearrangements in cancer.

Viral pathogen load in cancer genomes is estimated through analysis of sequencing data from 2,656 tumors across 35 cancer types using multiple pathogen-detection pipelines, identifying viruses in 382 genomic and 68 transcriptome datasets.