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Lactation is essential, but its genetic and epigenetic regulation is poorly understood. Here, Hanin et al. show that ZFP57 has an imprinting-independent role in controlling postnatal nutritional support, expanding its known prenatal epigenetic functions.

Using ARPES, this work identifies dice-lattice flat bands in the electride material YCl. The authors show that anionic electrons act as lattice sites to create this rare electronic structure.

Structural variants are an underexplored source of genetic diversity. Here, the authors use phased pangenome graphs to improve detection of these variants in dairy cattle and link these variants to traits of economic importance.

After two years of mass azithromycin distribution to preschool age children in rural Niger, in this study, authors present evidence that selection of antibiotic resistance genes was not spread from treated villages to nearby untreated villages.

The PCRCR complex of Plasmodium spp. binds basigin on the erythrocyte surface. While Rh5 of the complex is restricted to P. falciparum, PTRAMP, CSS and Ripr orthologs are present across the genus, for which the authors report common features.

Atomic force microscopy is used to investigate the adsorption and organization of ions on charged surfaces. Trivalent ions adopt complex networks, clusters and layers associated with overcharging, whereas divalent ions follow classical predictions.

Nature staff discuss some of the week’s top science news.

Current mapping of fork progression in the human genome suffers from drastically low throughput. Here, the authors introduce ForkML, a nanopore sequencing-based method automatically positioning thousands of individual fork velocities by tracking BrdU incorporation into asynchronously growing cells.

Here, Yang-Jensen et al. demonstrate that a scalable microbial protein lysate from Methylococcus capsulatus Bath reshapes gut microbiota and T cells and, via fermentation-driven GLP-2 receptor mimicry, protects against gastrointestinal inflammation while providing sustainable protein nutrition

T cells contribute to protection and pathogenesis in tuberculosis. Here the authors sequence T cell receptor repertoires in human skin biopsies from the site of the tuberculin skin test and show enrichment of clonotypes reactive to Mycobacterium tuberculosis using a computational pipeline metaclonotypist to identify distinct TCRs predicted to share peptide-MHC reactivity across participants, as an approach to explore T cell correlates of tuberculosis disease-risk stratification and vaccine efficacy.

The changing cellular, transcriptional, and genomic landscape of human lung aging can be characterized using single-cell RNA sequencing. Here, the authors show that lung aging is cell-type dyssynchronous, with alveolar epithelial and endothelial cells exhibiting the greatest changes in gene expression, transcriptional entropy, and a high level of somatic mutations.

Doxycycline has been recommended as post-exposure prophylaxis for prevention of bacterial sexually-transmitted diseases. Here, the authors use mathematical modelling to investigate the potential disease, antimicrobial resistance, and economic implications of this intervention in gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men in Australia.

The BAM protein complex catalyzes the integration of newly made proteins into the outer membrane of Gram-negative bacteria. Here, Nilaweera et al. provide evidence that outer-membrane lipids also play an important role in this process.

Rice paddies contribute to atmospheric methane (CH₄) levels. Here the authors show that increasing levels of the rice plant hormone PSY can reduce CH₄ emissions by over 50% via alteration of microbial H₂ cycling in the rhizosphere.

In the wake of new computer-based methods, some ecologists fear their field is losing touch with nature.

TREM2 is an important AD risk factor playing essential roles in the microglial response to amyloid pathology. Here, authors show using a TREM2 reporter mouse that TREM2 levels are critical for efficacy of TREM2 agonism informing current clinical efforts.

In episode 1 of What’s in a name we look at how species are named, and whether the current system needs to evolve in the face of societal pressure.

This study reports that de novo germline missense variants in SF3B1, distinct from the somatic variants frequently observed in cancer, cause a neurodevelopmental disorder and disrupt global RNA splicing.

Neural mechanisms underlying motivation-driven behaviors are not fully understood. Here authors show that non-cholinergic neurons in rodent basal forebrain link sensory stimuli with motivational states and experience-driven plasticity.

Restructuring of genome sections creates conditions that increase blood cancer risk — plus, the latest from the Nature Briefing.

Here, the authors characterize H5N1cross-reactive antibody landscapes and evaluate the effect of pH1N1/AS03 and non-adjuvanted seasonal influenza vaccination on H5N1 cross-neutralization and antibody titers targeting influenza-derived antigens.

EGFR inhibitors are standard of care in patients with EGFR-mutant non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) but resistance often develops. Here the authors report that the evolution of EGFR inhibitor resistance in EGFR-mutant NSCLC results in a sensitivity to the compound, MCB-613, and investigate the underlying mechanism of action.

A hidden quality-control system to filter out defective sperm during development is exploited by selfish genes to eliminate competing chromosomes.

Games, seasonal science songs, and Nature’s 10.

We round up some recent stories from the Nature Briefing.

The precise manipulation of unfunctionalized hydrocarbons remains a fundamental challenge in chemical synthesis and catalysis. Here an organocatalytic asymmetric hydroxylation of bicyclobutanes with alcohols is disclosed, enabling efficient access to tertiary cyclopropylcarbinyl ethers with high enantioselectivity (up to 98:2 e.r.).

Insulin signaling plays a crucial role in coordinating skeletal development with whole‑body energy metabolism. Here, the authors use phosphoproteomics to show insulin-signaling rewiring in aged, insulin-resistant bone and identify defective phosphorylation of AFF4 as a key mechanism for regulating gene-specific transcriptional activation.

We round up some recent stories from the Nature Briefing.

Researchers extract useful metal from industrial waste, and how analysis of blood proteins could help unravel the mystery of long COVID.

The authors detail human antibodies that neutralize all three serotypes of poliovirus and mimic poliovirus receptor binding, accelerating antiviral development to further efforts to eradicate poliovirus.

A technique called condense-seq has been developed to measure nucleosome condensability and used to show that mononucleosomes contain sufficient information to condense into large-scale compartments without requiring any external factors.

High-altitude observations may help explain how lightning happens — plus, researchers piece together a complete circuit-diagram of the fruit fly brain.

The ingestible device shoots out tiny jets of drugs to deliver them to the GI tract of pigs and dogs — plus how light-powered catalysts could help break down ‘forever chemicals’.

Using a non-human primate model, the authors identified the tissue sites of initial viral rebound after discontinuation of antiretroviral therapy, demonstrating that such rebound preferentially occurs in the gastrointestinal tract-associated lymphoid tissues.

Researchers determined the telecommunications satellite was periodically brighter than 99% of stars, and powerful X-rays have uncovered an ancient trilobite’s last meal.

Producing isolated single-photon emitters in hexagonal boron nitride with predefined spin transitions is challenging. Oxygen annealing enables the controlled fabrication of narrowband quantum emitters with optically active spin for quantum applications.

Human impacts on marine ecosystems are increasing the likelihood of pathogenic outbreaks, harmful algal blooms and coral stress. Here the authors develop a CRISPR biomonitoring tool that can help detect key marine species that are important to public health, the aquaculture sector and marine ecosystems.

The study presents a recyclable polymer system that stores solar energy and releases it as hydrogen on demand, offering an efficient and sustainable route for renewable energy storage and fuel generation.

Membrane ion channels can be responsive to a variety of stimuli such as pressure, temperature, or pH. Here, the authors show that simply shining 365 nm light activates a native potassium channel in rodent pain-sensing neurons, delivering powerful analgesia without drugs or genetic manipulations.

Study refutes claim that mismanagement of natural resources led to population crash — plus a tiny wasp that’s been found in an unexpected place.

How a hot resting spot can help frogs survive chytridiomycosis infection, and the decades-long hunt for dark matter in black holes.

How current and future ice loss in Greenland compares to the past, and using graphene to make ultra-sensitive radiation detectors.

Analysing the causal links of gene expression and protein abundance on type 2 diabetes risk in blood and seven tissues related to the disease from individuals of four ancestries, the authors advance our understanding of the genetic architecture of type 2 diabetes

deepmriprep leverages neural networks to enable voxel-based morphometry preprocessing of MRI data that is 37× faster than existing methods while achieving comparable accuracy in segmentation, registration and final statistical maps across large datasets.

Monkeys with CRISPR-edited pig kidneys survive for more than a year, and why our brains struggle to count more than four objects.

Schuermans et al. discovered that genetic predisposition to thromboembolism is associated with a greater risk of post-acute sequelae after SARS-CoV-2 infection, including long COVID, and downstream analyses implicated PAR-1 as a potential contributor to long COVID.

Humanity’s Last Exam, a multi-modal benchmark at the frontier of human knowledge, is designed to be an expert-level closed-ended academic benchmark with broad subject coverage.

A 31,000-year-old skeleton shows evidence of complex surgery, and the latest from the Nature Briefing.

Population-scale WGS reveals genetic determinants of persistent EBV DNA, linking immune regulation—especially antigen processing and MHC class II variation—to EBV persistence and heterogeneous disease associations.

The use of antimicrobial agents can exacerbate the proliferation of antimicrobial resistance genes, which can put public health at risk; evaluating this risk requires proper monitoring. An extensive investigation of Australian wastewater reveals a distinct correlation between the type of antimicrobial used and the socioeconomic status of the population.