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Land use intensification could make soil food webs less able to recover from drought. Here, the authors find that intensive grassland management impairs recent photosynthate flux to roots and soil biota after drought, whereas extensive grassland management buffers the legacy of drought.

In this largest whole-exome sequencing study of epilepsies to date, the Epi25 Collaborative identified extremely rare variants that confer risk for diverse epilepsy subtypes, highlighting roles in synaptic transmission and neuronal excitability.

The Vertebrate Genome Project has used an optimized pipeline to generate high-quality genome assemblies for sixteen species (representing all major vertebrate classes), which have led to new biological insights.

During transcription, RNA polymerase II (RNAP2) is recruited to promoters and phosphorylated stepwise; so far, these steps have not been visualized in a single-copy gene in live cells. Here the authors use single-molecule microscopy to visualize endogenous phosphorylated RNAP2 and nascent mRNA synthesis at a single locus in living cells.

It is unclear why different antibiotics vary in their ability to shorten treatment of tuberculosis. Here, the authors show that a measure based on ribosomal RNA synthesis in Mycobacterium tuberculosis correlates with treatment shortening in culture, in mice and in human studies.

Neuronal communication relies on matching different neurostransmitter types with their appropriate receptors. The authors here demonstrate that release of a novel neurotransmitter from presynaptic terminals can induce both the accumulation and activation of its corresponding receptors on postsynaptic neurons.

Soil moisture is the primary driver of variability in dryland carbon and water cycling, according to a synthesis of eddy covariance, remote sensing and land surface model data from the western United States.

High-resolution spatial maps of the global abundance of soil nematodes and the composition of functional groups show that soil nematodes are found in higher abundances in sub-Arctic regions, than in temperate or tropical regions.

The global ecological predictors of soil priming remain unclear. Here the authors conducted a global survey of soils from 86 global locations using an isotopic approach and find that in more mesic sites with high SOC concentrations, soil priming effects are more likely to be negative.

Translational regulation of isoforms in the developing nervous system is not well understood. Here, the authors report translational de-repression of RNA binding protein isoforms at their 5′UTRs in the neocortex and show the neurodevelopmental risk of post-transcriptional dysregulation.

Genomic analyses of major clades of huge phages sampled from across Earth’s ecosystems show that they have diverse genetic inventories, including a variety of CRISPR–Cas systems and translation-relevant genes.

Dire wolves split from living canids around 5.7 million years ago and originated in the New World isolated from the ancestors of grey wolves and coyotes, which evolved in Eurasia and colonized North America only relatively recently.

New noncoding RNAs can be discovered by assembling transcripts from RNA-Seq data. Prensner et al. apply this approach across >100 prostate cancer samples to find noncoding RNAs that distinguish localized tumors from benign forms of the disease.

Fine sea salt aerosols produced by blowing snow in the Arctic impact cloud properties and warm the surface, according to observations from the MOSAiC expedition.

Bats are natural reservoirs for several zoonotic viruses including SARS-CoV-2 thus there is a need to better define bat antiviral responses. Here, Hashimi et al. profile antiviral responses to SARS-CoV-2 in bat intestinal organoids finding that interferon and regenerative responses where induced.

Here, the authors perform a meta-analysis in 26,699 people with seizures and 492,324 controls to identify 25 genome-wide significant copy-number variants. The discovered loci point to known disease genes and associations with clinical annotations.

Characterization of the myotis bat morbillivirus shows that infection in human cells is restricted by innate immune responses in vitro and cross-neutralization by sera from measles, mumps and rubella vaccinees.

Field survey data from 1,034 bird species worldwide are used to show that species’ sensitivities to habitat fragmentation are more strongly related to their dispersal ability than to latitude and past habitat disturbance, and that variation in dispersal ability is in turn strongly associated with climate.

FlyWire presents a neuronal wiring diagram of the whole fly brain with annotations for cell types, classes, nerves, hemilineages and predicted neurotransmitters, with data products and an open ecosystem to facilitate exploration and browsing.

Soil samples collected from 224 dryland sites around the world show that aridity affects the concentration of organic carbon and total nitrogen differently from the concentration of inorganic phosphorus, suggesting that any predicted increase in aridity with climate change could uncouple the carbon, nitrogen and phosphorus cycles in drylands and negatively affect the services provided by these ecosystems.

Carbene chemistry is used to introduce difluoromethyl groups labelled with fluorine-18 into compounds for positron emission tomography imaging, using a reagent designed for high molar activity and versatility.

A patient with a multidrug-resistant bacterial infection was successfully treated in 2016 using phage therapy. Here, the authors sequence the genomes of the therapeutic phages and three bacterial strains isolated before and during treatment, and show that the same mutations conferring phage resistance are found in in vitro-generated mutants and in phage-insensitive strains isolated from the patient.

The Arctic is changing faster than anywhere else on Earth. Interactions between clouds and aerosols play a role in these changes. We report how the quantities and origins of aerosols that affect cloud ice formation change over a full sea ice cycle

Efficient statistical emulation of melting land ice under various climate scenarios to 2100 indicates a contribution from melting land ice to sea level increase of at least 13 centimetres sea level equivalent.

Sven van der Lee, Julie Williams, Gerard Schellenberg and colleagues identify rare coding variants in PLCG2, ABI3 and TREM2 associated with Alzheimer's disease. These genes are highly expressed in microglia and provide additional evidence that the microglia-mediated immune response contributes to the development of Alzheimer's disease.

Three independent but complementary studies by the laboratories of Markus, Reck-Peterson and Yildiz identify a key role for LIS1 in modulating localization, activity and function of dynein in cells.

Foragers hunted small game locally and procured most large prey in riparian habitats and Afromontane grasslands to the southeast of the Kasitu Valley of northern Malawi, suggesting that migratory behavior in large grazers was absent, according to strontium isotopic analysis.

Characterization of ten temperate mycobacteriophages reveals at least five distinct prophage-expressed viral defence systems that interfere with infection by either closely related or unrelated lytic and temperate phages.

Drug molecules operate through physical interaction with specific cellular targets, and understanding this interaction is important for mechanisms and the potential therapeutic effect of drug candidates. Here, the authors show that bioluminescence resonance energy transfer can be used to monitor the intracellular engagement of a drug with its target.

The genome of the gibbon, a tree-dwelling ape from Asia positioned between Old World monkeys and the great apes, is presented, providing insights into the evolutionary history of gibbon species and their accelerated karyotypes, as well as evidence for selection of genes such as those for forelimb development and connective tissue that may be important for locomotion through trees.

Tait and colleagues show that caspase-independent cell death induced by mitochondrial permeabilization stimulates NF-κB activity through downregulation of inhibitor of apoptosis, and enhances anti-tumour effects.

As phase 1 of the Earth Microbiome Project, analysis of 16S ribosomal RNA sequences from more than 27,000 environmental samples delivers a global picture of the basic structure and drivers of microbial distribution.

Histone methylation has important consequences for chromatin activity. Now, histones with methyllysine analogs are used to reconstitute nucleosomes: the crystal structures show no global changes in nucleosomes with H3K79me2 and H4K20me3, but the latter modification enhances compaction of nucleosomal arrays.

The levels of aerosols in the atmosphere affect cloud reflectivity and the Earth’s radiative balance. A comprehensive analysis of satellite observations shows that thermodynamics and precipitation govern cloud responses to aerosols.

Patches of the lunar regolith in the Ina structure were recently removed, with the number of superimposed small craters and the 'freshness' of the regolith indicating that features within this structure must be as young as 10 million years. It is suggested that these result from recent, episodic out-gassing from deep within the Moon.

The loss of carbon dioxide from soils increases initially under climate warming, but tends to decline to control levels within a few years. Simulations of the soil-carbon response to warming with a microbial-enzyme model show that a decline in both microbial biomass and the production of degrading enzymes can explain this attenuation response.

Internal oceanic waves are subsurface gravity waves that can be enormous and travel thousands of kilometres before breaking but they are difficult to study; here observations of such waves in the South China Sea reveal their formation mechanism, extreme turbulence, relationship to the Kuroshio Current and energy budget.

Achondroplasia is the most common skeletal dysplasia and is characterized by various lifelong clinical, functional and psychosocial challenges for affected individuals. This first International Consensus Statement on the care of children and adults with achondroplasia aims to facilitate the global standardization and improvement of achondroplasia clinical care.