Search

Climate and land-use change are transforming biodiversity, yet national futures remain uncertain. The study projects growing extinction debts, but suggests that sustainable low-emission pathways can limit the worst impacts on British biodiversity.

The APOE-ε4 allele is the strongest genetic risk factor for late-onset Alzheimer’s disease, but it is not deterministic. Here, the authors show that common genetic variation changes how APOE-ε4 influences cognition.

Baked sediment, heat-shattered artefacts and introduced pyrite in a 400,000-year-old Palaeolithic occupation site in Suffolk, UK provide evidence of intentional fire-making, marking a pivotal moment in human development.

Humans released millions of tons of toxic Pb into the air. The authors show that the Arctic Ocean is a sink for Pb emissions in North America and Eurasia that deposited into the North Atlantic Ocean leading to contamination of Arctic abyssal sediments.

Here, the authors estimate mammalian biomass from the 1850’s to today, tracking an increase of over five-fold in human and domesticated mammal biomass and a two-fold decrease in wild mammal biomass. Recent trends of increase in some wild marine mammals are seen to be still far below historic levels. The results of this study are caveated due to limited historic data but have implications for conservation efforts.

A genome-wide association meta-analysis study of blood lipid levels in roughly 1.6 million individuals demonstrates the gain of power attained when diverse ancestries are included to improve fine-mapping and polygenic score generation, with gains in locus discovery related to sample size.

Temporal multi-omic analysis of tissues from rats undergoing up to eight weeks of endurance exercise training reveals widespread shared, tissue-specific and sex-specific changes, including immune, metabolic, stress response and mitochondrial pathways.

Technologies for profiling biological environments with high spatiotemporal resolution are in demand to enable the discovery of new targets for addressing unmet clinical needs. Now, a deep red light-mediated photocatalytic strategy for the targeted activation of aryl azides has been developed. This platform enables mapping of protein microenvironments in physiologically relevant systems.

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).

Nine experts discuss the challenges in translating current research on the human microbiome into strategies for disease prediction, diagnosis and therapy.

The intrinsically hybrid nature of metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) — microporous crystalline solids composed of metal ions and organic ligands — has been exploited to grow thin MOF films at the aqueous–organic interface of a biphasic reaction mixture. These materials exhibit selective permeability and can also be obtained as hollow capsules that have potential as microreactors.

In this study, Aggarwal and colleagues perform prospective sequencing of SARS-CoV-2 isolates derived from asymptomatic student screening and symptomatic testing of students and staff at the University of Cambridge. They identify important factors that contributed to within university transmission and onward spread into the wider community.

Stig Bojesen, Georgia Chenevix-Trench, Alison Dunning and colleagues report common variants at the TERT-CLPTM1L locus associated with mean telomere length measured in whole blood. They also identify associations at this locus to breast or ovarian cancer susceptibility and report functional studies in breast and ovarian cancer tissue and cell lines.

A multi-ancestry genome-wide gene–smoking interaction study identifies 13 new loci associated with serum lipids.

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.

El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) profoundly affects Australian weather, climate, ecosystems and socio-economic sectors. This Review presents the progress made in understanding ENSO teleconnections to Australian weather over the past 40 years, describing the atmospheric dynamics, complexities and impacts of this climate phenomenon.

The unique structure and mechanism of chanoclavine synthase (EasC), a haem catalase that uses superoxide for substrate transformation in ergot alkaloid biosynthesis, are revealed in this study, challenging established catalase mechanisms.

Aerobic methanotrophy is a rare trait, yet bacteria with this capacity are key players in the global methane cycle. Here the authors find a methanotrophic Mycobacterium in a cave, indicating that methane utilization is more widespread across bacteria than previously assumed.

Douglas Easton, Per Hall and colleagues report meta-analyses of genome-wide association studies for breast cancer, including 10,052 cases and 12,575 controls, followed by genotyping using the iCOGS array in an additional 52,675 cases and 49,436 controls from studies within the Breast Cancer Association Consortium (BCAC). They identify 41 loci newly associated with susceptibility to breast cancer.

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.

A meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies of type 2 diabetes (T2D) identifies more than 600 T2D-associated loci; integrating physiological trait and single-cell chromatin accessibility data at these loci sheds light on heterogeneity within the T2D phenotype.

Rob Latham savours the tumultuous tale of four men who reshaped the genre.

A trans-ancestry meta-analysis of GWAS of glycemic traits in up to 281,416 individuals identifies 99 novel loci, of which one quarter was found due to the multi-ancestry approach, which also improves fine-mapping of credible variant sets.

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 large, open dataset containing parallel recordings from six visual cortical and two thalamic areas of the mouse brain is presented, from which the relative timing of activity in response to visual stimuli and behaviour is used to construct a hierarchy scheme that corresponds to anatomical connectivity data.

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 authors describe the structure and function of two evolutionarily diverged RNA polymerases of a thermophilic phage. One of the polymerases is fused to the phage tape measure protein, a virion component dictating the length of the phage tail.

Effects of habitat restoration on belowground organisms and ecosystem processes are poorly understood. Morriën and colleagues show that changes in the composition and network interactions of soil biota lead to improved carbon uptake efficiency when formerly cultivated land is restored.

Genome-wide association and fine-mapping analyses in ancestrally diverse populations implicate candidate causal genes and mechanisms underlying type 2 diabetes. Trans-ancestry genetic risk scores enhance transferability across populations.

Genome-wide ancient DNA data from individuals from the Middle Bronze Age to Iron Age documents large-scale movement of people from the European continent between 1300 and 800 bc that was probably responsible for spreading early Celtic languages to Britain.

Zhu et al. discover that in human brain there is widespread anatomic distribution of low-frequency somatic, mosaic L1 insertions, using deep whole-genome sequencing of neuronal and glial fractions and machine-learning analysis.

The kisspeptin receptor GPR54 is implicated in the maintenance of mammalian fertility. Kirilov et al.study GPR54 mutant mice and identify a subset of neurons in the brain expressing gonadotropin-releasing hormone as the critical site for kisspeptin action.

The 3CL protease of SARS-CoV-2 is inhibited by PF-00835231 in vitro. Here, the authors show that the prodrug PF-07304814 has broad spectrum activity, inhibiting SARS-CoV and SARS-CoV-2 in mice and its ADME and safety profile support clinical development.

Anthropogenic lead (Pb) has overwhelmed natural Pb sources for over a century, yet the phasing out of leaded petrol in the early 2000s has renewed hope. Here, Bridgestock et al. use Pd isotopes to reassess the origins of Pd deposited in the tropical North Atlantic and reveal a significant natural source.

A scheme for watermarking the text generated by large language models shows high text quality preservation and detection accuracy and low latency, and is feasible in large-scale-production settings.

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.

A cross-ancestry meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies identifies association signals for stroke and its subtypes at 89 (61 new) independent loci, reveals putative causal genes, highlighting F11, KLKB1, PROC, GP1BA, LAMC2 and VCAM1 as potential drug targets, and provides cross-ancestry integrative risk prediction.

The low dielectric constants and high porosity of MOFs are of interest for applications in electronics and sensors, but patterning techniques for these materials are in their infancy. Here, direct X-ray and electron-beam lithography at sub-50-nm resolution are reported that leave porosity and crystallinity intact.

Pirh2 is one of several ubiquitin ligases known to modify and negatively regulate p53. Solution studies reveal the structures of the three Pirh2 domains and indicate that the C-terminal domain of Pirh2 interacts with the p53 tetramerization domain. Additional data suggest that Pirh2 preferentially modifies the tetrameric, transcriptionally active form of p53 for proteasome-mediated degradation.

A study shows that clonal haematopoiesis of indeterminate potential is associated with an increased risk of chronic liver disease specifically through the promotion of liver inflammation and injury.

A pan-betacoronavirus vaccine will likely require the elicitation of antibodies against spike regions conserved across diverse coronaviruses. Here, authors computationally engineer and experimentally validate immunogens to elicit antibodies against two such spike regions.

Fine-mapping of causal variants and integration of epigenetic and chromatin conformation data identify likely target genes for 150 breast cancer risk regions.

This study finds that sST2 is a disease-causing factor for Alzheimer’s disease. Higher sST2 levels impair microglial Aβ clearance in APOE4⁺ female individuals. A genetic variant, rs1921622, is associated with a reduction in sST2 level and protects against AD in APOE4⁺ female individuals.

Openshaw and colleagues find myeloid inflammation and complement activation signatures in patients with long COVID who were previously hospitalized.