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From 2014–2017, marine heatwaves caused global mass coral bleaching, where the corals lose their symbiotic algae. The authors find, this event exceeded the severity of all prior global bleaching events in recorded history, with approximately half the world’s reefs bleaching and 15% experiencing substantial mortality.

The lowest-frequency gravitational wave background may be shaped by supermassive black hole binaries that scatter nearby stars or dark matter. In this case, the NANOGrav 15-year dataset favours dense galactic centres with 10⁶ solar masses per cubic parsec.

Dietary restriction promotes the expansion of effector T cells via ketone bodies, which enhances anti-tumour immunity and synergizes with immunotherapy in mice.

The authors previously pinpointed OLAH (oleoyl-ACP-hydrolase) as a driver of life-threatening viral diseases. Here, the authors identify increased IL-18Rα expression on CD8⁺ T cells, which acquire a reduced cytotoxic signature, correlates with severe respiratory viral infection of influenza A virus, RSV and COVID-19.

Together with a companion paper, molecular details of immune responses in a pig-to-human xenotransplantation are identified through dense longitudinal multi-omics profiling of the xenograft and the host recipient, across the 61-day procedure.

Surgical nerve injuries can cause significant morbidity, yet no approved fluorescent agents exist for visualization. Here, the authors show in a Phase I multi-site trial that bevonescein was safe, established optimal dosing and timing, and provided a fluorescence signal for intraoperative nerve identification.

Polygenic risk scores can help identify individuals at higher risk of type 2 diabetes. Here, the authors characterise a multi-ancestry score across nearly 900,000 people, showing that its predictive value depends on demographic and clinical context and extends to related traits and complications.

A pangenome of the Cannabis genus including 193 genomes demonstrates high variability in most of the genome but low diversity in cannabinoid synthesis genes and provides a resource for future genetic studies and crop optimization.

Fears about the future impacts of artificial intelligence are distracting researchers from the real risks of deployed systems, argue Kate Crawford and Ryan Calo.

Dimethyl fumarate (DMF) is an anti-inflammatory drug proposed as a treatment for COVID19. Here the results are reported from a randomised trial testing DMF treatment in 713 patients hospitalised with COVID-19. DMF was not associated with any improvement in day 5 outcomes.

Tracking data from 17 marine predator species in the Southern Ocean are used to identify Areas of Ecological Significance, the protection of which could help to mitigate increasing pressures on Southern Ocean ecosystems.

While intellectual virtues might be more within the remit of philosophers, many scientists would also see them as important within their domain. Dominic T. Chaloner, Michelle Francl, and T. Ryan Byerly consider what it takes to train up virtuous chemists

Accurate liquid water modelling is challenging. Here the authors use X-ray micro-computed tomography, deep learned super-resolution, multi-label segmentation, and direct multiphase simulation to simulate fuel cell and guide fuel cell design.

Antibodies directed against citrullinated proteins are commonly found in patients with rheumatoid arthritis. Here, the authors show that citrullination alters the peptide repertoire presented to T cells by altering protease cleavage and inducing protein destabilization, thereby exposing cryptic epitopes.

Analyses of strain-resolved metagenomics with isolate sequencing data of skin samples from residents at nursing homes suggest that skin is a reservoir for Candida auris and other multidrug-resistant bacterial species.

Mark McCarthy and colleagues identify twelve new risk loci for type 2 diabetes through a large-scale genome-wide association and replication study in individuals of European ancestry. The identified loci affect both beta-cell function and insulin action and are enriched for genes involved in cell cycle regulation.

Cas Simons, Ryan Taft and colleagues report the identification of KCNH1 mutations in six individuals with Temple-Baraitser syndrome (TBS). Electrophysiological measurements of cells expressing mutant KCNH1 channels show decreased activation thresholds and slower deactivation in comparison to wild-type channels, suggesting that these mutations lead to gain of function of KCNH1.

GIANT, a genetically informed brain atlas, integrates genetic heritability with neuroanatomy. It shows strong neuroanatomical validity and surpasses traditional atlases in discovery power for brain imaging genomics.

This overview of the ENCODE project outlines the data accumulated so far, revealing that 80% of the human genome now has at least one biochemical function assigned to it; the newly identified functional elements should aid the interpretation of results of genome-wide association studies, as many correspond to sites of association with human disease.

Transcriptional activity in plants is controlled with a programmable gene circuit.

Externally applied electrical stimulation over the cervical spinal cord improves arm and hand functions in people with chronic tetraplegia due to spinal cord injury.

The authors demonstrate that UBIQUITIN SPECIFIC PROTEASE 5 (UBP5) is a major H2Aub deubiquitinase that antagonises H3K27me3, leading to transcriptional de-repression and controlling development in Arabidopsis.

Chronic infection with SARS-CoV-2 leads to the emergence of viral variants that show reduced susceptibility to neutralizing antibodies in an immunosuppressed individual treated with convalescent plasma.

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.

More than 90% of genetic variants associated with type 2 diabetes occur in non-coding regions. Scott et al. report genomes, epigenomes and transcriptomes of skeletal muscle from 271 participants with a range of glucose tolerances, revealing a genetic regulatory architecture enriched in muscle stretch/super enhancers.

Meredith Yeager and colleagues with the Cancer Genetics Markers of Susceptibility (CGEMS) initiative report a new association to prostate cancer at chromosome 8q24. This defines a new locus, region 4, which shows association to prostate cancer susceptibility independent of previously reported associations at 8q24.

Whole-exome sequencing in a large autism study identifies over 100 autosomal genes that are likely to affect risk for the disorder; these genes, which show unusual evolutionary constraint against mutations, carry de novo loss-of-function mutations in over 5% of autistic subjects and many function in synaptic, transcriptional and chromatin-remodelling pathways.

Deficiency in NAD+ has been implicated in skeletal deformities during development in both humans and mice. Here, the authors use mice that lack the critical enzyme of the NAD+ salvage pathway Nampt in mesenchymal lineage cells to show that the NAD salvage pathway is indispensable for endochondral but not intramembranous bone development.

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.

Patient variables, such as comorbidities, partially explain which patients will progress to Klebsiella infection, with colonization of the gut acting as a reservoir. Little is known, however, regarding Klebsiella genes that may increase risk of disease in colonized individuals. Here, authors conduct a comparative genomics study to identify genes associated with progression from colonisation to infection.

The Omicron variant evades vaccine-induced neutralization but also fails to form syncytia, shows reduced replication in human lung cells and preferentially uses a TMPRSS2-independent cell entry pathway, which may contribute to enhanced replication in cells of the upper airway. Altered fusion and cell entry characteristics are linked to distinct regions of the Omicron spike protein.

A study of the evolution of the SARS-CoV-2 virus in England between September 2020 and June 2021 finds that interventions capable of containing previous variants were insufficient to stop the more transmissible Alpha and Delta variants.

Isolation of phages associated with the gut commensal Bacteroides thetaiotaomicron reveals a link between cell surface structures, including phase-variable capsular polysaccharides, lipoproteins and S-layer proteins, and susceptibility to phage infection.

Over one hundred loci have been identified to be associated with the familial risk of prostate cancer but the functional effects are poorly understood. Here the authors use single-nucleotide variant and epigentic data to show an underlying genetic architecture marked by histone modification.

Genetic and testing data from England show that the SARS-CoV-2 variant of concern B.1.1.7 has a transmission advantage over other lineages.

Post-international travel quarantine has been widely implemented to mitigate SARS-CoV-2 transmission, but the impacts of such policies are unclear. Here, the authors used linked genomic and contact tracing data to assess the impacts of a 14-day quarantine on return to England in summer 2020.

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.

The medial olivocochlear efferent reflex regulates cochlear outer hair cell-based amplification of sound energy. Here the authors show this dynamic control of hearing sensitivity is driven by sensory input from the outer hair cells and their type II spiral ganglion neuron innervation.

He et al. develop a network-based metric of amyloid-β burden by integrating individualized brain connectomes with amyloid-PET imaging. This approach improves prediction of future cognitive decline in older adults and may support earlier identification of individuals at risk of dementia.

Dependency of diverse cancers on specific BCL-2 family members and their combinations is unknown. Here they perform drug screening and find most cell lines to be dependent on at least one combination of BCL-2 family members, and using a CRISPR screen find BCL-w and BFL-1 to mediate resistance to BH3 mimetics

A multi-ancestry genome-wide association study of prostate cancer performed in 156,319 cases and 788,443 controls identifies 187 novel risk variants associated with the disease. Genetic risk scores associated with overall risk, and risk of aggressive disease in men of African ancestry.

Failing to account for emission differences between day and night will lead to an underestimate of global CO₂ emissions from rivers by up to 0.55 PgC yr^–1, according to analyses of high-frequency CO₂ measurements.

Structural variants (SVs) contribute to the genetic architecture of many brain-related disorders. Here, the authors integrate SV calls from genome sequencing (n = 755) with RNA-seq data (n = 629) from post-mortem dorsal lateral prefrontal cortex to annotate the gene regulatory effects of SVs in the human brain and their potential to contribute to disease.

Immobilization of radionuclides in glass or ceramic forms in stainless steel in deep geological repositories is planned in the US for disposal of nuclear waste. Under simulated repository conditions, corrosion could be significantly accelerated at the interfaces of different barrier materials.

The development of highly effective Earth-abundant catalysts for C(sp²)-N cross-coupling represents an on-going challenge in synthetic chemistry. Here, the authors report a nickel complex containing a bisphosphine ancillary ligand allowing room-temperature couplings of amines and ammonia with a range of electrophiles.

Jones et al. examine the generalizability of the valence–dominance model of social judgements of faces in 41 countries across 11 world regions. They find evidence of both generalizability and variation, depending on the analytical method.