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Genome-wide analyses identify 30 independent loci associated with obsessive–compulsive disorder, highlighting genetic overlap with other psychiatric disorders and implicating putative effector genes and cell types contributing to its etiology.

Most of the Universe is missing -- at least that's what cosmologists believe. Jeremy Thomson reports on a pioneering new search for the rest.

A genome-wide association study including over 76,000 individuals with schizophrenia and over 243,000 control individuals identifies common variant associations at 287 genomic loci, and further fine-mapping analyses highlight the importance of genes involved in synaptic processes.

How can you detect a bomb if it is so sensitive that even looking at it will make it explode? A new study suggests that you might not have to, Jeremy Thomson reports.

Hundreds of genetic loci associated with age at menopause, combined with experimental evidence in mice, highlight mechanisms of reproductive ageing across the lifespan.

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).

A global network of researchers was formed to investigate the role of human genetics in SARS-CoV-2 infection and COVID-19 severity; this paper reports 13 genome-wide significant loci and potentially actionable mechanisms in response to infection.

The authors analyzed the whole-exome sequences of over 16,000 individuals and found that very rare variants predicted to disrupt the SETD1A gene confer substantial risk for schizophrenia. Damaging variants in SETD1A were also associated with diverse, severe developmental disorders, providing an important genetic link between schizophrenia and other neurodevelopmental disorders.

Data collected from more than 2,000 taxa provide an unparalleled opportunity to quantify how extreme wildfires affect biodiversity, revealing that the largest effects on plants and animals were in areas with frequent or recent past fires and within extensively burnt areas.

Dimethyl fumarate (DMF) is an anti-inflammatory drug proposed as a treatment for COVID19. Here the results are reported from a randomised trial testing DMF treatment in 713 patients hospitalised with COVID-19. DMF was not associated with any improvement in day 5 outcomes.

Magnetoencephalography in human participants paired with Rapid Invisible Frequency Tagging reveals that excitability in early visual cortex is modulated to boost targets and suppress distractors in guided visual search.

Alterations in the tumour suppressor genes STK11 and/or KEAP1 can identify patients with advanced non-small-cell lung cancer who are likely to benefit from combinations of PD-(L)1 and CTLA4 immune checkpoint inhibitors added to chemotherapy.

Many legumes accommodate rhizobial symbionts via transcellular infection threads. Here the authors show that in Medicago root hairs, polar growth of the infection thread requires a tip-localized protein complex consisting of VPY and VPY-like proteins that are stabilized by the E3 ligase LIN, as well as an exocyst complex subunit.

A survey of sharks and rays on coral reefs within 66 marine protected areas across 36 countries showcases that the conservation benefits of full MPA protection to sharks almost double when accompanied by effective fisheries management.

Analysis of genomic data from 25 distantly related plant species shows signatures of selection on the same gene families and functions that repeatedly contributed to local adaptation to climate.

Sexual dimorphism in genetic vulnerability to schizophrenia, systemic lupus erythematosus and Sjögren’s syndrome is linked to differential protein abundance from alleles of complement component 4.

Identification and characterization, using a comprehensive embryonic phenotyping pipeline, of 410 lethal alleles during the generation of the first 1,751 of 5,000 unique gene knockouts produced by the International Mouse Phenotyping Consortium.

The Omicron variant evades vaccine-induced neutralization but also fails to form syncytia, shows reduced replication in human lung cells and preferentially uses a TMPRSS2-independent cell entry pathway, which may contribute to enhanced replication in cells of the upper airway. Altered fusion and cell entry characteristics are linked to distinct regions of the Omicron spike protein.

Two below-threshold surface code memories on superconducting processors markedly reduce logical error rates, achieving high efficiency and real-time decoding, indicating potential for practical large-scale fault-tolerant quantum algorithms.

Fishing has had a profound impact on global reef shark populations, and the absence or presence of sharks is strongly correlated with national socio-economic conditions and reef governance.

Root-associated microbiomes contribute to plant growth and health. Here, the authors unveil the quantitative development of the root microbiome under unbalanced fertilization and highlight a key microbial cluster for soybean productivity.

Stratified medicine promises to tailor treatment for individual patients, however it remains a major challenge to leverage genetic risk data to aid patient stratification. Here the authors introduce an approach to stratify individuals based on the aggregated impact of their genetic risk factor profiles on tissue-specific gene expression levels, and highlight its ability to identify biologically meaningful and clinically actionable patient subgroups, supporting the notion of different patient ‘biotypes’ characterized by partially distinct disease mechanisms.

An online training module that synergistically targets two different mindsets can reduce stress levels in adolescents in the context of social-evaluative stressors—stressful experiences in which individuals fear that others are judging them negatively.

The CNV analysis group of the Psychiatric Genomic Consortium analyzes a large schizophrenia cohort to examine genomic copy number variants (CNVs) and disease risk. They find an enrichment of CNV burden in cases versus controls and identify 8 genome-wide significant loci as well as novel suggestive loci conferring either risk or protection to schizophrenia.

Damian Smedley and colleagues report the phenotypic characterization of the first 3,328 genes by the International Mouse Phenotyping Consortium. They develop new mouse models based on genes known to be associated with human mendelian diseases and identify potential disease-associated genes with little or no previous functional annotation.

Time-series observations from the JWST of the transiting exoplanet WASP-39b show gaseous water in the planet’s atmosphere and place an upper limit on the abundance of methane.

Gilliet and colleagues demonstrate that skin wound healing occurs through the coordinated action of plasmacytoid dendritic cells, chemokines and skin microbiota.

Physical realizations of qubits are often vulnerable to leakage errors, where the system ends up outside the basis used to store quantum information. A leakage removal protocol can suppress the impact of leakage on quantum error-correcting codes.

Safely opening university campuses has been a major challenge during the COVID-19 pandemic. Here, the authors describe a program of public health measures employed at a university in the United States which, combined with other non-pharmaceutical interventions, allowed the university to stay open in fall 2020 with limited evidence of transmission.

Understanding the molecular and phenotypic profile of colorectal cancer (CRC) in West Africa is important for early detection and treatment. Here, the authors use a multigene next-generation sequencing panel to identify genomic differences in Nigerian CRCs compared to those from TCGA and MSKCC cohorts.

An integrated analysis of de novo and inherited coding variants in 42,607 individuals with autism spectrum disorder identifies 60 risk genes of which five have not previously been associated with neurodevelopmental disorders.

A study of the evolution of the SARS-CoV-2 virus in England between September 2020 and June 2021 finds that interventions capable of containing previous variants were insufficient to stop the more transmissible Alpha and Delta variants.

Chemical optimization of arylomycins results in an inhibitor of bacterial type I signal peptidase that shows activity both against multidrug-resistant clinical isolates of Gram-negative bacteria in vitro and in several in vivo infection models.

Unlike Amazonian forests, African forests have maintained their carbon sink until recently but by 2030 the African carbon sink will have shrunk by 14 per cent and the Amazonian sink will reach almost zero.

The full extent of the genetic basis for hearing impairment is unknown. Here, as part of the International Mouse Phenotyping Consortium, the authors perform a hearing loss screen in 3006 mouse knockout strains and identify 52 new candidate genes for genetic hearing loss.

The role of the immune system in the pathogenesis of psychiatric disorders is unclear. Here, the authors show that genetic risk variants for multiple psychiatric disorders are enriched in regions of the genome active in the brain and in lymphoid cells, especially stimulated T cells, but not in myeloid cells.

Lipochitooligosaccharide (LCO) perception by legumes is required to establish symbiotic relationships with nitrogen fixing bacteria. Here the authors show that nutrient starvation can activate LCO perception in cereals to promote symbiotic association with arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi.

Systemic dissection of sexually dimorphic phenotypes in mice is lacking. Here, Karp and the International Mouse Phenotype Consortium show that approximately 10% of qualitative traits and 56% of quantitative traits in mice as measured in laboratory setting are sexually dimorphic.

In a multicenter research program coordinated by the International Mouse Phenotyping Consortium, Spielmann et al. analyze the cardiac function and structure in ~4,000 monogenic mutant mice and identify 705 mouse genes involved in cardiac function, 75% of which have not been previously linked to cardiac heritable disease in humans. Using the UK Biobank human data, the authors validate the link between cardiovascular disease and some of the newly identified genes to illustrate the resource value and potential of their mutant mouse collection.

Skokowa et al. reconstruct the fold of a granulopoietic cytokine, resulting in de novo, hyperstable, highly active proteins with therapeutic potential for treating several neutropenia disorders.