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Hutchinson-Gilford Progeria Syndrome is characterized by premature aging with cardiovascular disease being the main cause of death. Here the authors show that inhibition of the NAT10 enzyme enhances cardiac function and fitness, and reduces age-related phenotypes in a mouse model of premature aging.

An end-to-end continuous-variable quantum key distribution system with an untrusted node is proposed. A proof-of-principle experiment shows that 10⁻¹ secret key bits per relay use are distributed at 4 dB loss, corresponding to 20 km in optical fibre.

Photocatalysts that can engage a range of substrates and regulate reactivity and enantioselectivity are highly desirable. Now, an enantioselective energy transfer catalysis-enabled photocyclization of acrylanilides has been developed. Reactivity and enantioselectivity are simultaneously regulated by a commercial chiral Al–salen complex upon irradiation, enabling the formation of diverse cyclic products with high levels of enantioselectivity.

The facile synthesis of a stable Au(III) cationic complex is described; this gold catalyst exhibits hard, oxophilic Lewis acidity, enabling selective conjugate additions and a [2 + 2] cycloaddition reaction.

Single-cell- and metagenomics-based study reveals two members of the candidate genus ‘Entotheonella’, symbionts of the marine sponge Theonella swinhoei; distinct biosynthetic gene clusters that account for most of the bioactive polyketides and peptides known from T. swinhoei are shown to be attributable to a single member of the T. swinhoei Y microbiome.

Performing computation on encrypted data is a power tool for protecting a client’s privacy, but the best solutions achieved by classical approaches are only computationally secure. Here authors present and experimentally demonstrate a quantum protocol to achieve this using continuous variables.

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.

Dectin-1 is a critical component of the innate sensing repertoire which is involved in pattern based recognition of fungal pathogens. Here the authors show that intramembrane proteolysis is involved in the regulation of the antifungal host response by termination of the phagosomal signalling of Dectin-1.

Warming temperatures and interactions between plants are the main drivers of changes in Arctic plant communities in response to climate change, and there is no evidence of overall biotic homogenization.

Type 2 conventional dendritic cells (cDC2) are important immune activators in adults, but their development and functions at the neonatal stage remain unclear. Here the authors show, using fate-mapping and single-cell RNA sequencing, that neonatal cDC2 come from multiple origins, but converge functionally as potent immune activators upon proper stimuli.

Single molecule real-time DNA sequencing allows genome-wide identification of DNA methylation patterns. Here, Jensen et al. present a high-throughput method that allows rapid coupling of DNA methylation patterns with their corresponding methyltransferase genes in bacteria.

Genome-wide association meta-analysis of AAA identifies 121 independent risk loci and highlights potential therapeutic targets such as proprotein convertase, subtilisin/kexin-type 9 (PCSK9).

Weight regain after weight loss is a challenge in obesity treatment and may involve altered eating and sedentary behaviour after weight loss. Here the authors report an exploratory analysis of eating- and physical activity-related outcomes from a randomized controlled trial for weight loss maintenance with exercise and liraglutide single or combination treatment.

The underlying genetics of carpal tunnel syndrome is not well understood. Here, the authors perform a GWAS meta-analysis for carpal tunnel syndrome finding variants at 50 loci with connections to the extracellular matrix discovered through various functional analyses.

Here, the authors identify interleukin-3 as a predictive marker for severity and outcome of SARS-CoV-2 infection in a multi-center, prospective study and find that patients with severe COVID-19 have reduced circulating plasmacytoid dendritic cell levels compared to non-severe COVID-19 patients.

Introducing a phase shift between diffracted and undiffracted light from a sample is one of the oldest techniques for generating phase contrast in optical microscopy. A similar approach should help improve the contrast and clarity of images collected by scanning X-ray microscopy.

Genotypes causing pregnancy loss and perinatal mortality are depleted among living individuals and are therefore difficult to find. Here, using genetic data for 1.52 million individuals, the authors identify 25 genes with protein-altering variants exhibiting a strong deficit of homozygosity, suggesting they are essential for successful early development.

In Arabidopsis, a map of methylated cytosines is generated at single base pair resolution by combining bisulphite treatment of genomic DNA with ultra-high-throughput sequencing.

The extent of epigenetic reprogramming in mammalian primordial germ cells (PGCs) and in early embryos, and its molecular mechanisms, are poorly understood. DNA methylation profiling in PGCs now reveals a genome–wide erasure of methylation, with female PGCs being less methylated than male ones. A deficiency of the cytidine deaminase AID interferes with the genome–wide erasure of DNA methylation, indicating that AID has a critical function in epigenetic reprogramming.

Chronic lymphocytic leukemia is an indolent disease, and many patients succumb to infection rather than the direct effects of the disease. Here, the authors use medical records and machine learning to predict the patients that may be at risk of infection, which may enable a change in the course of their treatment.

Influenza infection during pregnancy can affect health of offspring but it is not clear how this affects immune responses. Here the authors use a mouse model to show that influenza infection during pregnancy can increase susceptibility to secondary infection and alter immune cell function in offspring.

Genome-wide association analyses of migraine and its subtypes identify new susceptibility loci, including rare variants with large effects implicating PRRT2, SCN11A and KCNK5.

Both the yeast and hyphal forms of Candida albicans enable colonization of the mammalian gut, with hyphal cells secreting the toxin candidalysin to inihibit bacteria and support fungal commensalism.

To determine the origin of adult tissue-resident macrophages, a mouse lineage tracing study has revealed that these cells derive from erythro-myeloid progenitors in the yolk sac that are distinct from fetal and adult haematopoietic stem cells.

Establishing the relative transmissibility of emerging variants of SARS-CoV-2 is key for pandemic management. Here, the authors use full-population administrative data from Denmark linked to PCR test results and estimate that the Alpha variant was ~60% higher than other strains circulating in early 2021.

A competitive inhibitor of the lipase ATGL reduces the availability of adipocyte fatty acids, causing insulin resistance in insulin-sensitive tissues.

Kjerulff et al. evaluate 47 biomarkers, including markers of inflammation and vascular stress, and their associations with demographic and lifestyle factors in healthy participants from the Danish Blood Donor study. Circulating biomarker levels varied according to sex, age, BMI and smoking status.

The FANTOM4 study identified transcriptional start sites active during proliferation arrest and differentiation of the human monocytic cell line THP-1. Systematic knockdown of 52 transcription factors provide support for their model in which a complex transcriptional network regulates the differentiation process.

Reiner Siebert and colleagues report whole-genome, whole-exome and transcriptome sequencing of Burkitt lymphomas. They identify recurrent mutations in several genes not previously known to be mutated in Burkitt lymphoma, including ID3, FBXO11, DDX3X and RHOA.