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Japonica subspecies has a lower nitrogen use efficiency (NUE) than that of indica rice. Here, the authors show that natural variations in the NIN-like protein 4 (OsNLP4) encoding gene are responsible for the divergence and introgression of the indica OsNLP4 allele into elite japonica cultivar can increase NUE and grain yield.

A genome-wide association study in rice identifies variation in SBRR1 associated with sheath blight resistance. Introducing the SBRR1-R allele into a commercial rice variety reduces yield loss under severe exposure to sheath blight disease.

α-Chiral amines are ubiquitous in natural products, pharmaceuticals, and other biologically active molecules, making their enantioselective synthesis a critical and enduring pursuit in synthetic chemistry. Here, the authors report a dinickel complex-enabled, enantioselective reductive alkenylation reaction of N-Ts imines with vinyl chlorides to form α-chiral allylic amines.

Eastern Taiwan’s double-vergence suture hosts frequent M ≥ 6 earthquakes and widespread aseismic slip, offering a natural laboratory to study earthquake triggering. The study shows that 24 years of repeating earthquake and earthquake swarm data reveal an aseismic slip acceleration beginning ~3 years before the April 3, 2024 Mw 7.3 Hualien earthquake.

Alone but not lonely.

This study reports that wild boars are a node animal in a virus circulation network connecting different animal taxa. Wild boar viruses not only pose threats to the pig industry but also challenge wildlife conservation and public health.

Mechanisms confer to the enhanced cold tolerance in japonica rice have not been fully elucidated. Here, the authors report a homeodomain-leucine zipper (HD-Zip) I transcription factor encode gene CTB5 is responsible for japonica rice cold tolerance by interacting with genes in gibberellin and abscisic acid pathways.

ALKBH8 is a tRNA methyltransferase, specifically modifying the wobble uridine (U34) in tRNAs. Here, the authors discover that ALKBH8 is a direct transcriptional target of β-catenin, and that mediates intestinal tumorigenesis through regulation of the translation of KRAS in a codon-dependent manner.

Peng et al. show that DLL1-expressing muscle myoblasts not only regulate NOTCH signaling in neighbor cells but also send a retrograde signal to themselves via the DLL1 intracellular domain.

Phenotype-based screening is a major bottleneck in the development of microbial cell factories. Here the authors build an AI-powered digital colony picker for single-cell-resolved, contactless screening and export of microbial strains, which identified lactate-tolerant Zymomonas mobilis mutants.

VRK Serine/Threonine Kinase 2 (VRK2) has shown to play a significant role in apoptosis, cell growth, and immune response. Here the authors report that VRK2 is a key regulator of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) which can enhance myelocytomatosis oncogene (MYC) protein stability and transcriptional activity resulting in HCC progression when expressed increased levels

Control of quantum interference in engineered atomic-scale systems could enable precise manipulation of quantum states, however it has remained challenging. Here the authors demonstrate electrically tunable quantum interference in a system of Ti atoms on MgO surface, using a scanning probe microscope setup.

Zinc is an essential micronutrient for plants, however its excess causes cellular damage. Here, the authors report that natural variation of Trichome Birefringence (TBR) gene confers zinc toxicity tolerance through modulating root cell wall pectin methylesterification in Arabidopsis.

Here the authors reveal that the prostate cancer risk variant rs4519489 enhances binding of the oncogenic transcription factor USF1, upregulating NOL10. Elevated NOL10 promotes tumor progression, highlighting the rs4519489–USF1–NOL10 axis as a potential biomarker and therapeutic target.

Multiverse and wormholes are experimentally elusive due to dimensional constraints. Here, authors use nonlocal artificial materials and deep learning to emulate photonic parallel spaces, realizing invisible zero-index tunnels and independent optical devices coexisting at the same physical location.

Immunotherapy has improved patient outcomes in those with metastatic or recurrent head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) but less so in the neoadjuvant setting. Here, the authors report the efficacy, safety and exploratory biomarker analysis of a phase II clinical trial investigating neoadjuvant tislelizumab (anti-PD-1) and afatinib (EGFR TKI) in patients with locally advanced HNSCC.

A diethyl ether-triggered luminescence strategy is designed to spot the critical point distinguishing atomic sites from heterointerfaces in In₂O₃/ZrO₂. It is validated for other metal oxide catalysts and serves as an alternative to HRTEM detection.

Li et al. identify a previously uncharacterized transcription factor dumpless1 as a critical effector of ecdysone signaling in stretch follicle cell, bridging somatic-germline communication through the integrin βPS-Rho1-p-MLC axis to facilitate dumping.

Charge transport and extraction in polycrystalline perovskite films are often hindered by inefficient carrier transfer across grain domain boundaries (GDBs). Here, authors employ supramolecular assisted Rb+ delivery for in-situ GDB bridging, achieving efficiency of 26.02% for perovskite solar cells.

Simultaneously capturing polarization and frequency is challenging. This work develops a metasurface-based intelligent photodetector, which can detect arbitrary polarization and frequency within 0.3-1.1 THz with a total error smaller than 5.1%.

Thermal barrier coatings are vital for gas turbine blades but are prone to debonding and cracking. Here, the authors propose a method for the rapid detection and identification of such defects by combining thermographic and electromagnetic signals.

The use of Pt(IV) complexes has been largely limited to chemotherapy. Here, the authors reveal that Pt(IV) complexes photolyze under 365 nm light and generate reactive species, and show that Pt(IV) complexes can act as photoinitiators for fabricating multifunctional hydrogels, and as photocrosslinkers for protein labeling and direct gelatin hydrogelation.

Synthetic microbial consortia are collections of strains which can segregate metabolic tasks for efficient use in biomaterials, biomanufacturing, and biotherapeutics. Here, the authors present a method to maintain and tune the ratio of two co-cultured bacterial strains via growth medium manipulation.

Recently, anti-resonant hollow-core fibers have emerged as an important medium for high-power laser delivery. Here, authors demonstrate a highly efficient, all-fiber delivery of 2 kW laser over 2.45 km, using a self-fabricated AR-HCF with a record low transmission loss of 0.168 dB/km at 1080 nm.

E. coli sequence type 131 is a significant cause of community-onset infection. Here, the authors perform a prospective household-based cohort study in Singapore including samples from humans, companion animals, the environment, and food, to characterise transmission and carriage dynamics.

Solar-driven production of H₂O₂ and chemicals from O₂ and biomass is promising but hindered by inefficient photocatalysts. Here, the authors report composite photocatalysts of atomically dispersed Ta sites for broad-spectrum light absorption and selective biomass conversion in a three-phase system.

LGR4, RSPO and ZNRF3 are key regulators of the Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway. Here, the authors reveal cryo-EM structures of human LGR4, the LGR4-RSPO2 and LGR4-RSPO2-ZNRF3 complexes, thereby providing structural insights for their regulatory mechanism of Wnt/β-catenin signaling.

A full-featured 2D NOR flash memory chip realized by an atomic device to chip technology combines a superior 2D electronic device as a memory core and a powerful CMOS platform to support complex instruction control.

Genomic deletions in poxviruses are not well understood, the authors found large deletions in >2% of Mpox virus genomes during routine surveillance, highlighting their role in poxvirus evolution and potential impact on diagnostics and therapeutics.

Organic afterglow can be realized by incorporating chromophores into protective matrices. Here, the authors dope multiple chromophores in separate layers of core-shell-shell SiO₂ microparticles, enabling excitation-controlled afterglow color tuning.

Antiferromagnets have negligible stray magnetic fields and are robust against magnetic perturbations, making them ideal for high-density magnetic memory. However, these features make electrically switching the Néel vector challenging. Here, Guo, Lin and coauthors demonstrate layer-dependent electrical switching of a van der Waals antiferromagnet.

Achieving room-temperature blackbody-sensitive photodetectors with an ultrabroadband response is challenging. Here, the authors report a bioinspired detector using the 2D flat-band quantum material Nb3I8 that enables sensitive detection from the shortwave to the very long-wave infrared.

Cells struggle to migrate on soft substrates, which don’t provide enough traction. Here, the authors show that rapid, cyclic changes in substrate rigidity allow cells to overcome this limitation and move quickly.

Indian dwarf wheat (Triticum sphaerococcum) is thermotolerant, but the underlying mechanism is unclear. Here, the authors report the cloning of the heat tolerance gene encoding a STKc_GSK3 kinase and its variation affects phosphorylation level of downstream TaPIF4 in determining thermotolerance.

Using data from the CoVPN 3008 study, the authors show that the neutralizing antibody correlate of risk holds in people living with HIV. However, the nAb correlate was weaker and shorter-lived in a vaccine-immunity versus hybrid-immunity population.

Dihydrouridine (D) is an abundant RNA modification but its functions are currently unclear. Here, authors develop CRACI, a sensitive method for transcriptome-wide, single-base D mapping, identifying sites across mammalian and plant transcriptomes and identifying DUS2L as a mitochondrial D writer.

Liquid films are essential in semiconductor lithography but microscopic behaviors of photoresist within these films remain unclear. This study uses cryo-electron tomography to reconstruct photoresist structures, achieving 99% defect reduction.

A new pH nanosensor changes color in acidic cell compartments by forming an unusual four-stranded DNA structure.

Polyamide reverse osmosis membranes are widely used for desalination and wastewater treatment, though it is challenging to remove toxic micropollutants. Here the authors use a thermal-intensified interfacial polymerization method affording a membrane removing micropollutants.

Low conductivity and poor thermal safety limit solid polymer electrolytes for lithium metal batteries. Here, authors present a puzzle-like molecular design that enhances salt dissociation and stability, enabling safe, high-voltage batteries with improved cycling performance.

The dysregulation of the inositol-requiring enzyme 1 alpha (IRE1α) has been associated with multiple human diseases, so IRE1α-targeting small molecules present great therapeutic potential. Here, the authors report a series of substituted indoles as IRE1α inhibitors of good potency and selectivity, and show that the inhibitor IA107 allosterically inhibits IRE1α RNase activity via binding to the IRE1α kinase domain but without inhibiting the IRE1α dimerization.

Single-photon dual-comb ghost imaging spectroscopy was first proposed, achieving high-speed and high-resolution spectral analysis in photon-scarce scenarios and demonstrating applications in fingerprint spectral detection and ultra-long-distance fiber sensing.

How replication stress affects nuclear integrity is not fully understood. Here, the authors report that replication stress induces DNA damage and nuclear envelope reassembly defect during mitosis, which is suppressed by DNA polymerase theta mediated end joining.

Systems with strong photon-photon interactions enable advanced quantum optical applications as well as the study of highly correlated light-matter states. Here the authors report strong coupling between single- and two-photon states in a superconducting circuit, enabling a new regime of nonlinear quantum optics.

Artificial assembly of small functional proteins provides effective strategies for downsizing RNA degraders. Here, authors develop STAR, a hypercompact RNA degrader with evolved toxin endoribonucleases and engineered Cas6- CBS system, enabling efficient degradation of cytoplasmic and nuclear RNAs.