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Fang et al. demonstrate that OsHSFA4d enhances thermotolerance by activating HSP101 and promoting CslF6 expression, which suppresses disease resistance. It is phosphorylated by OsCDPK24/28, increasing its DNA binding ability under heat stress. This trade-off mechanism of abiotic/biotic stress may broadly exist in plant kingdom.

Chiral metamaterials present interesting ways to manipulate and distinguish between different circular polarizations of light. Zhanget al. realize chiral metamaterials that exhibit photoinduced switching between left- and right-handed circular polarization interactions at terahertz frequencies.

Metal-based nanostructures offer a solution to scale down photonics to the nanoscale. Sorgeret al. directly demonstrate waveguiding of ultra-small propagating waves at visible and near-infrared frequencies using NSOM imaging, with the potential for nanoscale photonic applications such as bio-sensing.

Metamaterials using split-ring resonators can display negative refractive index, yet the same effect for closed rings has remained elusive. Kanté et al.overcome this by using closely spaced coupled nanorings that exploit symmetry breaking to show broadband negative refractive index at optical frequencies.

The nanometre length scale of plasmonic structures leads to vibrational dynamics at high frequencies, which could be exploited for sensitive optical detectors. O'Brien et al. show that they can detect spatial properties of phonon modes in multimodal plasmonic structures, revealing complex nanomechanical dynamics.

Although hyperlenses made of metamaterials can image sub-diffraction-limited objects, they are limited to one-dimensional magnification and ultraviolet frequencies. Here, the authors demonstrate a spherical hyperlens for visible light far-field imaging, with a resolution of 160 nm in both lateral dimensions.

Tuning the mechanical properties of extracellular matrix is of great interest in tissue engineering but spatial control over stiffness in hydrogels has been demonstrated in two dimensions only. Here the authors developed a layer-by-layer printing technique which uses oxygen inhibition to control the heterogeneous stiffness in 3D printed structures.

Controlling magnetization orientation and assembling high-coercivity micro-magnets at the microscale has been challenging due to harsh operational requirements and limited spatial precision. The authors present a stretchable linear magnet with programmable magnetization enabled by laser-activated phase-change microcells, achieving efficient and reversible reorientation under mild conditions.

By characterizing the dynamics of epitranscriptomes and translatomes upon Magnaporthe oryzae infection, the authors uncover that ac4C enriched in the 3rd nt of codons improves translation of mRNA to enhance rice resistance against M. oryzae.

In this paper, the E3 ubiquitin ligase IPI7 is found to fine-tune the transactivation activity of IPA1 through non-hydrolyzed K29-ubiquitination chain, thereby timely regulating rice disease resistance during Magnaporthe oryzae infection.

A unidirectional light-extracting fluorescent film was designed for passive augmentation of photosynthesis and biomass production for leafy green lettuces grown indoors and in greenhouse facilities. The batch-processed films have a total light extraction efficiency of 89%, with a majority of the converted light directed towards lettuce crops. This film demonstrates application potential in greenhouses and other protected environments to increase crop production efficiency.

Analyses on a newly assembled, nearly complete genome of Ginkgo biloba revealed the cause of genome expansion and candidate genes associated with the formation of spermatophore flagellum in ginkgo, advancing our understanding about gymnosperm evolution.

Conserved regions of the antibody molecule impact its downstream biological effects. Here the authors show that a rigid hinge conformation increases the agonistic activity of CD40 and DR5 antibodies, distinctly from FcγR-binding, suggesting that the hinge and FcR binding regions can be separately modified to optimize therapies.

Transancestral GWAS meta-analysis in 160,420 individuals identifies 139 loci associated with refractive error, including myopia. Newly identified genes implicate pathways involved in eye growth and light signaling cascades.

Subpopulations of cytokine-producing and myofibroblastic hepatic stellate cells, identified by single-cell RNA sequencing, protect against or promote the development of hepatocellular carcinoma via high expression of hepatocyte growth factor or type I collagen, respectively..

Understanding the relationship between aridity and ecosystem N-cycling is important in predicting the effects of global climate change. Here, the authors present N isotopes across an aridity gradient and identify a tipping point, which marks a divergence in N-cycling controlling factors and mechanisms.

Magnaporthe oryzae effector MoSPAB1 enters rice nuclei to bind to the promoter of the immunity-brake gene Bsr-d1 and activates its expression by competing with rice MYBS1, which constitute a conserved module that facilitates fungal pathogenesis.

Here the authors show an intermediate state of the photosystem II (PSII) repair cycle, where three protein factors and an α-tocopherol quinone molecule are associated with a damaged PSII at distinct sites, fulfilling their specific functions in the repair process.

Radiative cooling can be used to reduce building air-conditioning requirements. In urban environments, nearby buildings partially block access to the sky, which hinders radiative cooling, but a thermal beam-shaping design can help solve this problem.

The properties of graphene have been widely studied for applications in electronics. Expanding its use in photonics as well, it is now demonstrated that the propagation of terahertz waves can be electronically switched by such a single atomic layer of carbon.

Like their optical counterparts, acoustic metamaterials are capable of manipulating sound waves in unusual ways. An acoustic hyperlens is now demonstrated that is capable of magnifying subwavelength acoustic waves, and could therefore find applications in medical imaging or underwater sonar.

Artificial materials that show negative refraction can be used for devices such as perfect lenses. The demonstration of negative refraction in nanostructured metal films, using a nonlinear optical effect—four-wave mixing—therefore opens new possibilities for optical devices.

Researchers report a three-dimensional metal–dielectric optical cavity with an ultrahigh optical index of 17.4. The resonant frequency of the cavity is constant and independent of its size. This unique property could be used to provide significant enhancements to a broad range of light–matter interactions.

A series of long-lived excitons in a monolayer of tungsten disulphide are found to have strong binding energy and an energy dependence on orbital momentum that significantly deviates from conventional, three-dimensional, behaviour.

Self-assembling plasmonic dimers with a feedback mechanism enable selection of specific symmetry-breaking optical metamaterial structures in solution.

The use of electric fields to control spin currents, which is one of the goals of modern spintronics, has now been extended to control the valley degree of freedom in a 2D semiconductor.

On rough metallic surfaces hotspots appear under optical illumination that concentrate light to tens of nanometres. This effect can be used to detect molecules, as weak fluorescence signals are strongly enhanced by the hotspots. Such hotspots are associated with localized electromagnetic modes, caused by the randomness of the surface texture, but the detailed profile of the local electromagnetic field is unknown. Here, an ingenious approach is described, making use of the Brownian motion of single molecules to probe the local field. The study succeeds in imaging the fluorescence enhancement profile of single hotspots on the surface of aluminium thin-film and silver nanoparticle clusters with accuracy down to one nanometre, and finds that the field distribution in a hotspot follows an exponential decay.

Nonlinear scattering theory, contrary to Miller’s rule, is shown to be able to establish the nonlinear optical response of metamaterials, a tool that can be used towards the efficient design of strongly nonlinear metamaterials.

Free-standing monolayers of MoS₂ exhibit piezoelectric behaviour due to inversion symmetry breaking.

Very-long-chain fatty acids (VLCFAs) mediate recruitment of septins to the plasma membrane in fungal appressoria, leading to formation of a septin ring at the point of plant infection. VLCFA biosynthesis-inhibiting chemicals prevent septin assembly and have broad-spectrum fungicidal activity.

The hydroxyl radical is generated during radiotherapy and ferroptosis and accurate imaging of this reactive oxygen species may permit the monitoring of response to therapy. Here, the authors develop a ratiometric probe for accurate imaging of hydroxyl radical generation in vivo.

This report by the Consortium for Refractive Error and Myopia uses gene-environment-wide interaction study (GEWIS) to identify genetic loci that affect environmental influence in myopia development, and identifies ethnic specific genetic loci that attribute to eye refractive errors.

Acoustic metamaterials provide tailored beams for a range of purposes, but are limited to environments where the material structures can be deployed. By careful choice of phases for a speaker array, Zhang et al. show that bottle or bent beams can be created in air, without the use of metamaterials.

Evolution of accretion disk and corona during outbursts in black hole binary systems is still unclear. Here, the authors show spectral analysis of MAXI J1820+070 and propose a scenario of a dynamical corona to explain the evolution of the reflection fraction observed by Insight-HXMT.

A compact ternary content-addressable memory cell, which is based on two ferroelectric field-effect transistors, can provide memory augmented neural networks with improved energy and latency performance compared with traditional approaches based on graphics processing units.

Dealloying usually relies on chemical dissolution of an alloy component. By contrast, the authors demonstrate an atomic-scale phase separation process that differs completely from the chemical dealloying mechanism and thus represents a significant departure from the well-known Hume-Rothery rules.

Unique opportunities arise from exceptional points that coalesce states of an open system in synthetic photonic media, where delicately balanced complex dielectric functions produce unprecedented optical properties.