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Low temperature is a major factor limiting productivity in rice. Here the authors show that theCTB4a gene confers cold tolerance to japonicavarieties adapted to cold habitats at the booting stage of development, and propose that CTB4a acts via an interaction with the beta subunit of ATP synthase.

Genetic basis of the drought tolerance of upland rice is unclear. Here, the authors report the cloning of a COBRA-like protein encoding gene DROT1 and reveal that it is repressed by ERF3 and activated by ERF71 to help control the balance between growth and drought tolerance in upland rice.

Naphthalene is a challenging arene towards transition-metal-catalyzed dearomative difunctionalization. Here, the authors show that naphthalene may act as a masked conjugated diene in palladium-catalyzed dearomative 1,4-diarylation or 1,4-vinylarylation via a tandem Heck/Suzuki sequence.

Tandem electro-biocatalytic systems present a versatile platform for producing a variety of synthetic products using CO₂ as a starting material. Here direct ocean carbon capture is incorporated into an electrolysis scheme to produce formic acid from CO₂ dissolved in seawater that is subsequently converted to succinate in a bioreactor.

High-pressure diamond anvil cell experiments reveal that compression strengthening of nanocrystalline nickel increases as its grain sizes decrease to 3 nanometres, owing to dislocation hardening and suppression of grain boundary plasticity.

Creating robust molecular devices requires covalent electrode-molecule junctions. Here, the authors develop an electrocatalytic method using Katritzky salts to form stable Au–C bonds that exhibit high conductivity and improved robustness.

An isolation strategy is presented to improve the stability of metal nanoparticles by grafting oxide nano-islands between the support and the nanoparticles. This enhances sintering resistance, with the mean size of the nanoparticles maintained at 1.4 nm after 400 h of catalytic dry reforming of methane.

Electrochemical extraction of uranium from seawater is a promising strategy for the sustainable impurities. Herein, Guo et al construct a synergistic coordination-reduction interface, achieving electrochemical extraction of black UO2 product from seawater.

Engineering Cu to achieve high catalytic selectivity towards carbon monoxide at high current density is challenging. Here, the authors report an Cu-Sb single-atom alloy catalyst that catalyzes CO₂ reduction at a current density of 500 mA cm⁻² with CO FE of ca. 91%.

Polar skyrmions are a topological polarization texture. While they have now been detected in numerous material systems, near universally these have required careful strain engineering. Here, Xue, Zhang, Zheng, Tong, Wang and coauthors observe polar skyrmions in the van der Waals ferroelectric CuInP2S6, without strain-engineering.

Li et al. report the sublattice decoupling in Rb₆Re₆S₈I₈ upon compression, in which [Rb₆I₂]⁴⁺ framework can be selectively amorphized while the [Re₆S₈I₆]^4- clusters keep in ordered state, leading to emission-to-photocurrent switching at 15 GPa, which can retain when back to ambient condition.

The authors propose a sustainable route for acetone synthesis by directly reacting propane and water with PtSn nanoparticles on γ-Al₂O₃ as the catalyst

T follicular helper (T_FH) cells are important for the generation of effective antibody responses. Yu and colleagues find that T_FH cells are exceptionally sensitive to death by ferroptosis and that this process is regulated by the activity of the selenoenzyme GPX4.

The authors investigate neural oscillations, measured by magnetoencephalography, in response to emotionally valenced stimuli as a potential biomarker characterizing individuals with major depressive disorder who had previously made a suicide attempt.

The practical application of electrosynthesis of propylene oxide is hindered by limited performance. Here, the authors report a spatial decoupling strategy by utilizing the bromide mediator to link propylene and anode within separated reactors, realizing high-performance electrosynthesis of propylene oxide.

While single-atom catalysts offer well-defined structures, the homogeneity of the active sites is determined by localized coordination environments. Here, authors anchor Ir single atoms onto different sites on CoOOH and show how their distinct coordinations activate oxygen-evolving electrocatalysis

Researchers unveiled the structural details of sphingomyelin synthase (SMSr), shedding light on its role in sphingolipid biosynthesis. SMSr transfers the phosphoethanolamine from PE to ceramide, adding complexity to the field of lipid homeostasis.

Well-defined single-atom alloy (SAA) nanocrystals possess isolated atom centres and tunable electronic properties but are challenging to synthesize. Here, a direct solution-phase synthesis of Cu/CuAu core/shell nanocubes with tunable SAA layers is reported. The Cu/CuAu nanomaterial is highly active for the electrocatalytic conversion of nitrate into ammonia.

Jiahao Sha, Xinru Wang, Hongbing Shen and colleagues report a genome-wide association study of non-obstructive azoospermia in Chinese men. They identify common variants near three genes (PRMT6, PEX10 and SOX5) associated with this form of male infertility.

Developing low-temperature solution epitaxy and elucidating its underlying mechanisms is highly desired for low-cost fabrication of single-crystal ferroelectric films. Here, the authors show that a polarization screening between ferroelectrics and substrates can tailor the interface energy and drive the solution epitaxy of polarization-gradient ferroelectric oxide films, demonstrating a remarkable photovoltaic effect.

Precious metal free catalysts for aerobic oxidation of hydrocarbons are industrially useful materials. Here, the authors report a mesoporous maganese-cerium oxide solid solution that is highly active for the selective oxidation of C-H bonds in hydrocarbons under mild conditions.

By employing a high spatial-resolved photoemission electron microscopy, we demonstrate near-field imaging and characterization of ultra-confined optical near fields in nanoslits with weak disturbance.

Machine learning is a powerful tool for screening electrocatalytic materials. Here, the authors reported a seamless integration of machine-learned physical insights with the controlled synthesis of structurally ordered intermetallic nanocrystals and well-defined catalytic sites for efficient nitrate reduction to ammonia.

The performance of supported metal nanoparticle catalysts can be tailored by metal-support interactions, but their use in catalyst design is still challenging. Here, the authors develop two-dimensional transition metal carbides as platforms for designing intermetallic compound catalysts that are efficient for light alkane dehydrogenations.

While single-atom catalysts exhibit intriguing catalytic performances and electronic structures, syntheses are often tailored to a particular system. Here, authors report electrochemical deposition as a universal approach for the fabrication of single-atom catalysts over range of metals and supports.

The transcription factor interferon regulatory factor 8 (IRF8) is known to regulate differentiation and function of immune cells. Here the authors show that IRF8 is upregulated in the hypertrophic heart in humans and mice, where it suppresses cardiac remodelling by inhibiting calcineurin signalling.

TRAF1 is an intracellular signalling molecule that has diverse biological functions. In this study, the authors show that TRAF1 is expressed in mice soon after they have suffered a stroke and that increased TRAF1 expression increases susceptibility to ischaemia-induced apoptosis and brain injury.