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In a prospective longitudinal study of 833 adults, we demonstrate that how you wake up and regain alertness in the hours after sleep is weakly associated with your genes. Instead, the modifiable factors of how you are sleeping, eating and exercising influence your return to full alertness, free of sleepiness.

Sex differences in fasting glucose and insulin have been identified, but the genetic loci underlying these differences have not. Here, the authors perform a meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies to detect sex-specific and sex-dimorphic loci associated with fasting glucose and insulin.

Ancestral avian influenza A viruses are used to identify adaptive changes in viral polymerase and nucleoproteins that enable efficient replication and transmission in pigs.

A transancestral exome-wide association study for body-fat distribution identifies protein-coding variants that are significantly associated with waist-to-hip ratio adjusted for body mass index.

Resident microbiota contribute to HIV and EBV infection in a germ-free humanized mouse model.

There is an urgent need for biomarkers for type 2 diabetes progression that provide a deeper understanding of the disease process. Here, the authors identify biomarkers in three molecular classes, replicate them in other cohorts and explore top protein biomarkers in detail in functional studies.

Wyatt et al. explore glycaemic responses after a standardized meal and find that postprandial glycaemic dip is a predictor of hunger and subsequent energy intake.

Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) is the most common endocrine disorder in women. This article provides an overview of the pathophysiology, aetiology, diagnosis, and management of the most common presenting features of PCOS, including hyperandrogenism, menstrual irregularity and infertility. Management of cardiometabolic risk, an important concern in these patients, is also discussed.

Follistatin promotes in type 2 diabetes (T2D) pathogenesis in model animals and is elevated in patients with T2D. Here the authors report that plasma follistatin associates with increased risk of incident T2D in two longitudinal cohorts, and show that follistatin regulates insulin-induced suppression lipolysis in cultured human adipocytes.

The levels of 1,251 metabolites are measured in 475 phenotyped individuals, and machine-learning algorithms reveal that diet and the microbiome are the determinants with the strongest predictive power for the levels of these metabolites.

The herbicide propyzamide increases inflammation in the small and large intestine, and the AHR–NF-κB–C/EBPβ signalling axis—which operates in T cells and dendritic cells to promote intestinal inflammation—is targeted by propyzamide.

Trans-ethnic analyses of exome array data identify new risk loci for type 2 diabetes. Fine-mapping analyses using genome-wide association data show that the index coding variants represent the likely causal variants at only a subset of these loci.

Suo et al. show that sulfonium-based molecules afford formamidinium lead iodide perovskites protection against environmental stress factors, improved phase stability and solar cells retaining efficiency over 4,500-h operational stability tests.

Genome-wide association meta-analyses of waist-to-hip ratio adjusted for body mass index in more than 224,000 individuals identify 49 loci, 33 of which are new and many showing significant sexual dimorphism with a stronger effect in women; pathway analyses implicate adipogenesis, angiogenesis, transcriptional regulation and insulin resistance as processes affecting fat distribution.

Panos Deloukas, Nilesh Samani and colleagues report a large-scale association analysis using the Metabochip array in 63,746 coronary artery disease cases and 130,681 controls. They identify 15 susceptibility loci, refine previous associations and use network analysis to highlight biological pathways.

Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have become a key tool to discover genetic markers for complex traits; however, environmental factors that interact with genes are rarely considered. Here, the authors conduct a GWAS of obesity traits, and find that smoking may alter genetic susceptibilities.

Observing dynamics associated with oceanic submesoscales requires simultaneous sampling at multiple locations. Here, the authors show that a swarm of 16 Mini-Autonomous Underwater Explorers (M-AUEs), whose 3D trajectories are measured near-continuously, can resolve features of the flow at these scales.

Patricia Munroe, Christopher Newton-Cheh, Andrew Morris and colleagues perform association studies in over 340,000 individuals of European ancestry and identify 66 loci, of which 17 are novel, involved in blood pressure regulation. The risk SNPs are enriched for cis-regulatory elements, particularly in vascular endothelial cells.

Data from over 700,000 individuals reveal the identity of 83 sequence variants that affect human height, implicating new candidate genes and pathways as being involved in growth.

A genome-wide association study and Metabochip meta-analysis of body mass index (BMI) detects 97 BMI-associated loci, of which 56 were novel, and many loci have effects on other metabolic phenotypes; pathway analyses implicate the central nervous system in obesity susceptibility and new pathways such as those related to synaptic function, energy metabolism, lipid biology and adipogenesis.

Erik Ingelsson and colleagues report a large-scale genome-wide meta-analysis for associations to the extremes of anthropometric traits, including body mass index, height, waist-to-hip ratio and clinical obesity. They identify four loci newly associated with height and seven loci newly associated with clinical obesity and find overlap in the genetic structure and distribution of variants identified for these extremes of the trait distributions and for the general population.

The MAGIC investigators report results of a large genome-wide association study meta-analysis to identify common variants influencing fasting glucose homeostasis. They further show that several of the newly discovered loci influencing glycemic traits are also associated with risk of type 2 diabetes.

This meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies identifies four genetic loci associated with circulating leptin levels independent of adiposity. Examination in mouse adipose tissue explants provides functional support for the leptin-associated loci.

Hand grip strength as a proxy of muscular fitness is a clinical predictor of mortality and morbidity. In a large-scale GWA study, the authors find 16 robustly associated genetic loci that highlight roles in muscle fibre structure and function, neuronal maintenance and nervous system signal transduction.

Breast cancer is most commonly diagnosed via a needle biopsy. In this study, the authors show that cervical samples from women with breast cancer have a methylation signature different to that of healthy controls.

Analyses from the gut microbiome of over 1,000 individuals from the PREDICT 1 study, for which detailed long-term diet information as well as hundreds of fasting and same-meal postprandial cardiometabolic blood marker measurements are available, unveil new associations between specific gut microbes, dietary habits and cardiometabolic health.

A decadal-scale field trial revealed 1.01 Mg of rhizodeposit and necromass C was stored in soil microaggregate and mineral fractions per Mg biochar-C applied. Microspectroscopic analyses visualize mechanisms for this elevated soil C storage ceiling.

Folkersen et al. report the first results from the SCALLOP consortium, a collaborative framework for pQTL mapping and biomarker analysis of proteins on the Olink platform. A total of 315 primary and 136 secondary pQTLs for 85 circulating cardiovascular proteins from over 30,000 individuals were identified and replicated to yield new insights for translational studies and drug development.

A systematic review of evidence, across the key pillars of prevention, diagnosis, treatment and prognosis, outlines milestones that need to be met to enable the broad clinical implementation of precision medicine in diabetes care.

Claudia Langenberg, James Meigs and colleagues apply a joint meta-analysis approach that accounts for differences in body mass index to identify variants associated with glycemic traits. They report six new loci associated with fasting insulin levels and provide insights into the genetic basis of insulin resistance.

Oral ulcerations are sores of the mucous membrane of the mouth and highly prevalent in the population. Here, in a genome-wide association study, the authors identify 97 loci associated with mouth ulcers highlighting genes involved in T cell-mediated immunity and T_H1 responses.

Exome-wide analysis identifies rare and low-frequency coding variants associated with body mass index. Gene-based meta-analysis and functional studies implicate 13 genes, eight of which are novel, and neuronal pathways as factors in human obesity.