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In maize, ZmDapF1 suppresses the activity of ZmMDH6 in chloroplasts, exacerbating oxidative damage under drought. Knocking out ZmDapF1 or using its favourable allele with lower gene expression enhances drought resilience without yield penalty.

Japonica subspecies has a lower nitrogen use efficiency (NUE) than that of indica rice. Here, the authors show that natural variations in the NIN-like protein 4 (OsNLP4) encoding gene are responsible for the divergence and introgression of the indica OsNLP4 allele into elite japonica cultivar can increase NUE and grain yield.

KRAS is an oncogene that switches between a GDP-bound inactive state and a GTP-bound active state. Recently developed KRAS G12C inhibitors are specific to the GDP-bound inactive state. Here, the authors develop a class of covalent KRAS G12C inhibitors capable of targeting both states for the treatment of KRAS-driven cancer.

Large-effect variants in autism remain elusive. Here, the authors use long-read sequencing to assemble phased genomes for 189 individuals, identifying pathogenic variants in TBL1XR1, MECP2, and SYNGAP1, plus nine candidate structural variants missed by short-read methods.

Most kiwifruit species are vulnerable to high levels of heat stress. Here, the authors report natural variation at the GATA transcription factor binding site of EGY3 gene mediates chloroplastic ROS homeostasis to confer kiwifruit thermotolerance.

Multipole datasets and targeted sensitivity simulations reveal interannual variability in Middle Eastern dust accounts for ~36 % of the Indian Ocean Dipole variance during boreal autumn, surpassing the influence of El Niño-Southern Oscillation.

Identifying jets originating from heavy quarks plays a fundamental role in hadronic collider experiments. In this work, the ATLAS Collaboration describes and tests a transformer-based neural network architecture for jet flavour tagging based on low-level input and physics-inspired constraints.

The implementation of non-negative matrix factorization–a powerful technique finding hidden patterns in high-dimensional data – remains challenging due to computational complexity. Wang et al. report an in-memory analogy solver, enabling accurate factorization with fast operation at low power consumption.

Wafer bonding has allowed the synthesis of twisted interfaces which support polar discontinuities in ferroelectric lithium niobate. Two-dimensional sheet conductivity arises but is suppressed when twist angles lead to interfacial lattice aperiodicity.

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.

O’Shea and colleagues establish that optimisation of charge and stability is sufficient to enable any single-chain variable fragment intrabody to function within the cell. The authors use AI-led inverse folding to optimise intrabody characteristics, and they present hundreds of intrabody sequences targeting sixty cytoplasmic proteins.

In this work, the authors reveal that three non-ribosomal peptides targeting a common protein quality system differentially alter the Mycobacterium tuberculosis proteome, providing new insight into the molecular mechanisms behind their antimycobacterial activity.

This study reports that genomic signatures composed of the loss of pluripotency inhibitors, expansion of pluripotency activators and maintenance of an epigenetically permissive state contribute to the plantlet formation in Kalanchoe.

Molecular bilayer crystals of an organic semiconductor can exhibit metallic charge transport down to 8 K with an electrical conductivity of up to 245 S cm⁻¹, as well as charge carrier mobility values of more than 100 cm² V⁻¹ s⁻¹ at 20 K.

This study demonstrates a low-energy photon device based on the kagome metal RbV₃Sb₅. It demonstrates that Fermi surface reconstruction, driven by a phase transition, leads to the emergence of van Hove singularities near the Fermi level.

The existence of a long-lived, prethermal regime in many-body systems with tunable heating rates, driven by structured random protocols, is observed using a 78-qubit superconducting quantum processor.

Freestanding membranes of hexagonal oxides remain difficult to obtain. In this work, a water-soluble crystalline hexagonal BaAl₂O₄ is found to serve as a sacrificial layer for obtaining freestanding membranes with six-fold or three-fold symmetry.

The authors report long-lived pump-induced conductivity suppression in metallic Ti₃C₂ MXenes using ultrafast terahertz and reflectance spectroscopy. The effect is attributed to strong photothermal heating and slow heat dissipation.

Thymine DNA glycosylase (TDG) was identified as a synthetic-lethal target in p53-deficient cancers through alterations in double-stranded RNA accumulation. A covalent small-molecule inhibitor of TDG exhibited potent efficacy against p53-deficient tumors.

Zhang et al. show that the activation of RIPK1 is suppressed by acetylhypusination in a spermidine-dependent manner. Disruption of this axis contributes to RIPK1-mediated vascular pathology to promote insulin resistance and diabetic kidney pathology.

Strong paramagnetism is generated in hydrogels rich in carbon–oxygen double bonds simply by coupling with diamagnetic Ca cations. These paramagnetic hydrogels are applied as magnetic resonance imaging contrast agents and magnetic drug carriers.

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.

There is a lack of effective therapies for patients with non-V600E BRAF mutant cancer. Here, the authors report limited response in a phase II trial investigating the combination of binimetinib (MEK inhibitor) and encorafenib (BRAF inhibitor) for the treatment of non-V600E BRAF mutant cancer and subsequently investigate resistance mechanisms and combination therapeutic strategies in patient-derived models.

Psychedelics and their non-hallucinogenic analogues were compared, revealing that serotonin 2A receptor (5-HT_2AR)-mediated G_i signalling is essential for hallucinogenic effect, with the functional mechanisms underlying this providing insights for designing therapeutic drugs without hallucinogenic effects.

Fibre integrated circuits created by first preparing circuitry on extremely thin and flexible substrates and then mechanically rolling them up demonstrate microdevice density reaching 100,000 transistors per centimetre and excellent stability under harsh service conditions.

Cystine levels in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) tumour microenvironment are deficient, despite its crucial role for cancer cell maintenance. Here, the authors show that adaptation to cystine limitation stress promotes PDAC growth through induces metabolic reprogramming to promote PDAC tumor growth, while conferring a vulnerability in lipid metabolism targetable by lomitapide.

Non-Annex I countries—mostly developing countries under the UN climate framework—excluding China accounted for approximately 61% of hydrofluorocarbon emission growth during 2011–2020, while China’s emissions have been overestimated since 2017, according to atmospheric observational data and inverse modelling.

Experiments in mice and pigs revealed that l-theanine produced by Lactobacillus reuteri acts on host cells to increase the catabolism of branched-chain amino acids by stabilizing the expression of branched-chain amino acid transferases.

Induction of hypothermia during hibernation/torpor enables certain mammals to survive under extreme conditions. Here, the authors show that the natural product P57 induces hypothermia by targeting pyridoxal kinase and has a potential application in therapeutic hypothermia.

A new Bayesian framework for analysing gravitational-wave ringdown signals from black holes speeds up multi-mode inference, enhancing rapid and statistically robust tests of strong gravity.

The study used snMultiome-seq to map gene expression and chromatin accessibility in human central amygdala cells from people with and without AUD. Here, the authors show that inhibitory neurons are most affected, with KLF16-driven regulatory changes and AUD-risk variants disrupting gene activity.

Engineered mucus-tethering bispecific nanobodies neutralize and entrap viruses to enhance mucosal immunity, preventing influenza infection and limiting SARS-CoV-2 transmission.

Generation of orbital currents in a non-magnetic material can be useful to build efficient orbitronic devices. Now, the interplay of chiral phonons and electrons is shown to produce orbital currents in α-quartz.

Accurately predicting enzyme functions remains challenging, especially for underrepresented enzyme commission (EC) classes. Here, the authors introduce HIT-EC, a hierarchical interpretable transformer that improves EC number prediction and provides insight into sequence-function relationships.

CrPS₄, a 2D van der Waals A-type antiferromagnet, is shown to exhibit ideal characteristics of Stoner–Wohlfarth antiferromagnets, such as ferromagnet-like binary switching rather than layer-by-layer flipping as in other 2D A-type antiferromagnets.

Excessive antimicrobial use can increase the threat of antimicrobial resistance; however, how such use is embedded in global trade is still unclear. Authors here estimate global livestock antimicrobial footprints through global supply chains to better understand and manage antimicrobial use.

A self-powered symbiotic transcatheter pacemaker that regenerates energy via electromagnetic induction from the cardiac motion demonstrates a month-long operation in a porcine model of arrhythmia and surpasses the critical energy condition for lifelong service.

Medullary thyroid carcinoma (MTC) is a rare and aggressive neuroendocrine tumor with limited risk stratification. Here, the authors perform multi-omic analysis of MTC samples from 452 patients across 10 Chinese clinical centers, identify molecular subtypes and develop a prediction model.

Controllable and scalable phase transition of transition metal chalcogenides is challenging. Using in situ microscopic analysis, a non-stoichiometric phase transition from PdTe₂ to PdTe is observed on the atomic scale, providing mechanistic insights into the scalable phase engineering of transition metal chalcogenide films and heterostructures.

A nanoimprint technique exploiting capillary forces in nanohole arrays enables patterning CdSe-based quantum-dot LEDs with a resolution of nearly 170,000 pixels per inch while maintaining high average external quantum efficiencies of 17.0%, 10.5% and 5.7% for red-, green- and blue-emitting pixels, respectively.

Cryogenic transport measurements of CsV₃Sb₅ nanobeams show a zero-field Josephson diode effect and radio-frequency rectification with power-dependent quantized voltage output.

A martensitic alloy with a tensile strength exceeding 3 GPa and a fracture elongation of 5.13% is developed. These mechanical properties arise from interface complexes interacting with dense dislocation networks, which is a mechanism shown to be applicable to other compositions.

The inferior heterojunction quality and misaligned energy levels at the buffer/absorber layer hinders development of antimony selenosulfide solar cells. Here, authors introduce low-work-function tantalum pentoxide dielectric layer for field-effect passivation, achieving device efficiency of 10.95%.

Tan and colleagues develop DNA nanodevices to detect the pH of the lysosomal outer surface, observing an acidic layer generated by TMEM175 that regulates lysosome positioning in response to changes in juxta-lysosomal pH.

Here, the authors document the evolutionary dynamics of angiosperm pollen, using pollen morphology and time calibrated phylogeny. They identify two surges in pollen disparity in the mid-Cretaceous and Paleogene that are associated with environmental changes and important pollen adaptations.

Phosphorylation-dephosphorylation and ubiquitination tune TCR signaling to avoid self-reactivity. Kim and colleagues show that acetylation also modulates TCR signaling.

Quantum Monte Carlo is among the most accurate methods for quantum many-body systems but has been hindered by the difficulty of computing arbitrary off-diagonal observables. Wang et al. introduce a universal scheme based on bipartite reweight annealing for direct and reliable evaluation of general observables.

A soft, biodegradable, wireless sensing device can monitor pressure, temperature and strain over long distances (up to 16 cm), maintaining accuracy across varying positions and angles.

A label-free imaging approach detects differences in NIR-II autofluorescence intensity between human liver malignancy and the adjacent tissue.

Global Burden of Disease estimates show that between 1990 and 2023, the prevalence and burden of drug use disorders, inclusive of amphetamine, cannabis, cocaine and opioid use, have been increasing in high-income countries, particularly in the USA.