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A M5 earthquake triggered the 2018 Sierra Negra eruption after 10 hours. Subsequent microseismicity revealed a cryptic fluid phase facilitated magma intrusion, highlighting that cascading processes are potentially essential for eruption initiations.

Resistance to antibiotics is a hot topic in microbiology, but there is much less coverage on resistance to vaccines. The associated risk to disease control has potentially devastating implications, but advances are being made towards smarter vaccine design that reduces the risk of antibiotic-resistant disease.

Stephen Bentley, Paul Turner and colleagues report whole-genome sequencing of 3,085 pneumococci collected from a densely sampled pneumococcal carriage cohort in a Thai refugee camp over a 3-year period. They provide a high-resolution analysis of natural pneumococcal evolution and bacterial recombination, identifying lineage-specific variation in recombination.

Large-scale sequencing and population genomic analyses reveal frequent transmission, a highly admixed global population structure and evidence of pervasive negative selection in Haemophilus influenzae.

Nicholas Croucher and colleagues report whole-genome sequencing of 616 asymptomatically carried Streptococcus pneumoniae, a major cause of pneumonia, bacteremia and meningitis. They examine the impact of the introduction of the pneumococcal conjugate vaccine PCV7 on pneumococcal population dynamics.

Populations of the pathogenic bacterium Streptococcus pneumoniaeconsist of distinct co-circulating lineages. Here, the authors show lineages are characterized by particular combinations of stable genomic islands, whereas prophage and restriction-modification systems vary over short timescales.

By combining genome sequencing and antibody binding (to all common pneumococcal proteins) data, Croucher et al. present a high-resolution analysis of the emergence of immune responses in children that can protect against pneumonia.

Mathematical modelling of 15 years of data from South Africa reveals the spread and vaccine-driven changes in fitness and antimicrobial resistance of Streptococcus pneumoniae.

Streptococcus pneumoniae is a causative agent of meningitis and bacteremia. In a combined pathogen and host GWAS, Lees et al. find that host genetic variation is associated with both susceptibility and severity of pneumococcal meningitis, and specific bacterial genetic variation associated with susceptibility.

Longitudinal population deep sequencing of Streptococcus pneumoniae sampled from infants and their mothers improves our understanding of the dynamics of colonization, transmission, inter-strain competition and the impact of antibiotic treatment.

Accessory loci are shown to have similar frequencies in diverse Streptococcus pneumoniae populations, suggesting negative frequency-dependent selection drives post-vaccination population restructuring.

A four-stranded DNA intermediate, known as a Holliday junction, is formed during meiosis and DNA repair. This structure covalently links two DNA molecules. The product of the RuvC gene in Escherichia coli was shown to be the bacterial Holliday junction resolvase. The mammalian enzyme has remained refractory to identification until now, where GEN1 is identified as the human resolvase.

Genome-wide association analyses identify 301 new loci influencing bone mineral density and 13 loci influencing fracture risk. Integrative analyses of epigenomic data and mouse knockout phenotypes provide additional insights into osteoporosis pathophysiology.

Cox and colleagues develop PXS-5505, a first-in-class selective pan-lysyl oxidase inhibitor and show that it reduces chemotherapy-induced desmoplasia and stiffness, thereby improving chemotherapy response and survival in pancreatic cancer models.

David Evans, Brent Richards and colleagues carried out a genome-wide association study in 142,487 individuals from the UK Biobank and identified 153 new loci associated with heel bone mineral density. They also conducted in vivo studies that implicated GPC6 and several other genes in osteoporosis.

The Shc1 scaffold mediates a switch in the signaling output of the epidermal growth factor receptor tyrosine kinase over time through recruitment of successive waves of proteins with distinct biological functions.

Plasticity and clonal population structure in bacterial genomes can hinder traditional SNP-based genetic association studies. Here, Corander and colleagues present a method to identify variable-length sequence elements enriched in a phenotype of interest, and demonstrate its use in human pathogens.

A consortium reports the tripling of the number of genetic markers in Phase II of the International HapMap Project. This map of human genetic variation will continue to revolutionize discovery of susceptibility loci in common genetic diseases, and study of genes under selection in humans.

Owing to large exciton binding energy, quasi-2D perovskite is promising for light-emitting application, yet inhomogeneous phases distribution limits the potential. Here, the authors improve the performance by using MeS additive to regulate the phase distribution and to reduce defect density in the films.

Subtypes of cancer associated fibroblasts can both promote and suppress tumorigenesis. Here, the authors investigate how p53 status in pancreatic cancer cells affects their interaction with cancer associated fibroblasts, and report perlecan as a mediator of the pro-metastatic environment.

A chemical method for site-selective deuterium exchange at protein backbone α-carbons, involving conversion of cysteine to dehydroalanine and then to deuterated cysteine, is used to explore the mechanism of a model protein bioconjugation reaction.

Sabeti et al. build on their This paper builds on previous work of detecting selection on human genes, using the many more markers available in the Phase II HapMap project. Three examples of apparent population-specific selection based on geographic area are described, and how these may relate to human biology is discussed.

A systematic review of evidence, across the key pillars of prevention, diagnosis, treatment and prognosis, outlines milestones that need to be met to enable the broad clinical implementation of precision medicine in diabetes care.

Degrons allow E3 ubiquitin ligases to identify their substrates, and thus have a central role in protein degradation by the ubiquitin–proteasome system. This Review discusses the latest insights into the mechanisms underlying degron function, the relevance of degrons in disease and how degrons can be harnessed for therapeutic protein degradation.

Tom Karlsen and colleagues report an association study for primary sclerosing cholangitis (PSC), a severe liver disease, using the Immunochip array. They identify nine loci newly associated with PSC and examine pleiotropy with other autoimmune disorders.

A Klebsiella pneumoniae peptide enters Streptococcus pneumoniae via its AmiA-AliA/AliB permease reducing pneumococcal growth, adherence to primary human airway epithelial cells, colonization of rat nasopharynx and genetic transformation.

Ahmad, Lim, Morieri, Tam et al perform a systematic review and meta-analysis of biomarkers, genetic markers, and risk scores for prediction of cardiovascular outcomes in Type 2 diabetes. A few prognostic markers are identified that provide incremental predictive utility beyond established cardiovascular risk factors.