Search

The genetic basis underlying resistance to Sclerotinia stem rot (SSR) in oilseed rape remains elusive. Here, the authors identify BnaA07.MKK9 as a pivotal regulator of SSR resistance in oilseed rape by GWAS, providing new insights into plant defense mechanisms against necrotrophic pathogens.

Jun Wang and colleagues report the genome sequence of the cucumber. The cucumber genome is the seventh plant genome sequence to be reported and was assembled with a combination of traditional Sanger and next-generation sequencing methods.

In this Perspective, members of the Aging Biomarker Consortium outline the X-Age Project, an Aging Biomarker Consortium plan for building standardized aging clocks in China. The authors discuss the project roadmap and its aims of decoding aging heterogeneity, detecting accelerated aging early and evaluating geroprotective interventions.

The gut microbiome affects systemic metabolism and is a therapeutic target for type 2 diabetes. Here the authors demonstrate in a randomized controlled trial that effects of berberine, a plant alkaloid known to lower blood glucose, may be explained by the inhibition of Ruminococcus bromii mediated biotransformation of the bile acid deoxycholic acid.

A new artificial intelligence model, DeepSeek-R1, is introduced, demonstrating that the reasoning abilities of large language models can be incentivized through pure reinforcement learning, removing the need for human-annotated demonstrations.

The development of artificial vision for blind people has been a long-standing endeavour. Tang et al. create a wearable multimodal visual assistance system with a human-centred design, blending software and hardware innovations to enhance usability.

Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) cells can utilise the tumour microenvironment to metastasise to the liver. Here the authors show that hepatoctyes overexpress SLIT2 to enable premetastatic niche formation for ROBO1-positive PDAC cells to support the survival of these tumour cells in the liver.

The flagship paper of the ICGC/TCGA Pan-Cancer Analysis of Whole Genomes Consortium describes the generation of the integrative analyses of 2,658 cancer whole genomes and their matching normal tissues across 38 tumour types, the structures for international data sharing and standardized analyses, and the main scientific findings from across the consortium studies.

The parasitic absorption caused by nonradiative damping of plasmonic effects limits the light utilization efficiency of optoelectronics. Here, authors employ green fluorophore and nickel oxide to recycle plasmon energy, achieving maximum device efficiency of 19.51% for flexible organic solar cells.

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.

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.

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.

Polymer dielectrics are key for capacitors in energy applications but are hard to improve for high temperatures. This work uses artificial intelligence to design fillers with a large bandgap and high affinity, enabling durable, high-energy polyimide composites for harsh environments.

The application of pressure effectively suppresses the spin–charge order in trilayer nickelate La₄Ni₃O_10−δ single crystals, leading to the emergence of superconductivity.

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.

How excitatory neurons (EN) acquire senescence is unclear. Here, the authors show that GDF11 in ENs slows EN senescence, brain ageing, cognitive decline and maintains lifespan, revealing a mechanism underlying EN senescence and brain ageing.

Whether hippocampal place cells are unique in their representation of spatial information utilized during body navigation remains unknown. Here authors report monkey cells in the premotor cortex exhibit similar position fields which encode hand position during a reaching task.

Low-frequency quasiperiodic oscillations in X-ray data are thought to trace the accretion flow in X-ray binaries. Here, the detection of 200 keV oscillations probes the innermost regions of MAXI J1820+070, revealing the precession of a small-scale jet.

Analysis of whole-genome sequences of 25,465 individuals of European ancestry shows that rare variants contribute substantially to the heritability of height and body mass index.

Xiaowen Sun and colleagues report the whole-genome sequencing of the common carp, Cyprinus carpio. They also resequenced 33 representative accessions from a worldwide collection and provide insights into population structure and evolution.

Here, a draft sequence of the giant panda genome is assembled using next-generation sequencing technology alone. Genome analysis reveals a low divergence rate in comparison with dog and human genomes and insights into panda-specific traits; for example, the giant panda's bamboo diet may be more dependent on its gut microbiome than its own genetic composition.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Multi-omics datasets pose major challenges to data interpretation and hypothesis generation owing to their high-dimensional molecular profiles. Here, the authors develop ActivePathways method, which uses data fusion techniques for integrative pathway analysis of multi-omics data and candidate gene discovery.

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.

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.

Topochemical polymerization (TCP) emerges as a leading approach for synthesizing single crystalline polymers, but the untapped potential of performing TCP in a liquid medium with solid-state structural fidelity presents unsolved challenges. Here, the authors reveal details of single-crystal-to-single-crystal transformation during the TCP of chiral azaquinodimethane monomers through in situ crystallographic analysis while spotlighting a rare metastable crystalline phase.

Multi-omic analysis of the adult human prostate identifies spatially resolved cell populations with potential links to prostate carcinogenesis.

Methods for transition-metal-catalysed enantioselective C(sp³)–S bond construction are underdeveloped. Now, by taking advantage of the biomimetic radical homolytic substitution manifold, the copper-catalysed enantioconvergent C(sp³)–S cross-coupling of racemic secondary and tertiary alkyl halides with highly transformable sulfur nucleophiles has been realized. This reaction provides access to an array of α-chiral alkyl organosulfur compounds.

The use of biomarkers of ageing is crucial for investigating age-related processes. This Review discusses biomarkers of ageing and of ageing-associated physiological changes, at the cellular, tissue and organism levels in humans and non-human primates.

The high reactivity of open-shell alkyl radicals makes their use in asymmetric catalysis challenging. Here the authors report a catalytic enantioselective desymmetrizing reaction of alkyl radicals and diols, forming stereocentres at the reaction site and at sites remote from it.