Table Of Contents Page, PNAS Volume 121, Number 15
This Week in PNAS
Inner Workings
QnAs
Retrospective
Commentaries
Perspectives
Is there a formula for a competitive NIH grant application? The Serenity Prayer may
provide one: "Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the ability
to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference." But how to tell
...
Malaria is a disease of global significance. Ongoing changes to the earth’s climate,
antimalarial resistance, insecticide resistance, and socioeconomic decline test the
resilience of malaria prevention programs. Museum insect specimens present an untapped
...
Brief Report
Racism is associated with negative intergenerational (infant) outcomes. That is, racism,
both perceived and structural, is linked to critical, immediate, and long-term health
factors such as low birth weight and infant mortality. Antiracism—resistance to ...
Physical Sciences
Biophysics and Computational Biology
Throughout evolution, bacteria and other microorganisms have learned efficient foraging
strategies that exploit characteristic properties of their unknown environment. While
much research has been devoted to the exploration of statistical models ...
Drug resistance in HIV type 1 (HIV-1) is a pervasive problem that affects the lives
of millions of people worldwide. Although records of drug-resistant mutations (DRMs)
have been extensively tabulated within public repositories, our understanding of the
...
Riboswitches are messenger RNA (mRNA) fragments binding specific small molecules to
regulate gene expression. A synthetic N1 riboswitch, inserted into yeast mRNA controls
the translation of a reporter gene in response to neomycin. However, its regulatory
...
Polyphosphate (polyP) synthesis is a ubiquitous stress and starvation response in
bacteria. In diverse species, mutants unable to make polyP have a wide variety of
physiological defects, but the mechanisms by which this simple polyanion exerts its
...
Chemistry
Omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) found primarily in fish oil have been a
popular supplement for cardiovascular health because they can substantially reduce
circulating triglyceride levels in the bloodstream to prevent atherosclerosis. Beyond
...
Detection sensitivity is a critical characteristic to consider during selection of
spectroscopic techniques. However, high sensitivity alone is insufficient for spectroscopic
measurements in spectrally congested regions. Two-color cavity ringdown ...
The fine regulation of catalysts by the atomic-level removal of inactive atoms can
promote the active site exposure for performance enhancement, whereas suffering from
the difficulty in controllably removing atoms using current micro/nano-scale material
...
As one of the most stunning biological nanostructures, the single-diamond (SD) surface
discovered in beetles and weevils exoskeletons possesses the widest complete photonic
bandgap known to date and is renowned as the “holy grail” of photonic materials. ...
Organic compounds can crystallize in different forms known as polymorphs. Discovery
and control of polymorphism is crucial to the pharmaceutical industry since different
polymorphs can have significantly different physical properties which impacts their
...
Microdroplets are a class of soft matter that has been extensively employed for chemical,
biochemical, and industrial applications. However, fabricating microdroplets with
largely controllable contact-area shape and apparent contact angle, a key ...
The ultimate regularity of quantum mechanics creates a tension with the assumption
of classical chaos used in many of our pictures of chemical reaction dynamics. Out-of-time-order
correlators (OTOCs) provide a quantum analog to the Lyapunov exponents that ...
Here, we describe the identification of an antibiotic class acting via LpxH, a clinically
unexploited target in lipopolysaccharide synthesis. The lipopolysaccharide synthesis
pathway is essential in most Gram-negative bacteria and there is no analogous ...
Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences
Africa carries a disproportionately high share of the global malaria burden, accounting
for 94% of malaria cases and deaths worldwide in 2019. It is also a politically unstable
region and the most vulnerable continent to climate change in recent decades. ...
Soil moisture (SM) is essential for sustaining services from Earth’s critical zone,
a thin-living skin spanning from the canopy to groundwater. In the Anthropocene epoch,
intensive afforestation has remarkably contributed to global greening and certain
...
River networks are composed of a mainstem and tributaries. These tributaries dissect
landscapes, regulate water and habitat availability, and transport sediment and nutrients.
Despite the importance of tributaries, we currently lack theory and data ...
Predicting the temporal and spatial patterns of South Asian monsoon rainfall within
a season is of critical importance due to its impact on agriculture, water availability,
and flooding. The monsoon intraseasonal oscillation (MISO) is a robust northward-...
Cyclone Jasper struck northern Queensland in mid-December, 2023, causing extensive
flooding stemming from torrential rain. Many stations reported rainfall totals exceeding
1 m, and a few surpassed 2 m, possibly making Jasper the wettest tropical cyclone
...
The Mediterranean Sea is a marine biodiversity hotspot already affected by climate-driven
biodiversity collapses. Its highly endemic fauna is at further risk if global warming
triggers an invasion of tropical Atlantic species. Here, we combine modern ...
Environmental Sciences
Rates of microbial processes are fundamental to understanding the significance of
microbial impacts on environmental chemical cycling. However, it is often difficult
to quantify rates or to link processes to specific taxa or individual cells, especially
...
Physics
The self-assembly of spheres into geometric structures, under various theoretical
conditions, offers valuable insights into complex self-assembly processes in soft
systems. Previous studies have utilized pair potentials between spheres to assemble
maximum ...
Statistics
Contingency tables, data represented as counts matrices, are ubiquitous across quantitative
research and data-science applications. Existing statistical tests are insufficient
however, as none are simultaneously computationally efficient and statistically ...
While reliable data-driven decision-making hinges on high-quality labeled data, the
acquisition of quality labels often involves laborious human annotations or slow and
expensive scientific measurements. Machine learning is becoming an appealing ...
Sustainability Science
Soil moisture (SM) is essential for sustaining services from Earth’s critical zone,
a thin-living skin spanning from the canopy to groundwater. In the Anthropocene epoch,
intensive afforestation has remarkably contributed to global greening and certain
...
Social Sciences
Anthropology
Ethnographic records show that wooden tools played a pivotal role in the daily lives
of hunter-gatherers including food procurement tools used in hunting (e.g., spears,
throwing sticks) and gathering (e.g. digging sticks, bark peelers), as well as, ...
Environmental Sciences
Africa carries a disproportionately high share of the global malaria burden, accounting
for 94% of malaria cases and deaths worldwide in 2019. It is also a politically unstable
region and the most vulnerable continent to climate change in recent decades. ...
Corrugated packaging for express grew by 90 times to 16.5 Mt y−1 in China, where 81% of recent global express delivery growth occurred. However, the
environmental impacts of production, usage, disposal, and recycling of corrugated
boxes under the entire ...
Psychological and Cognitive Sciences
Humans blink their eyes frequently during normal viewing, more often than it seems
necessary for keeping the cornea well lubricated. Since the closure of the eyelid
disrupts the image on the retina, eye blinks are commonly assumed to be detrimental
to ...
View related content:
Sustainability Science
Corrugated packaging for express grew by 90 times to 16.5 Mt y−1 in China, where 81% of recent global express delivery growth occurred. However, the
environmental impacts of production, usage, disposal, and recycling of corrugated
boxes under the entire ...
Visitation to National Parks in the United States increased by more than 25% since
2010, rising from roughly 70 to 90 million annual visitors. Anecdotes suggest that
this increase was driven by the advent of social media in the early-to-mid 2010s,
...
The U.S. federal government is unbalanced in its capacity to recognize, manage, and
engage cultural heritage as part of its response to climate change. Legislation from
the 1906 Antiquities Act to Executive Order (EO) 13990 signed in 2021 has set an ...
Biological Sciences
Biochemistry
Multidrug resistance (MDR) is a major factor in the failure of many forms of tumor
chemotherapy. Development of a specific ligand for MDR-reversal would enhance the
intracellular accumulation of therapeutic agents and effectively improve the tumor
...
The membrane protein Niemann–Pick type C1 (NPC1, named NCR1 in yeast) is central to
sterol homeostasis in eukaryotes. Saccharomyces cerevisiae NCR1 is localized to the vacuolar membrane, where it is suggested to carry sterols
across the protective ...
The release of paused RNA polymerase II (RNAPII) from promoter-proximal regions is
tightly controlled to ensure proper regulation of gene expression. The elongation
factor PTEF-b is known to release paused RNAPII via phosphorylation of the RNAPII
C-...
Biophysics and Computational Biology
Contingency tables, data represented as counts matrices, are ubiquitous across quantitative
research and data-science applications. Existing statistical tests are insufficient
however, as none are simultaneously computationally efficient and statistically ...
Drug resistance in HIV type 1 (HIV-1) is a pervasive problem that affects the lives
of millions of people worldwide. Although records of drug-resistant mutations (DRMs)
have been extensively tabulated within public repositories, our understanding of the
...
Riboswitches are messenger RNA (mRNA) fragments binding specific small molecules to
regulate gene expression. A synthetic N1 riboswitch, inserted into yeast mRNA controls
the translation of a reporter gene in response to neomycin. However, its regulatory
...
Cell Biology
Omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) found primarily in fish oil have been a
popular supplement for cardiovascular health because they can substantially reduce
circulating triglyceride levels in the bloodstream to prevent atherosclerosis. Beyond
...
Ecology
The Mediterranean Sea is a marine biodiversity hotspot already affected by climate-driven
biodiversity collapses. Its highly endemic fauna is at further risk if global warming
triggers an invasion of tropical Atlantic species. Here, we combine modern ...
Changes in climate can alter environmental conditions faster than most species can
adapt. A prediction under a warming climate is that species will shift their distributions
poleward through time. While many studies focus on range shifts, latitudinal ...
View related content:
The continental divide in range-shifting birds of North America
Environmental Sciences
Rates of microbial processes are fundamental to understanding the significance of
microbial impacts on environmental chemical cycling. However, it is often difficult
to quantify rates or to link processes to specific taxa or individual cells, especially
...
Evolution
The axial columns of the earliest limbed vertebrates show distinct patterns of regionalization
as compared to early tetrapodomorphs. Included among their novel features are sacral
ribs, which provide linkage between the vertebral column and pelvis, ...
Malvaceae comprise some 4,225 species in 243 genera and nine subfamilies and include
economically important species, such as cacao, cotton, durian, and jute, with cotton
an important model system for studying the domestication of polyploids. Here, we use
...
Genomes are typically mosaics of regions with different evolutionary histories. When
speciation events are closely spaced in time, recombination makes the regions sharing
the same history small, and the evolutionary history changes rapidly as we move ...
Genetics
Transposable element invasions have a profound impact on the evolution of genomes
and phenotypes. It is thus an important open question how often such TE invasions
occur. To address this question, we utilize the genomes of historical specimens, sampled
...
To address the contribution of transcriptional regulation to Drosophila clock gene expression and to behavior, we generated a series of CRISPR-mediated deletions
within two regions of the circadian gene timeless (tim), an intronic E-box region and an ...
Immunology and Inflammation
Natural killer (NK) cell immunotherapy has gained attention as a promising strategy
for treatment of various malignancies. In this study, we used a genome-wide CRISPR
screen to identify genes that provide protection or susceptibility to NK cell ...
Monocytes comprise two major subsets, Ly6Chi classical monocytes and Ly6Clo nonclassical monocytes. Notch2 signaling in Ly6Chi monocytes triggers transition to Ly6Clo monocytes, which require Nr4a1, Bcl6, Irf2, and Cebpb. By comparison, less is known ...
Atherosclerosis is fueled by a failure to resolve lipid-driven inflammation within
the vasculature that drives plaque formation. Therapeutic approaches to reverse atherosclerotic
inflammation are needed to address the rising global burden of ...
Medical Sciences
Mammalian switch/sucrose nonfermentable (mSWI/SNF) ATPase degraders have been shown
to be effective in enhancer-driven cancers by functioning to impede oncogenic transcription
factor chromatin accessibility. Here, we developed AU-24118, an orally ...
Microbiology
Polyphosphate (polyP) synthesis is a ubiquitous stress and starvation response in
bacteria. In diverse species, mutants unable to make polyP have a wide variety of
physiological defects, but the mechanisms by which this simple polyanion exerts its
...
Here, we describe the identification of an antibiotic class acting via LpxH, a clinically
unexploited target in lipopolysaccharide synthesis. The lipopolysaccharide synthesis
pathway is essential in most Gram-negative bacteria and there is no analogous ...
Antigenic drift of SARS-CoV-2 is typically defined by mutations in the N-terminal
domain and receptor binding domain of spike protein. In contrast, whether antigenic
drift occurs in the S2 domain remains largely elusive. Here, we perform a deep mutational
...
Photosynthetic protists, known as microalgae, are key contributors to primary production
on Earth. Since early in evolution, they coexist with bacteria in nature, and their
mode of interaction shapes ecosystems. We have recently shown that the bacterium ...
Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV)-2 has caused millions of
deaths since its emergence in 2019. Innate immune antagonism by lethal CoVs such as
SARS-CoV-2 is crucial for optimal replication and pathogenesis. The conserved ...
Neuroscience
Humans blink their eyes frequently during normal viewing, more often than it seems
necessary for keeping the cornea well lubricated. Since the closure of the eyelid
disrupts the image on the retina, eye blinks are commonly assumed to be detrimental
to ...
View related content:
The default mode network (DMN) is a large-scale brain network known to be suppressed
during a wide range of cognitive tasks. However, our comprehension of its role in
naturalistic and unconstrained behaviors has remained elusive because most research
on ...
Although sudden sensorineural hearing loss (SSNHL) is a serious condition, there are
currently no approved drugs for its treatment. Nevertheless, there is a growing understanding
that the cochlear pathologies that underlie SSNHL include apoptotic death of ...
Prion-like spread of disease-specific tau conformers is a hallmark of all tauopathies.
A 19-residue probe peptide containing a P301L mutation and spanning the R2/R3 splice
junction of tau folds and stacks into seeding-competent fibrils and induces ...
Stable matching of neurotransmitters with their receptors is fundamental to synapse
function and reliable communication in neural circuits. Presynaptic neurotransmitters
regulate the stabilization of postsynaptic transmitter receptors. Whether ...
The presynaptic SNARE-complex regulator complexin (Cplx) enhances the fusogenicity
of primed synaptic vesicles (SVs). Consequently, Cplx deletion impairs action potential-evoked
transmitter release. Conversely, though, Cplx loss enhances spontaneous and ...
Electromagnetic radiation (EMR) in the environment, particularly in the microwave
range, may constitute a public health concern. Exposure to 2.4 GHz EMR modulated by
100 Hz square pulses was recently reported to markedly increase wakefulness in mice.
Here,...
Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a complex neurodevelopmental condition characterized
by social and communication deficits and repetitive behaviors. The genetic heterogeneity
of ASD presents a challenge to the development of an effective treatment ...
Physiology
Endothelial cells (ECs) line the wall of blood vessels and regulate arterial contractility
to tune regional organ blood flow and systemic pressure. Chloride (Cl−) is the most abundant anion in ECs and the Cl− sensitive With-No-Lysine (WNK) kinase is ...
Plant Biology
Monocarpic plants have a single reproductive phase in their life. Therefore, flower
and fruit production are restricted to the length of this period. This reproductive
strategy involves the regulation of flowering cessation by a coordinated arrest of
the ...
Adjacent plant cells are connected by specialized cell wall regions, called middle
lamellae, which influence critical agricultural characteristics, including fruit ripening
and organ abscission. Middle lamellae are enriched in pectin polysaccharides, ...
Population Biology
Quantifying transmission intensity and heterogeneity is crucial to ascertain the threat
posed by infectious diseases and inform the design of interventions. Methods that
jointly estimate the reproduction number R and the dispersion parameter k have ...
Corrections
Cover image: Pictured is a tropical Atlantic sea hare (Bursatella leachii) in southeastern Italy. Paolo Albano et al. used species occurrence and climate data from the Last Interglacial and present day to model the potential for tropical Atlantic species to invade the Mediterranean Sea under future climate scenarios. The authors found that even moderate warming scenarios would allow a tropical Atlantic invasion into the Mediterranean Sea by 2050. This invasion, along with the ongoing introduction of Indo-Pacific species through the Suez Canal, would produce an irreversible shift in the Mediterranean ecosystem. See the article by Albano et al. e2320687121. Image credit: Michele Solca (deepsee.it).
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