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Massively parallel reporter assays across five cell types identify thousands of causal, noncoding regulatory variants among 220,000 loci, revealing diverse regulatory mechanisms shaping complex traits and disease.

Reconstructing microbial genomes from 820 reef-building corals collected at 99 reefs across 32 islands throughout the Pacific Ocean highlights the importance of conserving coral reefs as vital reservoirs of molecular diversity.

Agreement forged in Paris aims to hold warming ‘well below’ 2 °C.

Huot et al. investigate the differences in natural killer (NK) cells in lymph nodes during pathogenic and nonpathogenic simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV) infection of cynomolgus macaques and African green monkeys (AGMs), respectively. Their findings suggest that NK cells are specifically recruited to follicles in AGMs and regulate SIV replication in the lymph node.

This study explores how climate change and population growth shape flood exposure. By 2100, exposure could rise from 1.6 to 1.9 billion people, driven 21% by climate change and 77% by population growth, with low-income and urban regions most affected.

How landscapes are arranged affects soil pathogenic fungi worldwide. The authors reveal the global pattern and pronounced scale-dependency of landscape complexity and land-cover quantity on soil pathogenic fungal diversity.

The origin of the nematic state in the kagome metal CsTi₃Bi₅ remains unclear. Here, using polarization-dependent angle-resolved photoelectron spectroscopy and ab initio based field theoretical methods, the authors propose a d-wave nematic order driven by electronic correlations via an orbital-selective mechanism.

Chronic care manages long-term, progressive conditions, while acute care handles short-term ones. Here, authors show chronic conditions account for most of the global health burden, with 68% of DALYs and 93% of YLDs attributed to chronic care needs.

Females are more sensitive to social exclusion and loneliness, risk factors for anxiety and stressrelated disorders. Here, the authors identified molecular signals in the amygdala that make females more susceptible to effects of chronic social isolation in mice.

People cheat more when they delegate tasks to artificial intelligence, and large language models are more likely than humans to comply with unethical instructions—a risk that can be minimized by introducing prohibitive, task-specific guardrails.

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.

Synthetic fibril strain 1B is a pathogen that is capable of self-replication and inducing glial cytoplasmic inclusions in vivo in mice, and the structural features of 1B may underlie the pathology of individuals with multiple-system atrophy.

A meta-analysis of papers that relate reef fish abundance, biomass or species richness to proportion of living hard coral cover finds correlations that are predominantly positive but consistently weak.

The advantage of living in cities compared with rural areas with respect to height and BMI in children and adolescents has generally become smaller globally from 1990 to 2020, except in sub-Saharan Africa.

Algorithms and bots are capable of performing some behaviours at human or super-human levels. Humans, however, tend to trust algorithms less than they trust other humans. The authors find that bots do better than humans at inducing cooperation in certain human–machine interactions, but only if the bots do not disclose their true nature as artificial.

Here the authors apply machine learning approaches to Alzheimer’s genetics, confirm known associations and suggest novel risk loci. These methods demonstrate predictive power comparable to traditional approaches, while also offering potential new insights beyond standard genetic analyses.

Centromere fragility can drive tumourigenesis, so protective mechanisms are important. Here, the authors suggest that the PBAF chromatin remodelling complex, which is frequently misregulated in cancer, helps to maintain the integrity of centromeres.

The global distribution of nearly all extant reptile species reveals richness patterns that differ spatially from that of other taxa. Conservation prioritization should specifically consider reptile distributions, particularly lizards and turtles.

The study reports the arrival of avian influenza H5N1 virus clade 2.3.4.4b into the Indian Ocean sub-Antarctic archipelagos of Crozet and Kerguelen. Using phylogeographic analyses, the virus likely came from the distant South Georgia islands.

The electrons and holes in a semiconductor can bind together to form excitons, which in turn couple together at higher carrier densities to create biexcitons. Here, the authors show, contrary to expectation, that biexcitons can outlive excitons at carrier densities close to the appearance of unbound electrons and holes.

Hypermutated tumors respond more favorably to checkpoint inhibitor-based immune therapy. Here, the authors describe a new hypermutated phenotype due to germline mutations and subsequent somatic loss of heterozygosity of MBD4, and a dramatic response to the PD-1 inhibitor pembrolizumab in a patient with a MBD4-inactivated hypermutated uveal melanoma.

Meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies on Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias identifies new loci and enables generation of a new genetic risk score associated with the risk of future Alzheimer’s disease and dementia.

The XRISM Resolve spectrum of the galactic neutron star X-ray binary, GX 13+1, reveals one of the densest winds ever seen in absorption lines.

Polygenic risk scores for Alzheimer’s disease derived from individuals of European ancestry can show improved performance in multiancestry settings after incorporating genome-wide association summary statistics from diverse populations.

The worldwide incidence of pulmonary carcinoids is increasing, but little is known about their molecular characteristics. Here, Alcala and colleagues present a multi-omics analysis of these tumours, revealing distinct molecular and prognostic subgroups.

The presence of a pulmonary system in fossil coelacanths has only recently been identified, with little known about homologues in living species. Here, Cupello et al. confirm the presence of a lung in the extant species Latimeria chalumnaeand report its growth during different stages of development.

Highly pathogenic avian influenza H5N1 virus has recently caused outbreaks in dairy cattle herds in the United States. Here, the authors describe the clinical features and associated economic impacts of an outbreak at a farm in Ohio between March and April 2024.

2023 CX1 is the only L-chondrite-like asteroid analysed from space to ground. It catastrophically fragmented in the atmosphere, depositing 98% of its energy in one burst—an unusual, high-risk fragmentation mode with implications for planetary defence.

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.

Genome-wide association analyses comprising 14,256 cases and 1,199,156 controls and incorporating correlated cardiac magnetic resonance imaging traits provide insights into the molecular etiology of dilated cardiomyopathy.

Closely related plant species can have drastically different abundances of transposable elements. Now it is shown that the genome of Arabis alpina has experienced a striking expansion of retrotransposons, probably shaped by reduced DNA methylation.

The BabyDetect project offered expanded newborn genomic screening covering more than 400 genes to 4,260 families, leading to 71 clinical diagnoses.

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.

Controlling mechanical motions in solid state devices is highly desirable for the development of nanoscale machines. Here, Kepert and colleagues exploit an ultra-flexible coordination framework in which thermally-controlled Fe(II) spin transitions result in remarkable flexing of the crystal lattice.

Adipose tissue is composed of a number of adipocytes and a number of other cells including immune cells. Here the authors use single-cell sequencing of murine brown adipose tissue immune cells and describe multiple macrophage and monocyte subsets and show that monocytes contribute to brown adipose tissue expansion.

In a case of obligate cross-species cloning, female ants of Messor ibericus need to clone males of Messor structor to obtain sperm for producing the worker caste, resulting in males from the same mother having distinct genomes and morphologies.

Ligand-gated ion channels are activated/opened by agonists. Tessier et al. show that agonists can inhibit the inhibition of intrinsic basal activity, and thus that activation may instead be the manifestation of a derepression mechanism.

The reaction F + H₂ → HF + H is the only source of interstellar HF, but studying it at relevant cold temperatures has proved problematic. Now, the rates of this reaction have been measured at various temperatures down to 11 K and their remarkable agreement with state-of-the-art quantum mechanical calculations has been shown. (Background © Image Asset Management/Alamy)

Puissant and colleagues identify a myeloid-restricted PIK3CG/p110γ–PIK3R5/p101 axis as a therapeutic vulnerability in acute myeloid leukemia and develop a proteolysis-targeting chimera to potently degrade PIK3CG and suppress AML progression.

Responses of ecosystem services to species losses are highly context-dependent. Here, the authors develop a model to identify general rules in the robustness of ecosystem service supply to species losses, and demonstrate its applicability using real-world ecosystem service networks.

A cross-ancestry meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies identifies association signals for stroke and its subtypes at 89 (61 new) independent loci, reveals putative causal genes, highlighting F11, KLKB1, PROC, GP1BA, LAMC2 and VCAM1 as potential drug targets, and provides cross-ancestry integrative risk prediction.

A report from the first 2,000 newborns enrolled in the Early Check program, which offered genome screening covering 198 genes associated with early-onset diseases, shows the feasibility and potential clinical utility of the approach, leading to 28 true positive results.

Senescence of mammalian cells is characterized by proliferative arrest and expression of an inflammatory phenotype. Here the authors show the H2A variant H2A.J, found only in mammals, accumulates following persistent DNA damage or natural aging.