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Analysis of samples from the asteroid Ryugu provide evidence of late fluid flow in a carbonaceous asteroid, indicating that such bodies may have retained two to three times more water than previously thought.

As oocytes age the frequency of chromosome segregation errors during meiosis I increases. Here the authors use live imaging of oocytes from naturally aged mice to provide direct evidence that bivalent separation into univalents is the primary defect responsible for age-related aneuploidy.

Valley depolarization processes in 2D transition metal dichalcogenides have been linked to acoustic phonons, but optical verification is ambiguous, due to the nearly degenerate acoustic phonon frequencies at the zone-edge. Here, the authors determine the phonon momentum of the longitudinal acoustic (LA) phonons at the K point as responsible for the ultrafast valley depolarization in monolayer MoSe₂.

Controlling the motion of atoms in solids with light allows for a deeper understanding of their fundamental properties, yet most studies only deal with one spatial dimension. Katsuki et al.extend this approach to two-dimensional control and use it to visualize atomic motion in bismuth.

Genome-wide association and fine-mapping analyses in ancestrally diverse populations implicate candidate causal genes and mechanisms underlying type 2 diabetes. Trans-ancestry genetic risk scores enhance transferability across populations.

A single-cell genome-wide DNA replication atlas of pre-implantation mouse embryos reveals an abrupt replication program switch accompanied by a transient period of genomic instability.

Mouse induced pluripotent stem cells derived from differentiated fibroblasts could be converted from male (XY) to female (XX), resulting in cells that could form oocytes and give rise to offspring after fertilization.

Understanding the transport of ions, electrons and heat in magnetized plasmas is important to the development of fusion power as well as our understanding of the behaviour of astrophysical objects. Ida et al.find that stochastization of magnetic field lines in a plasma damps plasma flow more strongly than expected.

Oocyte meiosis must achieve spindle bipolarization without predefined spatial cues. Yoshida et al. demonstrate that spindle bipolarization during meiosis I in mouse oocytes requires kinetochores to prevent chromosome segregation errors, a phenomenon that does not occur in error-prone human oocytes.

A comparison of copper and zinc isotopic measurements between the Ryugu samples and various carbonaceous chondrites excludes any genetic link between the two except for the CI (Ivuna-type) chondrites. Ryugu-like material might have accounted for ~5% of Earth’s mass.

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.

Closely related species often have different sex-chromosome systems, but it is not known whether sex-chromosome turnover contributes to the evolution of reproductive isolation between species. Here, a neo-sex chromosome is identified in only one member of a sympatric species pair of stickleback fish in Japan. The newly evolved sex chromosome is found to contain genes that contribute to speciation, suggesting that sex-chromosome turnover might have a greater role in speciation than was previously appreciated.

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.

Autophagic activity decreases with age via unknown mechanisms. Here the authors show that expression of the negative autophagy regulator Rubicon increases with age, that its genetic ablation improves lifespan and ameliorates a number of age-associated phenotypes in invertebrates and in mouse models.

The asteroid Ryugu experienced aqueous alteration under changing temperature and redox conditions, according to an isotopic analysis of secondary calcite and dolomite grains in samples from Ryugu obtained by the Hayabusa2 spacecraft.

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.

The long elusive mammalian meiosis-specific kinetochore factor has been identified in mice; MEIKIN—which plays an equivalent role to the yeast proteins Spo13 and Moa1—ensures mono-orientation, protects sister chromatid cohesion and recruits the kinase PLK1 to the kinetochores.

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.

Mammalian genomes are scattered with repetitive sequences, but their biology remains largely elusive. Here, the authors show that transcription can initiate from short tandem repetitive sequences, and that genetic variants linked to human diseases are preferentially found at repeats with high transcription initiation level.

Eight transcription factors are identified that, when overexpressed, are sufficient to grow oocyte-like cells from mouse pluripotent stem cells.

The transition from non-avian dinosaurs to birds capable of powered flight represents a major evolutionary transition. Here the authors analyse 48 bird genomes and identify avian-specific highly conserved elements with roles in avian limb development.

Using more than 100 independent iPSC lines derived from patients with Alzheimer’s disease, the authors discovered loci associated with the neuronal production of amyloid β and confirmed their influence using RNA interference.

The role of non-structural carbohydrates (NSC) in mediating the impacts of drought in tropical trees is unclear. Here, the authors analyse leaf and branch NSC in 82 Amazon tree species across a Basin-wide precipitation gradient, finding that allocation of leaf NSC to soluble sugars is higher in drier sites and is coupled to tree hydraulic status.

Armstrong and colleagues discover that combined targeting of IKAROS and MENIN is a therapeutic strategy for acute myeloid leukemia through disruption of essential leukemogenic transcriptional programs.