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Apomixis allows plants to reproduce clonally, yet it is unclear how rare sexual events shape their genomes. This study shows that residual sex in apomictic hickories causes recombination-driven loss of heterozygosity that exposes harmful mutations to selection and helps maintain clonality.

Papaya is a trioecious species with XX females, XY males, and XY^h hermaphrodites, and the combination of Y and Y^h chromosomes is lethal. Here, the authors identify the degeneration of the YY lethality gene on the Y chromosome as the causal balancing lethal factor that reenforces dioecy and stabilizes balanced sex ratios.

In this randomized phase 3 trial, patients with treatment-naive stage III–IV nonsmall cell lung cancer who received sintilimab or pembrolizumab in combination with chemotherapy early in the day (before 15:00 h) experienced longer progression-free survival compared with those receiving late time-of-day infusions.

Rare-earth permanent magnets are engineered with a complex microstructure of composition and phase, grains and grain boundaries, and it is this complex structure which leads to the magnetic performance. Here, Giron and coauthors, through thorough microstructural analysis, demonstrate that the grain microstructure, not grain boundaries, are primarily responsible for optimal magnetic properties.

Catalytic asymmetric click reactions of azides and alkynes for chiral triazole synthesis remains a challenge, due to the limited catalytic systems and substrate scope. Herein, the authors report the enantioselective azidation/click cascade reaction of N-propargyl-β-ketoamides via copper catalysis, affording a variety of chiral 1,2,3-triazoles.

The Einstein Probe has discovered a fast X-ray transient, EP240414a, associated with a broad-lined type Ic supernova. Its unusually soft spectrum and weak jet add to the diversity of stellar deaths and suggest a previously unknown Wolf–Rayet star explosion mechanism.

Metal selenides have been reported as promising oxygen-evolution catalysts but their active forms are yet to be elucidated. Here, the authors show that metal selenides are unstable under oxygen-evolution conditions and that in situgenerated metal oxides/hydroxides are responsible for their high activity.

The flagship paper of the ICGC/TCGA Pan-Cancer Analysis of Whole Genomes Consortium describes the generation of the integrative analyses of 2,658 cancer whole genomes and their matching normal tissues across 38 tumour types, the structures for international data sharing and standardized analyses, and the main scientific findings from across the consortium studies.

Integrative analyses of transcriptome and whole-genome sequencing data for 1,188 tumours across 27 types of cancer are used to provide a comprehensive catalogue of RNA-level alterations in cancer.

This study reports ceramic nanowire aerogels with dual SiO₂/PyC nodes that combine high strength and elasticity, overcoming the typical strength–elasticity trade-off through a synergistic soft–hard structural design.

The LHCb experiment at CERN has observed significant asymmetries between the decay rates of the beauty baryon and its CP-conjugated antibaryon, thus demonstrating CP violation in baryon decays.

Entanglement was observed in top–antitop quark events by the ATLAS experiment produced at the Large Hadron Collider at CERN using a proton–proton collision dataset with a centre-of-mass energy of √s  = 13 TeV and an integrated luminosity of 140 fb⁻¹.

MHC-I mediated antigen presentation is an important element of the anti-tumour immune response. Here authors identify a tumour immune escape mechanism by which the cancer cells express the ubiquitin E3 ligase UHRF1 in the cytoplasm instead of the nuclear expression pattern observed in normal tissues, and this results in degradation of MHC-I and thus diminished antigen presentation and anti-tumour T cell response.

Phosphorus is an essential plant nutrient. Here Meng et al. show that low phosphorus availability stimulates hydrogen peroxide production which in turn promotes the oligomerization, nuclear translocation and DNA binding activity of the PHR2 transcription factor and enhances the phosphate starvation response.

Ganoderma lucidumis a macrofungus in traditional Chinese medicine known to produce different bioactive compounds. In this study, the genome ofG. lucidumis sequenced, making this organism a potential model system for future studies of secondary metabolic pathways and their regulation in medicinal fungi.

The semileptonic decay channels of the Λc baryon can give important insights into weak interaction, but decay into a neutron, positron and electron neutrino has not been reported so far, due to difficulties in the final products’ identification. Here, the BESIII Collaboration reports its observation in e+e- collision data, exploiting machine-learning-based identification techniques.

The conductance of single-molecule junctions is affected by the structure of the molecule and how it is bound to the electrodes, which may be examined using Raman spectroscopy. Liuet al. have developed 'fishing-mode' tip-enhanced Raman spectroscopy, which allows the simultaneous determination of conductance and Raman spectra.

Diarrhoea is a major cause of morbidity and mortality in China. Here, the authors present results from a large sentinel surveillance scheme from 217 hospitals in all 31 provinces in mainland China, including ~150,000 patients with acute diarrhoea and covering years 2009-2018.

A microchip-based DNA synthesis method enables scalable production of complex DNA constructs.

China operates a national surveillance program for acute respiratory infections and sampled over 200,000 patients between 2009–2019. Here, the authors present results from this program and describe patterns by age, pathogen type, presence of pneumonia, and season.

While Bell inequalities have been violated several times—mostly in photonic systems—their violations within particle physics experiments are less explored. Here, the BESIII Collaboration showcases Bell-violating nonlocal correlations between entangled hyperon pairs.

In this study the authors consider the structural variants (SVs) present within cancer cases of the ICGC/TCGA Pan-Cancer Analysis of Whole Genomes (PCAWG) Consortium. They report hundreds of genes, including known cancer-associated genes for which the nearby presence of a SV breakpoint is associated with altered expression.

A genome-wide association meta-analysis study of blood lipid levels in roughly 1.6 million individuals demonstrates the gain of power attained when diverse ancestries are included to improve fine-mapping and polygenic score generation, with gains in locus discovery related to sample size.

High-resolution speleothem records and an isotope-enabled climate model suggest distinct responses of East Asian summer monsoon δ¹⁸O to various kinds of interstadials, driven by nuanced shifts of Westerlies modulated by high-latitude warming intensity.

The ATLAS Collaboration reports a measurement of the ratio of the decay rates of W bosons to τ leptons and muons, in agreement with universal lepton couplings as postulated in the standard model of particle physics.

The ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider reports a search for charged-lepton-flavour violation in decays of Z bosons into a τ lepton and an electron or muon of opposite charge.

Trees come in all shapes and size, but what drives this incredible variation in tree form remains poorly understood. Using a global dataset, the authors show that a combination of climate, competition, disturbance and evolutionary history shape the crown architecture of the world’s trees and thereby constrain the 3D structure of woody ecosystems.

Viral pathogen load in cancer genomes is estimated through analysis of sequencing data from 2,656 tumors across 35 cancer types using multiple pathogen-detection pipelines, identifying viruses in 382 genomic and 68 transcriptome datasets.

An analysis of 2,954 genomes from 38 cancer subtypes identified 19,166 retrotransposition events in 35% of samples. Aberrant LINE-1 retrotranspositions can lead to the deletion of tumor-suppressor genes as well as the amplification of oncogenes.

Chiral interaction of molecular ensembles with confined light fields is elusive. Here, the authors report collective chiroptical effects through coupling of exciton and charge-transfer mixed molecular assemblies with plasmonic nanoparticles.

Analyses of 2,658 whole genomes across 38 types of cancer identify the contribution of non-coding point mutations and structural variants to driving cancer.

In somatic cells the mechanisms maintaining the chromosome ends are normally inactivated; however, cancer cells can re-activate these pathways to support continuous growth. Here, the authors characterize the telomeric landscapes across tumour types and identify genomic alterations associated with different telomere maintenance mechanisms.

Ten years after the discovery of the Higgs boson, the ATLAS  experiment at CERN probes its kinematic properties with a significantly larger dataset from 2015–2018 and provides further insights on its interaction with other known particles.

The bird hand is thought to derive from the second, third and fourth digits of an ancestral five-digit hand. However, the three-fingered hand of theropod dinosaurs, which are the closest extinct relatives of birds, are thought to derive from the first, second and third digits. The discovery of a small, primitive herbivorous theropod from the Jurassic period of China with a stub of the first digit alongside more developed second, third and fourth digits, sheds light on this problem.

Managing power exhaust in fusion reactors is a key challenge, especially in compact designs for cost-effective commercial energy. This study shows how alternative divertor configurations improve exhaust control, enhance stability, absorb transients and enable independent plasma regulation.

With the generation of large pan-cancer whole-exome and whole-genome sequencing projects, a question remains about how comparable these datasets are. Here, using The Cancer Genome Atlas samples analysed as part of the Pan-Cancer Analysis of Whole Genomes project, the authors explore the concordance of mutations called by whole exome sequencing and whole genome sequencing techniques.

Whole-genome sequencing data from more than 2,500 cancers of 38 tumour types reveal 16 signatures that can be used to classify somatic structural variants, highlighting the diversity of genomic rearrangements in cancer.

A pan-cancer genomic analysis reports the effects of structural variations on chromatin domains (TADs). Most TAD disruptions do not result in appreciable changes in expression of nearby genes.

The characterization of 4,645 whole-genome and 19,184 exome sequences, covering most types of cancer, identifies 81 single-base substitution, doublet-base substitution and small-insertion-and-deletion mutational signatures, providing a systematic overview of the mutational processes that contribute to cancer development.

Chang’e-6 farside samples show heavy δ³⁴S values similar to the nearside, supporting global lunar volatile loss induced by the giant impact.

Understanding deregulation of biological pathways in cancer can provide insight into disease etiology and potential therapies. Here, as part of the PanCancer Analysis of Whole Genomes (PCAWG) consortium, the authors present pathway and network analysis of 2583 whole cancer genomes from 27 tumour types.

There’s an emerging body of evidence to show how biological sex impacts cancer incidence, treatment and underlying biology. Here, using a large pan-cancer dataset, the authors further highlight how sex differences shape the cancer genome.