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Arboviruses transmitted by Aedes mosquitoes have an expanding global distribution and identifying areas at risk is important for public health planning. Here, the authors present global disease maps for dengue, chikungunya, Zika and yellow fever through a multi-disease ecological niche modelling approach.

A large genome-wide association study of more than 5 million individuals reveals that 12,111 single-nucleotide polymorphisms account for nearly all the heritability of height attributable to common genetic variants.

Ventral striatal dopamine D3 and D1 receptors regulate motivation and reinforcement, respectively, through dissociable physiological actions.

This study identifies distinct eating behavior profiles and links them to eating disorder symptoms, genetic predispositions for high body mass index and brain maturation during adolescence.

This study examines the impact of herbivorous insects on biogeochemical cycling within forests. From a global network of 74 plots within 40 mature, undisturbed broadleaved forests, they show that background levels of insect herbivory are sufficiently large to alter both ecosystem element cycling and influence terrestrial carbon cycling.

Chromothripsis (CT) is a type of genome instability which is prevalent in medulloblastoma with germline TP53 mutations (Li-Fraumeni syndrome, LFS). Here the authors combine single-cell genomic and transcriptomic analyses to reveal the clonal heterogeneity and functional consequences of CT in LFS medulloblastoma.

Using large-scale data, Kraemer et al. find that human mobility patterns vary across the globe and in scale by environmental and sociodemographic contexts. There are tenfold differences in mobility patterns depending on the countries’ economic development.

Thawani et al. show that XMAP215, a microtubule polymerase, acts together with the γ-tubulin ring complex (γ-TuRC) to nucleate microtubules in Xenopus extracts and in vitro, challenging the view that γ-TuRC alone is the universal nucleator.

Toxoplasma gondii can develop into dormant bradyzoites that persist in tissue and can be reactivated. Here the authors identify an RNA binding protein that they call Regulator of Cystogenesis 1 (ROCY1), and show that it is required for bradyzoite development in vitro and in vivo but is not required for long term persistence of parasites that reactivate in a mouse model of recrudescence.

PDL1 expression is a common biomarker for immunotherapy response in cancer, and it is usually quantified using immunohistochemistry. Here, the authors develop a weakly supervised learning approach combining multiple instance learning and a teacher-student framework to predict PDL1 expression from histopathological imaging.

Joshua Bis, Christopher O'Donnell and colleagues report a meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies from the CHARGE Consortium that identifies loci associated with carotid intima media thickness and plaque. These are established measures of subclinical atherosclerosis that predict future cardiovascular disease events.

Nona Sotoodehnia and colleagues report a meta-analysis of 14 genome-wide association studies for QRS interval, an electrocardiogram measurement of cardiac ventricular conduction. They identify 22 loci associated with QRS duration.

A high-resolution, global atlas of mortality of children under five years of age between 2000 and 2017 highlights subnational geographical inequalities in the distribution, rates and absolute counts of child deaths by age.

Stratified medicine promises to tailor treatment for individual patients, however it remains a major challenge to leverage genetic risk data to aid patient stratification. Here the authors introduce an approach to stratify individuals based on the aggregated impact of their genetic risk factor profiles on tissue-specific gene expression levels, and highlight its ability to identify biologically meaningful and clinically actionable patient subgroups, supporting the notion of different patient ‘biotypes’ characterized by partially distinct disease mechanisms.

Here, the authors show that a single substitution in mouse P1, outside of its arginine core and independently of its charge, suffices to alter sperm chromatin structure and associated developmental outcomes.

A study of the evolution of the SARS-CoV-2 virus in England between September 2020 and June 2021 finds that interventions capable of containing previous variants were insufficient to stop the more transmissible Alpha and Delta variants.

SCF–FBXO31 scans proteins for C-terminal amidation and marks them for subsequent proteasomal degradation.

With the generation of large pan-cancer whole-exome and whole-genome sequencing projects, a question remains about how comparable these datasets are. Here, using The Cancer Genome Atlas samples analysed as part of the Pan-Cancer Analysis of Whole Genomes project, the authors explore the concordance of mutations called by whole exome sequencing and whole genome sequencing techniques.

Here, Miranda-Cervantes et al. identified pantothenate kinase 4 (PanK4) as a key regulator of muscle metabolism. Deleting PanK4 impairs fatty acid oxidation and glucose uptake, leading to glucose intolerance, while increasing PanK4 enhances glucose metabolism, highlighting its potential in promoting metabolic health.

There’s an emerging body of evidence to show how biological sex impacts cancer incidence, treatment and underlying biology. Here, using a large pan-cancer dataset, the authors further highlight how sex differences shape the cancer genome.

Analysis of cancer genome sequencing data has enabled the discovery of driver mutations. Here, as part of the ICGC/TCGA Pan-Cancer Analysis of Whole Genomes (PCAWG) Consortium the authors present DriverPower, a software package that identifies coding and non-coding driver mutations within cancer whole genomes via consideration of mutational burden and functional impact evidence.

Integrative analyses of transcriptome and whole-genome sequencing data for 1,188 tumours across 27 types of cancer are used to provide a comprehensive catalogue of RNA-level alterations in cancer.

An integrated experimental and deep learning pipeline reveals cell-level targeting of nanocarriers in whole bodies.

The emergence of bipedalism in humans is considered to be an evolutionary challenge. In this study, however, the authors show that humans, dogs and chickens create a virtual pivot point above their centre of mass during walking, thereby mimicking an external support.

Understanding deregulation of biological pathways in cancer can provide insight into disease etiology and potential therapies. Here, as part of the PanCancer Analysis of Whole Genomes (PCAWG) consortium, the authors present pathway and network analysis of 2583 whole cancer genomes from 27 tumour types.

Analyses of 2,658 whole genomes across 38 types of cancer identify the contribution of non-coding point mutations and structural variants to driving cancer.

Some cancer patients first present with metastases where the location of the primary is unidentified; these are difficult to treat. In this study, using machine learning, the authors develop a method to determine the tissue of origin of a cancer based on whole sequencing data.

The standard method for identifying active brown adipose tissue is costly and exposes patients to radiation. Here, the authors show that convolutional neural networks can predict [¹⁸F]-FDG uptake by BAT from unenhanced CT scans and improve the segmentation accuracy compared to conventional CT thresholding.

Multi-omics datasets pose major challenges to data interpretation and hypothesis generation owing to their high-dimensional molecular profiles. Here, the authors develop ActivePathways method, which uses data fusion techniques for integrative pathway analysis of multi-omics data and candidate gene discovery.

Nicole Soranzo and colleagues report a meta-analysis of genome-wide association datasets identifying 22 associations to 8 clinically relevant hematological traits. They also identify a long-range haplotype at 12q24 that includes variants associated with platelet counts as well as coronary artery disease and shows evidence of a selective sweep in Europeans.

Ultrafast quantum control of helium atoms is obtained by shaping the extreme ultraviolet pulses generated by a seeded free-electron laser.

Viral pathogen load in cancer genomes is estimated through analysis of sequencing data from 2,656 tumors across 35 cancer types using multiple pathogen-detection pipelines, identifying viruses in 382 genomic and 68 transcriptome datasets.

Large extrachromosomal DNAs are engineered using a CRISPR- and Cre–loxP-based approach and shown to drive cancer in mouse models, with potential applications in determining the role of oncogene amplifications in human cancers.

An analysis of 2,954 genomes from 38 cancer subtypes identified 19,166 retrotransposition events in 35% of samples. Aberrant LINE-1 retrotranspositions can lead to the deletion of tumor-suppressor genes as well as the amplification of oncogenes.

The characterization of 4,645 whole-genome and 19,184 exome sequences, covering most types of cancer, identifies 81 single-base substitution, doublet-base substitution and small-insertion-and-deletion mutational signatures, providing a systematic overview of the mutational processes that contribute to cancer development.

In this study the authors consider the structural variants (SVs) present within cancer cases of the ICGC/TCGA Pan-Cancer Analysis of Whole Genomes (PCAWG) Consortium. They report hundreds of genes, including known cancer-associated genes for which the nearby presence of a SV breakpoint is associated with altered expression.

Although superconductivity hasn't been observed in a sheet of graphene it is found in metal intercalated graphite. A high-resolution ARPES study of CaC₆ conducted by Yang et al.provides strong clues as to the origin of superconductivity in these compounds and of ways to induce superconductivity in graphene.

In somatic cells the mechanisms maintaining the chromosome ends are normally inactivated; however, cancer cells can re-activate these pathways to support continuous growth. Here, the authors characterize the telomeric landscapes across tumour types and identify genomic alterations associated with different telomere maintenance mechanisms.

The flagship paper of the ICGC/TCGA Pan-Cancer Analysis of Whole Genomes Consortium describes the generation of the integrative analyses of 2,658 cancer whole genomes and their matching normal tissues across 38 tumour types, the structures for international data sharing and standardized analyses, and the main scientific findings from across the consortium studies.

Whole-genome sequencing data from more than 2,500 cancers of 38 tumour types reveal 16 signatures that can be used to classify somatic structural variants, highlighting the diversity of genomic rearrangements in cancer.

A pan-cancer genomic analysis reports the effects of structural variations on chromatin domains (TADs). Most TAD disruptions do not result in appreciable changes in expression of nearby genes.

Many tumours exhibit hypoxia (low oxygen) and hypoxic tumours often respond poorly to therapy. Here, the authors quantify hypoxia in 1188 tumours from 27 cancer types, showing elevated hypoxia links to increased mutational load, directing evolutionary trajectories.