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Nitrogen-fixing bacteria offer a promising route to reduce reliance on synthetic fertilizers, but their effectiveness is hindered by environmental stresses that limit survival on leaf surfaces. This study introduces a nanocoating strategy that enables robust foliar colonization of Klebsiella variicola, enhancing nitrogen fixation and improving rice yield under low-fertilizer conditions.

Undefined vacuole-like ultrastructures between epididymal cells have been observed. Here, the authors reveal that these structures contain organelle residues and protein aggregates that suggest a reservoir for protein recycling.

To overcome the limitation of service temperatures below 1000 °C for bioinspired ceramics, this work develops tough and strong bioinspired all-ceramics featuring a contiguous network structure that can endure temperatures up to 1300 °C.

LGR4 distinguishes Norrin and RSPOs via distinct binding modes to drive separate Wnt signaling outcomes. Here, the authors use cryo-EM to reveal a LGR4–Norrin complex that blocks Frizzled4, highlighting a regulatory checkpoint and develop a nanobody that targets both ligands.

The biological clock model LifeClock predicts biological age across all life stages from routine clinical data, revealing distinct pediatric and adult disease risk patterns.

Substrate patterning offers additional degrees of freedom to engineer the structure and function of a semiconductor device. Here, fully-enclosed germanium cavities, with size and position tunable through the initial mask pattern, can be created through an unexpected self-assembly process.

Thermoelectric therapy is promising for cancer treatment, but is limited by the lack of effective spatiotemporal control of thermoelectric effect in vivo. Here, the authors report a spatiotemporally controllable nanodevice that allows a precise and efficient magnetic-thermo-electric cascade energy conversion in vivo to mediate the thermoelectric/chemodynamic/immunotherapy of colorectal cancer.

Lightweight electromagnetic shielding materials are of interest, though it is challenging to balance performance and processability with conventional materials. Here, the authors report, an ordered melanin-like polymer, using π–π stacking, for a microwave shielding material.

Ion trapping has been found to be responsible for the performance degradation in electrochromic oxide thin films. This paper visualizes ion trapping and detrapping dynamics, and provides a general picture of electrochromism in amorphous WO₃.

A graphene origami–kirigami technique offers an approach for growing intertwined graphene spirals with fixed twist angles, enabling the chirality of one-dimensional wrinkles to be converted into the twist angle of vertically stacked two-dimensional layers.

Ionic or molecular transport in conventional polymeric membranes often suffers from a trade-off between permeability and selectivity. The authors report on an interfacial polymer cross-linking strategy to produce a robust, permeable and selective 3-µm-thick ultrathin polymeric membrane containing quasi-ordered reticular cross-linking structures.

Here Zhu et al. investigate the ontogeny of type 2 dendritic cells (DC2s) in mice. Using Klf4 expression to distinguish conventional DC precursors from plasmacytoid DCs, they identify two pre-DC2 populations with their development controlled by TCF4 and KLF4 that give rise to DC2A and DC2B cells.

The authors demonstrate the role and mechanism of triacylglycerol (TAG) cycling in polyunsaturated fatty acid biosynthesis and develop a strategy of decoupling the TAG biosynthesis and degradation to improve related biochemical synthesis.

Lu et al. demonstrate that allergens induce the formation of eosinophil extracellular traps, which activate pulmonary neuroendocrine cells to secrete neuropeptides and neurotransmitters as well as amplify allergic immune responses.

This study classifies rotator cuff tendinopathy into three distinct subtypes that include a hypoxic atrophic, an inflammatory proliferative with white appearance and an inflammatory proliferative with red appearance subtype. Using both clinical data and animal models, the research reveals that glucocorticoid is only effective in treating the latter inflammatory proliferative subtype that has the highest level of neovascularization.

Pesticide resistance poses a serious threat to global food security. In this study, the authors show the mode of action of various diamide insecticides and elucidate the molecular mechanisms underlying resistance mutations.

Here, trace detection of NO2 is achieved with a 2D Schottky-junction Bi₂O₂Se gas sensor. Simultaneous signals allow for detection in the ppt range, and impedance angle analysis allows for molecular specificity.

Growing nanoparticle crystals typically requires strict control over interparticle interactions and assembly. Here, the authors show that a trace amount of polymeric impurities induces reproducible, rapid growth of high quality 3D nanoparticle crystals in solution and on patterned substrates.

The applications of the superconducting diode effect (SDE) are usually limited by low operating temperatures, external magnetic fields and complex sample structures. Here, the authors report the observation of a SDE under zero magnetic field up to 72 K in a high-transition-temperature cuprate superconductor.

The authors demonstrate 3D chemical imaging of organic and inorganic materials near or below one-nanometer resolution using multi-modal electron tomography, by fusing elastic and inelastic scattering signals.

Understanding deregulation of biological pathways in cancer can provide insight into disease etiology and potential therapies. Here, as part of the PanCancer Analysis of Whole Genomes (PCAWG) consortium, the authors present pathway and network analysis of 2583 whole cancer genomes from 27 tumour types.

Analyses of 2,658 whole genomes across 38 types of cancer identify the contribution of non-coding point mutations and structural variants to driving cancer.

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.

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.

Integrative analyses of transcriptome and whole-genome sequencing data for 1,188 tumours across 27 types of cancer are used to provide a comprehensive catalogue of RNA-level alterations in cancer.

Whole-genome sequencing data from more than 2,500 cancers of 38 tumour types reveal 16 signatures that can be used to classify somatic structural variants, highlighting the diversity of genomic rearrangements in cancer.

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.

Analysis of cancer genome sequencing data has enabled the discovery of driver mutations. Here, as part of the ICGC/TCGA Pan-Cancer Analysis of Whole Genomes (PCAWG) Consortium the authors present DriverPower, a software package that identifies coding and non-coding driver mutations within cancer whole genomes via consideration of mutational burden and functional impact evidence.

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.

An analysis of 2,954 genomes from 38 cancer subtypes identified 19,166 retrotransposition events in 35% of samples. Aberrant LINE-1 retrotranspositions can lead to the deletion of tumor-suppressor genes as well as the amplification of oncogenes.

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.

Multi-omics datasets pose major challenges to data interpretation and hypothesis generation owing to their high-dimensional molecular profiles. Here, the authors develop ActivePathways method, which uses data fusion techniques for integrative pathway analysis of multi-omics data and candidate gene discovery.

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.

In this study the authors consider the structural variants (SVs) present within cancer cases of the ICGC/TCGA Pan-Cancer Analysis of Whole Genomes (PCAWG) Consortium. They report hundreds of genes, including known cancer-associated genes for which the nearby presence of a SV breakpoint is associated with altered expression.

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.

Cryo-EM structural work defines binding of the insecticide CHL in the pseudo-voltage-sensor domain of ryanodine receptor RyR that triggers conformational changes leading to channel opening and explains the resistance to CHL by some insects.

CO electroreduction to valuable high-energy content fuels is desired yet improving multicarbon C3 selectivity remains challenging. Here, authors enhance the n-propanol formation on a Cu-based electrocatalyst by introducing Pb atoms into the Cu lattice to induce Pb-rich Cu grain boundary sites.

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.

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.

Synthetic platforms coupled with artificial intelligent algorithms are highly desirable for advancing the discovery of new materials with target properties. Here the authors demonstrate the use of an autonomous laboratory for the discovery of optically active CsPbBr₃ inorganic perovskite nanocrystals.

Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNA; >200 base pair nucleic acids with little protein-coding capacity) are emerging as potentially important regulators of oncogenesis. Here the authors show tumour suppressive lncRNA sponge function for the protein products of prostate cancer driver genes.

A recent study using genomic modelling has uncovered the complex population history of wheat in the Holocene, identified convergent adaptation during bread wheat’s spread across Eurasia and predicted future population decline of its key relatives.

Eye lens cells are highly enriched in cholesterol that sustains lens transparency, and disruption of cholesterol biosynthesis leads to cataracts. The authors show that cholesterol biosynthesis regulated by Qki is essential for maintenance of membrane integrity of lens cells and proper protein folding.