Table Of Contents Page, PNAS Volume 121, Number 17
Special Feature
Progress and Promise for Science in Indonesia
In the past three decades, there has been a rise in young academy movements in the
Global North and South. Such movements, in at least Germany and the Netherlands, have
been shown to be quite effective in connecting scientific work with society. Likewise,
...
Environmental DNA (eDNA) metabarcoding has the potential to revolutionize conservation
planning by providing spatially and taxonomically comprehensive data on biodiversity
and ecosystem conditions, but its utility to inform the design of protected areas
...
For countries’ emission-reduction efforts under the Paris Agreement to be effective,
baseline emission/removals levels and reporting must be as transparent and accurate
as possible. For Indonesia, which holds among the largest area of tropical peatlands
...
The expansion of the oil palm industry in Indonesia has improved livelihoods in rural
communities, but comes at the cost of biodiversity and ecosystem degradation. Here,
we investigated ways to balance ecological and economic outcomes of oil palm ...
Uncontrolled fires place considerable burdens on forest ecosystems, compromising our
ability to meet conservation and restoration goals. A poor understanding of the impacts
of fire on ecosystems and their biodiversity exacerbates this challenge, ...
This Week in PNAS
News Feature
Profile
Commentary
Perspective
The germ theory states that pathogenic microorganisms are responsible for causing
infectious diseases. The theory is inherently microbe-centric and does not account
for variability in disease severity among individuals and asymptomatic carriership—two
...
Brief Report
Proteinaceous brain inclusions, neuroinflammation, and vascular dysfunction are common
pathologies in Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Vascular deficits include a compromised blood–brain
barrier, which can lead to extravasation of blood proteins like fibrinogen ...
Physical Sciences
Applied Mathematics
Distributed nonconvex optimization underpins key functionalities of numerous distributed
systems, ranging from power systems, smart buildings, cooperative robots, vehicle
networks to sensor networks. Recently, it has also merged as a promising solution
to ...
Applied Physical Sciences
Design of hardware based on biological principles of neuronal computation and plasticity
in the brain is a leading approach to realizing energy- and sample-efficient AI and
learning machines. An important factor in selection of the hardware building ...
Pipe flows are commonly found in nature and industry as an effective mean of transporting
fluids. They are primarily characterized by their resistance law, which relates the
mean flow rate to the driving pressure gradient. Since Poiseuille and Hagen, ...
Near-field radiative heat transfer has recently attracted increasing interests for
its applications in energy technologies, such as thermophotovoltaics. Existing works,
however, are restricted to time-independent systems. Here, we explore near-field ...
Biophysics and Computational Biology
Glycerophospholipids are synthesized primarily in the cytosolic leaflet of the endoplasmic
reticulum (ER) membrane and must be equilibrated between bilayer leaflets to allow
the ER and membranes derived from it to grow. Lipid equilibration is facilitated ...
Heterotrimeric G proteins can be regulated by posttranslational modifications, including
ubiquitylation. KCTD5, a pentameric substrate receptor protein consisting of an N-terminal
BTB domain and a C-terminal domain, engages CUL3 to form the central ...
Biofilms inhabit a range of environments, such as dental plaques or soil micropores,
often characterized by noneven surfaces. However, the impact of surface irregularities
on the population dynamics of biofilms remains elusive, as most experiments are ...
Collective motion is ubiquitous in nature; groups of animals, such as fish, birds,
and ungulates appear to move as a whole, exhibiting a rich behavioral repertoire that
ranges from directed movement to milling to disordered swarming. Typically, such ...
Chemistry
The hybrid electrolyzer coupled glycerol oxidation (GOR) with hydrogen evolution reaction
(HER) is fascinating to simultaneously generate H2 and high value-added chemicals with low energy input, yet facing a challenge. Herein,
Cu-based metal–organic ...
Growing crystallographically incommensurate and dissimilar organic materials is fundamentally
intriguing but challenging for the prominent cross-correlation phenomenon enabling
unique magnetic, electronic, and optical functionalities. Here, we report the ...
Voltage oscillation at subzero in sodium-ion batteries (SIBs) has been a common but
overlooked scenario, almost yet to be understood. For example, the phenomenon seriously
deteriorates the performance of Na3V2(PO4)3 (NVP) cathode in PC (propylene ...
A fundamental question associated with chirality is how mixtures containing equal
amounts of interconverting enantiomers can spontaneously convert to systems enriched
in only one of them. Enantiomers typically have similar chemical properties, but can
...
Time-resolved X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (TR-XPS) is used in a simulation study
to monitor the excited state intramolecular proton transfer between oxygen and nitrogen
atoms in 2-(iminomethyl)phenol. Real-time monitoring of the chemical bond ...
Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences
The main sources of redox gradients supporting high-productivity life in the Europan
and other icy ocean world oceans were proposed to be photolytically derived oxidants,
such as reactive oxygen species (ROS) from the icy shell, and reductants (Fe(II),
S(-...
Experimental results are presented showing the variation in the relationship between
odd isotopes of tin (Sn) in mass-independent fractionation caused by the magnetic
isotope effect (MIE), which has previously only been observed for mercury. These results
...
Ferromagnesian silicates are the dominant constituents of the Earth’s mantle, which
comprise more than 80% of our planet by volume. To interpret the low shear-velocity
anomalies in the lower mantle, we need to construct a reliable transformation diagram
...
Engineering
Dynamic networks composed of constituents that break and reform bonds reversibly are
ubiquitous in nature owing to their modular architectures that enable functions like
energy dissipation, self-healing, and even activity. While bond breaking depends only
...
Recently, there has been a notable surge in interest regarding reclaiming valuable
chemicals from waste plastics. However, the energy-intensive conventional thermal
catalysis does not align with the concept of sustainable development. Herein, we report
a ...
Plant leaves, whose remarkable ability for morphogenesis results in a wide range of
petal and leaf shapes in response to environmental cues, have inspired scientific
studies as well as the development of engineering structures and devices. Although
some ...
Mathematics
This article builds on recent work of the first three authors where a notion of congruence
modules in higher codimension is introduced. The main results are a criterion for
detecting regularity of local rings in terms of congruence modules, and a more ...
Physics
The central aim of quantum networks is to facilitate user connectivity via quantum
channels, but there is an open need for benchmarking metrics to compare diverse quantum
networks. Here, we propose a general framework for quantifying the performance of
a ...
Superhydrophobic surfaces are often seen as frictionless materials, on which water
is highly mobile. Understanding the nature of friction for such water-repellent systems
is central to further minimize resistance to motion and energy loss in applications.
...
Many nonequilibrium, active processes are observed at a coarse-grained level, where
different microscopic configurations are projected onto the same observable state.
Such “lumped” observables display memory, and in many cases, the irreversible character
...
Quantum amplification enables the enhancement of weak signals and is of great importance
for precision measurements, such as biomedical science and tests of fundamental symmetries.
Here, we observe a previously unexplored magnetic amplification using dark ...
Sustainability Science
Understanding the transient dynamics of interlinked social–ecological systems (SES)
is imperative for assessing sustainability in the Anthropocene. However, how to identify
critical transitions in real-world SES remains a formidable challenge. In this ...
Social Sciences
Economic Sciences
The central aim of quantum networks is to facilitate user connectivity via quantum
channels, but there is an open need for benchmarking metrics to compare diverse quantum
networks. Here, we propose a general framework for quantifying the performance of
a ...
This paper presents quasiexperimental evidence of Covid-19 transmission through casual
contact between customers in retail stores. For a large sample of individuals in Denmark,
we match card payment data, indicating exactly where and when each individual ...
We present an experiment on the immediate and lasting effects of reminder nudges in
a complex environment. In the study, 1,542 subjects face a setting where, within a
brief time frame, they have to pay attention to and perform multiple actions in a
...
Psychological and Cognitive Sciences
Studying heroism in controlled settings presents challenges and ethical controversies
due to its association with physical risk. Leveraging virtual reality (VR) technology,
we conducted a three-study series with 397 participants from China to investigate
...
Vision can provide useful cues about the geometric properties of an object, like its
size, distance, pose, and shape. But how the brain merges these properties into a
complete sensory representation of a three-dimensional object is poorly understood.
To ...
Functional neuroimaging studies indicate that the human brain can represent concepts
and their relational structure in memory using coding schemes typical of spatial navigation.
However, whether we can read out the internal representational geometries of ...
Biological Sciences
Applied Biological Sciences
The main sources of redox gradients supporting high-productivity life in the Europan
and other icy ocean world oceans were proposed to be photolytically derived oxidants,
such as reactive oxygen species (ROS) from the icy shell, and reductants (Fe(II),
S(-...
Anti-microbial resistance (AMR) is one of the greatest threats to global health. The
continual battle between the emergence of AMR and the development of drugs will be
extremely difficult to stop as long as traditional anti-biotic approaches are taken.
In ...
Biochemistry
Glycerophospholipids are synthesized primarily in the cytosolic leaflet of the endoplasmic
reticulum (ER) membrane and must be equilibrated between bilayer leaflets to allow
the ER and membranes derived from it to grow. Lipid equilibration is facilitated ...
Heterotrimeric G proteins can be regulated by posttranslational modifications, including
ubiquitylation. KCTD5, a pentameric substrate receptor protein consisting of an N-terminal
BTB domain and a C-terminal domain, engages CUL3 to form the central ...
In gram-positive bacteria, phosphorylated arginine functions as a protein degradation
signal in a similar manner as ubiquitin in eukaryotes. The protein-arginine phosphorylation
is mediated by the McsAB complex, where McsB possesses kinase activity and ...
Serine phosphorylations on insulin receptor substrate 1 (IRS-1) by diverse kinases
aoccur widely during obesity-, stress-, and inflammation-induced conditions in models
of insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes. In this study, we define a region within
...
Biophysics and Computational Biology
Plant leaves, whose remarkable ability for morphogenesis results in a wide range of
petal and leaf shapes in response to environmental cues, have inspired scientific
studies as well as the development of engineering structures and devices. Although
some ...
The TWIK-related acid-sensitive K+ channel 3 (TASK3) belongs to the two-pore domain (K2P) potassium channel family,
which regulates cell excitability by mediating a constitutive “leak” potassium efflux
in the nervous system. Extracellular acidification ...
Cell Biology
The MYC-Associated Zinc Finger Protein (MAZ) plays important roles in chromatin organization
and gene transcription regulation. Dysregulated expression of MAZ causes diseases,
such as glioblastoma, breast cancer, prostate cancer, and liposarcoma. ...
The endosomal sorting complex required for transport (ESCRT) machinery constitutes
multisubunit protein complexes that play an essential role in membrane remodeling
and trafficking. ESCRTs regulate a wide array of cellular processes, including cytokinetic
...
Ecology
Growing crops in more diverse crop systems (i.e., intercropping) is one way to produce
food more sustainably. Even though intercropping, compared to average monocultures,
is generally more productive, the full yield potential of intercropping might not
...
While there is increasing recognition that social processes in cities like gentrification
have ecological consequences, we lack nuanced understanding of the ways gentrification
affects urban biodiversity. We analyzed a large camera trap dataset of mammals ...
The Ornate Moth, Utetheisa ornatrix, has served as a model species in chemical ecology studies for decades. Like in the
widely publicized stories of the Monarch and other milkweed butterflies, the Ornate
Moth and its relatives are tropical insects ...
Evolution
Studying heroism in controlled settings presents challenges and ethical controversies
due to its association with physical risk. Leveraging virtual reality (VR) technology,
we conducted a three-study series with 397 participants from China to investigate
...
Biofilms inhabit a range of environments, such as dental plaques or soil micropores,
often characterized by noneven surfaces. However, the impact of surface irregularities
on the population dynamics of biofilms remains elusive, as most experiments are ...
Genetics
RNA interference (RNAi) is a fundamental regulatory pathway with a wide range of functions,
including regulation of gene expression and maintenance of genome stability. Although
RNAi is widespread in the fungal kingdom, well-known species, such as the ...
The apolipoprotein B messenger RNA editing enzyme, catalytic polypeptide (APOBEC)
family is composed of nucleic acid editors with roles ranging from antibody diversification
to RNA editing. APOBEC2, a member of this family with an evolutionarily conserved
...
DNA damage and neurodegenerative disorders are intimately linked but the underlying
mechanism remains elusive. Here, we show that persistent DNA lesions in tissue-resident
macrophages carrying an XPF-ERCC1 DNA repair defect trigger neuroinflammation and
...
Inherited arrhythmia syndromes (IASs) can cause life-threatening arrhythmias and are
responsible for a significant proportion of sudden cardiac deaths (SCDs). Despite
progress in the development of devices to prevent SCDs, the precise molecular mechanisms
...
Immunology and Inflammation
In response to an immune challenge, naive T cells undergo a transition from a quiescent
to an activated state acquiring the effector function. Concurrently, these T cells
reprogram cellular metabolism, which is regulated by iron. We and others have shown
...
The development of seizures in epilepsy syndromes associated with malformations of
cortical development (MCDs) has traditionally been attributed to intrinsic cortical
alterations resulting from abnormal network excitability. However, recent analyses
at ...
To effectively protect the host from viral infection while avoiding excessive immunopathology,
the innate immune response must be tightly controlled. However, the precise regulation
of antiviral innate immunity and the underlying mechanisms remain ...
Although anti-citrullinated protein autoantibodies (ACPAs) are a hallmark serological
feature of rheumatoid arthritis (RA), the mechanisms and cellular sources behind the
generation of the RA citrullinome remain incompletely defined. Peptidylarginine ...
Since its discovery over three decades ago, signal transducer and activator of transcription
1 (STAT1) has been extensively studied as a central mediator for interferons (IFNs)
signaling and antiviral defense. Here, using genetic and biochemical assays, ...
Medical Sciences
High-grade neuroendocrine cervical cancers (NETc) are exceedingly rare, highly aggressive
tumors. We analyzed 64 NETc tumor samples by whole-exome sequencing (WES). Human papillomavirus
DNA was detected in 65.6% (42/64) of the tumors. Recurrent mutations ...
As the SARS-CoV-2 virus continues to spread and mutate, it remains important to focus
not only on preventing spread through vaccination but also on treating infection with
direct-acting antivirals (DAA). The approval of Paxlovid, a SARS-CoV-2 main ...
Apolipoprotein AV (APOA5) lowers plasma triglyceride (TG) levels by binding to the
angiopoietin-like protein 3/8 complex (ANGPTL3/8) and suppressing its capacity to
inhibit lipoprotein lipase (LPL) catalytic activity and its ability to detach LPL
from ...
Microbiology
In this Inaugural Article the author briefly revises its scientific career and how
he starts to work with parasitic protozoa. Emphasis is given to his contribution to
topics such as a) the structural organization of the surface of protozoa using freeze-...
View related content:
Type IVa pili (T4aP) are ubiquitous cell surface filaments important for surface motility,
adhesion to surfaces, DNA uptake, biofilm formation, and virulence. T4aP are built
from thousands of copies of the major pilin subunit and tipped by a complex ...
Mycobacterium abscessus is increasingly recognized as the causative agent of chronic pulmonary infections
in humans. One of the genes found to be under strong evolutionary pressure during
adaptation of M. abscessus to the human lung is embC which encodes ...
Levels of lipopolysaccharide (LPS), an essential glycolipid on the surface of most
gram-negative bacteria, are tightly controlled—making LPS synthesis a promising target
for developing new antibiotics. Escherichia coli adaptor protein LapB (YciM) plays an ...
Global control of infectious diseases depends on the continuous development and deployment
of diverse vaccination strategies. Currently available live-attenuated and killed
virus vaccines typically take a week or longer to activate specific protection by
...
The gene content in a metagenomic pool defines the function potential of a microbial
community. Natural selection, operating on the level of genomes or genes, shapes the
evolution of community functions by enriching some genes while depriving the others.
...
Listeria monocytogenes is a bacterial pathogen that can cause life-threatening central nervous system (CNS)
infections. While mechanisms by which L. monocytogenes and other pathogens traffic to the brain have been studied, a quantitative understanding
of ...
Neuroscience
Design of hardware based on biological principles of neuronal computation and plasticity
in the brain is a leading approach to realizing energy- and sample-efficient AI and
learning machines. An important factor in selection of the hardware building ...
Collective motion is ubiquitous in nature; groups of animals, such as fish, birds,
and ungulates appear to move as a whole, exhibiting a rich behavioral repertoire that
ranges from directed movement to milling to disordered swarming. Typically, such ...
Circadian regulation and temperature dependency are important orchestrators of molecular
pathways. How the integration between these two drivers is achieved, is not understood.
We monitored circadian- and temperature-dependent effects on transcription ...
Efforts to genetically reverse C9orf72 pathology have been hampered by our incomplete
understanding of the regulation of this complex locus. We generated five different
genomic excisions at the C9orf72 locus in a patient-derived induced pluripotent stem ...
Brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) plays a critical role in synaptic physiology,
as well as mechanisms underlying various neuropsychiatric diseases and their treatment.
Despite its clear physiological role and disease relevance, BDNF’s function at ...
The Trojan exon method, which makes use of intronically inserted T2A-Gal4 cassettes,
has been widely used in Drosophila to create thousands of gene-specific Gal4 driver lines. These dual-purpose lines
provide genetic access to specific cell types based on ...
A key feature of excitatory synapses is the existence of subsynaptic protein nanoclusters
(NCs) whose precise alignment across the cleft in a transsynaptic nanocolumn influences
the strength of synaptic transmission. However, whether nanocolumn properties ...
Neurons in the inferior olive are thought to anatomically organize the Purkinje cells
(P-cells) of the cerebellum into computational modules, but what is computed by each
module? Here, we designed a saccade task in marmosets that dissociated sensory ...
Synaptojanin-1 (SJ1) is a major neuronal-enriched PI(4, 5)P2 4- and 5-phosphatase implicated in the shedding of endocytic factors during endocytosis.
A mutation (R258Q) that impairs selectively its 4-phosphatase activity causes Parkinsonism
in humans and ...
Hippocampal somatostatin-expressing (Sst) GABAergic interneurons (INs) exhibit considerable anatomical and functional heterogeneity.
Recent single-cell transcriptome analyses have provided a comprehensive Sst-IN subpopulations census, a plausible ...
Physiology
Cullin RING E3 ligases (CRL) have emerged as key regulators of disease-modifying pathways
and therapeutic targets. Cullin3 (Cul3)-containing CRL (CRL3) has been implicated
in regulating hepatic insulin and oxidative stress signaling. However, CRL3 ...
Plant Biology
Auxin regulates plant growth and development through downstream signaling pathways,
including the best-known SCFTIR1/AFB-Aux/IAA-ARF pathway and several other less characterized “noncanonical” pathways.
Recently, one SCFTIR1/AFB-independent noncanonical ...
Population Biology
Characterizing the relationship between disease testing behaviors and infectious disease
dynamics is of great importance for public health. Tests for both current and past
infection can influence disease-related behaviors at the individual level, while ...
Psychological and Cognitive Sciences
Functional neuroimaging studies indicate that the human brain can represent concepts
and their relational structure in memory using coding schemes typical of spatial navigation.
However, whether we can read out the internal representational geometries of ...
Sustainability Science
Understanding the transient dynamics of interlinked social–ecological systems (SES)
is imperative for assessing sustainability in the Anthropocene. However, how to identify
critical transitions in real-world SES remains a formidable challenge. In this ...
Corrections
Cover image: Pictured is a map of high-carbon ecosystems in Indonesia, showing tropical peatlands (red), mangrove forests (green), and mangrove overlapping peatlands (yellow). A collection of articles in the Progress and Promise for Science in Indonesia Special Feature highlights research based on the geology and biology of Indonesia, with a focus on biodiversity and climate change. Together, the articles illustrate the accomplishments of Indonesian scientists and opportunities for further supporting and advancing scientific research in the country. See the Introduction to the Special Feature, e2402202121. Image credit: Daniel Murdiyarso (Center for International Forestry Research, Bogor, Indonesia).
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