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Genomic analyses, performed by Carey-Ewend et al., reveal that Plasmodium ovale curtisi and wallikeri in sub-Saharan Africa show similar low complexity of infection, relatedness by geography, and signatures of selection. However, P. ovale wallikeri harbors lower nucleotide diversity.

To date, experimental induction of hair cell regeneration in mammals leads to immature and poorly differentiated hair cells. Here the authors show that the transcription factor prdm1a plays a crucial role in specifying sensory hair cell types with loss of prdm1a in zebrafish leading to misspecification of hair cells in the sensory lateral line system into ear hair cells.

A region on chromosome 19p13 is associated with the risk of developing ovarian and breast cancer. Here, the authors genotyped SNPs in this region in thousands of breast and ovarian cancer patients and identified SNPs associated with three genes, which were analysed with functional studies.

Ruth Loos and colleagues report results of a large genome-wide association study for body mass index. They identify 18 new loci associated with this trait, some of which map near key hypothalamic regulators of energy balance.

A genome-wide association meta-analysis of individuals with clinically assessed or self-reported depression identifies 44 independent risk loci. Comparisons with other psychiatric disorders and candidate gene analyses provide new insights into major depressive disorder.

The Shockley–Queisser limit for solar cells is overcome in the ferroelectric insulator BaTiO₃.

Active movement drives neural activity throughout cortex, but it is unclear how different cortical systems might use such signals. Here, the authors shed light on this by mapping how sensory and motor cortical areas encode naturalistic 3D behavior.

Cross-polarized stimulated Brillouin scattering and its integration with quadratic nonlinearity is studied in lithium niobate, which enhanced photonic device performance in a reconfigurable stimulated Brillouin laser with 0.7-Hz narrow linewidth and 40-nm tunability, an efficient coherent mode converter, and Brillouin-quadratic laser and frequency comb operational in near-infrared and visible bands.

High-throughput molecular genotyping tools have been used for genomic surveillance of Plasmodium falciparum but tools available for P. vivax are limited. Here, the authors develop a molecular inversion probe panel for P. vivax and use it to characterise the molecular epidemiology of samples from the Peruvian Amazon Basin.

A selection of individuals from the biotech ecosystem give their views on the challenges facing the sector over the coming years.

Data suggest an inverse relationship exists between where plant diversity occurs in nature and where it is housed. This disparity persists across physical and digital botanical collections despite overt colonialism ending over half a century ago.

A genome-wide association study including over 76,000 individuals with schizophrenia and over 243,000 control individuals identifies common variant associations at 287 genomic loci, and further fine-mapping analyses highlight the importance of genes involved in synaptic processes.

A genome-wide association study in ~3 million individuals identifies 3,952 independent variants associated with educational attainment. A polygenic index explains 12–16% of variance for this trait and contributes to risk prediction for ten diseases.

YATSI aims to represent scientists based in academia and in industry, and to build bridges between the two sectors.

Meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies on Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias identifies new loci and enables generation of a new genetic risk score associated with the risk of future Alzheimer’s disease and dementia.

MultiSTAAR provides a general and flexible statistical framework for functionally informed multi-trait rare variant analysis of biobank-scale sequencing studies by jointly analyzing multiple traits and incorporating annotation information.

An additive manufacturing strategy is used to produce dual-phase nanolamellar high-entropy alloys that show a combination of enhanced high yield strength and high tensile ductility.

Analysis of whole-genome sequencing data across 2,658 tumors spanning 38 cancer types shows that chromothripsis is pervasive, with a frequency of more than 50% in several cancer types, contributing to oncogene amplification, gene inactivation and cancer genome evolution.

Analysis of mitochondrial genomes (mtDNA) by using whole-genome sequencing data from 2,658 cancer samples across 38 cancer types identifies hypermutated mtDNA cases, frequent somatic nuclear transfer of mtDNA and high variability of mtDNA copy number in many cancers.

The all-optical control of magnetization at room temperature expands the potential of spin-based technologies in data storage and quantum computing. Here, the authors use femtosecond optical pulses to manipulate skyrmion states in Fe₃Sn₂ without external magnetic fields, revealing light-induced switching and interconversion processes, with implications for advanced spintronic applications.

Genome-wide analyses identify 30 independent loci associated with obsessive–compulsive disorder, highlighting genetic overlap with other psychiatric disorders and implicating putative effector genes and cell types contributing to its etiology.

Here the authors unveil the essential role of MCL-1 for adult hair follicle regeneration and inhibition of proliferation stress-induced apoptosis in mice. They also identify a P53/MCL-1/BAK axis balancing proliferation and death of activated hair follicle stem cells to ensure proper hair growth.

A genetic study identifies hundreds of loci associated with risk tolerance and risky behaviors, finds evidence of substantial shared genetic influences across these phenotypes, and implicates genes involved in neurotransmission.

During the early to mid-Holocene, Africa was more humid than today. Precipitation reconstructions from across Africa suggest that the termination of humidity was spatially variable, moving towards progressively lower latitudes.

The strength in BCC high-entropy alloys is associated with the type of mobile dislocations. Here the authors demonstrate by means of an ample array of experimental techniques that edge dislocations can control the strength of BCC high-entropy alloys.

Experiments in a tunable graphene superlattice show that the unusual 1/B periodic resistance oscillations at high temperatures in the energy spectrum of electrons in a 2D periodic potential, known as the Hofstadter butterfly, coexist with oscillations due to commensurability between the electron cyclotron radius and the superlattice’s period.

In this study, Aggarwal and colleagues perform prospective sequencing of SARS-CoV-2 isolates derived from asymptomatic student screening and symptomatic testing of students and staff at the University of Cambridge. They identify important factors that contributed to within university transmission and onward spread into the wider community.

Erik Ingelsson and colleagues report a large-scale genome-wide meta-analysis for associations to the extremes of anthropometric traits, including body mass index, height, waist-to-hip ratio and clinical obesity. They identify four loci newly associated with height and seven loci newly associated with clinical obesity and find overlap in the genetic structure and distribution of variants identified for these extremes of the trait distributions and for the general population.