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A study of several longitudinal birth cohorts and cross-sectional cohorts finds only moderate overlap in genetic variants between autism that is diagnosed earlier and that diagnosed later, so they may represent aetiologically different conditions.

Cell function depends on both its molecular identity and spatial context, but these are often hard to disentangle. Here, authors present DECIPHER, a scalable deep learning model that separates these factors to reveal cell-environment interactions across tissues.

Polygenic scores for body mass index and obesity constructed using data from 5 million people with different ancestries were associated with distinct weight gain trajectories from early childhood to adulthood.

What is the state of trust in scientists around the world? To answer this question, the authors surveyed 71,922 respondents in 68 countries and found that trust in scientists is moderately high.

The molecular mechanisms that regulate postnatal termination of neurogenesis remain poorly described. Here authors report Prdm16 deletion leads to the retention of radial glia in adulthood and prolonged postnatal neuroblast production.

Literature produced inconsistent findings regarding the links between extreme weather events and climate policy support across regions, populations and events. This global study offers a holistic assessment of these relationships and highlights the role of subjective attribution.

2D visualisation of single-cell data is highly impacted by the hyperparameter setting of the 2D embedding method, such as t-SNE and UMAP. Here, authors develop a statistical method scDEED to detect dubious cell embeddings and optimise the hyperparameter setting for trustworthy visualisation.

Neuroinflammation is understudied in Parkinson’s disease (PD). Ma et al. found that clonally expanded CD8 + T cells accumulate in the brains of PD patients and interact with specific astrocytic support cells, which may fuel harmful neuroinflammation.

Fine-mapping of causal variants and integration of epigenetic and chromatin conformation data identify likely target genes for 150 breast cancer risk regions.

Sugar metabolic reprogramming is a hallmark of various diseases including cancer. Here, the authors report a thermal proteome profiling (TPP)-based strategy to profile the FBP interactome and describe a chemical signaling role for FBP, contributing to an intrapathway feedback for glycolysis and cell proliferation.

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

This work demonstrates super colossal barocaloric effect in one of the “simplest” materials—H₂O, with a reversible entropy change as much as 728 J·kg^-1·K^-1 under a small pressure 0.1 GPa by adding a little amount of GdCl₃. Neutron combined with molecular dynamics simulations revealed the mechanism and inferred that H-bond engineering can be an attractive approach for designing novel caloric materials.

In contrast to the classical streaming potential relying on downstream ionic diffusion, an upstream proton diffusion within two-dimensional nanochannels is found to continuously generate electricity, advancing hydrovoltaic technology.

Fusarium crown rot disease threatens wheat yields. Here, the authors report roles for wheat TaSnRK1α and a catalase antioxidant enzyme in mediating Fusarium crown rot resistance by scavenging reactive oxygen species in wheat plants.

Tracing cellular changes in complex biological systems is challenging. Here, authors present a flexible framework that integrates multi-sample data with in-house algorithms to infer comparative and spatiotemporal cell-gene patterns, advancing understanding of cellular dynamics.

DNA data storage is a rapidly developing technology with great potential due to its high density, long-term durability, and low maintenance cost. Here the authors present a strand assembly algorithm (DBGPS) using de Bruijn graph and greedy path search.

Plants are vital to healthy cities, yet urban environments filter the plant traits we find. This study assesses the relative dominance of different seed dispersal modes among plants that establish in cities without human intent, finding that many disperse their own seeds and that seed dispersal by water is less common.

Chromatin topology can impact gene regulation. Here, Wu et al. show that evolutionary changes in chromatin structure, particularly CTCF loops, can drive distinct transcriptional landscapes and isoform diversity contributing to human-specific traits.

Although poverty and mental illness are strongly correlated, it is unclear whether they are causally linked. Using UK Biobank and Psychiatric Genomic Consortium data, Marchi et al. provide evidence of a causal relationship between poverty and some mental illnesses.

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.

Long-term restoration of desertified ecosystems reveals distinct assembly processes and multifunctionality contributions of abundant and rare soil bacteria.

The pilot phase of PigGTEx, re-analyzing 5,457 published RNA-seq samples, presents a pan-tissue catalog of molecular quantitative trait loci. Cross-species comparisons identify traits with shared genetic regulation in humans.

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.

Nature in and near cities is a balm for many urban residents. This study finds that most cities globally have nearby access to biodiverse recreation areas that effectively form cost-effective mental health support.

Spatial omics technologies reveal the organisation of cells in various biological systems. Here, authors propose SLAT, a graph-based algorithm for aligning heterogenous data across technologies, modalities and timepoints, enabling spatiotemporal reconstruction of complex developmental processes.

Whole-genome sequencing, transcriptome-wide association and fine-mapping analyses in over 7,000 individuals with critical COVID-19 are used to identify 16 independent variants that are associated with severe illness in COVID-19.

Fluorescence imaging beyond 1880 nm has mostly been disregarded due to the water absorption peak. Here, the authors find that water absorption contributes positively to imaging and demonstrate high-contrast in vivo fluorescence imaging in the 1880-2080 nm window with the help of bright quantum dots.

The cross-population Sum of Single Effects (SuSiEx) model is a robust and computationally efficient method for conducting multi-ancestry fine-mapping of genome-wide association signals, producing smaller credible sets and capturing population-specific causal variants.

TIP60-mediated crotonylation of the microtubule plus-end tracking protein EB1 at Lys66 regulates attachment of astral microtubules to the lateral cell cortex and spindle positioning.

Estimates from the Global Dietary Database indicated that 2.2 million new type 2 diabetes and 1.2 million new cardiovascular disease cases were attributable to sugar-sweetened beverages worldwide in 2020, with the highest burdens in sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean.

A regional atlas of the ageing human brain—spanning six distinct anatomical regions from individuals with and without Alzheimer’s dementia—provides insights into cellular vulnerability, response and resilience to Alzheimer’s disease pathology

Microsporidia such as Encephalitozoon intestinalis are single-celled intracellular parasites that cause opportunistic infections and disease in humans involving infection of macrophages. Here the authors infect human macrophages with E. intestinalis, in vitro and use single cell transcriptomics to assess the consequences of cellular infection compared to bystander effects on macrophages and provide insights into the E. intestinalis developmental program.

While the conversion of CO₂ to high-value products provides a promising means to remove and utilize atmospheric carbon, few materials can do so without wasteful, sacrificial reagents. Here, authors prepare single-atom Co on Bi₃O₄Br nanosheets as CO₂ reduction catalysts using water and light.

A nanobody was identified that targets the N-terminal fragment of the adhesion G-protein-coupled receptor ADGRG2, allosterically enhances activation by the natural agonist dehydroepiandrosterone and restores signaling in mutant receptors.

Chen, Hu, Zhao, Fang and colleagues show that the ribosomal large subunit protein Rpl12 functions as a conserved ribophagy receptor in multiple organisms.

This genome-wide association study identifies 162 genetic loci linked to income, shedding light on the complex interplay between genetics, income, education and health.

OpenFold is a trainable open-source implementation of AlphaFold2. It is fast and memory efficient, and the code and training data are available under a permissive license.

Cognitive impairments are a key feature of psychopathology. Here, authors exploit the genetic overlap between cognitive dimensions and psychopathology to parse the biology of psychiatric illness and identify “meta-loci” genome segments characterized by specific patterns of overlap.

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.

Single-crystal Ni-rich cathode materials are highly sought after in battery development. In this study the authors present a synthesis route that leverages Li₂O sublimation to facilitate the production of high-performance single-crystal cathode materials.

Pulendran and colleagues define a molecular signature that can be used to predict the durability of antibody responses to vaccination and reveal important insights into the mechanisms by which vaccines induce durable immunity.

Melinda Mills, Nicola Barban, Harold Snieder, Marcel den Hoed and colleagues perform a meta-analysis of data from over 300,000 individuals for age at first birth and number of children ever born. They identify 12 significant loci that associate with these traits, providing insights into the genetic basis of human reproductive behavior.

Multi-omics profiling of the blood and heart of two human decedents receiving pig heart xenografts, including single-cell studies, reveals early immune responses and perioperative cardiac xenograft dysfunction in one of the two decedents, which may be due to mismatched heart size and/or insufficient immunosuppression.

Electrochemical H₂O oxidation to H₂O₂ is challenged by the competitive O₂ evolution reaction. Here, the authors report a CO₂/carbonate mediation approach to steering the H₂O oxidation pathway from O₂ evolution to H₂O₂ generation.

Despite the significance of mosquitos for human health, little research has focused on their phylogeny. Here, the authors present a resolved phylogenetic history of mosquitoes based on phylogenomics showing that these major disease vectors radiated coincidentally with geologic events and the diversification of their hosts.

Stratospheric aerosol interventions, or the injection of sulfur dioxide into the stratosphere, may be a promising strategy to fight the effects of global warming. This study looks at the output from 11 different stratospheric aerosol intervention scenarios based on an Earth system model coupled to a crop model to analyse impacts on maize, rice, soybean and wheat production.

Disorder has emerged as a promising tool to manipulate properties of superconducting circuits. Here the authors demonstrate the use of disordered spinodal superconductor for fluxonium qubit fabrication and reveal an interesting correlation between the material disorder and the 1/f-type flux noise.

Chromosome-level genome assemblies of 11 bamboo species comprising lineages from diploid (herbaceous) to tetraploid and hexaploid (woody) provide insights into dynamic subgenome dominance in bamboos.