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Hiʻiaka is the largest moon of the distant dwarf planet Haumea. Here, the authors report the first multi-chord stellar occultations of Hiʻiaka, revealing its size, shape, and density, suggesting an origin from Haumea’s icy mantle.

Omnivores like bears can switch between plant and animal diets, potentially helping them respond to changing conditions. By combining modern and fossil data, this study shows that bears shift toward carnivory in harsher climates and toward herbivory in more productive environments.

JWST observations of the ultra hot Jupiter WASP 121 b reveal helium escaping for most of its orbit, forming two giant tails moving in opposite directions. The results show how stellar radiation modifies planetary atmospheres.

The cool sub-Neptune LP 791-18 c, with an equilibrium temperature of 355 K, was found to host a hazy atmosphere, distinct from any other temperate sub-Neptune studied so far. The discovery demonstrates the intrinsic diversity of these worlds.

JWST observed helium and water in the atmosphere of the giant planet WASP-107 b, revealing a vast outflow of gas and evidence for recent inward migration. The findings shed light on how giant planets lose mass and evolve over time.

An analysis of 24,202 critical cases of COVID-19 identifies potentially druggable targets in inflammatory signalling (JAK1), monocyte–macrophage activation and endothelial permeability (PDE4A), immunometabolism (SLC2A5 and AK5), and host factors required for viral entry and replication (TMPRSS2 and RAB2A).

Using multi-ancestry genome-wide association study and fine-mapping, 298 loci and 36 credible genes are identified in the aetiology of bipolar disorder.

In wildlife tagging, stress from capture and handling can alter post- release behavior and potentially study interpretations. This study of 42 mammal species shows that these effects diminish within 4–7 days, and quicker for animals in high human activity areas indicating adaptation to disturbance.

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.

A group of scientists who are experts at spotting fraudulent research outline five essential steps to combat industrialized scientific misconduct.

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.

Strontium isotope analysis can be applied to animal and plant tissues to help determine their provenance. Here, the authors generate a strontium isoscape of sub-Saharan Africa using data from 2266 environmental samples and demonstrate its efficacy by tracing the African roots of individuals from historic slavery contexts.

Keyl et al. present an explainable artificial intelligence model-based real-world data analysis from over 15,000 patients across 38 cancer types, identified key prognostic marker interactions, and confirmed these in an external lung cancer cohort.

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.

Correct interpretation of computer tomography (CT) scans is important for the correct assessment of a patient’s disease but can be subjective and timely. Here, the authors develop a system that can automatically segment the non-small cell lung cancer on CT images of patients and show in an in silico trial that the method was faster and more reproducible than clinicians.

A meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies for 233 circulating metabolites from 33 cohorts reveals more than 400 loci and suggests probable causal genes, providing insights into metabolic pathways and disease aetiology.

Transancestral GWAS meta-analysis in 160,420 individuals identifies 139 loci associated with refractive error, including myopia. Newly identified genes implicate pathways involved in eye growth and light signaling cascades.

A complete revolution of exo-Neptune LTT 9779 b was observed with the NIRISS/SOSS instrument onboard the JWST. The resulting full phase curve is indicative of an equatorial jet that transports heat from the dayside to the colder nightside, resulting in an asymmetric distribution of clouds on the planet.

Data from over 700,000 individuals reveal the identity of 83 sequence variants that affect human height, implicating new candidate genes and pathways as being involved in growth.

Metabolic reprogramming is associated with cancer development and therapy resistance. Here, the authors show that downregulation of the serine biosynthesis enzyme PHGDH in a fraction of patients is associated with relapse in platinum-treated ovarian cancers and to NAD⁺ and PARP activity upregulation.

Analyses of 475 ancient horse genomes show modern horses emerged around 2200 bce, coinciding with sudden expansion across Eurasia, refuting the narrative of large horse herds accompanying earlier migrations of steppe peoples across Europe.

Genome-wide association analyses of 41,917 bipolar disorder cases and 371,549 controls of European ancestry provide new insights into the etiology of this disorder and identify novel therapeutic leads and potential opportunities for drug repurposing.

Swarm Learning is a decentralized machine learning approach that outperforms classifiers developed at individual sites for COVID-19 and other diseases while preserving confidentiality and privacy.

Exome-wide analysis identifies rare and low-frequency coding variants associated with body mass index. Gene-based meta-analysis and functional studies implicate 13 genes, eight of which are novel, and neuronal pathways as factors in human obesity.

In cancer, the impact on cellular fitness of copy-number gains affecting collaterally-amplified genes remains poorly understood compared to oncogenes. Here, the authors integrate genomic data from tumours and cell lines and identify a class of ‘Amplification-Related Gain Of Sensitivity’ (ARGOS) genes, with potential therapeutic applications.

The hippocampus in mammalian brain varies in size across individuals. Here, Hibar and colleagues perform a genome-wide association meta-analysis to find six genetic loci with significant association to hippocampus volume.

Bipolar disorder (BD) is a severe mood disorder, which has been shown to have a large genetic component. Here the authors identify two previously unreported BD risk loci and provide further insights into the biological mechanisms underlying BD development.

Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) are widely used antidepressants, but the mechanisms by which they influence behavior are only partially resolved. Using a combination of different approaches, the authors demonstrate that serotonin 1A receptors expressed in mature dentate gyrus granule cells are critical mediators of the response to SSRIs.

Aneuploid cancer cell lines show increased dependence on the spindle assembly complex (SAC); initially they are resistant to SAC perturbations, but over time they accumulate chromosomal aberrations that impair their fitness.

Metal-organic frameworks constitute a family of glass formers that is distinct from those that are polymeric, metallic, or inorganic. Here the authors show that they can be combined with different inorganic aluminophosphate glasses to produce a composite with mechanical properties intermediate between the two end-members.

In a GWAS study of 32,438 adults, the authors discovered five novel loci for intracranial volume and confirmed two known signals. Variants for intracranial volume were also related to childhood and adult cognitive function and to Parkinson's disease, and enriched near genes involved in growth pathways, including PI3K-AKT signaling.

Mycobacterium tuberculosis has the ability to survive within the host for months to decades in an asymptomatic state, and adaptations to hypoxia are thought to have an important role in pathogenesis; here a systems-wide reconstruction of the regulatory network provides a framework for understanding mycobacterial persistence in the host.

Cell-cell adhesion of endothelial tissue, mediated by the adhesion molecule VE-cadherin, is tightly regulated. Here the authors show that the F-BAR domain protein pacsin2 is recruited to the trailing end of mechanically unbalanced Focal Adherens Junctions, where it inhibits internalization of VE-cadherin and protects cell-cell adhesion.

The CNV analysis group of the Psychiatric Genomic Consortium analyzes a large schizophrenia cohort to examine genomic copy number variants (CNVs) and disease risk. They find an enrichment of CNV burden in cases versus controls and identify 8 genome-wide significant loci as well as novel suggestive loci conferring either risk or protection to schizophrenia.

The ancestry of the European bison (wisent) remains a mystery. Here, Cooper and colleagues examine ancient DNA from fossil remains of extinct bison, and reveal the wisent originated through the hybridization of the extinct Steppe bison and ancestors of modern cattle.

Introducing GenomeNet-Architect, a neural architecture design framework that automatically optimises the overall layout of the architecture, the hyperparameters, and the training procedure of deep learning models for genome sequence data.

Recent studies of T-cell leukaemia have provided insight into the molecular mechanisms responsible for the induction and progression of this disease. As discussed here, many of the genes that are dysregulated in T-cell leukaemia are known to be involved in T-cell development.

Ancient DNA keeps expanding our understanding of complex genetic relationships between Pleistocene hominins. Here, Posth and colleagues analyse the mitochondrial genome of an archaic human that diverged from other Neanderthals ∼270,000 years ago, providing the minimum age for an African introgression into Neanderthals.

A consortium reports the tripling of the number of genetic markers in Phase II of the International HapMap Project. This map of human genetic variation will continue to revolutionize discovery of susceptibility loci in common genetic diseases, and study of genes under selection in humans.

Self-GenomeNet, a self-supervised learning technique, is trained by predicting unlabeled reverse-complement genome sequences of different lengths and improves the performance of models substantially when a limited amount of labeled data is available.

To address the question of whether a recurrent tumour is genetically similar to the tumour at diagnosis, the evolution of medulloblastoma has been studied in both an in vivo mouse model of clinical tumour therapy as well as in humans with recurrent disease; targeted tumour therapies are usually based on targets present in the tumour at diagnosis but the results from this study indicate that post-treatment recurring tumours (compared with the tumour at diagnosis) have undergone substantial clonal divergence of the initial dominant tumour clone.

Oligodendroglial tumours are characterized into three different molecular subtypes. Here, the authors use genomic data to identify a further three subgroups of 1p/19q co-deleted tumours and demonstrate an association with an aggressive phenotype.

Anaplastic oligodendrogliomas are rare and incurable primary brain tumours with few treatment options. Here Labrecheet al. perform whole-exome sequencing and identify recurring mutations in transcription factor TCF12, which are associated with aggressive tumours.