Search

Light-responsive proteins hold significant potential in biotechnology but naturally occurring examples are scarce and limited in diversity. Now a totally de novo computational approach has been developed to design light-responsive proteins with diverse architectures by precisely incorporating the non-canonical amino acid phenylalanine-4′-azobenzene (AzoF), which is responsive to light.

Diverse plant species synthesize salicylic acid from phenylalanine through a pathway that includes a conserved triple-enzyme module that converts benzoyl-CoA to salicylic acid.

The ability of anti-cancer therapies such as radiotherapy, chemotherapy and immunotherapy to induce ferroptosis has been linked to their efficacy. Here, the authors demonstrate that SOX13 promotes ferroptosis-resistance via transactivation of SCAF1, identifying SOX13 as a targeted therapeutic vulnerability in gastric cancer.

Methods for direct incorporation of tri- and di-fluoroethanol units in molecules are relatively limited. Here, the authors report two organosilicon reagents which are applied to allylation, alkylation and alkenylation reactions as tri- and di-fluoroethanol transfer reagents.

A telomere-to-telomere genome assembly of the elite Gossypium hirsutum variety ZM113 provides insights into upland cotton short-season adaptation and identifies a repositioned, satellite repeat-rich centromere.

Zhong et al. find that SERRATE (SE) regulates the m⁶A methyltransferase complex (MTC) to control m⁶A deposition, and show cross-regulation between the MTC and the SE-mediated microprocessor governs miRNA production in Arabidopsis.

Nanowires made of transition metal chalcogenides are promising as connecting elements in devices, but so far only isotropic growth is feasible. Here, the authors regulate the growth orientation of nanowires by introducing external stimuli into graphite-confined MoTe₂ heterostructures.

In this study Guo et al. show that skeletal muscle IRF4-FSTL1 exerts metabolic regulation on the liver via DIP2A/CD14 in NASH. FSTL1 from skeletal muscle that enters the circulation promotes the development of NASH.

The immune receptor Transmembrane and immunoglobulin domain containing 2 (TMIGD2) mediates T-cell and nature killer cells co-stimulation upon B7-family HHLA2 engagement. Here, the authors show that TMIGD2 is expressed in Acute Myeloid Leukaemia stem cells regulating self-renewal and differentiation to facilitate leukemogenesis.

While cotton fiber development has been extensively studied, the spatiotemporal transcriptome and metabolome landscape remain largely unknown. Here, the authors profile early stage cotton fiber cell using a combination of spatial transcriptomic, single-cell transcriptomic, and spatial metabolomic analyses.

Continual learning is an innate ability in biological intelligence to accommodate real-world changes, but it remains challenging for artificial intelligence. Wang, Zhang and colleagues model key mechanisms of a biological learning system, in particular active forgetting and parallel modularity, to incorporate neuro-inspired adaptability to improve continual learning in artificial intelligence systems.

Chronic spontaneous urticarial is an inflammatory skin disease which has been linked to intestinal dysbiosis. Here the authors implicate intestinal dysbiosis with the inflammatory response in a murine model of urticaria.

Rag-GTPases play roles in sensing nutrient availability, and it is not fully known how they contribute to energy-consuming immunological processes such as the B cell response. Here authors show that genomic deletion fo RagA/RagB distrupts both T-dependent and T-independent humoral immune responses, independent of mechanistic target of rapamycin complex 1 but involving the transcription factors TFEB and TFE3.

Based on the correlation analysis of various omics data from Brassica napus L., authors identify one Flavobacterium strain C2 which mitigates P deficiency by regulating fatty acid metabolism and enhancing P uptake, indicating potential strategies to improve P utilization in rapeseeds.

RNA secondary structure is a new regulatory layer of transcript fates. Here, Li et al. find that plant RNA helicase Brr2a, acting beyond its canonical role in spliceosome, can optimize secondary structure of pri-miRNAs to promote miRNA production.

The metabolomic changes over the course of aging are complex. Here, the authors present a comprehensive metabolomic profile of aging and construct a metabolomic aging score, which has potential for personalized aging monitoring and early disease-risk identification.

Nitrogen oxides are vital in the nitrogen cycle and renewable chemical synthesis, but selective conversion to multi-nitrogen products via precise N-N bond formation is challenging. Here, the authors report a two-step electrochemical process that achieves an impressive 88.7% selectivity for hydrazine production using a WO₃ catalyst with diphenyl ketone as a mediator.

Efficient electroreduction of CO2 to multi-carbon products under strong acidic condition is highly challenging. Here, the authors demonstrate that combining microenvironment modulation and La doping effect could promote multicarbon products generation in acidic electrolyte.

Wide-bandgap perovskite solar cells suffer from phase segregation. Zhang et al. show that thiocyanate ions overcome the issue by occupying iodide vacancies while regulating crystallization, enabling perovskite/organic tandem cells with 25.06% efficiency.

Ye and colleagues show that an oncolytic virus that delivers tumor-irrelevant bystander T cell epitopes to tumor cells can exploit the abundant population of bystander T cells in the tumor for anti-tumor immunity and potentiate cancer immunotherapy.

Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is featured with epithelial barrier dysfunction, however, the underlying mechanism is less clear. Here, the authors show that DHX9 deficiency in intestinal stem cells (ISCs) induces accumulation of abnormal R-loops and subsequent genomic instability, leading to impairment of ISCs and development of IBD.

Hydroxide exchange membrane fuel cells operating in alkaline electrolyte are more cost-effective than their proton exchange membrane counterparts, but their performance is still considerably lower. Now, a Ni–Mo–Nb metallic glass is put forward as a hydrogen oxidation reaction catalyst with high activity and stability in alkaline electrolyte.

The characterization and tuning of free radicals at the single molecule level is a challenging endeavour. Here electrical conductance measurements of a single molecule sandwiched between nanogapped graphene electrodes via covalent amide bonds reveal the conversion between closed-shell and open-shell form with temperature, electric and magnetic field in real time.

Multi-component cascade transformations including difunctionalization of two alkynes with both syn- and anti-selectivity in one catalyst system is challenging. Herein, the authors report a Nickel-catalyzed four-component reaction to access densely substituted 1,3-dienes using two terminal alkynes, aryl boroxines, and perfluoroalkyl iodides.

While platinum is a highly active catalyst for H₂ evolution, its low abundance prompts research into earth-abundant alternatives. Here, authors prepare tungsten atomic clusters on phosphorus doped carbon by thermal migration and demonstrate excellent activities for hydrogen evolution electrocatalysis.

Parallel degradome sequencing and DMS-MaPseq pinpoint the first cleavage sites on bona fide pri-miRNAs, decode their in vivo structure and provide better interpretation of the cleavage modes and impact of DCL1 cofactors in the process in Arabidopsis.

The lack of efficient and cost-effective catalysts for hydrogen oxidation reaction (HOR) hampers the application of hydroxide exchange membrane fuel cells. Here, authors reported bimetallic MoNi₄ and WNi₄ nanoalloys with marked HOR activity in alkali, among which MoNi4 outperforms the Pt/C catalyst.

Noble-metal-free catalysts often show stability issues in acidic media due to structural degradation. Here authors show that phase-mixed engineering of cobalt diselenide electrocatalysts can enable greater covalency of Co-Se bonds and improve robustness for catalyzing hydrogen evolution in acid.

Extensive genetics and genomics analyses reveal the co-transcriptional processing mode of primary substrates of microRNAs in Arabidopsis, and an unexpected promoting role of R-loops in the process.

Huo, Ong et al. present a comprehensive workflow to try to overcome key limitations in prior approaches for artificial intelligence (AI)-assisted prostate cancer Gleason grading. Their approach incorporates automated quality control, efficient annotation and visualization, and pathologist-AI interaction.