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The plasma membrane Na⁺/H⁺ exchanger SOS1 is crucial for plant salt tolerance. Here the authors report the structure of SOS1 from Arabidopsis thaliana in two conformations, which provide structural and functional insight into SOS1 activity regulation.

The development of efficient adsorbents to capture iodine originating from radioactive wastes is of importance. Here, the authors synthesize hexacationic imidazolium organic cages and study the crucial role of the counter anions for iodine capture and the iodine binding modes at the molecular level on the solid state.

Solid–liquid interfaces are ubiquitous in natural and technological processes, but their imaging at the atomic scale has been challenging. The authors, using liquid-phase transmission electron microscopy, identify a quasi-liquid phase and the mass transport between the surface of In and Sn nanocrystals and an aqueous solution.

‘Candidatus Methanoliparum’ overexpresses genes encoding alkyl-coenzyme M and methyl-coenzyme M reductases—markers of archaeal multicarbon alkane and methane metabolism—and thrives on a variety of long-chain alkanes and n-alkylcyclohexanes, and n-alkylbenzenes with long n-alkyl (C_≥13) moieties.

Cells maintain a constant cytoplasm to nucleus volume ratio, although the role of DNA damage is not well explored. Here, the authors use Drosophila to connect TER94, the fly homolog of VCP, to disruption of DNA damage repair, leading to ubiquitinated Mu2 protein accumulation and enlarged nuclei.

In order to design cancer immune therapies, it is important to understand how tumours evade the immune response that is mounted against them. Authors here analyse the distribution and properties of immune cells in hepatocellular carcinoma and describe a progressive tumour-immune co-evolution programme from early to late stage cancer.

The role of PD-L1 expression on tumor-infiltrating immune cells in promoting tumor immune escape is not fully understood. Here, the authors show that PD-L1 expression by dendritic cells plays a crucial role in hindering anti-tumor T cell responses and is essential for the therapeutic efficacy of PD-L1 blockade.

U2AF is known to affect 3′-splice-site selection. Here, Fu and colleagues use genome-wide analysis of U2AF-RNA interactions to define U2AF's key roles in gene expression and regulated splicing in normal and disease states.

Single-atom catalysts maximize metal atom efficiency and exhibit properties that can be considerably different to their nanoparticle equivalent. Now a general host–guest strategy to make various single-atom catalysts on nitrogen-doped carbon has been developed; the iridium variant electrocatalyses the formic acid oxidation reaction with high mass activity and displays high tolerance to CO poisoning.

Age-dependent decline in remyelination in the CNS is associated with declined differentiation capacity of oligodendrocyte progenitor cells (OPCs). Here, the authors show nuclear entry of SIRT2 is impaired and NAD+ levels are reduced during ageing in mouse OPCs. β-nicotinamide mononucleotide (β-NMN) supplement delays myelin aging and enhances remyelination in the aged mice.

NMR and in vitro reconstitution indicate that GPCRs signal through SH3-containing proteins downstream of β-arrestin 1 proline regions and that arrestin allosterically activates downstream kinases by disrupting their autoinhibitory conformation.

Analysis of five generations of transmission of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 from cases to contacts identifies a high rate of symptomless transmission and risk factors associated with spread of COVID-19.

The Arctic tundra is a relatively young biome. Here, the authors sample 32 angiosperm clades encompassing 3600+ species and find that both long-term dispersal and in situ speciation may have contributed to Arctic flora assembly, in association with landscape, climate and sea-level changes since the early Late Miocene.

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.

A neuromorphic photovoltaic detector with highly tunable responsivity and simultaneous non-volatile storage of image data has been demonstrated in a neural network, representing a transformative leap in the compactness and function of visual perception hardware.

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.

High oxidation resistance, without degradation of thermal or electrical conductivity, is achieved in copper using surface modification by a solvothermal or electrochemical treatment with sodium formate and formation of a thin surface coordination layer.

In this study the authors report USP48 and BRAF are frequently mutated in USP8 wild-type corticotroph adenomas, and cause Cushing’s disease mainly through promoting the promoter activity of POMC. Inhibition of BRAF may be a promising therapeutic strategy for the treatment of patients with BRAF-mutated corticotroph adenomas.

An improved reference genome of sweet orange and newly sequenced genomes of its somatic mutants uncover the global pattern of somatic variations, the diversification and dispersal history of sweet orange and candidate genes controlling fruit taste and flavour.

Establishing optimal metal-support interactions is crucial for creating efficient catalysts for water splitting. Here, stable Ti–O–Ru interface formation and minimal work function difference between Ru nanoparticles and non-stoichiometric Ti4O7 lead to exceptional bifunctional activity of Ru/Ti4O7 for both HER and OER across pH-universal environments, maintaining stable operation for 500 h.

Covalent organic frameworks (COFs) are promising materials for separation membranes, but their wide pores prevent selective gas separation through molecular sieving. Here, the authors demonstrate a Metal-organic framework (MOF)-in-COF membrane with a significant enhancement of separation selectivity of hydrogen over other gases.

A study reconstructed angiosperm phylogeny on the basis of plastome data representing 2,351 angiosperm and 187 gymnosperm species, and dated the origin of crown angiosperms to be significantly earlier than the estimates based on fossil data.

Characterization of full-length genome sequences from patients infected with a new coronavirus (2019-nCoV) shows that the sequences are nearly identical and indicates that the virus is related to a bat coronavirus.

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.

Thiosulfate oxidation by microbes has a major impact on global sulfur cycling. Here, Ding et al. provide evidence that bacteria of the Roseobacter group are major thiosulfate-oxidizers in marine biofilms, where anaerobic thiosulfate metabolism is preferred.

Future intelligent vision systems need efficient capacitor-free spiking photoreceptor for color perception. Here, Wang et al. report a metal oxide-based vertically integrated spiking cone photoreceptor array which transduces light into spike trains with a power consumption of less than 400 picowatts.

NK cells make an important contribution to the destruction of tumors. Wei and colleagues demonstrate that NK cells within the tumor microenvironment undergo mitochondrial fragmentation leading to impairment of their function and survival.

A graph-theoretical programmable quantum photonic device composed of about 2,500 components is fabricated on a silicon substrate within a 12 mm × 15 mm footprint. It shows the generation, manipulation and certification of genuine multiphoton multidimensional entanglement, as well as the implementations of scattershot and Gaussian boson sampling.

John Chambers, Jaspal Kooner, Pim van der Harst, Shyong Tai, Paul Elliott, Jiang He, Norihiro Kato and colleagues performed a genome-wide association study of blood pressure phenotypes in individuals of European, East Asian and South Asian ancestry. They find trait-associated SNPs at 12 loci, some of which are associated with methylation at nearby CpG sites.

Metallo-β-lactamases (MBL) are zinc containing enzymes that cause resistance to β-lactam antibiotics. Here the authors show that the anti-Helicobacter pylori drug colloidal bismuth subcitrate inhibits MBLs by displacing the zinc ions with Bi(III), which is of great interest for the development of antibiotics.

Angiotensin II type 1 receptor (AT1R)-mediated acute catecholamine release is modulated by β-arrestin. Here the authors show that β-arrestin-1 recruits the Ca²⁺channel TRPC3 and the PLCγ to the AT1R-β-arrestin complex, triggering G protein-independent calcium influx and catecholamine secretion.

Size-selective discrimination is an issue in biosensing. Here, the authors report on a size selective DNA nanocage which excludes agents based on size and protects the probes against degradation, and demonstrate the discrimination between mature and precursor miRNA.

Layer dependence is an important aspect to properties of van der Waals materials. Here, the authors obtain layer dependent multiple polarization states in 3 R MoS₂ and propose a generalized model to describe their ferroelectric switching processes.