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Genome-wide association meta-analysis identifies 58 independent risk loci for major anxiety disorders among individuals of European ancestry and implicates GABAergic signaling as a potential mechanism underlying genetic risk for these disorders.

Radical chain initiation strategies are fundamental to the synthesis of small molecule drugs and macromolecular materials. Here a general, thermally driven and scalable method for reductive initiation is reported, in which inexpensive azo initiators are reacted with formate salts to form a carbon dioxide radical anion.

The BioDIGS project is a nationwide initiative involving students, researchers and educators across more than 40 research and teaching institutions. Participants lead sample collection, computational analysis and results interpretation to understand the relationships between the soil microbiome, environment and health.

Noisy gene expression leading to phenotypic variability can help organisms to survive in changing environments. Here, Patange et al. show that noisy expression of a stress response regulator, RpoS, allows E. coli cells to modulate their growth rates to survive future adverse environments.

Dynamical patterns in nonequilibrium systems often stem from nonreciprocal interactions that violate Newton’s third law, posing challenges for theoretical analysis. By solving a model of active and passive particles, the study reveals how effective nonreciprocal couplings lead to dynamical phase behaviour that includes traveling interfaces, and a spinodal that protrudes beyond the binodal.

Researchers developed an accurate model to analyse bivalent antibody binding. By analysing many SARS-CoV-2-specific antibodies, they found that their molecular reach can predict their neutralisation potency.

Circadian clocks enable organisms to anticipate daily cycles, while being robust to molecular and environmental noise. Here, Eremina et al. show how the cyanobacterial clock buffers genetic and environmental perturbations through its core phosphorylation loop, and demonstrate that known clock regulators are dispensable for clock robustness.

A study of several longitudinal birth cohorts and cross-sectional cohorts finds only moderate overlap in genetic variants between autism that is diagnosed earlier and that diagnosed later, so they may represent aetiologically different conditions.

Across 13 longitudinal studies (3,737 adults), the authors show that brain atrophy parallels memory loss, with a stronger coupling in later life. APOE ε4 increases decline, yet genetic risk does not modify the brain–memory relationship.

Phylogenomic analysis of 7,923 angiosperm species using a standardized set of 353 nuclear genes produced an angiosperm tree of life dated with 200 fossil calibrations, providing key insights into evolutionary relationships and diversification.

Fire-derived organic matter (OM) is present throughout the environment, and its impact on nutrient cycling remains poorly understood. Here, the authors show that this pyrogenic OM can retain large quantities of ammonia through covalent bond formation, thereby exerting an important control on nitrogen cycling.

The origins of Silverpit Crater have remained controversial since its discovery >20 years ago. This paper presents evidence for an extraterrestrial impact origin, including 3D seismic, computer simulations and ‘shocked’ minerals near the crater.

The first empirical test of an evolutionary theory provides support for a mutational landscape model underlying the process of adaptation. The study shows that it is possible to predict at least the first step in an adaptive walk and also shows the importance of incorporating mutation bias in the fitness effects of mutations.

Different functional variants in ADH1B (and elsewhere) in Europeans and Africans strongly affect risk for alcohol dependence. Dependence only partly genetically correlates with consumption, with strong correlations to other psychiatric disorders.

Actin filament polymerization is crucial for building sound-sensitive stereocilia in the cochlea. Here, the authors show that a myosin motor can nucleate actin filaments, revealing a mechanism for stereocilia growth and hereditary hearing loss.

Study shows PTSD predisposition shares distinct genes and genomic regions with several cardiovascular conditions. Here the findings reveal neuronal, immune, and metabolic pathways, and repurposed drug targets that further the understanding of the comorbidity.

Analysis of whole-genome doubling (WGD) by using cancer sequencing data combined with simulations of tumor evolution suggests that there is negative selection against homozygous loss of essential genes before WGD but not after.

The dynamics of ecological communities depends on interactions between species as well as those between species and their environment, however the effects of the latter are poorly understood. Here, Yeakel et al. reveal how species that modify their environment (ecosystem engineers) impact community dynamics and the risk of extinction.

Stochastic pulsing of gene expression can generate phenotypic diversity in a genetically identical population of cells. Here, the authors show that stochastic pulsing in the expression of a sigma factor enables the formation of spatial patterns in a multicellular system, Bacillus subtilis bacterial biofilms.

The S_N2 reaction is essential in organic chemistry, but its substrate scope is limited. Now, a strategy based on halogen-atom transfer using α-aminoalkyl radicals and copper catalysis enables coupling of secondary alkyl iodides with N-nucleophiles with S_N2-like programmability.

Multi-ancestry genome-wide analyses identify 95 loci associated with post-traumatic stress disorder and implicate candidate genes, pathways and neurobiological systems underlying its pathophysiology.

Alveolar macrophages (AM) in the lungs maintain surfactant during homeostasis and respond to infectious pathogens. Here the authors show that in the absence of NKR-P1B, pneumococcal infection is more severe because KO AM have increased rates of lipid surfactant uptake and reduced anti-microbial function.

Cortex morphology varies with age, cognitive function, and in neurological and psychiatric diseases. Here the authors report 160 genome-wide significant associations with thickness, surface area and volume of the total cortex and 34 cortical regions from a GWAS meta-analysis in 22,824 adults.

Temporal networks in which interaction events are distributed heterogeneously in time are complex to model. Unicomb et al. propose an analytical framework for the analysis of cascading dynamics in such networks, relevant for spin interactions, epidemic spreading, and language dynamics.

Whole-genome sequencing of 1,013 clonal haematopoietic colonies from myeloproliferative neoplasms of 12 individuals reveals haematopoietic phylogenies and indicates that driver mutations are acquired sequentially, starting early in life.

A GWAS of lifetime cannabis use reveals new risk loci, shows that cannabis use has genetic overlap with smoking and alcohol use, and indicates that the likelihood of initiating cannabis use is causally influenced by schizophrenia.

Biological and synthetic systems seek to assemble complex structures, such as protein or DNA assemblies, out of many distinct building blocks. Here, the authors show that the optimal supply of building blocks must account for the composition of undesired structures and not just the desired structure.

The Network-Free Stochastic Simulator (NFsim) allows the representation of complex biological systems as rule-based models and facilitates coarse-graining of the reaction mechanisms.