Search

Min Deng, Kai Wang and colleagues report genome-wide association analyses of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis in the Han Chinese population. They identify two new risk loci at 1q32 and 22p11.

Dongfeng Gu and colleagues report a genome-wide association study for coronary artery disease in Han Chinese individuals. They identify four loci newly associated with coronary artery disease.

Lampreys are jawless vertebrates that can offer unique insights into vertebrate evolution. Here they generate a comprehensive cell atlas of the lamprey, uncovering 70 distinct cell types across 14 tissues, and identify pancreas-like cells in the lamprey small intestine.

A population genomic analysis of 1,854 Listeria soil isolates collected across the contiguous United States identifies geographically prevalent phylogroups with increased pangenome openness and recombination, as a result of adaptation to variable environments.

Primary biliary cholangitis is an autoimmune liver disease. Here, the authors show that variants in interleukin genes which potentially deregulate their expression are associated with this condition, and suggest that the IL21 signalling pathway may have a role in disease aetiology.

The mechanism through which auxin regulates chilling tolerance remains unclear. Here, the authors discover a negative regulator of chilling tolerance in japonica rice, which encodes an ABCB transporter with auxin efflux function, and show its potential to increase indica rice chilling tolerance.

Xuejun Zhang, Jun Wang, Liangdan Sun, Lennart Hammarström and colleagues sequence the MHC region in 20,635 Han Chinese individuals. Their Han-MHC database allows identification of new susceptibility loci for psoriasis and could serve as a tool for investigating the role of the MHC region in other complex diseases.

Genomic studies often lack representation from diverse populations, limiting equitable insights. Here, the authors show that the BIG Initiative captures extensive genetic diversity and reveals ancestry-linked health disparities in a community-based Mid-South cohort.

Intrinsic toughening in two-dimensional transition metal dichalcogenides can be achieved simply by twisting the layers. This twisting promotes cross-layer healing and grain boundary formation, which shield fracture tips from stress concentration.

This study utilizes Stereo-seq to comprehensively map the geospatial architecture of breast cancer, revealing venular niches that promote immune infiltration and better clinical outcomes, offering new insights into tumor microenvironment regulation.

Although psoriasis is a chronic disorder affecting approximately 2% of the population, little is known about the underlying genetic architecture. Here, the authors carry out exome sequencing in a large Han Chinese cohort of psoriasis patients and healthy controls, and identify three new genes that may increase risk of developing the disease.

The antiferromagnetic moments in the topological insulator/antiferromagnetic insulator bilayer (Bi,Sb)₂Te₃/α-Fe₂O₃ can be reversibly switched using electrical currents at room temperature, and with a critical current density that is one order of magnitude smaller than that required in heavy-metal/magnetic insulator systems.

When strain is applied to some magnetic materials, the magnetic properties and magnetization can change drastically. This coupling is referred to as magnetoelasticity, and while its history of study is long, it is still not a well-understood phenomenon. In this work, Kong et al. shed light on magnetoelasticity using a variety of experimental probes.

Organic electrode materials are promising candidates for rechargeable Al-ion batteries but face the capacity ceiling due to limited active sites and low electron transfer number. Here, authors develop a tetraalkynylporphyrin cathode with 12-electron transfer to achieve high energy Al-organic batteries.

Here, the authors identify integrin beta 4 (ITGB4) as a key entry factor for Zika virus infection. An antibody targeting ITGB4 protects against viral infection and prevents fetal damage in mice, offering a potential therapeutic strategy.

The authors perform a genome-wide association study of adolescent idiopathic scoliosis patients of Han Chinese descent, and identify 3 new loci for disease susceptibility.

The study reveals how bortezomib activates Mycobacterium tuberculosis Clp protease complexes. Cryo-EM structures reveal how sub-stoichiometric bortezomib binding triggers structural changes, mediates holoenzyme formation and disrupts Clp system regulation.

Electron microscopy has seen a massive boom in China. Ze Zhang and Xiaodong Han discuss what this could mean for materials research and development.

A study finds that RUVBL2 is a conserved component of eukaryotic circadian clocks and suggests that slow ATPase activity, which was initially discovered in cyanobacteria, is a shared feature of eukaryotic clocks.

Grain rotation is proposed as an active deformation mechanism in nanocrystalline metals at room temperature. Here, during in-situatomic scale experimentation, the authors observe that grains with a size <6 nm deform by coordinated rotation of multiple grains, associated with dislocation climb at grain boundaries.

A ferroelectric tunnel junction that uses copper indium thiophosphate as the ferroelectric barrier, and graphene and chromium as asymmetric contacts, can offer a high resistance ratio between on and off states.

Time-resolved three-dimensional electron diffraction captures reaction intermediates at the atomic scale during the topotactic transformations of a zeolite. It shows the structures of the two extra-large-pore zeolites and represents a powerful tool for understanding solid-state reactions.

Non-syndromic cleft lip with palate is a common birth defect of unknown aetiology. Here, the authors discover 14 new genes associated with this condition, and show genetic heterogeneity in this and other non-syndromic orofacial clefting disorders.

Ding Ma, Xing Xie, Yongyong Shi and colleagues report a genome-wide association study of cervical cancer in the Han Chinese population. They identify two new susceptibility lociat 4q12 and 17q12.

Porous materials with very different pore sizes and structures are commonly used for various applications. But although bicontinuous pore networks — with two interwoven yet unconnected channels — have been reported, tricontinuous structures have so far only been predicted theoretically. Now, researchers have prepared a mesoporous silica with three identical, interpenetrating channels.

Surfactant-capped nanoparticles of various sizes, shapes and compositions have been completely enshrouded within a metal–organic framework in a controlled, well-dispersed manner. The resulting hybrid materials exhibit active properties — catalytic, magnetic and optical — arising from the nanoparticles as well as sieving and orientation effects originating from the porous framework.

Analyses of genome and exome sequencing data identify rare coding and structural variants associated with atrial fibrillation and highlight genetic links between atrial fibrillation and cardiomyopathies.

Psoriasis is a chronic inflammatory disease affecting up to 3% of the population. Here, Zuo et al.perform exome array analysis, identify single-nucleotide polymorphisms at 15 new loci, implicating several biological pathways in psoriasis risk and disease heritability.

Conventional intermetallics are usually brittle and hard to manufacture. This work successfully develops a strong yet ductile chemically complex intermetallic alloy based on the 3D printing technique.

Here, the authors present structural and mechanistic characterisation of the UDP-dependent glycosyltransferase SgUGT94-289-3, which generates two mogrosides of interest as natural sweeteners. Structure-based engineering yielded variants with improved specificity and activity.

Non-fused ring electron acceptors may have low synthetic costs but also exhibit poor crystallinity in organic solar cells. Zeng et al. use a binary solvent system to control the crystallization and phase separation of donor and acceptor materials, achieving over 19% efficiency.

Dislocation climb is crucial to plasticity and creep of materials. Here, the authors report real-time atomic-scale observations of grain boundary dislocation climb in nanostructured Au at room temperature. The dislocation climb occurs by reconstruction of two atomic columns in the dislocation core.

The controlled manipulation of the topological phases of electronic materials is a central goal of modern condensed matter research. Here, the authors demonstrate controllable switching between two distinct topological phases in a layered ferromagnet via thermal cycling.

2D semiconductors may offer a platform for future electronics, but the wafer-scale fabrication of high-performance 2D transistors remains challenging. Here, the authors report a universal all-stacking method to fabricate wafer-scale 2D electronic devices with van der Waals contacts, based on epitaxial metallic electrodes grown on fluorophlogopite mica.

A dataset of coding variation, derived from exome sequencing of nearly one million individuals from a range of ancestries, provides insight into rare variants and could accelerate the discovery of disease-associated genes and advance precision medicine efforts.

Dual-gated van der Waals heterojunction transistors can provide Gaussian, sigmoid and mixed-kernel functions for use in low-power machine learning classification operations.

Chloroplast and whole-genome sequencing of a global germplasm panel of 355 Arachis accessions encompassing various species sheds light on the evolutionary history and phenotypic diversification of peanuts.

Yinghao Sun and colleagues report a genome-wide association study for prostate cancer in Han Chinese men. They identify two new risk-associated loci at chromosomes 9q31 and 19q13.