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Openshaw and colleagues find myeloid inflammation and complement activation signatures in patients with long COVID who were previously hospitalized.

The Pictet-Spengler condensation of β-arylethylamine and carbonyl compounds is an important step in the synthesis of bioactive alkaloids. Here, the authors report a Pictet-Spengler reaction between dopamine and unactivated ketones catalysed by norcoclaurine synthase and its engineered variants.

Analysis of peatland carbon accumulation over the last millennium and its association with global-scale climate space indicates an ongoing carbon sink into the future, but with decreasing strength as conditions warm.

Pervasive drying over the last few centuries has reduced carbon storage in European peatlands, the result of climate change and human impacts, according to a continent-wide compilation of hydrological records derived from testate amoeba.

Glutamate is the major excitatory neurotransmitter in the mammalian nervous system. Here, a glutamate receptor is reported that has properties intermediate to those of bacterial and eukaryotic glutamate-gated ion channels, suggesting a link in the evolution of ionotropic glutamate receptors.

The confused nomenclature of genetics is blighting the field — some genes have multiple names whereas unrelated genes often share a common moniker. Helen Pearson examines attempts to bring order to the chaos.

S-isotope and Hg geochemistry across the terrestrial Permian–Triassic mass extinction (252 Ma) provides evidence of repeated volcanic eruptions over ~300 kyr that drove acidification and poisoning of a palaeo-lacustrine ecosystem in northwest China.

Brazilians discover bushes without the buzz.

Recent phylogenetic analyses have identified orphan clades, including Xenacoelomorphs, that can offer insights into bilaterian evolution. Here they generate a cell type atlas of Xenoturbella bockithat highlights cellular diversity in the nervous system and other tissues, reinforcing the idea of parallel evolution of cell types across animals.

Through archaeological excavation, morphological and proteomic taxonomic identification, mitochondrial DNA analysis and direct radiocarbon dating of human remains, a study reports the presence of Homo sapiens in Germany north of the Alps more than 45,000 years ago.

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.

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.

Analysis of cancer genome sequencing data has enabled the discovery of driver mutations. Here, as part of the ICGC/TCGA Pan-Cancer Analysis of Whole Genomes (PCAWG) Consortium the authors present DriverPower, a software package that identifies coding and non-coding driver mutations within cancer whole genomes via consideration of mutational burden and functional impact evidence.

Optical dating of sediments containing stone artefacts newly excavated at Madjedbebe, Australia, indicate that human occupation began around 65,000 years ago, thereby setting a new minimum age for the arrival of people in Australia.

Conventional nitrogen fertilizers are costly for human and environmental health. This Perspective discusses barriers and opportunities in designing enhanced-efficiency fertilizers and incorporating these alternative technologies into policy- and decision-making.

China’s zero-COVID policy was discontinued in December 2022 and was followed by a wave of COVID-19 infections. Here, the authors demonstrate that the end of this policy also coincided with increased antibiotic use, indicating possible inappropriate prescribing.

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.

The insecticidal protein Mpf2Ba1 shows potent control against corn rootworm. Here, the authors present detailed structural analyses revealing transitions between its three main stages of pore formation. These findings uncover molecular mechanisms of bacterial pore assembly and advance both crop biotechnology and food security.

Exposure to extremely low frequency electromagnetic fields could be not just dangerous but deadly, reports Helen Gavaghan.

Comparison of climate model hindcasts with proxy data is essential to improve model reliability, yet standardized palaeoclimate data sets are lacking. Here, Heiri et al. compare chironomid-based palaeotemperature records with the ECHAM-4 atmospheric general circulation model, showing excellent agreement.

It's a bizarre, toxin-filled microbe that could clean up sewage plants across the globe. Helen Pilcher gets on the trail of the anammox bacterium.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Whole-genome sequencing data for 2,778 cancer samples from 2,658 unique donors across 38 cancer types is used to reconstruct the evolutionary history of cancer, revealing that driver mutations can precede diagnosis by several years to decades.

Some cancer patients first present with metastases where the location of the primary is unidentified; these are difficult to treat. In this study, using machine learning, the authors develop a method to determine the tissue of origin of a cancer based on whole sequencing data.

The authors present SVclone, a computational method for inferring the cancer cell fraction of structural variants from whole-genome sequencing data.

Many tumours exhibit hypoxia (low oxygen) and hypoxic tumours often respond poorly to therapy. Here, the authors quantify hypoxia in 1188 tumours from 27 cancer types, showing elevated hypoxia links to increased mutational load, directing evolutionary trajectories.

The authors present palaeoclimatic data in the form of stable isotope records from equid teeth spanning 12,500 years of human occupation at the site of Ilsenhöhle in Ranis, Germany, including the earliest occupation of the site by Homo sapiens ~45,000 years ago.

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.

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.

Cancers evolve as they progress under differing selective pressures. Here, as part of the ICGC/TCGA Pan-Cancer Analysis of Whole Genomes (PCAWG) Consortium, the authors present the method TrackSig the estimates evolutionary trajectories of somatic mutational processes from single bulk tumour data.

Soil microbial carbon is central to soil functions and services, but its spatial-temporal dynamics are unclear. Here the authors show global trends in soil microbial carbon, which suggests a global decrease in soil microbial carbon, mostly driven by temperature increases in northern areas.