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Desmoplastic small round cell tumor (DSRCT), a very rare and understudied sarcoma, presents serious challenges for both diagnosis and treatment. Here, the authors employ multi-omics profiling on 30 refractory DSRCT patients to improve the diagnosis and identify potentially actionable targets for individualized DSRCT treatment.

The gut microbiome-kidney crosstalk has been previously linked with metabolic and kidney diseases. Here, the authors show that microbial amino acid metabolism interacts with host kidney function to influence cardiorenal physiology in the early stages, with potential implications for long-term risk of cardiovascular disease in human populations.

Although widely used, television is underexplored in climate communication. Here analysis of German television programmes and audience perceptions shows that climate change coverage is concentrated in news formats and engages climate supporters, but misses climate-distant audiences drawn to entertainment.

Free electron laser beam profile characterization is usually performed separately from the actual measurements and this leads to considerable uncertainty in the results. Here the authors demonstrate the simultaneous measurement of the FEL beam profile with the experiment by using integrated gratings.

A reconfigurable photonic integrated circuit for modal decomposition in the Laguerre-Gaussian basis is introduced. The device measures relative phase, amplitude, and partial polarization of the constituting modes. It is capable of distinguishing up to 9 modes, providing a compact next generation platform for beam metrology.

This paper uses multiomics to profile a large cohort of meningioma samples to highlight the role of the tumor microenvironment in driving the epigenetic changes underpinning tumor classification and prediction of outcome.

Weak transitions have a prominent role in optical clock devices and fundamental physics tests but are challenging to resolve due to the unfavourable scaling of the cross section with transition strengths. Here, the authors demonstrate enhanced cross sections due to beyond single-photon excitations in He atoms, facilitating applications in precision spectroscopy.

Optical vortices exhibit a corkscrew-like shape as they travel. The study of this phenomenon, known as singular optics, is now extended to the high-power regime where high-harmonic processes become evident. This type of radiation could help illuminate novel attosecond phenomena in atoms and molecules.

Polyproline motifs induce ribosome stalling during translation. Here, Ignatov et al. identify RNA-binding proteins in the pathogenic bacterium Streptococcus pyogenes, and show that one of these proteins, YebC, acts as a translation factor enhancing translation of proteins with polyproline motifs.

Aberrant redox homeostasis links lipid metabolism and cell death programs. Here, authors reveal how cell stress reduces growth factor signaling, enriching polyunsaturated fatty acids in phospholipids and sensitizing membranes to oxidative damage.

The t(8;21) translocation is often found in acute myeloid leukaemia but is not sufficient for development of the disease. In this study, the authors identify frequent mutations in the transcriptional repressor, ZBTB7A, in these patients and show that the mutations reduce DNA binding activity.

Sarcomas are morphologically heterogeneous tumours rendering their classification challenging. Here the authors developed a classifier using DNA methylation data from several soft tissue and bone sarcoma subtypes, which has the potential to improve classification for research and clinical purposes.

Cholesterol plays a key role in membrane biology. Here, authors employ evolutionary molecular dynamics simulations to explore interactions driven by linear protein sequences, challenging the predictive power of traditional cholesterol-binding motifs.

This study examines the impact of herbivorous insects on biogeochemical cycling within forests. From a global network of 74 plots within 40 mature, undisturbed broadleaved forests, they show that background levels of insect herbivory are sufficiently large to alter both ecosystem element cycling and influence terrestrial carbon cycling.

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.

Small cell lung cancer cells form functional synapses with glutamatergic neurons, receiving synaptic transmissions and deriving a proliferative advantage from these interactions.

RETICULATA1 is a plastid membrane transporter in Arabidopsis that enables basic amino acid exchange across the plastid inner envelope. Loss-of-function mutants reveal its essential role in amino acid homeostasis, plant development and seed production.

FIKK effector kinases underwent rapid evolutionary expansion and are a druggable target in Plasmodium falciparum.

AMPK integrates information about a cell’s energy status to inform decisions about cellular processes, including autophagy. Here the authors identify cyclin Y as an AMPK substrate, which phosphorylates cyclin Y and promotes its interaction with CDK16 to stimulate autophagy.

Optical aberrations can hinder fluorescence imaging of thick samples, reducing image signal, contrast, and resolution. Here, the authors introduce a deep learning-based strategy for aberration compensation, improving image quality without slowing image acquisition or introducing more optics.

The diverse functional roles of ribozymes (RNAs with enzymatic activity) continue to be uncovered. Here, the authors identify and characterize a subgroup of minimal hepatitis delta virus (HDV)-like ribozymes – termed Theta ribozymes -, which they show process viral tRNA transcripts, and appearing crucial for lytic gene expression in recoded phages.

Reviewing online resources and additional literature on national red lists, 361 extinct seed-plant taxa were identified. Of these, 556 herbarium specimens belonging to 161 extinct species were found to have a high ‘de-extinction candidate’ score.

The production of ribosomes is a precisely orchestrated energy consuming cellular process of highest priority. Here, the authors use cryo-EM to show that bacterial ribosomal subunits, self-assembled from their purified RNA and protein components, mature along parallel pathways.

Head and neck cancer patients could greatly benefit from personalised treatment, but a lack of large public datasets hampers this potential. Here, the authors present HANCOCK, a multimodal dataset that integrates demographical, clinical, and histopathological data for 763 head and neck cancer patients that empowers machine learning models for clinical outcome prediction.

Cancer is often associated with mutant transcription factors (TFs) but their functional characterization is challenging. Here, the authors describe a recurrent mutation within TF IRF4 in human lymphomas and they show how it causes a complex switch in TF specificity and functionality.

The multistep incorporation process of the catalytic NiFe(CN)₂(CO) cofactor into [NiFe]-hydrogenase was deciphered by isolating key maturation intermediates, which were characterized by biochemical and a variety of spectroscopic techniques.

The RNAse III endonuclease Dicer is crucial for processing of pre-miRNAs in health and disease. Here the authors show that endothelial Dicer promotes atherosclerosis by increasing miR-103 levels leading to suppression of the anti-inflammatory transcription factor KLF4, thus suggesting a novel approach to treat this disease.

Embryonal tumour with multilayered rosettes (ETMR) is a rare and aggressive paediatric brain tumour. Here, the authors analyse intratumour heterogeneity and the tumour microenvironment in ETMR using single-cell and spatial transcriptomics, in vitro cultures, and a 3D forebrain organoid model, finding important aspects – such as the communication with pericytes – for ETMR development and response to therapy.

Biodiversity often increases the functioning and productivity of ecosystems or communities. This work shows that such a positive diversity effect, namely overyielding in mixtures of two divergent Arabidopsis thaliana genotypes, can be genetically mapped and resolved to a single gene.

Researchers create high ionization states, up to Xe³⁶⁺, using 1.5 keV free-electron laser pulses. The higher than expected ionization may be due to transient resonance-enhanced absorption and the effect may play an important role in interactions of intense X-rays with high-Z elements and radiation damage.

Untargeted metabolomics demonstrate that apoptotic brown adipocytes release a specific pattern of metabolites with purine metabolites being highly enriched, and inosine is identified as a metabolite released during apoptosis regulating thermogenic fat and counteracting obesity.

Different functional variants in ADH1B (and elsewhere) in Europeans and Africans strongly affect risk for alcohol dependence. Dependence only partly genetically correlates with consumption, with strong correlations to other psychiatric disorders.

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.

Age impacts the effect of dietary health and longevity interventions but the underlying mechanisms are incompletely understood. Here the authors study fasting in killifish and find that older animals exhibit a metabolic shift resembling a fasting-like program, which is counteracted by boosting the activity of AMPKγ1, promoting health and longevity.

Here the authors spatially map human pediatric low-grade gliomas using imaging mass cytometry, focusing on immunosuppressive myeloid cell populations and their functionality in tumor–immune interactions and tumor progression.

In yeast, the phosphatase Cdc14 controls mitotic exit. Here the authors show that mammalian CDC14B antagonizes CDK1, to keep the deubiquitinase USP9X unphosphorylated and inactive, and that Wilms’ tumor protein 1 is a substrate for active USP9X that directs mitosis-specific transcription to regulate mitotic survival.

This study identifies SCEP3 as a conserved central element of the plant synaptonemal complex. SCEP3 is critical for synapsis, heterochiasmy and crossover interference. SCEP3 also promotes a subset of crossover events.

It is challenging to treat emerging organic contaminants such as pharmaceutical compounds. Using the proposed plant-based zirconium–ellagate framework, this study demonstrates high removal efficiencies of emerging organic contaminants from real untampered municipal wastewater treatment plant effluent.

Metastatic dissemination in breast cancer patients occurs early in malignant transformation, raising questions about how disseminated cancer cells (DCC) progress at distant sites. Here, the authors show that DCCs in bone marrow are activated via IL6-trans-signaling and thereby acquire stemness traits relevant for metastasis formation.

The mTORC1 complex promotes protein translation and cell growth, whereas mTORC2 promotes survival. The Tel2 and Tt1 proteins belong to both complexes. Bassermann and colleagues demonstrate that following growth-factor deprivation, casein kinase 2 mediates phosphorylation of Tel2 and Tt1, specifically in the mTORC1 complex, to target them for degradation by the SCF^Fbxo9 ubiquitin ligase. This mechanism inactivates mTORC1 and activates mTORC2 and Akt signalling to promote survival of multiple myeloma cells.

Plasmablastic lymphoma (PBL) is an aggressive lymphoma subtype characterized by poor prognosis but the molecular knowledge of the disease is limited. Here, the authors perform whole exome sequencing and copy number determination of primary samples highlighting IRF4 and JAK-STAT pathways as therapeutic targets for PBL.

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.

Zymoseptoria tritici is an important fungal pathogen of wheat which has spread globally. Here, the authors perform genomic analyses on a collection of ~1100 Z. tritici samples from 42 countries to describe its global spread and elucidate mechanisms of adaptation to different environmental conditions.

In a post-approval study including more than 17,000 patients on the safety of pulsed field ablation, a new method for treatment of atrial fibrillation, the procedure was found to have a low rate of adverse events but was associated with some unexpected rare complications that will need further study.