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In this prospective cohort study, authors follow 328 households in Germany with at least one confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection and find that children are more likely to seroconvert without symptoms and have higher specific antibody levels that persist longer than in adults.

Holographic vector-field electron tomography reveals the three-dimensional magnetic texture of Bloch skyrmion tubes in FeGe at nanometre resolution, including complex three-dimensional modulations and fundamental skyrmion formation principles.

Primary lymphomas of the central nervous system (PCNSL) are defined as diffuse large B-cell lymphomas (DLBCL) confined to the CNS. Here, the authors complete whole genome sequencing and RNA-seq to characterize 51 PCNSLs, and find common mutations in immune pathways and upregulated TERT expression and find distinct pathway differences between DLBCL and other primary CNS lymphomas.

Analyses of primary and relapse samples of embryonal tumours with multilayered rosettes provide insights into the molecular mechanisms that underlie the development and opportunities for the treatment of this deadly disease.

There’s an emerging body of evidence to show how biological sex impacts cancer incidence, treatment and underlying biology. Here, using a large pan-cancer dataset, the authors further highlight how sex differences shape the cancer genome.

In somatic cells the mechanisms maintaining the chromosome ends are normally inactivated; however, cancer cells can re-activate these pathways to support continuous growth. Here, the authors characterize the telomeric landscapes across tumour types and identify genomic alterations associated with different telomere maintenance mechanisms.

Viral pathogen load in cancer genomes is estimated through analysis of sequencing data from 2,656 tumors across 35 cancer types using multiple pathogen-detection pipelines, identifying viruses in 382 genomic and 68 transcriptome datasets.

A pan-cancer genomic analysis reports the effects of structural variations on chromatin domains (TADs). Most TAD disruptions do not result in appreciable changes in expression of nearby genes.

Whole-genome sequencing data for 2,778 cancer samples from 2,658 unique donors across 38 cancer types is used to reconstruct the evolutionary history of cancer, revealing that driver mutations can precede diagnosis by several years to decades.

Some cancer patients first present with metastases where the location of the primary is unidentified; these are difficult to treat. In this study, using machine learning, the authors develop a method to determine the tissue of origin of a cancer based on whole sequencing data.

The authors present SVclone, a computational method for inferring the cancer cell fraction of structural variants from whole-genome sequencing data.

Many tumours exhibit hypoxia (low oxygen) and hypoxic tumours often respond poorly to therapy. Here, the authors quantify hypoxia in 1188 tumours from 27 cancer types, showing elevated hypoxia links to increased mutational load, directing evolutionary trajectories.

The characterization of 4,645 whole-genome and 19,184 exome sequences, covering most types of cancer, identifies 81 single-base substitution, doublet-base substitution and small-insertion-and-deletion mutational signatures, providing a systematic overview of the mutational processes that contribute to cancer development.

Cancers evolve as they progress under differing selective pressures. Here, as part of the ICGC/TCGA Pan-Cancer Analysis of Whole Genomes (PCAWG) Consortium, the authors present the method TrackSig the estimates evolutionary trajectories of somatic mutational processes from single bulk tumour data.

In roots, stem cells in the cambium region form vascular tissues needed for the long-distance transport of water and nutrients. How these stem cells are specified and regulated has now been illuminated.

How do multicellular organisms integrate cell- and tissue-scale mechanical information to coordinate growth? Elliott et al. show that plant cells establish a self-regulating cell-wall-sensing module at their one-dimensional cell edges to control three-dimensional growth.

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.

NK cell-based therapy can kill acute myeloid leukemia (AML), but immune suppression may occur. Here the authors overcome the immunosuppression of AML-targeted CAR33-NK cells via non-viral CRISPR-editing of the immune checkpoint NKG2A, leading to an enhanced potency of the CAR-NK cell product with sustained anti-tumor efficacy.

Through their effects on soil hydraulic properties, soil texture and sand content are shown to have broad implications for the terrestrial water cycle and carbon sink, and specific implications for vital ecosystems that are vulnerable to drought, especially with changing climate.

The combined use of genome sequencing, cultivation and phenotypic characterization of 79 globally distributed strains from the bacterial phylum Planctomycetes sheds light on their varied cell shapes, modes of cell division and extensive signalling and metabolic potential.

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.

Ecosystem productivity generally declines under drought. Here, the authors show that spring droughts are linked to increases in gross primary productivity in energy-limited ecosystems in the Northern Hemisphere, and that terrestrial biosphere models tend not to capture this.

Using brain organoids models, Prigione and colleagues uncovered the impact of Huntington’s disease on human brain developmental and identified early dysregulation of CHCHD2, which disrupted mitochondria and might serve as a therapeutic target.

Results from a study of five patients with refractory systemic lupus erythematosus, who were treated with anti-CD19 CAR T cell therapy under a compassionate-use program, demonstrate remission of SLE disease with follow-up of up to 17 months.

Tuz et al. report that stroke and myocardial infarction induce the release of neutrophil extracellular traps (NETs), triggering the loss of B cells and a decrease in immunoglobulin A secretion, and that inhibition of NETs prevents the loss of immunoglobulin A in mice and in patients with stroke.

Polarisation of metastasising cancer cells in circulation has not been investigated before. Here the authors identify single cell polarity as a distinct polarisation state of single cells in liquid phase, and show that perturbing single cell polarity affects attachment, adhesion, transmigration and metastasis in vitro and in vivo.

The authors test for temperature dependency of ecosystem respiration rates across globally distributed eddy covariance sites, revealing consistent temperature thresholds where ecosystem metabolism changes.

Opportunistic plant pathogen Xanthomonas secretes leaf-degrading enzymes through the type-2 secretion systems that cause disease and thereby trigger changes in leaf microbiome composition.

Distinguishing local hydrological, cave internal, and regional monsoon signals in speleothem records resolves disagreements among proxy reconstructions and illuminates the Holocene evolution of summer and winter monsoon in Southeast Asia.

Genotype and exome sequencing of 150,000 participants and whole-genome sequencing of 9,950 selected individuals recruited into the Mexico City Prospective Study constitute a valuable, publicly available resource of non-European sequencing data.

Archaea and bacteria often have gene pairs with overlapping stop and start codons, suggesting translational coupling. Here, Huber et al. analyse overlapping gene pairs from 720 genomes, and validate translational coupling via termination-reinitiation for 14 gene pairs in Haloferax volcanii and Escherichia coli.

Genome-wide analysis identifies variants associated with the volume of seven different subcortical brain regions defined by magnetic resonance imaging. Implicated genes are involved in neurodevelopmental and synaptic signaling pathways.

The lymphangiogenic factor PROX1 transcriptionally upregulates CPT1A, a rate-controlling enzyme in fatty acid β-oxidation, and this co-regulates lymphatic endothelial cell differentiation by epigenetic control of lymphatic gene expression, demonstrating a role for metabolism in developmental biology.

Combining the kinase inhibitor sorafenib with allogeneic stem cell transplantation boosts immune responses against a subtype of acute myelogenous leukemia, suggesting potential clinical benefit.

The directional propagation of phonon polaritons has been demonstrated in various twisted van der Waals materials. Here, the authors report a complementary type of directional polariton propagation by visualizing unidirectional ray polaritons in twisted asymmetric stacks of α-MoO3 and/or β-Ga2O3.

Time- and angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy is used to observe the primary step of singlet fission with orbital resolution indicating a charge-transfer mediated mechanism with a hybridization of states in the lowest bright singlet exciton.

The t(8;21) translocation is often found in acute myeloid leukaemia but is not sufficient for development of the disease. In this study, the authors identify frequent mutations in the transcriptional repressor, ZBTB7A, in these patients and show that the mutations reduce DNA binding activity.

Researchers report the direct observation of ultrafast magnetic dynamics using the magnetic component of highly intense terahertz wave pulses with a time resolution of 8 fs. This concept provides a universal ultrafast method of visualizing magnetic excitations in the electronic ground state.

Quasicrystals are perfectly ordered crystals lacking translational symmetry. Here the authors unravel the formation mechanism of two-dimensional dodecagonal quasicrystals that arise from systematic modifications of a hexagonal honeycomb structure.

Skyrmions and anti-skyrmions are magnetic textures that have garnered much interest due to their stability. Here, Jena et al demonstrate the existence of fractional spin textures at the edges of Heusler alloy sample, which can have continuous variable topological charges.

Prostaglandin E2 from the tumour microenvironment impairs interleukin-2 sensing by tumour-infiltrating lymphocytes, restricting proliferative response and promoting T cell death via metabolic impairment and ferroptosis. 

Severity of SARS-CoV-2 infection is different in adults and children which involves the immune response. Here using a parent and children cohort with 4 month and 12 month sampling times, the authors show enhanced levels and increased breadth of anti-spike antibody level over time but reduced specific T cell and B cell numbers in children.