Search

Direct observation of the Migdal effect in neutron–nucleus collisions is reported, which resolves a long-standing gap in experimental validation.

T-box riboswitches sense tRNA aminoacylation status to regulate gene expression. Here, the authors employ single molecule FRET on a full-length ileS T-box to resolve its structural dynamics, revealing how it distinguishes between tRNA 3’ termini to sense aminoacylation and regulate translation.

Cancer and cardiometabolic disease (CMD) multi-morbidity is a major health concern. Here, the authors report transition patterns as well as shared and distinct multiomics signatures in the developmental trajectories of CMD and cancer.

Commercial live attenuated influenza vaccines (LAIVs), usually contain a high proportion of defective interfering particles (DIPs), are not sufficiently protective. With mice models, the authors here reveal that LAIV with low DIPs replicates better, enhances immune response and facilitates cross-neutralization protection against lethal challenge of influenza strains.

The Chang’e-6 landing site contains ~30 ppm more water on its surface than its subsurface, with observed temporal variations. It holds twice the water content of the Chang’e-5 landing site. These findings demonstrate that solar wind and impacts are key to the formation of lunar water.

SNARE proteins are the minimal machinery required for the vesicle fusion in eukaryotes. Here the authors use single-molecule fluorescence spectroscopy to elucidate the chain of events during the disassembly of SNARE complex by NSF, showing two parallel sequential pathways for SNARE disassembly.

Single-molecule techniques can shed light on biochemical dynamics with high precision, but they require a significant photon number per frame and are hampered by the limited number of photons emitted by each fluorophore before photobleaching. Here, the authors introduce MUFFLE, a deep-learning denoising tool that enables single-molecule FRET with up to 10-fold reduction in photon requirement per frame.

Circular RNAs (circRNA) is a class of non-coding RNAs that can regulate gene translation and function. Here the authors show that a circRNA, circNDUFB2, is downregulated in non-small cell lung cancer tissues, and likely contributes to anti-tumor immunity by regulating both degradation of oncoproteins and induction of innate immunity.

CRISPR-Cas12e systems exhibit robust genome editing capabilities, yet their phylogenetic diversity remains underexplored. Here, authors elucidate the biochemical diversity and structural variations of newly identified Cas12e proteins, offering critical insights into structure-activity relationships.

Exoribonuclease-resistant RNAs (xrRNAs) are RNA elements that block the exoribonucleolytic degradation of RNA. Here the authors show how a long-range pseudoknot length modulates the Mg²⁺-dependence of flaviviral xrRNA’s folding, conformational dynamics and Xrn1 resistance.

T-box riboswitches are RNA-based gene regulators, composed of highly structured noncoding RNAs: the T-box and a tRNA ligand. Here, the authors assess the folding of a translational T-box aptamer and dissect the role of Mg²⁺, intra- and intermolecular RNA-RNA interactions in modulating its folding and function.

Comprehensive analyses of Cas9 proteins shed light on the evolution of the CRISPR–Cas9 system, and identify a pro-CRISPR accessory protein in bacteria that boosts CRISPR-mediated immunity by enhancing the DNA binding and cleavage activity of Cas9.

Extreme Sr–Nd depletion in 2.8-billion-year-old basalt fragments from the lunar farside South Pole–Aitken basin suggests an ultra-depleted mantle source resulting from lunar magma ocean crystallization and/or later impact-related melt extraction.

Studies on the µ-opioid receptor using fluorescent labelling of intracellular residues and energy transfer experiments in the presence of different ligands with or without G-protein binding reveals conformational changes that correlate to ligand efficacy.

A high-resolution terrain dataset was developed for the CE-6 landing site, revealing that its exposure age lies between CE-4 and CE-5 sites, with diverse material sources and covered by ejecta from a nearby 51-meter crater.

The authors uncover a hidden tetragonal-orthorhombic phase transition pathway which provides an approach to engineer domain orientations and further remanent polarization in polycrystalline HfO₂-based ferroelectric films.

Samples from the Chang’e-6 mission show that the lunar magnetic field rebounded in field strength after its previous sharp decline of about 3.1 Ga.

Intrinsically disordered regions of GPCRs have been understudied for their role in receptor signaling. Here, Jie Heng et al. reveal the dynamic behavior of β2 adrenergic receptor C-terminus and its autoinhibitory function in downstream Gs coupling.

By analyzing co-evolution of mitochondrial and nuclear genomes across insect species, the authors uncover the evolutionary covariation of a group of non-mitochondrially targeted nuclear genes with mitochondrial genes, including the uncharacterized gene CG11837, which regulates insect lifespan.

Yang and colleagues identify a lncRNA that controls HIF1α signalling to stabilize HIF1α under normoxic conditions, and promotes breast cancer tumorigenesis.

The Chinese Chang’e-6 mission plans to bring a sample from the lunar farside in 2024. Here the characterization and scientific potential of the three candidate landing sites are presented. They are located around the roughly 4-Gyr-old Apollo crater, located within the South Pole–Aitken basin.

Evidence for a stratigraphic sequence involving initial barchan dune formation, with the transition in wind regime consistent with the end of the ice age is found, compatible with the Martian polar stratigraphic record.

The researchers have uncovered that the phase separation ability of plant heterochromatin protein ADCP1 variants defines the formation of heterochromatic condensates (chromocenters) in different plant species.

Phosphoantigen-mediated BTN2A1 association drives BTN3A1 intracellular fluctuations outwards in a thermodynamically favourable manner, thereby enabling BTN3A1 to push off from the BTN2A1 ectodomain to initiate T cell receptor–mediated γδ T cell activation.

The highwire (Hiw)/DFsn ubiquitin ligase complex regulates synaptic morphology during development and axonal regeneration on injury. The authors identify Drosophila Rae1 as a component of the Hiw/DFsn complex and show that it controls Hiw protein abundance during synaptic development.

Laboratory spectroscopic and X-ray diffraction analyses on the Chang’E-5 lunar soil samples have demonstrated that the spectral features of lunar late-stage mare basalts are representative of iron-rich high-Ca pyroxene rather than olivine.

In this study, the authors map the lunar surface chemistry. They achieve this through a combination of deep learning and actual samples from the Chinese Chang’e-5 mission.

Li et al. show that ROR1–HER3 receptor tyrosine kinase signalling in breast cancer cells inhibits the MST1/2 Hippo pathway kinases through a lncRNA termed MAYA. The resulting activation of YAP promotes osteoclast differentiation for bone metastasis.

The photostability of organic fluorophores attached to proteins is sensitive to their environment, yet the impact of nearby protein residues remains unclear. Here, the authors reveal that methionine, tryptophan, phenylalanine, valine, and leucine decrease the photostability of a maleimide-derived fluorophore attached to cysteine residues in proteins, while glutamate enhances it, and use molecular dynamics simulations to elucidate the underlying mechanisms.

Yang and colleagues report that the LINK-A lncRNA binds to the PIP₃ phospholipid, leading to enhanced AKT signalling, tumorigenesis and resistance to AKT inhibitors.

Using Chang’E data, the authors here identify more than 109,000 previously unrecognized lunar craters and date almost 19,000 craters based on transfer learning with deep neural networks. A new lunar crater database is derived and distributed to the planetary community.

The chemical compositions of young lava flows on the Moon have implications for late volcanism. Here, the authors present mineral distribution data from the Chang′e-3 Yutu rover in the northern Imbrium mare region, reporting unique compositional characteristics of a previously unsampled basalt type.

The Chang’E-4 mission in January 2019 had the major challenge to land on the lunar far side without traditional radiometric techniques due to the missing line-of-sight. The authors here describe landing trajectory reconstruction and positioning techniques based upon the Moon’s digital terrain model that allowed reproducing the entire process of a successful landing.

The secondary structure of mRNAs can slow or even halt protein synthesis. Single-molecule FRET studies of distinct steps in the translation elongation cycle now reveal that unfolding of mRNA secondary structures is more closely coupled to tRNA dissociation from the ribosomal exit site, with little effect on tRNA translocation within the ribosome.

The ESCRT-III and Vps4 complexes mediate a variety of membrane remodelling events. Here the authors describe the structure of the Vps4 hexamer complexed to its cofactor Vta1, and show that Vta1 bridges adjacent Vps4 subunits to promote formation of the active hexamer during ESCRT-III filament disassembly.

Basalt samples returned from the Moon by the Chang’e-5 mission are revealed to be two billion years old by radioisotopic dating, providing insight on the volcanic history of the Moon.

The mechanism by which accessory proteins regulate cGAS phase separation guided the development of chemical-inducible and light-inducible strategies to manipulate cGAS phase separation and immune signaling in test tubes and in living cells.

Recombination contributes to HIV evolution in patients, but its identification can be difficult. Here, the authors develop a computational tool called RAPR to track recombination in patients, identify recombination hot spots, and show contribution of recombination to antibody escape.

DEBRIS is a deep learning-based model that can classify local features and identify steady events and dynamically emerging events within two-color single-molecule traces of varying lengths based on user-defined criteria.

Initial spectral observations by China’s Chang’E-4 far-side lunar rover suggest the presence of materials that may originate from the Moon’s mantle.