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Cities affect biological evolution, but traditionally researchers focus on the biophysical influence of urban environments. Instead, this Review explores how the social processes of religion, politics and war drive wildlife evolution by shaping urban conditions.

Rhesus macaques are susceptible to oral challenge of human noroviruses and can be used as a model to recapitulate infection and adaptive immune responses in humans.

Half of our genome is transposable elements (TEs), often called junk DNA. Using the latest ENCODE data, the authors find TEs to contribute ~25% of human regulatory elements (REs). TEs can be adopted into new REs or replace old ones during evolution.

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).

Enhancers and promoters are different types of regulatory elements with shared architectural and functional features. Here the authors perform integrated cross-mammalian analyses of DNase hypersensitivity, chromatin modification and transcriptional data, to provide evidence of regulatory repurposing during evolution.

We evaluated the use of chimeric antigen receptor-modified T cells targeting GD2 (GD2-CART) for H3K27M⁺ diffuse midline glioma (DMG), finding that intravenous administration of GD2-CART, followed by intracranial infusions, induced tumour regressions and neurological improvements in patients with H3K27M-mutant pontine or spinal DMG.

Cardiac dysfunction is a hallmark of aging in humans and mice. Here, the authors show that by restoring youthful Bridging Integrator 1 (BIN1) protein levels in the hearts of 24-month-old mice in vivo cardiac systolic function is rejuvenated, and the aging phenotype partially reversed within two weeks.

Hernandez-Trejo, Ciuparu, and Garcia da Silva et al. report that the piriform-to-olfactory bulb feedback in the mouse carries multimodal identity and reward contingency signals, which are re-formatted within seconds, according to behavioral context.

Mice evolved a new shape in the upper, but not in the lower molar. In addition to developmental changes specific to the upper molar, this occurred through shared changes with the lower molar, the development of which has drifted to support upper molar adaptation.

It has been a longstanding goal to promote the propagation of functional mitochondrial DNAs at the expense of pathological molecules in cells where the two species coexist. Here, the authors show that restricting the availability of glucose and glutamine can achieve this outcome.

Although myeloid cell dysfunction has been observed in COVID-19, the underlying mechanisms remain incompletely understood. Here, the authors demonstrate that monocytes from patients with mild to moderate COVID-19 show a blunted innate immune response and a pro-thrombotic signature following secondary SARS-CoV-2 challenge.

Lipid monolayers and bilayers can stabilize networks of water droplets inside larger drops of oil to create structures that could have a range of applications.

MicroRNA2118 induces the production of phased small interfering RNAs (phaisRNAs) in plants. Here the authors show that rice miR2118 is required for both male and female fertility and supports the production of atypical U-rich 21 nt phasiRNAs that are abundant in anther walls.

JWST observations of GRB 221009A reveal the associated supernova, confirming that the GRB resulted from the collapse of a rapidly rotating massive star. The lack of r-process emission suggests that these extreme events are not key sources of the heaviest elements.

The rapid rise in brightness of a tidal disruption event is attributed to the destruction of a main sequence star by a black hole of intermediate mass in a dwarf galaxy. Such events are rare, and non-accreting intermediate-mass black holes are challenging to find.

The ERMs (ezrin, moesin and radixin) are key organizers of membrane domains because they can interact with transmembrane proteins and the cytoskeleton. Recent studies have provided insights into the regulation of ERMs and theirin vivoroles in development, immune responses and disease.

The direct measurement of the QCD dead cone in charm quark fragmentation is reported, using iterative declustering of jets tagged with a fully reconstructed charmed hadron.

Fetal growth restriction remains a global health problem. In this systematic review, the authors identify altered metabolites and metabolomic signatures associated with fetal growth restriction and/or small for gestational age in maternal and newborn tissues and body fluids samples.

Measurements of the inelastic cross section of anti-³He allow the estimation of the transparency of the Milky Way to the propagation of these light antinuclei produced in either cosmic-ray collisions or annihilation of dark-matter particles.

Entanglement swapping—a protocol for entangling remote quantum systems without the requirement of direct interaction between them—has been implemented in a completely deterministic fashion, allowing to prepare well-defined entangled states on demand.

Focusing on mountain plant communities across Europe, a study shows that ongoing climate change causes a gradual decline in cold-adapted species and a corresponding increase in warm-adapted species, which could be an early sign that mountain plant diversity is at risk.

This work reveals the diversity and extent of human antibody specificities in Chagas disease and provides a wealth of well-defined antigenic markers for diagnosis and development of serological applications for this neglected infectious disease.

Here the authors show in a phase 1 trial that a recombinant subunit vaccine based on the gamma variant of SARS-CoV-2 exhibits a satisfactory safety profile, and induces a broad booster response of neutralizing antibodies and a booster effect on T cell immunity in individuals previously immunized with different SARS-CoV-2 vaccine platforms.

Analysis of promoter and enhancer activity and levels of downstream transcripts in liver samples from 15 mammalian species finds an association between the complexity of the regulatory landscape and the evolutionary stability of gene expression.

Recurrent absence seizures aberrantly increase activity-regulated myelination within the seizure network; this maladaptive myelination, in turn, increases network hypersynchrony and seizure burden over time.

mRNAs associated with differentiated cells are already detected in adult neural stem cells. Here the authors show how intron detention prevents their translation, solving conflicts in fate decisions while priming stem cells for timely differentiation.

Regulated trafficking of major histocompatibility complex class II and CD86 is a prerequisite of antigen presenting cell functionality. Authors show here that ubiquitin-like protein 3 is critically involved in the ubiquitination process that controls trafficking, with wide-ranging immunological consequences.

The metabolism of amino acids and the cellular energy sensor AMPK are both connected to mTORC1, but the pathway details have not been well defined. Here, the authors show that glutamine metabolism and mTORC1 have two regulatory connections with relevance to cancer therapeutics design.

The establishment of symbiotic interaction between Aeschynomene evenia and photosynthetic bradyrhizobia doesn’t involve the canonical Nod factors and infection threads. Here, the authors assemble the draft genome of A. evenia and identify a receptor-like kinase in mediating the symbiotic interaction.