Search

Emerging fungal pathogens have detrimental impacts on crops, animals, and humans, however little is known about their transition to a pathogenic lifestyle. This study demonstrates that the transition from saprotroph to opportunistic human pathogen is likely facilitated by adaptive translation.

Spin valves with organic semiconductors sandwiched between two ferromagnetic layers can have similar performance as their inorganic counterparts. Here, the authors fabricate bathocuproine spin valves with good air stability and show that the transport takes place through the organic layer.

Mixed responses to targeted therapy within a patient are a clinical challenge. Here the authors show that TP53 loss-of-function cooperates with whole genome doubling which increases chromosomal instability. This leads to greater cellular diversity and multiple routes of resistance, which in turn promotes mixed responses to treatment.

A population of TRAIL-positive astrocytes in glioblastoma contributes to an immunosuppressive tumour microenvironment and this mechanism can be targeted with an engineered oncolytic virus to improve outcomes.

Fine-scale geospatial mapping of overweight and wasting (two components of the double burden of malnutrition) in 105 LMICs shows that overweight has increased from 5.2% in 2000 to 6.0% in children under 5 in 2017. Although overall wasting decreased over the same period, most countries are not on track to meet the World Health Organization’s Global Nutrition Target of <5% in over half of LMICs by 2025.

Petrels are wide-ranging, highly threatened seabirds that often ingest plastic. This study used tracking data for 7,137 petrels of 77 species to map global exposure risk and compare regions, species, and populations. The results show higher exposure risk for threatened species and stress the need for international cooperation to tackle marine litter.

The CMS Collaboration reports evidence for off-shell Higgs boson contributions in the production of Z boson pairs, and measures the width of the Higgs boson, which is inversely related to its lifetime.

Previous studies argued that nascent polypeptide chains can form secondary structure in the ribosome exit tunnel despite spatial constraints. Using single-particle cryo-EM reconstructions of eukaryotic ribosomes carrying nascent chains with high helical propensity, density consistent with helix formation is now observed in the exit tunnel as are interactions with tunnel proteins.

Single-cell and spatial transcriptomics analysis of stricturing Crohn’s disease highlights cellular heterogeneity in fibrotic tissue and identifies neighborhoods of fibroblasts and immune cells contributing to this severe disease complication.

A genome-wide association study of critically ill patients with COVID-19 identifies genetic signals that relate to important host antiviral defence mechanisms and mediators of inflammatory organ damage that may be targeted by repurposing drug treatments.

An initial draft of the human pangenome is presented and made publicly available by the Human Pangenome Reference Consortium; the draft contains 94 de novo haplotype assemblies from 47 ancestrally diverse individuals.

Inflammasome activation plays a role in malaria pathogenesis, but details aren’t well understood. Here, the authors show that caspase-8 is a central mediator of systemic inflammation in rodent malaria and that monocytes from malaria patients express active caspases-1, -4 and -8.

Glutathione has pleiotropic functions in different organs. Here the authors specifically examine deletion of a glutathione synthetic enzyme in the liver of adult mice and show that lack of glutathione affects lipid abundance through repressing NRF2.

Yong et al. highlight how sampling conditions affect metabolic profile in renal cancer, showing that prolonged ischemic exposure disrupts tissue metabolome stability and masks important phenotypes, such as suppressed gluconeogenesis.

The biological understanding of poor prognosis associated with lymph node metastasis in head and neck cancer (HNC) remains crucial. Here, a proteomic characterisation of 140 multisite samples from a 59-HNC patient cohort and machine learning reveals potential biomarkers and metastasis related signatures.

Mammalian DNA replication relies on various helicases and nucleases to ensure accurate genetic duplication, but how these enzymes are properly directed is unclear. Here, the authors identify USP50 as a key protein for promoting ongoing replication, restarting stalled forks, maintaining telomeres, and ensuring cell survival.

Here, the authors identify a novel regulator of autophagy, skeletal muscle mass and integrity named MYTHO. Silencing MYTHO protects against muscle atrophy in a wide range of acute catabolic conditions, while prolonged silencing causes a severe myopathy.

Single layers of carbon atoms are now well known for their useful properties, but a combination of two sheets can also exhibit some unusual electronic characteristics. Here, the authors identify two distinct electron states in bilayer graphene that result from spontaneous symmetry breaking.

The most up-to-date combination of results on the properties of the Higgs boson is reported, which indicate that its properties are consistent with the standard model predictions, within the precision achieved to date.

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.

Association analyses in over 1 million individuals identify 535 new loci influencing blood pressure traits. The results provide new insights into blood pressure regulation and highlight shared genetic architecture between blood pressure and lifestyle exposures.

Analyses of genome and exome sequencing data identify rare coding and structural variants associated with atrial fibrillation and highlight genetic links between atrial fibrillation and cardiomyopathies.

Sera from vaccinated individuals and some monoclonal antibodies show a modest reduction in neutralizing activity against the B.1.1.7 variant of SARS-CoV-2; but the E484K substitution leads to a considerable loss of neutralizing activity.

The capacity of the brain to compensate for insults during development depends on the type of cell loss. Here authors reveal that embryonic ablation of cerebellar output neurons leads to powerful compensation by extra-cerebellar circuits, whereas mutations (En1/2) disrupt extra-cerebellar circuits regulating non-motor behaviors.

It is known that exercise influences many human traits, but not which tissues and genes are most important. This study connects transcriptome data collected across 15 tissues during exercise training in rats as part of the Molecular Transducers of Physical Activity Consortium with human data to identify traits with similar tissue specific gene expression signatures to exercise.

Preventing endosomal damage sensing or using lipids that create reparable endosomal holes reduces inflammation caused by RNA-lipid nanoparticles while enabling high RNA expression.

Compositionally complex alloys have attracted significant attention recently, but the role of electronic correlations in these materials is unknown. Redka et al. study the CrMnFeCoNi alloy using a combination of experimental and theoretical techniques, revealing strong correlation effects far from the Fermi edge.

An optical thermodynamic framework can describe the complex dynamics in highly multimodal systems. Now, the observation of all-optical Joule–Thompson expansion in an optical gas further validates this thermodynamic approach.

Chromosome 8q24 is known to be a major susceptibility region for prostate cancer risk. Here the authors analyze genetic data across the 8q24 region from 71,535 prostate cancer patients identifying 12 risk loci, three previously unreported, highlighting the contribution of germline variation at this locus.

Schwannomas are regularly treated with radiotherapy, but the molecular effects on these tumours and their microenvironment remain unclear. Here, the authors show that radiotherapy can induce epigenetic reprogramming and immune infiltration in schwannomas, and develop the snARC-seq approach to analyse the epigenomic evolution at the single-cell level.

In hepatocellular carcinoma driven by non-alcoholic steatohepatitis, aberrant T cell activation and impaired immune surveillance seem to make hepatocellular carcinoma less responsive to anti-PD1 or anti-PDL1 immunotherapy.

Inflammatory monocytes in the brain meninges promote stress-induced fear behaviour, and the pathways involved can be modulated using psychedelic compounds.

Cities may host surprisingly diverse and functionally distinct biological communities. This global analysis on 5302 vertebrate and invertebrate species finds evidence of 4 trait syndromes in urban animal assemblages, modulated by spatial and geographic factors.

Trans-ancestry meta-analysis of estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) from 1,046,070 individuals identifies 264 associated loci, providing a resource of molecular targets for translational research of chronic kidney disease.

Comparisons within the human pangenome establish that homologous regions on short arms of heterologous human acrocentric chromosomes actively recombine, leading to the high rate of Robertsonian translocation breakpoints in these regions.

Most genetic studies have been done on European cohorts, which affects the efficacy of polygenic risk scores in non-European populations. Here, the authors demonstrate that a colorectal cancer PRS including Asian and European ancestries has improved performance over the European-centric PRS across racial and ethnic groups.

SECOMBIT was a clinical trial testing different sequences of immunotherapy (ipilimumab plus nivolumab) and targeted therapy (encorafenib plus binimetinib) for untreated BRAF-mutated metastatic melanoma. Here the authors report 4-year survival outcomes, confirming long-term benefit with first-line immunotherapy, and preliminary biomarkers evaluation.

Temperature shapes the adaptation and composition of microbiomes, but whether their enzymes drive the thermal response remains unknown. Using an analysis of seven enzyme classes from worldwide marine microbiome data, this study shows that enzyme thermal properties explain microbial thermal plasticity and they are both finely tuned by the thermal variability of the environment.

Metastatic clear cell renal cell carcinoma has a poor prognosis. Here, the authors use single cell RNA-seq to show a distinct gene expression signature in the primary tumour of metastatic patients, and highlights immune cell receptor interactions as potential therapeutic targets.

GWAS have identified more than 500 genetic loci associated with blood lipid levels. Here, the authors report a genome-wide analysis of interactions between genetic markers and physical activity, and find that physical activity modifies the effects of four genetic loci on HDL or LDL cholesterol.

The thymus supports T cell immunity by providing the environment for thymocyte differentiation. Here the authors profile human thymic stroma at the single cell level, identifying ionocytes as a new medullary population and defining tissue specific antigen expression in multiple stromal cell types.

Chini et al. demonstrate that CD38⁺ expression in immune cells increases during aging, owing to the senescence-associated secretory phenotype of senescent cells, and the ecto-enzymatic activity of CD38⁺ affects intracellular NAD⁺ levels in vivo by hydrolyzing the NAD⁺ intermediate nicotinamide mononucleotide extracellularly.

The paenilamicins are hybrid nonribosomal peptide–polyketide compounds that inhibit protein synthesis. Here the authors reveal that paenilamicins bind to a unique site on the ribosome, where they interfere with the translocation of mRNA and tRNAs during elongation.

Measurements of the inelastic cross section of anti-³He allow the estimation of the transparency of the Milky Way to the propagation of these light antinuclei produced in either cosmic-ray collisions or annihilation of dark-matter particles.

Genome-wide association analyses identify 30 risk loci for IgA nephropathy. Functional annotations of putative causal genes converge on inflammatory signaling pathways and cytokine ligand–receptor pairs, prioritizing potential new drug targets.

Breast cancer risk for BRCA1/BRCA2 mutation carriers varies depending on other genetic factors. Here, the authors perform a case-only genome-wide association study and highlight novel loci associated with breast cancer risk for BRCA1/BRCA2 mutation carriers.