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A climate sensitive permafrost region (Yedoma domain) was found to contain globally relevant N stock of >40 Gt nitrogen, of which 4 to 16 Gt of the N could become available by thaw until 2100. This study increases the current estimates by nearly 50%.

Polyamines prevent the action of kinases on acidic phosphorylatable motifs in spliceosomal proteins, thus providing a mechanism for metabolite-mediated regulation of alternative splicing in cells.

Plant traits drive ecosystem dynamics yet are challenging to map globally due to sparse measurements. Here, the authors combine crowdsourced biodiversity observations with Earth observation data to accurately map 31 plant traits at 1 km² resolution.

Estimates from the Global Burden of Disease study reveal declines in chronic respiratory disease mortality between 1990 and 2023—especially during the COVID-19 pandemic—but the burdens on people affected remain substantial.

Many animals change color to hide from predators or attract mates, but how this flexibility is controlled is unclear. Here, the authors show that African cichlid fish change color by modulating gene activity through DNA methylation, revealing an epigenetic switch for body color plasticity.

Integrating complex multi-omics data for individual patient decision making can be challenging. Here, the authors develop Knowledge Connector as a decision support system to generate and document Molecular Tumor Board recommendations and support medical decision-making.

This study shows how SARS-CoV-2 fusion peptides assemble and reshape membranes, revealing cooperative mechanisms that lower barriers to viral entry and offering principles for designing antiviral and membrane-responsive nanomaterials.

The pathogenic avian flu H5N1 virus remains stable in raw milk and throughout the cheese-making process, but contaminated cheese fed to ferrets did not lead to infection, whereas raw milk did.

How the environment regulates neuronal maturation during brain development is poorly understood. Here, Kreysing et al. identify brain stiffness as a key factor and determine a mechanotransduction pathway linking tissue mechanics to neuronal maturation.

Myeloperoxidase, a highly expressed neutrophil protein, disassembles nucleosomes, facilitating neutrophil extracellular trap (NET) formation, and binds stably to NETs extracellularly.

Vast quantities of carbon stored in tropical forests are threatened by deforestation. Here, using high resolution satellite data, Brincket al. examine how edge effects influence carbon emissions and they find an additional 10.3 Gt of carbon are released by deforestation when including fragmentation effects.

Building decarbonization has an important role to play in achieving global emissions reductions targets. Here the authors find that stated policy scenarios are insufficient to achieve building decarbonization goals globally, while ambitious decarbonization scenarios are still not sufficient to achieve goals under the 1.5 °C scenario.

In this work, a library of several hundred million compounds was computationally docked to a cryoEM structure of the orphan G protein-coupled receptor GPR139, leading to the discovery of a potent agonist with in vivo effects and insights into GPR139 signalling.

Greda et al. show that sortilin and apolipoprotein E3 mediate import and utilization of long-chain fatty acids as a metabolic fuel in neurons after glucose restriction.

A single dose of an adeno-associated virus vector encoding an HIV-1 broadly neutralizing antibody given shortly after birth results in persistent antibody expression and protection from infection in rhesus macaque models of human HIV-1 transmission through breastfeeding and sexual intercourse.

The innate immune system affects viral evolution. Here, the authors use experimental evolution to ask how different immune pathways impact viral genetic diversity and virulence using Drosophila melanogaster and its natural pathogen Drosophila C virus.

The flagship paper of the ICGC/TCGA Pan-Cancer Analysis of Whole Genomes Consortium describes the generation of the integrative analyses of 2,658 cancer whole genomes and their matching normal tissues across 38 tumour types, the structures for international data sharing and standardized analyses, and the main scientific findings from across the consortium studies.

Here, the authors show that physiological alpha-synuclein supports mitochondrial ATP homeostasis via interactions with ATP synthase and AK2, whereas its disease-linked mutants, truncated forms, and aggregates lose these interactions.

Redox signalling is emerging as an important regulator of metabolism and physiology, which is dysregulated in ageing and disease. Here, the authors show that redox regulation of a key redox sensitive cysteine in Atg4a induces autophagy in vivo and extends lifespan in female Drosophila.

Here, the authors investigate the aboveground carbon sink efficiency of Andean forests. The study shows the high potential of these forests to serve as future carbon refuges, and urges to reduce deforestation and increase restoration.

Fungal infections are severely underestimated as a cause of mortality, and alternative drugs are urgently needed. Here, Schaefer et al. show that a synthetic polymer mimicking defensins shows different, but synergistic activity with known antifungals.

Most inhabited areas in the US have more mass in buildings and mobility networks than in plant biomass. Cities are comparably resource efficient, while high material intensity is found in rural areas. Migration reinforces this phenomenon as people leave while built structures remain.

The field of cellular agriculture has relied on 3D bioprinting for the generation of sophisticated products. Here, the authors employ chaotic bioprinting to create plant and animal cell-based hybrid noodles, thereby opening avenues to produce complex culinary designs and to explore diverse nutritional alternatives.

The sustainability of the majority of multispecies reef fisheries around the globe remains unassessed. This study provides context-specific sustainable reference points for coral reef fish using environmental conditions. Using these reference points, they show that most reef fish stocks have failed at least one fisheries sustainability benchmark.

Using RFdiffusion, a general method for targeting intrinsically disordered proteins and regions for protein design has been developed.

High-depth sequencing of non-cancerous tissue from patients with metastatic cancer reveals single-base mutational signatures of alcohol, smoking and cancer treatments, and reveals how exogenous factors, including cancer therapies, affect somatic cell evolution.

Some cancer cells exhibit high loads of reactive iron in lysosomes, and this feature is exploited by using fentomycin-1, a newly developed small molecule, to induce ferroptosis.

A gene therapy method using AAV can help deliver HIV-fighting antibodies long-term, but the body often rejects them. Here the authors show that a short course of the drug rapamycin helps prevent host anti-drug antibody responses, showing successful antibody delivery in mice and monkeys.

The authors in this work apply room-temperature serial X-ray crystallography to fragment screening. This reveals distinct protein conformations and altered binding modes when compared to conventional cryogenic methods, whilst providing similar resolution.

Analysis of ground-sourced and satellite-derived models reveals a global forest carbon potential of 226 Gt outside agricultural and urban lands, with a difference of only 12% across these modelling approaches.

Populations of a bulb mite that were experimentally selected for a male weapon showed reduced diversity across the genome, indicating that strong sexual selection increases the strength of purifying selection.

Cryo-EM structures of cytb₆f with quinone bound in the Q_n site allow the identification of specific proton channels and reveal differences to known inhibitors. Nearby water channels imply a ‘piston-like’ mechanism during catalytic turnover.

Inorganic pyrophosphate is a key molecule in many biological processes. Here, the authors develop an optical sensor that enables its ratiometric detection in the near infrared with functionalized single-walled carbon nanotubes.

Hofer et al. show that fasting promotes the synthesis of spermidine, which stimulates eIF5A hypusination to induce autophagy and increase lifespan in various species in a conserved manner.

To improve annotation in non-targeted metabolomics studies, authors develop a Multiplexed Chemical Metabolomics (MCheM) platform, combining post-column derivatization with integrated data processing. MCheM enables feature-resolved chemical tagging across complex mixtures, which provides orthorgonal chemical information about unknown metabolites.

Adding short, complementary oligonucleotides to single-stranded DNA condensates creates a concentrated, linearly propagating, sharp diffusion front that contradicts the fuzzy concentration gradients and nonlinear kinetics typical of Fickian diffusion.

RNA variants derived from cancer-associated RNA editing events can be a source of neoantigens. Here, based on a proteogenomic pipeline combining DNA and RNA sequencing with MS-based immunopeptidomics, the authors identity and validate potential neoantigen candidates in patients with different tumor entities, highlighting RNA as important neoantigen source.

Van Ouwerkerk and colleagues examine the benefits of renewable energy investments for German households during the recent energy crisis. They find a typical household with a heat pump saved 1850 € and reduced emissions by 250 g/kWh annually, leading to greater gains in resilience when compared to temporary price breaks on energy.

The enzyme ABHD18 is shown to have a key role in cardiolipin metabolism in mitochondria, offering a potential route for a small-molecule treatment of the rare genetic disease Barth syndrome.

Mining is often seen as having opposing local economic and environmental effects. This study models these dynamics across Brazilian municipalities and shows that outcomes vary over time and by type of mining concession.

The Apelin receptor (APLNR) plays a key role during cardiovascular development. Here, authors develop genetically encoded APLNR conformation biosensors, which enable the measurement of temporally and spatially resolved APLNR activity in model cell lines and living organisms.

The APOE4 allele is a major genetic risk factor for the development of late-onset Alzheimer’s disease (AD). In this manuscript, Butovsky and colleagues suggest that APOE4 impairs the microglial response in AD by inducing TGFβ-mediated checkpoints.

Lipid nanoparticles (LNPs) delivering mRNA after intratumoral administration could be a promising cancer treatment strategy. Here this group reports the intratumoral delivery of mRNA with LNPs inducing the expression of purine nucleoside phosphorylase and inhibiting the progression of head and neck squamous cell carcinoma in vivo.

Monoclonal antibodies and ligands targeting CD40 exhibit diverse agonistic and antitumor activities that are influenced by their design. Here, the authors identify mechanistic differences between clinically relevant anti-CD40 subclasses and CD40L, focusing on the dynamics and strengths of multi-bond formation at the single-molecule level.

Infection of dairy cows with highly pathogenic avian influenza H5N1 virus has raised public health concerns. Here, the authors report the stability of H5N1 in raw milk and show that thermal treatment of milk under FDA-approved pasteurization and various thermization conditions efficiently inactivates HPAI H5N1 virus.

Fasting diets are emerging as an approach to delay tumor progression and improve cancer therapies. Here, the authors show that the combination of fasting-mimicking diet with vitamin C decreases tumor development and increases chemotherapy efficacy in KRAS-mutant cancer.

Systematic characterization of Arabidopsis aminotransferase family enzymes uncovered many previously unrecognized activities and revealed their multi-substrate specificity, aspects that probably contribute to the robustness of the nitrogen metabolic network.