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Tree buds integrate cold and warm cues to control dormancy release. Extended warm periods block plasmodesmata opening by repressing Flowering Locus T and GA pathways in buds. This mechanism ensures robust temporal regulation of dormancy release.

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).

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.

Drug-induced liver injury is a major cause of patient harm, trial failures, and drug withdrawals. Here, the authors show that a toxicogenomics resource of 300 drugs enables the prediction of liver injury with 88% sensitivity at 100% specificity and reveals mechanisms for safer drug development.

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.

Stuart Kauffman’s provocative take on emergence and evolution energizes Sara Imari Walker.

A trail-blazing astronomer, a climate revolutionary and a transplant pioneer are some of the people behind this year’s big stories.

NLRP3 inflammasome activation is critical for the induction of protective immunity, but molecular insights are still lacking. Here, the authors express NLRP3 variants targeted to different cellular locations in NLRP3-deficient macrophages to show that membrane- or protein scaffold-induced NLRP3 clustering promotes NLRP3 inflammasome activation.

Fifty years after the publication of Philip Anderson’s landmark essay ‘More is different’ that crystallized the idea of emergence, eight scientists describe the most interesting phenomena that emerge in their fields.

Is your social life depressing? Don't join a dating agency, walk a dog, says Sara Cross.

Plasma proteomic analysis of presymptomatic individuals with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis identifies novel disease-associated proteins and enables the development of an accurate diagnostic biomarker panel.

The BioDIGS project is a nationwide initiative involving students, researchers and educators across more than 40 research and teaching institutions. Participants lead sample collection, computational analysis and results interpretation to understand the relationships between the soil microbiome, environment and health.

A genome-wide association study of critically ill patients with COVID-19 identifies genetic signals that relate to important host antiviral defence mechanisms and mediators of inflammatory organ damage that may be targeted by repurposing drug treatments.

Analysis of samples from the asteroid Ryugu provide evidence of late fluid flow in a carbonaceous asteroid, indicating that such bodies may have retained two to three times more water than previously thought.

Both rare and common variants contribute to the aetiology of complex traits such as type 2 diabetes (T2D). Here, the authors examine the effect of coding variation on glycaemic traits and T2D, and identify low-frequency variation in GLP1Rsignificantly associated with these traits.

Classical computing has inherent limitations in capturing cellular dynamics. This Roadmap article discusses how recent advancements in quantum computing could overcome bottlenecks in spatiotemporal single-cell omics analyses and how it may be integrated into cell-based therapeutics.

Integrated multi-omic analyses using samples from the TRACERx study highlight cross-talk between DNA hypermethylation and genomic lesions in non-small cell lung cancer.

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.

Assembly theory conceptualizes objects as entities defined by their possible formation histories, allowing a unified language for describing selection, evolution and the generation of novelty.

A region on chromosome 19p13 is associated with the risk of developing ovarian and breast cancer. Here, the authors genotyped SNPs in this region in thousands of breast and ovarian cancer patients and identified SNPs associated with three genes, which were analysed with functional studies.

Exome sequencing of 851 trios from more than 2,500 individuals finds 187 genes with de novo mutations that contribute to meningomyelocele (spina bifida) and highlights critical pathways required for neural tube closure.

A histology-informed, diffusion Magnetic Resonance Imaging simulation framework improves the non-invasive assessment of cancer biology in solid tumours in vivo

Using well-calibrated statistical methods the authors jointly analyze Undiagnosed Diseases Network genomes, identifying known and novel disease genes. Software is publicly available to support future cross-cohort rare disease discovery efforts.

This Consensus Statement presents the standards for technical reporting in environmental and host-associated microbiome studies (STREAMS) guidelines.

With the generation of large pan-cancer whole-exome and whole-genome sequencing projects, a question remains about how comparable these datasets are. Here, using The Cancer Genome Atlas samples analysed as part of the Pan-Cancer Analysis of Whole Genomes project, the authors explore the concordance of mutations called by whole exome sequencing and whole genome sequencing techniques.

Sara Seager enjoys a frank and vivid account of planet hunting.

Climate-change and immigration policies raise alarm, but much of the incoming US president's agenda is simply unknown.

In most bacteria and archaea, a broadly conserved mitotic-like apparatus assures the inheritance of duplicated genetic material before cell division. Here, the authors use super-resolution microscopies to dissect the activities required for proper DNA segregation through the nucleoid interior.

Comparing grassland ecosystem responses of 128 biotic and abiotic variables to geothermal warming, the authors find that short-term (5–8 years) responses are poor predictors of change over the long term (>50 years).

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 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.

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

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

Analysis of chimp brains reveals protein plaques and tangles that signal brain disease in humans, but whether the animals can develop dementia is unclear.

A cross-reactive antibody and T cell response is identified in a large portion of patients with multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children.

Genome-wide association analyses of two oral glucose tolerance test-derived measures of postprandial insulin resistance discover ten new loci. Functional characterization identifies nine candidate genes implicated in the regulation of GLUT4.

Timothy Frayling, Joel Hirschhorn, Peter Visscher and colleagues report a meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies for adult height in 253,288 individuals. They identify 697 variants in 423 loci significantly associated with adult height and find that these variants cluster in pathways involved in growth and together explain one-fifth of the heritability for this trait.