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Openshaw and colleagues find myeloid inflammation and complement activation signatures in patients with long COVID who were previously hospitalized.

Genome assemblies of 13 domesticated and wild rice relatives reveal salient features of genome evolution across the genus Oryza, especially rapid species diversification and turnover of transposons. This study also releases a complete long-read assembly of IR 8 ‘Miracle Rice’.

Deformation of the Himalaya and Tibet is thought to relate to flow within a weak crustal channel at depth. Magnetotelluric imaging of the Earth’s subsurface reveals a complex pattern of deformation, with two distinct weak crustal channels at 20–40 km depth.

The Nd isotope composition of seawater has been used to reconstruct past changes in the various contributions of different water masses to the deep ocean, with the isotope signatures of endmember water masses generally assumed to have been stable during the Quaternary. Here, the authors show that deep water produced in the North Atlantic had a significantly more radiogenic Nd signature during the Last Glacial Maximum compared to today.

Variability in human longevity is genetically influenced. Using genetic data of parental lifespan, the authors identify associations at HLA-DQA/DRB1 and LPA and find that genetic variants that increase educational attainment have a positive effect on lifespan whereas increasing BMI negatively affects lifespan.

Rinkevich and colleagues show that preexisting matrix is transferred by neutrophils across organs into injured sites in a manner dependent on integrin activation.

Axel Hillmer and colleagues present a genome-wide association study for male-pattern baldness. They confirm a previous association with the gene encoding the androgen receptor, and report replicated associations for five SNPs on chromosome 20p11.

Plasmons are directly launched in graphene, and their key parameters — propagation and attenuation — are studied with near-field infrared nano-imaging.

A theoretical model, in vitro reconstitution and in vivo experimentation show that competition between droplet surface tension and membrane sheet instability dictates the form and function of autophagosomal membranes.

Hydrogen isotope separation is key for developing technologies. Here authors present a squarate-pillared titanium oxide quantum sieve for deuterium separation, displaying impressive separation performance, cost-effective green scalable synthesis, and stability.

Hydrogels with faster stress relaxation enhance the spreading, proliferation, and osteogenic differentiation of embedded mesenchymal stem cells.

Studies of cellular mechanotransduction commonly use elastic substrates, whereas biological substrates are viscoelastic, exhibiting stress relaxation. Here, the authors show through computational modelling and experiments that viscoelastic substrates can stimulate cell spreading to a greater extent than purely elastic substrates with the same initial stiffness.

Morphological analysis of teeth found at Lida Ajer shows that these belong to Homo sapiens, indicating that modern humans were in Sumatra between 73,000 and 63,000 years ago.

Matrix elasticity, which has been shown to regulate the fate of mesenchymal stem cells in vitro, can also be harnessed to therapeutically control bone formation.

A single-source multimodal nonlinear optical imaging system has been developed to probe different endogenous biomolecules. Rapid, stain-free imaging of fresh tissue specimens is possible with short turnaround times for disease diagnosis.

There is a long-standing experimental effort to observe field-induced correlated states in three-dimensional materials. Here, the authors observe an unconventional Hall response in the quantum limit of the bulk semimetal HfTe₅ with a plateau-like feature in the Hall conductivity.

Automated imaging of the Caenorhabditis elegans embryo now allows monitoring of the timing and relative expression of individual reporter genes at single-cell resolution over almost all of embryonic development. Future systematic analysis could be used to reveal gene expression patterns of every cell during development.

There are few reports of ferroelectricity due to symmetry breaking transition in A-site-ordered quadruple perovskites. Here, the authors find one with phase transition from a high-temperature centrosymmetric paraelectric phase to a low-temperature non-centrosymmetric ferroelectric phase in a high pressure synthesized compound.

Daniel Benjamin, Meike Bartels, Philipp Koellinger and colleagues report a genome-wide association meta-analysis of subjective well-being, depressive symptoms and neuroticism. The study leverages a large sample size together with genetic correlations between the phenotypes to identify, with high confidence, loci associated with each phenotype.

A genome-wide association study of 1.7 million individuals identified 41 genetic variants associated with left-handedness and 7 associated with ambidexterity. The genetic correlation between the traits was low, thereby implying different aetiologies.

Acute loss of CTCF disproportionately affects the transcription of genes that display promoter-proximal CTCF binding and are dependent on long-distance enhancers.

Sequencing of over 600 genes in a large collection of lung adenocarcinoma samples provides an overview of somatic mutations and signalling pathways altered in cancer genes in this tumour type.

A genome-wide association study for attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) identifies 12 loci and implicates neurodevelopmental pathways and conserved regions of the genome as being involved in underlying ADHD biology.

Donor-acceptor Stenhouse adducts are a relatively new class of photoswitches with promising applications in medical and materials sciences. Here the role of water in inducing isomerisation is explored experimentally and theoretically, showing that water can induce a thermal isomerisation pathway and stabilise the cyclic product.

The structure of a complex containing calcitonin gene-related peptide, the human calcitonin gene-related peptide receptor and the G_s heterotrimer, determined using Volta phase-plate cryo-electron microscopy, provides structural insight into the regulation of G-protein-coupled receptors by receptor activity modifying protein 1.

Vaccination with BCG has been shown to induce a pre-priming effect in innate immune cells termed trained immunity. Here the authors re-engineer the BCG vaccine and show augmented immune responses, enhanced induction of trained immunity and improved antitumor efficacy in pre-clinical models of bladder cancer.

Polymer monolayer field-effect transistors hold promise for faster circuits, but their performance is currently limited by the polymer packing disorder. Li et al. pre-aggregate polymers in a solution to achieve high carrier mobility of 3 cm² V⁻¹s⁻¹ in monolayers and utilize them in integrated circuits.

The green wave hypothesis is often considered a key driver of spring migration in avian herbivores. Here the authors employ a multispecies comparison and find that migration did not track the green wave better than simulated stochastic migrations.

Chronological assumptions in marine sediment records can result in uncertainties in paleoenvironmental reconstructions. Here, using computed tomography to identify in situ woody debris, the authors construct a robust ¹⁴C chronology and reassess ventilation ages in the Eastern Equatorial Pacific during the LGM.

Insects are biotechnologically important producers of recombinant proteins and materials, and their biology as crop pests has substantial economic consequences. Xiang et al. map cytosine methylation genome-wide at single-base resolution in the silkworm, opening the door for global studies of epigenetic DNA modification in insects.

In serotonin-rich tissues, tissue transglutaminase 2 is able to attach serotonin to a glutamine residue in histone H3; this modification mediates permissive gene expression in these tissues.

When many people are speaking, e.g. at a party, we can selectively attend to just one speaker. Here, using ‘hyperscanning’, the authors show that interpersonal neural synchronization is selectively increased between a listener and the attended speaker, compared to between the listener and an unattended speaker.

Itaconate is a metabolite with immune-modulatory effects in myeloid cells. In this study, Zhao, Teng et al. report an additional role for itaconate in CD8⁺ T cells, with implications for immune surveillance and anti-tumour immunity.

This report by the Consortium for Refractive Error and Myopia uses gene-environment-wide interaction study (GEWIS) to identify genetic loci that affect environmental influence in myopia development, and identifies ethnic specific genetic loci that attribute to eye refractive errors.

The most comprehensive analysis to date of models of transcription-factor binding specificity reveals the best methods for predicting in vivo binding from in vitro data.

Bone morphogenetic protein (BMP) maintains intestinal homeostasis by restricting its hyperproliferation but whether it directly regulates the stem cells is unknown. Here the authors show that BMP constrains the Lgr5⁺stem cell expansion under both homeostatic and injury conditions through Smad-mediated repression of stem cell signature genes.

The bed bug, Cimex lectularius, is a ubiquitous human ectoparasite with global distribution. Here, the authors sequence the genome of the bed bug and identify reductions in chemosensory genes, expansion of genes associated with blood digestion and genes linked to pesticide resistance.

The authors find that deletion of the immediate-early gene Arc, or inhibition of the transcription factor SRF or its cofactor MAL, blocks the late phase of long-term depression (LTD) in cultured cerebellar Purkinje cells. SRF binding to the Arc promoter was required for the late phase of LTD in this system.

Homo erectus adapted to hyper-arid climatic conditions one million years ago through the strategic use of rivers and ponds, and this facilitated geographic expansion within and beyond Africa, as shown by multi-proxy data from Oldupai Gorge, Tanzania.

Remote sensing and in situ observations show that non-radiative mechanisms dominate the local climatic response to land cover and land management changes in most regions of the globe for 8 of 9 common land cover and management perturbations.