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Global Burden of Disease analysis found that in 2023, suboptimal diet was estimated to be responsible for 4 million deaths and 97 million morbidity burdens from ischemic heart disease.

Accurately mapping diverse cell types in complex tissues remains a challenge for spatial transcriptomics. Here, the authors present UCASpatial, an entropy-weighted algorithm that enables ultra-precision deconvolution to resolve fine-grained immune landscapes and explore intercellular mechanisms.

Autophagy has been reported to have an important role in glioblastoma temozolomide resistance but the underlying mechanisms are unclear. Here, the authors identify RFC4-STK38-BECN1 complex as a driver of autophagy activation and subsequent temozolomide resistance in preclinical models of glioblastoma.

Perovskite–silicon solar cells rely on buffer layers that avoid damaging the perovskite, but common tin-oxide layers force thicker transport layers that increase optical loss. The authors replace this layer with thermally evaporated antimony oxide, enabling thinner C₆₀ and higher-efficiency perovskite–silicon solar cells.

Cryo-EM structures of ZYG11B-EloB-EloC-substrate complex reveal architecture of CRL2^ZYG11B E3 ligase. ZYG11B forms both monomeric and dimeric assemblies, and functional assays show that dimerization enhances substrate ubiquitination and degradation.

The transcription factor SlWRI3 integrates fatty acid metabolism with acylsugar biosynthesis in tomato trichomes, coordinating precursor supply and assembly of these natural insect defensive chemicals.

Radiotherapy response in colorectal cancer (CRC) is often limited and recurrence is common. Here, the authors show that the kinase NEK8 induces radioresistance by lactate-mediated immunosuppression and that inhibiting NEK8 restores antitumor immunity and improves radiotherapy sensitivity in preclinical CRC.

Endocsymbiosis is known to fuel deep-sea life, while ectosymbiosis remains poorly understood. Analysing the genome of a cold-seep scallop, this study uncovers key adaptations to the deep sea and metabolic complementarity with chemosynthetic bacteria on its gill surface.

High-latitude soils are future soil organic carbon loss hotspots, with losses dominated by particulate organic carbon (POC). The fraction of POC in total SOC (f_POC) is a key indicator, emphasizing the climate importance of preserving POC.

Metabolic profiling of extracellular vesicles for diagnostic applications remains challenging. Here authors develop ACTIVITY, a cascade-catalysis strategy to detect metabolically active extracellular vesicles, enabling macrophage phenotyping and differentiation of pneumonia patients from healthy controls.

Inborn errors of cell death (IECD) with autoinflammatory manifestations could be induced by excessive T cell death. Here the authors characterize IECD patients with autoinflammatory manifestations who possess overactive RIPK1 variants which promote T cell death, secretion of TNF and IFN-γ along with activation of monocytes and macrophages which promotes further autoinflammation.

Protein complexes are the machinery of life, yet mapping their structures across different species is challenging. This study presents an atlas of 1.1million cross-kingdom structures, revealing 181,671 high-confidence complexes that uncover new higher-order structures and evolutionary links.

Total internal reflection structural colors often lack dynamic response. Here, the authors develop Janus droplet systems with dual surfactant/temperature responsiveness, creating cold-chain labels to monitor pharmaceutical freeze history via color changes.

Both endogenous and exogenous signaling pathways are involved in the maintenance of self-renewal and pluripotency of human embryonic stem cells (hESCs). Here, the authors uncover that endogenous VEGF signaling safeguards pluripotency and prevents extra-embryonic differentiation in primed hESCs via activation of transcription factor NANOG and suppression of BMP signaling activity.

Leveraging multi-element symbiosis, protective interfacial nanolayers are engineered in an intermetallic alloy. This results in a high fatigue limit of ~1,100 MPa, far exceeding that of conventional intermetallic alloys.

Colour-tuneable room temperature phosphorescence is challenging to achieve, but has potential in applications. Here, the authors report the study of carbazole and benzindole derivatives within a unified framework, allowing materials with a range of phosphorescence colours.

Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is a complex autoimmune condition and treatment options have limited efficacy. Here, by analysis clinical samples and employing preclinical models, the authors show that cGAMP levels are elevated in the plasma of patients with SLE and that loss of cGAS ameliorates symptoms in an imiquimod-induced lupus model. Importantly, they identify prasugel as a cGAS inhibitor with promising therapeutic potential.

Spatial omics maps cell positions, but how they hierarchically assemble into functional tissues remains unclear. Here, the authors present HRCHY-CytoCommunity, a tool that decodes these multi-level organisations, linking them to biological mechanisms and clinical outcomes.

This study from Wei-Guang Li, Tian-Le Xu and colleagues shows that neuropeptide Y released by specific hippocampal inhibitory neurons can switch fear memories into extinction memories by acting on two distinct receptor-defined neuron populations.

Here, the authors report a bacterial anti-phage defense system that targets the phage DNA entry phase. This system is termed HXS and consists of four proteins that function together to inhibit phage DNA entry providing broad-spectrum activity.

Here authors show that isolating interconnected channels in metal-organic frameworks eliminates inefficient molecular shuttling, greatly improving diffusion and separation performance. The strategy enhances isomer separation and material stability.

Coulomb explosion imaging provides real space/time resolution of molecular processes. Here the authors develop a generative model to reconstruct molecular geometries from ion momentum measurements which extends the system size accessible with this technique.

Recently, the asymmetric bifunctionalization of alkenes has received much attention but the development of enantioselective alkoxyalkenylation has posed a considerable challenge and has lagged largely behind. Here, the authors report a palladium-catalyzed enantioselective alkoxyalkenylation reaction, using a range of primary, secondary, and tertiary γ-hydroxyalkenes with alkenyl halides.

Strong optical anisotropy is commonly achieved by complex engineered materials. Here, authors synthesize elemental crystals of type-II red phosphorus made of wavy tubular structures, exhibiting strong birefringence in the visible and near-infrared spectral region. They demonstrate anisotropic photoluminescence, Raman scattering and second-harmonic generation.

Controlling mitochondrial ROS has potential to regulate inflammatory responses, however targeting it in macrophages can be difficult. Here, the authors create hybrid membrane extracellular vesicles capable of targeted delivery to macrophages to modulate mitochondrial ROS, promoting diabetic wound healing.

It is unclear how early-life urbanicity influences adult neurobehavioral traits. This study reveals that earlier menarche mediates the relationship between early-life urbanicity and adult neurobehavioral traits associated with mental disorders.

Two-dimensional boridene supports neuromorphic optoelectronic computing through anomalous electrical anisotropy. Its low-temperature deposition supports back-end-of-line-compatible fabrication of twelve-inch wafer arrays.

Cold tolerance at the booting stage is critical for the expansion of rice cultivation area. Here, the authors report that a CAMTA family transcription factor encoding gene CTB3 positively regulates japonica rice booting stage cold tolerance and its upstream and downstream interactors to fulfill the functionality.

Researchers report a bioinspired method to convert methane to methanol via controlled photon distribution on catalyst sites, which achieves 83.5% selectivity, suppressing overoxidation for efficient solar-powered sustainable fuel production.

China’s growing wastewater sector uses substantial water and energy, straining limited resources. This study shows that optimizing treatment processes nationwide could cut 2035 water and energy footprints by up to 25% at modest extra cost.

RNA N⁶-methyladenosine (m⁶A) is the most abundant internal RNA modification, yet its functional landscape in cancer remains poorly defined. A study now introduces a METTL3-based RNA base-editing screen that maps functional m⁶A sites and reveals m⁶A-dependent translational activation of the tumor suppressor CHD9 in prostate cancer and beyond.

‘Desalination of hypersaline waters is challenging for conventional methods. Here, authors enhance MOF-801 membranes by regulating missing linkers, improving water transport and achieving high salt rejection, offering an efficient solution for water purification.’

Xuejun Zhang and colleagues report results of a genome-wide association study of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) in a Chinese Han population. Their work identifies nine new SLE susceptibility loci and reveals overlap in the spectrum of risk alleles shared between Chinese Han and European populations.

Hongbing Shen and colleagues report a genome-wide association study for lung cancer in individuals of Han Chinese ancestry. The authors identify two new lung cancer susceptibility loci.

Grain chalkiness is an undesirable trait that severely compromises rice quality. Here, the authors report the cloning of an E3 ubiquitin ligase encoding gene Chalk9 and reveal its crucial role in regulating grain chalkiness through mediating the ubiquitination-dependent degradation of OsEBP89.

Self-assembled hole-selective molecules can enable high performance in perovskite solar cells, but controlling the hole extraction efficiency is challenging. Tianyu Li et al. address this by designing molecules that adopt a quasi-random orientation on the substrate.

TaHST2 negatively regulates thermotolerance in wheat as it encodes a ubiquitin hydrolase that represses heat tolerance by stabilizing TaHSC701/702. During domestication, TaHST2 was progressively suppressed to select for improved thermotolerance.

The study identifies a single dominant, broad-spectrum powdery mildew resistance gene from cultivated emmer wheat, nominates a likely NLR candidate, and validates co-segregating markers to enable marker-assisted breeding in elite cultivars.

Machine learning was used to screen a library of diverse lipids on the basis of their spatial conformation and identify an LNP formulation that enabled organ-targeted mRNA delivery and tumour suppression. The work highlights the critical role of ionizable lipid conformation in LNP engineering.

Zhang, Han, Tan, Lu, Ma et al. report that kynurenine derived from peritumoural adipose tissue is hijacked by cancer cells to mediate ferroptosis resistance, a process that could potentially be targeted with immunotherapy to inhibit tumour growth.

A cross-ancestry GWAS meta-analyses of brainstem structures identify 713 associations. It reveals shared/distinct genetic architectures across ancestries/substructures and overlaps with neuropsychiatric disorders and physiological functions.

Whole-genome sequencing coupled with whole-exome sequencing validation in Han Chinese patients reveals a diverse genetic basis for venous thromboembolism, and identifies GP6, TET2, and JAK2 as novel risk factors in East Asian populations.

Chen et al. engineer TRANSFER (trogocytosis-inspired receptor transfer and functional effector release), a method to deliver functional cargos from donor to recipient cells in a specific manner via direct cell–cell contact.

Dai Zhang and colleagues report a genome-wide association study for schizophrenia in the Han Chinese population. They identify a new susceptibility locus at 11p11.2 and also identify a locus at 6p21-22.1 in the extended MHC region, which has previously been reported to be associated with schizophrenia in individuals of European descent.