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High yield and wide adaptation rice are crucial for grain supply and food security. Here the authors report OsPI4Kγ7 which contributes to different “adaptability-yield” trade-offs in japonica and indica, and provides an alternative breeding strategy for raising grain yield in different latitudes.

The complexity of the evolved metabolic networks of flavonoids complicates pathway elucidation and design. Here, the authors identify enzymes that modify isoflavan scaffolds from the genome and transcriptome data of Glycyrrhiza glabra, and reconstruct de novo glabridin biosynthesis in yeast.

This work develops an atomic-level coordination engineering strategy that strengthens key intermediate adsorption to promote C–C coupling, enabling highly selective photocatalytic CO₂ conversion to ethylene.

The study evaluates China’s offshore wind potential using farm-scale modeling, revealing lower potential than previous estimates. It incorporates realistic turbine layouts, wake loss modeling, and climate scenarios, highlighting economic and technical differences between nearshore and deep-water wind farms.

Alternative splicing greatly expands the transcriptomic and proteomic diversity in vertebrates. Here, the authors develop a machine-learning tool to identify functional splicing events during hematopoietic cell differentiation, revealing new regulators of hematopoiesis.

Identifying modifiable factors for cardiovascular health is becoming increasingly important. Here, the authors demonstrate that eating within shorter, earlier time windows is associated with lower cardiovascular risk in Chinese children. Multi-omics analysis suggests that lipid metabolism pathways may mediate these effects.

Phase-change materials are promising for thermal management, although achieving simultaneous phase-change stability and mechanical robustness remains challenging. Here, we present a nanotechnology-directed strategy that integrates ultralow carbon nanotubes (0.1 wt.%) scaffolds with three-dimensional interpenetrating polymer networks, achieving significant synergy between crystallinity control and efficient thermal regulation.

In maize, ZmDapF1 suppresses the activity of ZmMDH6 in chloroplasts, exacerbating oxidative damage under drought. Knocking out ZmDapF1 or using its favourable allele with lower gene expression enhances drought resilience without yield penalty.

Acne is a common skin disease caused by the anaerobic Cutibacterium acnes. Here, the authors report a microneedles patch loaded with near infrared-driven self-oxygenating ZnO₂@PDA-MnO₂ nanomotors for photothermal therapy of acne.

Genome evolutionary history of wild Arachis species remains unclear. Here, the authors report the origin of small chromosome A08 and genome evolution of Arachis species via comparative oligopainting and genomic analysis of A. hoehnei.

The mechanism of transitions in sex determination systems are often poorly understood. This study looks at the amphioxus Branchiostoma belcheri, and finds repeated transpositions of the gene tesD have created new sex-determining regions, driving turnover of the sex determination system.

Electrochemical urea oxidation can coproduce nitrite and H₂, but it typically lacks selectivity. Here, the authors address this issue by designing doped Lewis acid sites to trigger a hydroxyl spillover mechanism, resulting in highly selective nitrite production and efficient energy conversion.

Multifunctional underwater sensors with integrated self-powered signal transmission, effective thermal-moisture regulation, and multi-signal decoupling are desirable of underwater tasks. Here, the authors report a three-dimensional thermoelectric device composed of porous polyurethane foam coated with a waterproof conductive layer for human-machine interaction in aquatic settings.

Formamidinium lead iodide perovskite holds promise for high-efficiency solar cells, but the kinetic instability of its α-phase crystallization remains an issue. He et al. report a strategy for directing the crystallization process in a n-i-p architecture and champion power conversion efficiency of 26.18%.

Thymine DNA glycosylase (TDG) was identified as a synthetic-lethal target in p53-deficient cancers through alterations in double-stranded RNA accumulation. A covalent small-molecule inhibitor of TDG exhibited potent efficacy against p53-deficient tumors.

Zhang et al. show that the activation of RIPK1 is suppressed by acetylhypusination in a spermidine-dependent manner. Disruption of this axis contributes to RIPK1-mediated vascular pathology to promote insulin resistance and diabetic kidney pathology.

Liu et al. report Chinese normative lifespan brain charts showing later neurodevelopmental milestones than those detected in Western cohorts. Individual deviations from these norms are valuable in assessing clinical risk and outcomes.

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.

The role of protein UFMylation in cancer remains to be understood. Here the authors show that UFM1-specific ligase 1 and AKT positively regulate each other through UFMylation and phosphorylation in breast cancer cells, which could be therapeutically targeted by a cell-penetrating peptide through disrupting UFL1-AKT interaction.

Identifying jets originating from heavy quarks plays a fundamental role in hadronic collider experiments. In this work, the ATLAS Collaboration describes and tests a transformer-based neural network architecture for jet flavour tagging based on low-level input and physics-inspired constraints.

The precise molecular and physiological functions of the iron transporter Slc22a17 remain poorly understood. Here authors report mice lacking Slc22a17 expression in the brain suffer from iron overload, oxidative stress, and learning deficits.

Rice indica varieties have higher nitrogen use efficiency (NUE) than that of japonica varieties. Here, the authors show that natural variation of OsWRKY23 and its interaction with DULL NITROGEN RESPONSE1 (DNR1)-mediated auxin accumulation play a role in NUE divergence between the two rice subspecies.

Chemical synthesis of carbohydrates provides an efficient, scalable approach, facilitating therapeutic development and mechanistic studies. Herein, the authors report an O-glycosylation method utilizing bench-stable and readily accessible oxazolidinone-based glycosyl carbamates as donors.

piR48444 targets METTL7A to inhibit BMP2 mRNA m6A methylation and METTL7A/eIF4E complex-mediated BMP2 mRNA stability and translation, ultimately inhibiting osteogenic differentiation of MSCs and bone regeneration.

Colonic smooth muscle cell (CSMC) hypertrophy and hyperplasia have been described in human ulcerative colitis (UC) and animal models. Here the authors show that mice lacking smooth muscle (SM) 22a develop spontaneous colitis which has RSAD2-driven mitochondrial dysfunction and inflammation in CSMC and show dependence on RSAD2 for colitis alleviation.

While cotton fiber development has been extensively studied, the spatiotemporal transcriptome and metabolome landscape remain largely unknown. Here, the authors profile early stage cotton fiber cell using a combination of spatial transcriptomic, single-cell transcriptomic, and spatial metabolomic analyses.

The role of protein UFMylation in cancer remains to be understood. Here, the authors show that UFM1-specific ligase 1 and AKT positively regulate each other through UFMylation and phosphorylation, facilitating lipid synthesis and breast tumor growth.

Fibre integrated circuits created by first preparing circuitry on extremely thin and flexible substrates and then mechanically rolling them up demonstrate microdevice density reaching 100,000 transistors per centimetre and excellent stability under harsh service conditions.

Here the authors present NCATS-SM0225, a small molecule that inhibits ERAD and selectively kills cancer cells by binding VDACs, disrupting calcium homeostasis, and triggering the PERK-STIM1 pathway to degrade ERAD regulators.

Engineering catalyst interfaces plays a key role in designing supported metal systems. Here, the authors report that Ni nanoparticles redisperse from SiO₂ to molybdenum carbide, forming dual interfaces that enhance tandem CO₂ hydrogenation.

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

Lithium nucleation at the metal anode surface dictates the morphologies of lithium deposits, which impact battery stability and performances. Now, a physics-based framework decouples substrate- and solid-electrolyte interphase-controlled nucleation pathways by examining the interplay of short-range transport and reaction.

Toxicity of antibody drug conjugates (ADCs) is often caused by off-target shedding of therapeutic payloads due to linker instability. Here, the authors demonstrate that site-specific ligase-dependent conjugation of therapeutic payloads to engineered trastuzumab via a ring-opening linker improves stability compared to conventional HER2- targeting ADCs.

Polycrystalline disorder often obscures the proton conduction pathways and mechanisms in covalent organic frameworks. Here, the authors functionalize 3D crystalline covalent organic frameworks under solvent-free conditions achieving anhydrous superprotonic conductivity and studied the mechanism behind.

Electrocatalysis is a powerful tool in organic synthesis, but asymmetric strategies are still less developed. Now a cobalt/pyridoxal electrocatalytic system facilitates electrochemical single-electron transfer and asymmetric induction for the enantioselective generation of α-quaternary amino esters.

Lampreys are jawless vertebrates that can offer unique insights into vertebrate evolution. Here they generate a comprehensive cell atlas of the lamprey, uncovering 70 distinct cell types across 14 tissues, and identify pancreas-like cells in the lamprey small intestine.

Chemoautotrophic carbon fixation is vital for evaluating permafrost carbon-climate feedback, but has been largely ignored. Here the authors find that dark carbon fixation predominates ~1/3 of the investigated thermokarst lakes on the Tibetan Plateau.

Fracto-mechanoluminescence is the emission of light from fracturing solids. Here, the authors show that this emission in Mn halides arises from elastic stiffness, electromechanical coupling, and trap states that activate Mn²⁺ d−d transitions.

Insufficient efficacy is one of the major impediments for further application of sup-tRNA therapies. Here, authors engineer the body sequence of sup-tRNA^Arg and restored retinal function and vision-guided behavior in a mouse model carrying the RPE65-R44X nonsense mutation.

This study finds HFD downregulates RKIP expression via inhibiting its Spalmitoylation. This impairs translation of PEMT, an essential enzyme for ER lipid homeostasis, exacerbating PC/PE imbalance and ER stress, thereby driving MAFLD progression.