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Peroxiredoxins from diverse organisms were found to assemble into hybrid complexes, not just identical ones. These mixed assemblies reshape structure and stability, challenging a long-held view of peroxiredoxin assembly in cells.

Poly(para-phenylene) chains can be synthesized by surface-assisted Ullmann coupling, but the step-growth mechanism limits elongation beyond ~100 nm. Now poly(para-phenylene) chains in the micrometre range have been obtained by an on-surface radical ring-opening polymerization reaction following a chain-growth mode. This process provides precursors that enable the growth of high-quality non-benzenoid biphenylene nanoribbons.

In this work, authors present a modular design for solid oxide fuel cell systems, aiming to enhance scalability and efficiency. It achieves 66.3% electrical efficiency, reduces water use by 60%, and fresh air demand by 22%, offering a cost-effective solution for large-scale power generation.

An aryne precursor is designed to overcome the lack of widespread adoption of arynes due to the undesirable means to generate them and harness their synthetic potential that rivals most functional groups.

Hodgson, Huang, Lang et al. show that TDP-43 limits ribonucleoprotein particle condensation into paraspeckles in a concentration- and polymerization-dependent manner. They also link paraspeckle condensation to stress response and neuroprotection.

CO₂-driven warming reduces phosphorus availability in rice paddies by promoting its binding with iron and organic carbon in the soil, according to a ten-year experiment using a free-air CO₂ enrichment system to simulate in situ climate warming.

The combination of JWST and ALMA data here unravel the history of the gas content of a quiescent galaxy, which became quenched through an act of self-sabotage. Black-hole accretion feedback heated the galaxy’s surrounding material, preventing its accretion.

Glucose-derived isosorbide is a rigid polyester monomer with a low reactivity. Here, the authors report the synthesis of high molecular weight biobased polyesters with promising barrier and mechanical properties via in situ generation of reactive aryl ester groups.

Current photoproximity labelling methods often require metal-based catalysts to map protein interactomes but, owing to their toxicity, they have limited intracellular applicability. A deazaflavin cofactor has now been developed as a biocompatible alternative for diazirine activation inside living cells, offering accurate mapping of protein interactors and dynamics with excellent spatio-temporal control.

Metal–sulfur motifs are commonly found in enzymatic active sites and heterogeneous catalysis, but they remain underexplored in porous solids. Now, sulfur-based ligands have been incorporated into metal–organic frameworks through post-synthetic modifications. The resulting sulfide MOFs exhibit enhanced catalytic performance in the selective hydrogenation of nitroarenes compared with their parent MOFs containing terminal or bridging chloride and hydroxyl groups.

Researchers reveal mechanisms underlying non-Arrhenius temperature scaling of early embryonic cell cycle timing, using modeling, cross-species data, and reconstituted oscillations in frog egg extract.

Long-circulating, transfection-competent LNP-mRNA systems are key for effective extrahepatic delivery. Here, authors show that LNPs with high bilayer lipid ratios yield high mRNA encapsulation, prolonged circulation, and enhanced transfection in extrahepatic tissues.

Oat consumption, particularly a short-term, high-dose oat diet, improves metabolic health in individuals with metabolic syndrome by increasing microbially produced phenolic metabolites, leading to lower blood cholesterol levels.

Quantum-mechanical methods of benchmark quality are widely used for describing molecular interactions. The present work shows that interaction energies by CCSD(T) and DMC are not in consistent agreement for a set of polarizable supramolecules calling for cooperative efforts solving this conundrum.

Peroxidases have long been considered to use ferryl heme intermediates (Fe(IV) = O) to catalyze oxidative chemistries. Here, Williams et al. find that ferric-oxyl (Fe^III–O^•–) excited states exist along the catalytic reaction coordinate of a peroxidase.

Planar chiral [2.2]paracyclophanes have a wide range of applications in asymmetric synthesis and materials science. However, they are accessed via time-consuming chiral separations or kinetic resolution approaches. Here, the authors report a simple, metal-free protocol for organocatalytic desymmetrization of prochiral diformyl[2.2]paracyclophanes.

The Rnf complex is a key respiratory enzyme of anaerobes and nitrogen-fixing bacteria. Here, the authors combine structural, computational, and biochemical experiments to probe the unique redox-coupled Na⁺ pumping mechanism of this ancient system.

The organization of membrane proteins is critical to cellular function. Here the authors explore how computational protein design, MD simulation, and cell-free systems can be combined to elucidate how membrane-protein hydrophobic mismatch affects protein folding and organization in synthetic lipid membranes.

A new acid-degradable linker termed ‘azido-acetal’ has been developed that rapidly hydrolyses at pH 6.0 but is stable at pH 7.4. Lipid nanoparticles made with this linker delivered mRNA in vivo and in vitro better than traditional lipid nanoparticles.

Internucleosomal linker length alters the stability and dynamics of chromatin condensates by shifting the balance between inter- and intramolecular interactions. Further, by changing the linker lengths, a remodeler can induce or suppress chromatin phase separation.

Metal-metal bonds between metal cations are ubiquitous in coordination complexes, whereas similar bonding characteristics between non-metal and metal cations are not. Here, the authors report an X-ray crystal structure of a centrosymmetric complex [Ag(m-O₃SCF₃)₂{(4MePyNO)₂I}]₂ which features two unique I⁺–Ag⁺ bonds.

Zygnematophycean algae are the closest algal relatives of land plants. This study compares the osmatic stress response of two of these species, finding a core set of molecular protective components and providing insights into the toolkit needed for plant terrestrialization.

Cardiac tissue remodeling in heart failure is driven by interactions between multiple cell types, but existing studies have not fully captured these coordinated responses. Here, the authors show that integrating bulk and single-cell transcriptomics across 1,524 individuals reveals robust multicellular programs that link fibroblast activation to cardiomyocyte stress and recovery.

Selective oxidation of biomass-derived precursors has been reported but requires elevated temperatures and pressures of O₂ and strongly alkaline conditions. This study develops an antenna–reactor plasmonic photocatalyst (RuPt on TiN) for the selective conversion of HMF to FDCA using near-infrared irradiation in the absence of base.

The Michael-type addition reaction is used for carbon-carbon bond formation; however biocatalytic methods for this reaction are rare. Here, the authors generate and exploit mutability landscapes of 4-oxalocrotonate tautomerase to direct the redesign of this promiscuous enzyme into enantio-complementary Michaelases.

Membrane fission of a cell into two daughters is a core ability of cell-based life. Here the authors show that in artificial cells division can be controlled by regulating membrane curvature using low protein density.

Covalent polymers with helical conformations offer an adaptive scaffold for smart materials, but polymer-to-monomer deconstruction is inhibited by the covalent backbone. Now it has been shown that poly(disulfide)s can be folded into helices driven by side-chain hydrogen-bonding self-assembly, resulting in a synthetic helical polymer that can be fully recycled.

Self-replicating molecules provide a simple molecular level system to study the processes occurring in speciation. Now it is shown that in a pool of interconverting macrocycles, constructed from two building blocks, two distinct sets of self-replicating molecules emerge, and that one is a descendant of the other.

Phosphatidylserine-exposing extracellular vesicles in body fluids can inhibit infection of viruses that use viral apoptotic mimicry for infection, but not viruses that use other entry mechanisms.

The great increase in flowering angiosperm plants during the Cretaceous began the change towards modern biodiversity. This study shows that rapid angiosperm evolution was possible once the leaf interior transport path length for water became shorter than the leaf interior transport path length for carbon dioxide.

Catalytic cracking is an emerging technology allowing to convert plastic waste into hydrocarbon feedstocks. Here, the authors show that the activity of ultrastable zeolite Y depends on the concentration of acid sites located outside of micropores.

Conversion of achiral starting materials into enantiopure products without additional chiral additives is a challenging task. Here, the authors show a reaction where the precipitation of chiral product induces autocatalysis, ultimately leading to an enantiopure compound.

In neurons and glia, glutamate transporters catalyse the reuptake of this neurotransmitter by coupling it with cation transport. Here the authors combine X-ray crystallography and molecular dynamics simulations of the archeal glutamate transporter Glt_Tkto get insight into the coupled transport mechanism.

The need for redox balancing limits the array of fermentable substrate-product combinations in anaerobic microbe-based bioproduction. Here, the authors design and engineer an E. coli strain with new-to-nature aerobic fermentative metabolism that allows tightly controlled re-balanced fermentations.

Although much is understood about the mechanical behaviour of macroscopic machinery, less is known about their molecular equivalents. It is now shown that for molecular machinery consisting of hydrogen-bonded components their relative motion is strongly accelerated by adding small amounts of ‘lubricating’ water, whereas other protic liquids have much weaker or opposite effects.

Single crystal diffraction is one of the most common and powerful tools for structural elucidation, but obtaining single crystals of adequate size and quality is not always trivial. Here, the authors report a method to crystallize inherently non-crystalline adamantane-like organic-inorganic clusters using π-π interactions between C₆₀ and nano-sized molecules.

Although FZDs are promising drug targets, so far no small molecules targeting them were described. Here, the authors report the a FZD7 core-targeting small molecule negative allosteric modulators of WNT-induced signaling, confirmed by pharmacology, structure determination and MD simulations.

Single-layer graphene, owing to its impermeability, is a promising candidate to prevent transmembrane ion transport. Here, the authors report a covalent functionalization method that enables centimeter-sized graphene to function as a proton exchange membrane in a direct methanol fuel cell.

The reversible N–H activation and catalytic transformations of ammonia are a challenge. Now, a hidden frustrated Lewis pair is shown to activate non-aqueous ammonia thermoneutrally and split the N–H bond reversibly at ambient temperature. The N–H-activated ammonia was also utilized as an atom-economical nitrogen source for catalytic NH₃ transfer reactions.

Here, the authors present the cryoEM structure of the sodium-translocating methyltransferase (Mtr) complex from Methanosarcina mazei. Along with providing catalytic insights, they identify MtrI, an unannotated small protein, bound to the Mtr complex in a redox-dependent manner.

A synergistic dopant-additive combination strategy using methylammonium chloride as the dopant and a Lewis-basic ionic-liquid additive is shown to enable the fabrication of perovskite solar modules achieving record certified performance and long-term operational stability.

The impact of variants of uncertain significance (VUS) on protein function and cancer risk remain unclear. Here, the authors focus on the functional impact of VUS of the PALB2 gene and identify defects in DNA damage repair by homologous recombination associated with increased risk of breast cancer.

The trade-off between growth and production affects the application of engineered microbes. Here, the authors take the minimal cut set approach to predict metabolic reactions for elimination to couple metabolite production strongly with growth and achieve high production of indigoidine in Pseudomonas putida.

Stimuli-responsive emulsions are useful for long-term storage combined with controlled release, but the fundamental mechanism behind this release is not established. Here, the authors report a study into the effect of individual microgel morphology on the destabilisation of responsive emulsions.