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Genomic analyses applied to 14 childhood- and adult-onset psychiatric disorders identifies five underlying genomic factors that explain the majority of the genetic variance of the individual disorders.

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.

Authors utilise a murine model of infection to provide mechanistic insight into how antimicrobial therapy may be a predisposing risk factor for hospital-acquired pneumonia. They show that antibiotic-induced microbiota perturbations compromise inflammatory monocytes and thereby impair antibacterial defence.

SNURPORTIN-1, encoded by the SNUPN gene, plays a key role in the nuclear import of spliceosomal small nuclear ribonucleoproteins, however its physiological function remains unclear. Here the authors report that recessive SNUPN mutations cause a distinct subtype of childhood muscular dystrophy and reveal SNURPORTIN-1’s role in muscle homeostasis, offering insights for new therapeutic strategies.

Asymmetric subcellular mRNA distribution is important for local translation of neuronal mRNAs. Here the authors employed MS2 live-cell imaging and showed that the reporter mRNA containing the 3’ UTR of Rgs4 shows an anterograde transport bias, dependent on neuronal activity and the protein Staufen2, and mediates sustained mRNA recruitment to synapses.

Three-dimensional nanofabrication allows for the precise tailoring of curvature of magnetic nanowires, and therefore the local symmetry breaking. Here, Ruiz-Gomez et al use this control to study the interaction of domain walls with local curvature, engineering potential wells and shift registers.

In glioblastoma (GBM), tumour microtubes (TM) connect tumour cells to a broader cellular network, with roles in tumour progression and therapy resistance. Here, the authors combine a dye uptake method in GBM xenograft models with subsequent scRNA-seq to infer a TM connectivity signature, finding CHI3L1 as a marker of connectivity.

Photoactive transition metal complexes usually feature 4d6 and 5d6 precious metals with charge transfer excited state lifetimes exceeding hundreds of nanoseconds, while complexes with earth abundant 3d6 metals exhibit lifetimes of less than 1–2 ns. Here, the authors report a tetracarbene manganese(I) complex with an excited state lifetime of 190 ns.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Whole-genome sequencing data for 2,778 cancer samples from 2,658 unique donors across 38 cancer types is used to reconstruct the evolutionary history of cancer, revealing that driver mutations can precede diagnosis by several years to decades.

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 authors present SVclone, a computational method for inferring the cancer cell fraction of structural variants from whole-genome sequencing data.

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.

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.

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.

Cancers evolve as they progress under differing selective pressures. Here, as part of the ICGC/TCGA Pan-Cancer Analysis of Whole Genomes (PCAWG) Consortium, the authors present the method TrackSig the estimates evolutionary trajectories of somatic mutational processes from single bulk tumour data.

Here the authors identify TNIP1 as a risk factor for a fatal neurodegenerative disorder and discover specific genetic loci associated with the three main subtypes of this disorder. The findings highlight distinct disease mechanisms, emphasizing the roles of immunity and the notch signaling pathway.

Paul Pharoah and colleagues report the results of a large genome-wide association study of ovarian cancer. They identify new susceptibility loci for different epithelial ovarian cancer histotypes and use integrated analyses of genes and regulatory features at each locus to predict candidate susceptibility genes, including OBFC1.

A geological climate archive documents the effects of ocean warming on Antarctic marine ice-sheets. Large sediment fluxes from the interior of West Antarctica precede the onset of sustained retreat to a smaller footprint for the ice-sheet.

Stig Bojesen, Georgia Chenevix-Trench, Alison Dunning and colleagues report common variants at the TERT-CLPTM1L locus associated with mean telomere length measured in whole blood. They also identify associations at this locus to breast or ovarian cancer susceptibility and report functional studies in breast and ovarian cancer tissue and cell lines.

A genome-wide association study including over 76,000 individuals with schizophrenia and over 243,000 control individuals identifies common variant associations at 287 genomic loci, and further fine-mapping analyses highlight the importance of genes involved in synaptic processes.

Tracheal tuft cells have been shown to facilitate the recruitment of immune cells during infection of the airways. Here the authors show that P. aeruginosa lung infection in mice activates tuft cells to release ATP which subsequently activates DC and promotes IL-17A secreting T cells.

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.

The immune response is key in determining disease severity of COVID19. Here Nouailles et al., apply bulk proteomics and scRNA-Seq of lung and blood samples of SARS-CoV-2 infected Syrian hamsters and provide a temporal atlas of the systemic and pulmonary cellular responses.

CRISPR/Cas9 technology has been used for genome engineering in vivo. Here, the authors use a transfection technique to deliver multiple guide RNAs to the pancreas of adult mice, allowing genetic screening and chromosome engineering in pancreatic cancer.

The closest homologue of GNOM in Arabidopsis thaliana, GNOM-LIKE1 (GNL1) performs the regulation of endoplasmic reticulum–Golgi transport in plants.

GNL1 localizes to and acts primarily at Golgi stacks, regulating COPI-coated vesicle formation. GNOM can functionally substitute for GNL1, but not vice versa. Hence the ARF–GEFs of the GBF1 class perform a conserved role in the endoplasmic reticulum–Golgi trafficking which is done by GNOM and GNL1 in plants

Lymphatic malformation (LM) is a debilitating often incurable vascular disease. Using a mouse model of LM driven by a disease-causative PIK3CA mutation, the authors show that vascular growth is dependent on the upstream lymphangiogenic VEGF-C signalling, permitting effective therapeutic intervention.

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.

Douglas Easton, Per Hall and colleagues report meta-analyses of genome-wide association studies for breast cancer, including 10,052 cases and 12,575 controls, followed by genotyping using the iCOGS array in an additional 52,675 cases and 49,436 controls from studies within the Breast Cancer Association Consortium (BCAC). They identify 41 loci newly associated with susceptibility to breast cancer.

Breast cancer risk for BRCA1/BRCA2 mutation carriers varies depending on other genetic factors. Here, the authors perform a case-only genome-wide association study and highlight novel loci associated with breast cancer risk for BRCA1/BRCA2 mutation carriers.

Currently, bidirectional control of activity in the same neurons in the same experiment is difficult. Here the authors report a Bidirectional Pair of Opsins for Light-induced Excitation and Silencing, BiPOLES, which they use in a range of organisms including worms, fruit flies, mice and ferrets.

Oncogenic dosage variation along distinct evolutionary routes defines fundamental aspects of pancreatic cancer biology and phenotypic diversification.

Titin is considered an integrator of muscle cell proteins but direct evidence is limited. Here, titin is inactivated in adult mouse muscles, which causes sarcomere disassembly, protein mis-expression and force impairment, recapitulating key alterations in critical illness myopathy patient muscles.

The CNV analysis group of the Psychiatric Genomic Consortium analyzes a large schizophrenia cohort to examine genomic copy number variants (CNVs) and disease risk. They find an enrichment of CNV burden in cases versus controls and identify 8 genome-wide significant loci as well as novel suggestive loci conferring either risk or protection to schizophrenia.