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The links between meat production and immunity in cattle can affect agricultural production. Here, Li et al. identify genetic and environmental factors that shape immune responses in cattle, which can guide breeding for improved health.

“This randomized controlled trial in adults with central obesity found that high-intensity interval training, performed once or thrice weekly, reduced body fat mass compared with control, highlighting the benefits of “weekend warrior” interventions.”

Humanity’s Last Exam, a multi-modal benchmark at the frontier of human knowledge, is designed to be an expert-level closed-ended academic benchmark with broad subject coverage.

cellSTAAR advances noncoding rare variant association analysis by integrating single-cell genomics data.

Sznycer and Patrick show that laypeople can intuitively recreate core aspects of criminal laws drawn from ancient, culturally foreign legal codes and argue that this is consistent with the theory that criminal laws originate in the human brain.

The high-quality T2T genome serves provides a resource, revealing the evolutionary link between olfactory receptor genes and head shape adaptation in Neijiang pigs.

3-Hydroxypropionic acid (3HP) is a top Department of Energy value-added chemical and precursor to bioplastics, yet cost-effective microbial bioproduction remains elusive. Here the authors establish efficient 3HP production in an acid tolerant yeast and validate its financially viability.

The authors report suspended Lamb-wave resonators using sub-100 nm ultrathin lithium niobate, achieving resonant frequencies of nearly 220 GHz-doubling prior records and holding exciting prospects for terahertz nanomechanics.

Plasmodium falciparum proteins were engineered to create a nanoparticle vaccine platform capable of displaying multiple antigens at 48 sites. Displaying a designed malaria circumsporozoite protein immunogen on this platform achieves full sterile protection in mice.

A connectome of the right optic lobe from a male fruitfly is presented together with an extensive collection of genetic drivers matched to a comprehensive neuron-type catalogue.

Cryogenic conditions limit molecular diffusion, inhibiting self-healing in most molecular systems. Here the authors present an organic molecular crystal capable of autonomous recovery at 77 K due to strong dipole–dipole interactions between aligned molecular layers.

Membrane-free complex coacervate microdroplets are compelling models for primitive compartmentalization, but it is unclear how molecular co-operativity influences physicochemical properties and activity of membrane-free compartments. Here, the authors use RNA/peptide coacervates as a model to reveal the relationship between coacervate properties and ribozyme activity.

ENTRAP-seq systematically links protein sequence to transcriptional output in a native plant context.

Analysis of 14,106 tumor genomes highlights recurrent mutations in mitochondrial ribosomal RNA encoded within the mitochondrial genome. Mutations occur at hotspot positions and are under strong purifying selection in the germline.

A global network of researchers was formed to investigate the role of human genetics in SARS-CoV-2 infection and COVID-19 severity; this paper reports 13 genome-wide significant loci and potentially actionable mechanisms in response to infection.

Tergaonkar and colleagues identify a noncanonical interaction between the NF-κB transcription factor family member p52 and the ETS family member ETS1. They find that the p52–ETS1 complex is required for splenic germinal center B cell formation and T cell-dependent antibody responses.

Polygenic scores for body mass index and obesity constructed using data from 5 million people with different ancestries were associated with distinct weight gain trajectories from early childhood to adulthood.

Tan et al. identify PRDM16 as a key repressor of fibrotic switching in smooth muscle cells and show that its downregulation in atherosclerosis drives smooth muscle cells toward a synthetic fate, promoting fibrous plaques.

Formation of tertiary C(sp³)-C bonds is a formidable challenge due to steric interactions and low barriers for isomerization of intermediates. Here, the authors show a Ni-catalyzed migratory 3,3-difluoroallylation of unactivated alkyl bromides at remote tertiary carbon centers.

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.

TGF-β stimulated tumor-associated neutrophils (TANs) can exert pro-tumoral functions. Here the authors show that Smad3 activation in TANs is associated with an N2-like polarization state and poor outcome in patients with non-small cell lung carcinoma and that Smad3 targeting reprograms TANs to an antitumor state suppressing tumor growth in preclinical lung cancer models.

It is becoming clear that heterogeneity in cancer cell cycles corresponds to variability of response to therapies targeting cyclin dependent kinases (CDKs). Here, the authors investigate CDK2-dependancy and response to CDK2 inhibition across different cancers, identifying markers of sensitivity and combinatorial therapeutic strategies.

A high-bandwidth neuromotor interface offers performant out-of-the-box generalization across people.

Self-intercalated Chromium tellurides consist of CrTe₂ van der Waals layers, with additional Chromium atoms residing in the van der Waals gap. This highly tuneable class of magnetic materials has presented a range of unique magnetic phenomena, and here Bigi, Jego, Polewczyk et al add to this by showing that CrTe₂ (δ = 0.25 − 0.50) hosts orthogonal ferromagnetism.

Cell type labelling in single-cell datasets remains a major bottleneck. Here, the authors present AnnDictionary, an open-source toolkit that enables atlas-scale analysis and provides the first benchmark of LLMs for de novo cell type annotation from marker genes, showing high accuracy at low cost.

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.

Vaccines that interrupt malaria transmission will be important tools for malaria elimination. Here the authors identify a human monoclonal antibody from Pfs230 vaccinated individuals that blocks transmission of Plasmodium falciparum to mosquitoes in a complement-dependent manner and reacts with gamete surface.

Inventory data from more than 1 million trees across African, Amazonian and Southeast Asian tropical forests suggests that, despite their high diversity, just 1,053 species, representing a consistent ~2.2% of tropical tree species in each region, constitute half of Earth’s 800 billion tropical trees.

The advantage of living in cities compared with rural areas with respect to height and BMI in children and adolescents has generally become smaller globally from 1990 to 2020, except in sub-Saharan Africa.

mRNA COVID-19 vaccines are highly effective at preventing severe outcomes and death caused by the SARS-CoV-2 Delta variant (B.1.617.2) in Qatar despite substantially lower effectiveness at blocking infection.

Jayavelu, Samaha et al., apply machine learning models on hospital admission data, including antibody titers and viral load, to identify patients at high risk for Long COVID. Low antibody levels, high viral loads, chronic diseases, and female sex are key predictors, supporting early, targeted interventions.

Khufu’s Pyramid is one of the largest archaeological monuments in the world, and still contains unexplored voids. Here, the authors use cosmic-ray muon radiography in multiple positions to precisely characterize one of these inner structures called the North Face Corridor.

Smad3, a transcription factor activated by TGF-β, has been implicated in tumorigenesis. Here the authors show that Smad3 inhibits NK cell differentiation and effector function by repressing NFIL3, and that genetic or pharmacological blockade of Smad3 expands tumour-suppressive NK cells and restricts tumour growth in mice.

An expert-elicitation process identifies current methodological barriers for monitoring terrestrial biodiversity, and how technological and procedural development of robotic and autonomous systems may contribute to overcoming these challenges.

Spatially resolved images of M87 obtained at a wavelength of 3.5 mm in 2018 show a ring-like accretion structure, the inner (outer) edge of which connects the black hole (jet).

In this Stage 2 Registered Report, Buchanan et al. show evidence confirming the phenomenon of semantic priming across speakers of 19 diverse languages.

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.

Whole-genome sequencing, transcriptome-wide association and fine-mapping analyses in over 7,000 individuals with critical COVID-19 are used to identify 16 independent variants that are associated with severe illness in COVID-19.

The goals, resources and design of the NHLBI Trans-Omics for Precision Medicine (TOPMed) programme are described, and analyses of rare variants detected in the first 53,831 samples provide insights into mutational processes and recent human evolutionary history.

A large genome-wide association study of more than 5 million individuals reveals that 12,111 single-nucleotide polymorphisms account for nearly all the heritability of height attributable to common genetic variants.

Measuring interaction energies from experimentally measured single-molecular interactions is challenging. Here, the authors report a gamma work distribution applied to single molecule pulling events for estimating peptide absorption free energy.

Microbes drive the Earth’s biogeochemical cycles. Here, Li et al. present a framework for integrating genome-inferred microbial kinetic traits into ecosystem mechanistic models, and use it to benchmark predictions against observed greenhouse gas emissions at an Arctic wetland.

Africanized honey bees (AHB) are notoriously aggressive, but in Puerto Rico they have a ‘gentle’ phenotype. Here, Avalos et al. show that there has been a soft selective sweep at several loci in the Puerto Rican AHB population and suggest a role in the rapid evolution of gentle behaviour.