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An analysis of 52 million births in 26 countries shows small reductions in preterm birth during the first to third months of lockdown. Further research is needed to examine causal pathways.

Whether the Wnt enhanceosome’ components BCL9/9l can affect intestinal homeostasis and tumorigenesis is still unclear. Using conditional Bcl9/9l KO mice, the authors of this study show that the BCL9/9l complex is required for intestinal stem cells to drive tissue regeneration and that loss of BCL9/9l suppresses Wnt-driven transformation.

Identifying abnormalities in medical images across different viewing angles and body parts is a time-consuming task. Deep learning techniques hold great promise for supporting radiologists and improving patient triage decisions. A new study tests the viability of such approaches in resource-limited settings, exploring the effect of pretraining, dataset size and choice of deep learning model in the task of abnormality detection in lower-limb radiographs.

Relevant features of T cell repertoire in human cancer remain to be delineated. Here the authors show, by TCR sequencing in a large cohort of lung cancer patients, that while a majority of T cell clones are shared between tumor and adjacent lung tissue, less frequent tumor-unique T cell clones correlate with worse prognosis.

Threshold-like relationships between fitness & phenotype are ubiquitous in nature. Erdoğan et al. use experimental & simulated evolution of an antibiotic resistance enzyme to show how such relationships allow the emergence of standing phenotypic variation under static environmental conditions.

Baker et al. show that mitochondrial stress recovery requires mobilization of lipid droplet triacylglycerol stores to facilitate cardiolipin biosynthesis and mitochondrial biogenesis.

Newly evolved Xanthomonas citri pv. malvacearum isolates triggers recent bacterial blight outbreaks in cotton. Here, the authors show that a recently evolved TALE, Tal7b, activates host susceptibility genes GhSWEET14a and GhSWEET14b rather than GhSWEET10 to confer pathogenicity in these new isolates.

An efficient method of cyto-swapping by haploid induction using a CENH3 mutation is reported in maize, to convert commercial germplasm to cytoplasmic male sterility for hybrid seed production.

Micropatterning of organic semiconductors by electron-beam exposure can be used to create vertical organic electrochemical transistor arrays and complementary logic circuits with densities of up to 7.2 million transistors per cm².

Over the past 25 years, Kristine Ulvund has helped to increase the species’ population size from 50 or so individuals to more than 500.

Editor summary: A native-mass-spectrometry-based approach analyzes integral membrane protein–lipid complexes directly from near-physiological membrane conditions, providing information about protein oligomeric states, lipid identities, and membrane properties.

In the Drosophila antennal lobe, there are several projection neurons (PNs) that are postsynaptic to each glomerulus. Here, the authors report that activity in these 'sister' PNs is correlated at a fine temporal scale. The predominant source of correlated activity is shared input from olfactory receptor neurons, with a smaller contribution from reciprocal PN-PN connections.

Changes in Arctic sea ice volume are difficult to quantify. Five years of satellite data reveal a reduction in autumn sea ice volume in 2010–2012, but a sharp increase in 2013 and 2014, suggesting that ice volume can recover quickly.

Cooperative signalling between receptor tyrosine kinases (RTKs) and integrins is thought to occur at the cell surface. Here the authors show that β1 integrin influences signalling of an RTK, c-Met, from a novel intracellular compartment they call autophagy-related endomembranes.

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.

Some patients with HIV-associated tuberculosis develop an immune reconstitution inflammatory syndrome (TB-IRIS) in response to antiretroviral therapy. Here the authors identify genes differentially expressed in patients likely to progress to TB-IRIS and find activation of Toll-like receptor and inflammasome pathways.

Using single-nucleus RNA sequencing from 32 donors, researchers identified distinct astrocytic gene expression programs activated across brain regions and Alzheimer’s disease stages. They also found unique subclusters of astrocytes that appear to vary over time, highlighting the complexity of astrocytic responses in AD.

Volitional reward taking emerges through a sequence of preluding events. Yet, the underlying neural mechanism is not fully understood. Here authors show a series of temporal dynamics of nucleus accumbens neurons that may substantiate such preluding events to commit “free-willed” animals to reward taking.

Wendrich, Gallant and colleagues find that USP53 and USP54 are active deubiquitinases, with USP53 removing ubiquitin chains from substrate proteins in a chain-linkage-directed manner, and provide biochemical and structural insights into their mechanism, cellular substrates and disease implications.

The use of harmful solvents to fabricate stable devices hampers the commercialization of perovskite solar cells. Here, the authors introduce a biorenewable solvent system and precursor-phase engineering to realize stable formamidinium lead triiodide-based solar cells.

Metabolite extraction with organic solvents is assumed to remove/denature proteins. Here, the authors uncover a vast landscape of >1,000 proteins in metabolite extracts. These proteins can retain catalytic activity and drive post-extraction metabolite changes, obscuring biological interpretation.

A meta-analysis using the burden of proof risk function identified consistent evidence supporting harmful associations between the exposure to intimate partner violence against women and childhood sexual abuse on health outcomes.

De Palma and colleagues develop a dendritic cell therapy based on dendritic cell progenitors engineered to produce IL-12 and FLT3L and show antigen-agnostic reduction of tumor burden that can be exploited for combination therapy in glioma.

A computational approach to generate reference-free protein families from the sequence space in metagenomes reveals an enormously diverse functional space.

The US COVID-19 Scenario Modeling Hub produced medium to long term projections based on different epidemic scenarios. In this study, the authors evaluate 14 rounds of projections by comparing them to the epidemic trajectories that occurred, and discuss lessons learned for future similar projects.

The neural mechanisms underlying ketamine-induced altered states of consciousness are not well understood. Here, the authors show that depersonalization and dissociative amnesia related to ketamine have opposing effects on the activity of the right anterior insula in response to social threat.

Comprehensive integration of gene expression with epigenetic features is needed to understand the transition of kidney cells from health to injury. Here, the authors integrate dual single nucleus RNA expression and chromatin accessibility, DNA methylation, and histone modifications to decipher the chromatin landscape of the kidney in reference and adaptive injury cell states, identifying a transcription factor network of ELF3, KLF6, and KLF10 which regulates adaptive repair and maladaptive failed repair.

Independent impact evaluations of voluntary REDD+ projects to protect forests are needed to provide evidence of their effects. This study evaluates the impacts of a large voluntary REDD+ project in Sierra Leone and finds evidence of slowing deforestation with no socioeconomic harm to local people.

Measures to protect marine habitats must consider the interlinkages between conservation policies and food systems. This study illustrates how a new protected area in Palau may shift fish supply and tourist consumption, highlighting policies to avoid negative environmental consequences.

Acid-sensing ion channels (ASICs) sense changes in extracellular acidity with Ca²⁺ as an allosteric modulator and channel blocker. Here authors use electrophysiology and molecular dynamics simulation to identify the residue in ASIC3 which modulates proton sensitivity and contributes to the Ca²⁺ block.

Vascular endothelial cell (EC) dysfunction contributes to the occurrence of diabetic complications. Here the authors report that in diabetic conditions, upregulation of the RNA binding protein QKI-7 in ECs due to the imbalance of RNA splicing factors CUG-BP and hnRNPM contributes to EC dysfunction, and that in vivo QKI-7 silencing improves blood flow recovery in diabetic mice with limb ischemia.

A study demonstrates that plasticity in the head direction system in Drosophila is modulated by dopamine, which increases learning when reorienting movements are bringing in new spatial information.

The ability to control nanostructure shape and dimensions presents opportunities to design materials in which their macroscopic properties are dependent upon the nature of the nanoparticle. Here the authors show nanoparticle shape is a critical consideration in the determination of nanocomposite hydrogel properties.

We know little about the relative contributions of visual and olfactory senses for wild, frugivorous mammals. Here, the authors show that in capuchin monkeys, frequency of olfactory evaluation of fruits is higher when scent production increases with ripening, and among monkeys with red-green colorblindness.

Here, the authors demonstrate that cortical microstructure in young adults shows marked sex bias, which is most pronounced in paralimbic areas. The effects are put into context with variations in sex hormones and local cytoarchitecture.

Kodali, Proietti et al. report that increased numbers of P-bodies in leukaemia cells account for sequestration and prevention of tumour-suppressive mRNAs from being translated, which could be targeted as a potential intervention in myeloid leukaemia.

A computational approach is used to design modular proteins that bind to synthetic peptides and disordered regions of human proteins with high affinity and specificity.

A review of allergic host defences argues that allergic immunity has an important role in host defence against noxious environmental substances.

Only praziquantel is available for treating schistosomiasis, a disease affecting >200 million people. Here, the authors identify compounds active against schistosome infections meeting the criteria for lead progression indicated by WHO with better activity against juvenile worms than praziquantel.

There is interest in measuring the influence of spatial cellular organization on pathophysiology, which is being accomplished through spatial transcriptomics. There the authors present UniCell Deconvolve, a pre-trained deep learning model that predicts cell identity and deconvolves cell type fractions using a 28 M cell database.

Harrington et al report their discovery of Nemacol, which is a small molecule inhibitor of the vesicular acetylcholine transporter (VAChT). VAChT loads synaptic vesicles with acetylcholine and is a key point of vulnerability in animals. Harrington et al show that Nemacol has nematode selectivity and potential utility against nematode parasites.

In lung adenocarcinoma, antibodies against endogenous retroviruses promote anti-tumour activity, and expression of endogenous retroviruses can predict outcomes of immunotherapy.

Infectious disease associated with excessive inflammation can result in coagulopathy. Here the authors show use of the clinically approved therapy dimethyl fumarate, as well as the pre-clinical tool compound 4- octyl itaconate, modulate tissue factor related coagulopathy via inhibition of the myeloid type I interferon pathway-tissue factor axis.

A probe for the ubiquitin-like protein Fubi led to the discovery of dual ubiquitin/Fubi C-terminal hydrolase activity in the deubiquitinase USP16 in addition to USP36, enabling structural characterization of this distinctive Ub/Ubl specificity, and revealed a synergistic role of USP16 in ribosomal protein maturation.

Mammalian megafaunal biodiversity has declined since the Plio-Pleistocene. Here, the authors apply ecometric methods to evaluate the functional link between eastern African herbivorous megafauna and their environments, showing that some biodiversity loss coincided with community ecological function disturbance.

Sexual dimorphism in the fundamental frequency of primate vocalizations is variable. Here, the authors examine 1914 vocalizations from 37 anthropoid species to find that fundamental frequency dimorphism increased with larger group size and polygyny, due to sexual selection.

Phage-plasmids are bacterial extrachromosomal elements that act both as plasmids and as viruses. Here, Shan et al. show that segregational drift and loss-of-function mutations play key roles in the infection dynamics of a cosmopolitan phage-plasmid, allowing it to create continuous productive infections in marine bacteria.