Search

Analysis combining multiple global tree databases reveals that whether a location is invaded by non-native tree species depends on anthropogenic factors, but the severity of the invasion depends on the native species diversity.

The advantage of living in cities compared with rural areas with respect to height and BMI in children and adolescents has generally become smaller globally from 1990 to 2020, except in sub-Saharan Africa.

Species’ traits and environmental conditions determine the abundance of tree species across the globe. Here, the authors find that dominant tree species are taller and have softer wood compared to rare species and that these trait differences are more strongly associated with temperature than water availability.

Unlike Amazonian forests, African forests have maintained their carbon sink until recently but by 2030 the African carbon sink will have shrunk by 14 per cent and the Amazonian sink will reach almost zero.

Hund’s exchange interaction energy in two-dimensional materials is challenging to extract from experiments. Now, this is achieved in rhombohedral graphene, which allows an estimate of the interactions that drive the variety of correlated states in this material.

The immune response is key in determining disease severity of COVID19. Here Nouailles et al., apply bulk proteomics and scRNA-Seq of lung and blood samples of SARS-CoV-2 infected Syrian hamsters and provide a temporal atlas of the systemic and pulmonary cellular responses.

Wood density is an important plant trait. Data from 1.1 million forest inventory plots and 10,703 tree species show a latitudinal gradient in wood density, with temperature and soil moisture explaining variation at the global scale and disturbance also having a role at the local level.

Biological range expansions and invasions can be affected by rapid evolution. Here the authors show an evolutionary increase of dispersal during range expansions and an increase of population densities from range cores to range margins in microcosm experiments with a freshwater ciliate.

A study demonstrates a public generator of random numbers based on device-independent techniques, with the randomness being fully auditable and traceable.

Examining drivers of the latitudinal biodiversity gradient in a global database of local tree species richness, the authors show that co-limitation by multiple environmental and anthropogenic factors causes steeper increases in richness with latitude in tropical versus temperate and boreal zones.

Analysis of ground-sourced and satellite-derived models reveals a global forest carbon potential of 226 Gt outside agricultural and urban lands, with a difference of only 12% across these modelling approaches.

This study employs a functional genomic approach to identify a synthetic lethal interaction between CDS1 and CDS2 in uveal melanoma and other cancers, which may represent a potential therapeutic target.

Comparison of mucosal and systemic immunity after vaccination with the live-attenuated vaccine sCPD9, mRNA vaccine BNT162b2 or an adenovirus-vectored vaccine following SARS-CoV-2 challenge in hamsters.

Thermophilization is a change in species community composition towards greater abundances of species associated with warmer environments. This study provides evidence of thermophilization in understudied Afromontane forests, but with drivers that are distinct from other forest types.

Climate change is impacting mountain regions and the agricultural livelihood of residents, and will continue to do so. In this study, the authors survey farmers in ten African mountain regions to understand their perceptions of climate change impacts and identify adaptation opportunities and constraints.

Genome-wide association analyses of intracranial and nine subcortical brain volumes in 74,898 participants of European ancestry identify 254 independent loci and yield polygenic scores accounting for brain variation across ancestries.

Waning immunity to SARS-CoV-2 is of concern. Here the authors follow spike- and nucleocapsid specific immunity in convalescent individuals for 9 months observing a decline in antibody levels but persisting T cell response. Vaccination approximately 11 months after infection boosts antibody and T cell immunity.

Steele et al. use single-cell RNA sequencing and spatial transcriptomics to provide an atlas of adult human skin fibroblasts in healthy and diseased human skin.

Leukaemia cells resident in the bone marrow niche are often resistant to conventional therapies. In this study, the authors develop light-sensitive, polymeric, retinoic acid-containing nanoparticles that are able to modulate the differentiation of resistant leukaemia cells bothin vitro and in vivo.

High levels of neutralizing antibodies are successfully elicited against SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern, including omicron, after three exposures to the viral spike protein, mediated by vaccination with BNT162b2 alone or by a combination of vaccination and infection.

The authors analyse tree responses to an extreme heat and drought event across South America to understand long-term climate resistance. While no more sensitive to this than previous lesser events, forests in drier climates showed the greatest impacts and thus vulnerability to climate extremes.

A pan-Amazon study of forests shows large variations in drought tolerance traits and finds that forests in regions of pronounced climate change are losing biomass and may be operating beyond their hydraulic limits.

The role of non-structural carbohydrates (NSC) in mediating the impacts of drought in tropical trees is unclear. Here, the authors analyse leaf and branch NSC in 82 Amazon tree species across a Basin-wide precipitation gradient, finding that allocation of leaf NSC to soluble sugars is higher in drier sites and is coupled to tree hydraulic status.

The authors defined a roadmap for investigating the genetic covariance between structural or functional brain phenotypes and risk for psychiatric disorders. Their proof-of-concept study using the largest available common variant data sets for schizophrenia and volumes of several (mainly subcortical) brain structures did not find evidence of genetic overlap.

The aboveground carbon stock of a montane African forest network is comparable to that of a lowland African forest network and two-thirds higher than default values for these montane forests.

Observation of glioblastoma invasion in subcortical brain regions is challenging. Here the authors develop a Deep3P workflow to enable longitudinal deep imaging of glioblastoma and its microenvironment by combining three-photon microscopy and deep learning-based analysis, unraveling the invasion routes of these tumor cells into and within the white matter.

The spatial organization of cells in solid tumors is considered to be important for immune response and response to therapy. Here the authors use multiomics including spatial transcriptomics of human lung tumors prior to patients being treated and show among other things an association of stem-immunity hubs rich in stem-like CD8⁺ T cells with positive response to anti-PD-1 therapy.

Inventory data from 90 lowland Amazonian forest plots and a phylogeny of 526 angiosperm genera were used to show that taxonomic and phylogenetic diversity are both predictive of wood productivity but not of biomass variation.

Analysis of HbA1c and FPG levels across 117 population-based studies demonstrates regional variation in prevalence of previously undiagnosed screen-detected diabetes using one or both measures and suggests that use of elevated FPG alone could underestimate diabetes prevalence in low- and middle-income countries.

Tree mortality has been shown to be the dominant control on carbon storage in Amazon forests, but little is known of how and why Amazon forest trees die. Here the authors analyse a large Amazon-wide dataset, finding that fast-growing species face greater mortality risk, but that slower-growing individuals within a species are more likely to die, regardless of size.

Alternative stable states in forests have implications for the biosphere. Here, the authors combine forest biodiversity observations and simulations revealing that leaf types across temperate regions of the NH follow a bimodal distribution suggesting signatures of alternative forest states.

A laser–plasma accelerator provides proton beams for the precise irradiation of human tumours in a mouse model. This work advances translational research with ultrahigh proton dose rates at laser-driven sources.

Using optogenetic and physiological imaging tools, Busch et al. show that C. elegans sensory neurons that detect ambient oxygen concentration are tonic receptors and modify behavior in a persistent manner.

Systematic screens for synthetic lethal gene pairs represent a powerful approach to define interactions that may be exploited in the clinic. Here, the authors use a dual-guide CRISPR screening approach to screen a curated selection of gene pairs across three cell lines and validate the Fam50a/Fam50b synthetic lethality was in isogenic cell models as well as in an in vivo setting.

Temporal niche partitioning is an important feature of animal communities. Here, Vallejo-Vargas and colleagues analyze standardized camera trap survey data from protected areas across the tropics to investigate diel patterns of forest mammals in relation to body mass and trophic guild.

Virus-induced senescence is a central pathogenic feature in COVID-19, and senolytics, which promote apoptosis of senescent cells, can reduce disease severity in hamsters,mice, as well as humans infected with SARS-CoV-2.

Laser-produced plasma can be used for particle acceleration in different schemes. Here the authors demonstrate proton acceleration from the intense ultrashort laser pulse interaction with micron-sized cryogenic hydrogen jet.

Camera-trap data for 159 mammalian species at 1,002 sites across 16 tropical-forest protected areas show how local survival and colonization probabilities of specialist and generalist species are differently affected by human-induced stressors at different spatial scales, such as human population density and forest fragmentation.

A human antithrombin glycosylation isoform dampens inflammatory responses and protects mice against lethal bacterial infection.

A mass-spectrometry-based draft of the human proteome and a public database for analysis of proteome data are presented; assembled information is used to estimate the size of the protein-coding genome, to identify organ-specific proteins, proteins predicting drug resistance or sensitivity, and many translated long intergenic non-coding RNAs, and to reveal conserved control of protein abundance.

Laser-driven proton acceleration experiments achieve energies of up to 150 MeV with particle yields that are relevant for applications such as radiobiology.

Integrating inventory data with machine learning models reveals the global composition of tree types—needle-leaved evergreen individuals dominate, followed by broadleaved evergreen and deciduous trees—and climate change risks.

It is unclear what role mitochondrial function plays in maintaining intestinal epithelial cell (IEC) homeostasis. Here, the authors deplete a mitochondrial chaperone, heat shock protein 60 (HSP60) in IEC and observe a loss of stemness and cell proliferation, and suggest this is accompanied by a compensatory release of WNT-related factors.

Shaping particle beams generated from laser-plasma accelerators is challenging. Here the authors demonstrate an all-optical method to structure the accelerated proton beam by modulating and imprinting the spatial laser profile onto the proton beam.

Integration time limits the capacity of super-resolution microscopy to study dynamics. Here, Bartsch et al. use the 3D scanning of a nanoparticle held in an optical trap, and its thermal noise motion within the trap, to image the local dynamics of soft-matter structures with a 50 kHz bandwidth.

A disturbed microbial network characterizes relapsing refractory Crohn’s disease and antedates disease recurrence after surgical removal of the active disease segment.