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Circular RNA aptamers dampen Alzheimer disease phenotypes in mouse models

Spatiotemporal beams differ from standard spatial structured light. The authors introduce 2D spacetime duality to uncover the conventional–spatiotemporal beam connection, enabling the development of high-fidelity spatiotemporal beams.

Optically reconfigurable elements are in demand for future applications. The authors report on the use of chirality-invertible cholesteric liquid crystals to actively manipulate geometric phase and create switchable planar optics elements that perform a variety of functions.

This work introduces CRISPRdelight, a dCas12a-based DNA-imaging tool that facilitates the imaging of non-repetitive loci and the tracking of DNA dynamics.

A circular RNA aptamer shows therapeutic efficacy in vivo in a psoriasis model.

Yijun Ruan and colleagues report the draft genome of the sweet orange, Citrus sinensis. Their data suggests sweet orange originated from a cross between pummelo and mandarin.

The challenge of simultaneously manipulating multiple degrees of freedom of light is central to photonics due to its wide range of applications. Pan et al. introduce an approach using ferroelectric nematic fluids to achieve nonlinear wavefront shaping, offering reconfigurable control over structured light fields for advanced photonic applications.

An integrative network map of maize (Zea mays L.) that contains genomic, transcriptomic, translatomic and proteomic networks illustrates the landscape of molecular interactions of different functional elements and potential pathway modules in maize.

A high-resolution microscopy screen of candidate nucleolar proteins identifies URB1 as a protein that is confined to the periphery of the dense fibrillar component, with key roles in pre-ribosomal RNA folding and processing.

Circular RNAs (circRNAs) are produced from precursor RNA back-splicing. Recent findings reveal the complexity of the biogenesis of circRNAs and their cell type-specific expression. They also show that circRNAs can shape eukaryotic transcriptomes by sequestering microRNAs and by regulating transcription and interfering with splicing.

Bacteria of the genus Streptomyces have complex life cycles involving cellular differentiation and multicellular structures that have never been observed in archaea. Here, the authors show that several halophilic archaea display a life cycle resembling that of Streptomyces bacteria, undergoing cellular differentiation into mycelia and spores.

Optimized methods for the synthesis of circular RNA in vitro and in cells, and a complementary Cas9 de-immunization method, enhance RNA persistence and reduce immunogenicity for applications in genome engineering and cell engineering.

The role of focal amplifications and extrachromosomal DNA (ecDNA) is unknown in gastric cardia adenocarcinoma (GCA). Here, the authors identify frequent focal amplifications and ecDNAs in Chinese GCA patient samples, as well as the potential associations of these alterations with prognosis and dietary habits.

Diarrhoea is a major cause of morbidity and mortality in China. Here, the authors present results from a large sentinel surveillance scheme from 217 hospitals in all 31 provinces in mainland China, including ~150,000 patients with acute diarrhoea and covering years 2009-2018.

China operates a national surveillance program for acute respiratory infections and sampled over 200,000 patients between 2009–2019. Here, the authors present results from this program and describe patterns by age, pathogen type, presence of pneumonia, and season.

Maize was domesticated from wild lowland progenitors that co-existed with upland subspecies in Southwestern Mexico. Here Yang et al. use a meta-assembly approach to assemble an upland mexicana genome and find evidence of introgression suggesting it contributed to modern maize adaptation

Wang et al. show that mitochondrial stress alters paraspeckle number and morphology through regulating the transcription and processing of lncRNA NEAT1, retaining mRNAs of mitochondrial proteins in paraspeckles.

The assembly of eight high-quality rapeseed genomes allows identification of presence and absence variations (PAVs) and small variations. PAV-based genome-wide association analysis uncovered causal variations for agronomic traits and ecotype differentiation.

Plants respond to reorientation by altering the distribution of the plant hormone auxin causing roots to bend towards gravity. Here Wang et al. find that expression of the PIN3 and PIN7 auxin transporters in gravity sensing cells is controlled by concerted action of the FLP and MYB88 transcription factors.

This paper describes a CRISPR–Cas13 system to effectively target circRNAs and screen their functions in vitro and in vivo, which enables the study of relevant circRNA phenotypes in human cell proliferation and in mouse embryogenesis.

Qiang Xu and colleagues sequence four citrus species de novo, along with 100 accessions, including primitive, wild and cultivated citrus. Their genomic analyses associate the CitRWP gene with polyembryony and suggest that regions harboring energy- and reproduction-associated genes are probably under selection in cultivated citrus.

Alternative splicing of eukaryotic messenger RNA transcripts often leads to the production of several mature RNAs — including linear RNAs and circular RNAs (circRNAs) — from a single gene locus. The names given to circRNAs are often ambiguous and lack consistency across studies. This Comment calls on the community to embrace a common nomenclature for naming circRNAs to ensure clarity and reproducibility.

Recent studies have revealed multifaceted roles of long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) in gene regulation, accompanying an increased understanding of lncRNA processing, localization, interacting macromolecules and structural modules. Here, progress and recently developed technological advances for understanding lncRNA biogenesis, modes of action and cellular phenotypes are highlighted, and challenges and opportunities towards higher-resolution and in vivo studies in this field are discussed.

A rice diterpenoid gene cluster is reported that controls the biosynthesis of 5,10-diketo-casbene, a phytoalexin that confers resistance to rice bacterial blight and blast fungus. It recently evolved in the japonica subspecies under artificial selection.

The improved genome assemblies of allotetraploid cotton species Gossypium hirsutum and Gossypium barbadense provide insights into cotton evolution and inform the construction of introgression lines used to identify loci associated with fiber quality.

Analysis of changes in functional groups of species and potential drivers of environmental change for protected areas across the world’s major tropical regions reveals large variation between reserves that have been effective and those experiencing an erosion of biodiversity, and shows that environmental changes immediately outside reserves are nearly as important as those inside in determining their ecological fate.

This Review summarizes the recent technical advances in probing RNA secondary structures and discusses their connection with RNA regulatory functions in various biological processes and future directions in RNA structure-probing methods.

This Consensus Statement addresses the definition, nomenclature and classification of long non-coding RNAs, and provides a shared viewpoint on their features and functions. The authors also discuss research challenges and provide recommendations to advance our understanding of long non-coding RNAs.