Table Of Contents Page, PNAS Volume 121, Number 37
This Week in PNAS
Inner Workings
QnAs
Retrospective
Commentaries
Perspective
Mechanical force has repeatedly been highlighted to be involved in T cell activation.
However, the biological significance of mechanical force for T cell receptor signaling
remains under active consideration. Here, guided by theoretical analysis, we ...
Letters
Brief Report
Humans explore visual scenes by alternating short fixations with saccades directing
the fovea to points of interest. During fixation, the visual system not only examines
the foveal stimulus at high resolution, but it also processes the extrafoveal input
...
Physical Sciences
Biophysics and Computational Biology
Utilizing molecular dynamics and free energy perturbation, we examine the relative
binding affinity of several covalent polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon - DNA (PAH-DNA)
adducts at the central adenine of NRAS codon-61, a mutational hotspot implicated in
...
The Caenorhabditis elegans HMP-2/HMP-1 complex, akin to the mammalian -catenin--catenin complex, serves as a critical mechanosensor at cell–cell adherens junctions,
transducing tension between HMR-1 (also known as cadherin in mammals) and the actin
...
Collective cell migration is crucial in various physiological processes, including
wound healing, morphogenesis, and cancer metastasis. Adherens Junctions (AJs) play
a pivotal role in regulating cell cohesion and migration dynamics during tissue ...
Chemistry
Oral delivery of proteins faces challenges due to the harsh conditions of the gastrointestinal
(GI) tract, including gastric acid and intestinal enzyme degradation. Permeation enhancers
are limited in their ability to deliver proteins with high molecular ...
The nature of interchain π-system contacts, and their relationship to hole transport,
are elucidated for the high-mobility, noncrystalline conjugated polymer C16-IDTBT
by the application of scanning tunneling microscopy, molecular dynamics, and quantum
...
We present Einstein coefficient spectra and a detailed-balance derivation of generalized
Einstein relations between them that is based on the connection between spontaneous
and stimulated emission. If two broadened levels or bands overlap in energy, ...
Catalytic hydrogenation of CO2 to value-added fuels and chemicals is of great importance to carbon neutrality but
suffers from an activity–selectivity trade-off, leading to limited catalytic performance.
Herein, the ZnFeAlO4 + SAPO-34 composite catalyst ...
Transition metal oxides ion diffusion channels have been developed for ammonium-ion
batteries (AIBs). However, the influence of microstructural features of diffusion
channels on the storage and diffusion behavior of NH4+ is not fully unveiled. In this ...
Free of posttransfer, on-surface synthesis (OSS) of single-atomic-layer nanostructures
directly on semiconductors holds considerable potential for next-generation devices.
However, due to the high diffusion barrier and abundant defects on semiconductor ...
Bacterial evolution, particularly in hospital settings, is leading to an increase
in multidrug resistance. Understanding the basis for this resistance is critical as
it can drive discovery of new antibiotics while allowing the clinical use of known
...
Computer Sciences
Finding optimal bipartite matchings—e.g., matching medical students to hospitals for
residency, items to buyers in an auction, or papers to reviewers for peer review—is
a fundamental combinatorial optimization problem. We found a distributed algorithm
for ...
The rapid growth of large-scale spatial gene expression data demands efficient and
reliable computational tools to extract major trends of gene expression in their native
spatial context. Here, we used stability-driven unsupervised learning (i.e., staNMF)
...
Engineering
Stereolithography enables the fabrication of three-dimensional (3D) freeform structures
via light-induced polymerization. However, the accumulation of ultraviolet dose within
resin trapped in negative spaces, such as microfluidic channels or voids, can ...
Environmental Sciences
High forest low deforestation jurisdictions (HFLDs) contain many of the world’s last
intact forests with historically low deforestation. Since carbon financing typically
uses historical deforestation rates as baselines, HFLDs facing the prospect of future
...
Homogenous advanced oxidation processes (AOPs) based on transition metal catalysts
toward the activation of H2O2 to hydroxyl radical (•OH) have been widely applied to organic pollutants removal,
such as Fenton and Fenton-like processes. These transition ...
Electrochemical ammonia (NH3) synthesis from nitrate reduction (NITRR) offers an appealing solution for addressing
environmental concerns and the energy crisis. However, most of the developed electrocatalysts
reduce NO3− to NH3 via a hydrogen (H*)-...
Peroxymonosulfate-based electrochemical advanced oxidation processes (PMS-EAOPs) have
great potential for sustainable water purification, so an in-depth understanding of
its catalytic mechanism is imperative to facilitate its practical application. Herein,...
Physics
Entanglement in a soft condensed matter system is enabled in the form of entangled
disclination lines by using colloidal particles in nematic liquid crystals. These
topological excitations are manifested as colloidal entanglement at equilibrium. How
to ...
The unconventional superconductor UTe exhibits numerous signatures of spin-triplet superconductivity—a rare state of matter
which could enable quantum computation protected against decoherence. UTe possesses a complex phase landscape comprising two ...
Statistics
Trajectory inference methods are essential for analyzing the developmental paths of
cells in single-cell sequencing datasets. It provides insights into cellular differentiation,
transitions, and lineage hierarchies, helping unravel the dynamic processes ...
Single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) data, susceptible to noise arising from biological
variability and technical errors, can distort gene expression analysis and impact
cell similarity assessments, particularly in heterogeneous populations. Current ...
Sustainability Science
High forest low deforestation jurisdictions (HFLDs) contain many of the world’s last
intact forests with historically low deforestation. Since carbon financing typically
uses historical deforestation rates as baselines, HFLDs facing the prospect of future
...
The outstanding mechanical properties, light weight, and biodegradability of cellulose
nanofibrils (CNFs) make them promising components of renewable and sustainable next-generation
reinforced composite biomaterials and bioplastics. Manufacturing CNFs at ...
Social Sciences
Anthropology
This study reports the earliest directly dated occurrence of archaeological wheat
and cotton in the humid forests of West Africa. These are the first archaeobotanical
results from the medieval urban center of Ile-Ife, southwestern Nigeria, best known
for ...
Political Sciences
States have long used economic sanctions in response to violations of international
law as a strategy to restore order. Increasingly, firms also reject doing business
with violators. In response to the war in Ukraine, hundreds of multinational ...
Psychological and Cognitive Sciences
Creating opportunities for people to achieve socioeconomic mobility is a widely shared
societal goal. Paradoxically, however, achieving this goal can pose a threat to high-socioeconomic-status
(SES) people as they look to maintain their privileged ...
The presaccadic preview of a peripheral target enhances the efficiency of its postsaccadic
processing, termed the extrafoveal preview effect. Peripheral visual performance—and
thus the quality of the preview—varies around the visual field, even at ...
Social Sciences
Immigrants are highly entrepreneurial. But, what is the broader relationship between
high-skilled immigration and regional entrepreneurship activity beyond the ventures
that immigrants establish themselves? Using administrative data on newly awarded H-1B
...
The transition to adolescence is a critical period for mental health development.
Socio-experiential environments play an important role in the emergence of depressive
symptoms with some adolescents showing more sensitivity to social contexts than others.
...
Biological Sciences
Applied Biological Sciences
Succinic acid (SA), a dicarboxylic acid of industrial importance, can be efficiently
produced by metabolically engineered Mannheimia succiniciproducens. Although the importance of magnesium (Mg2+) ion on SA production has been evident from our previous ...
Droplet microfluidics has become a very powerful tool in high-throughput screening,
including antibody discovery. Screens are usually carried out by physically sorting
droplets hosting cells of the desired phenotype, breaking them, recovering the ...
Biochemistry
Drug-resistant Tuberculosis (TB) is a global public health problem. Resistance to
rifampicin, the most effective drug for TB treatment, is a major growing concern.
The etiological agent, Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb), has a cluster of ATP-binding ...
Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a prevalent neurodegenerative disease characterized by
cognitive decline and learning/memory impairment associated with neuronal cell loss.
Estrogen-related receptor α (ERRα) and ERRγ, which are highly expressed in the brain,
...
The ubiquitin ligase Anaphase-Promoting Complex/Cyclosome (APC/C) and its regulatory
protein Cdc20 play important roles in the control of different stages of mitosis.
APC/C associated with Cdc20 is active and promotes metaphase–anaphase transition by
...
Biophysics and Computational Biology
Trajectory inference methods are essential for analyzing the developmental paths of
cells in single-cell sequencing datasets. It provides insights into cellular differentiation,
transitions, and lineage hierarchies, helping unravel the dynamic processes ...
The rapid growth of large-scale spatial gene expression data demands efficient and
reliable computational tools to extract major trends of gene expression in their native
spatial context. Here, we used stability-driven unsupervised learning (i.e., staNMF)
...
The Caenorhabditis elegans HMP-2/HMP-1 complex, akin to the mammalian -catenin--catenin complex, serves as a critical mechanosensor at cell–cell adherens junctions,
transducing tension between HMR-1 (also known as cadherin in mammals) and the actin
...
Prolyl-hydroxylation is an oxygen-dependent posttranslational modification (PTM) that
is known to regulate fibril formation of collagenous proteins and modulate cellular
expression of hypoxia-inducible factor (HIF) α subunits. However, our understanding
...
Autophagy of glycogen (glycophagy) is crucial for the maintenance of cellular glucose
homeostasis and physiology in mammals. STBD1 can serve as an autophagy receptor to
mediate glycophagy by specifically recognizing glycogen and relevant key autophagic
...
Cell Biology
Collective cell migration is crucial in various physiological processes, including
wound healing, morphogenesis, and cancer metastasis. Adherens Junctions (AJs) play
a pivotal role in regulating cell cohesion and migration dynamics during tissue ...
Proteostasis and genomic integrity are respectively regulated by the endoplasmic reticulum–associated
protein degradation (ERAD) and DNA damage repair signaling pathways, with both pathways
essential for carcinogenesis and drug resistance. How these ...
Developmental Biology
Ovarian development was traditionally recognized as a “default” sexual outcome and
therefore received much less scientific attention than testis development. In turtles
with temperature-dependent sex determination (TSD), how the female pathway is ...
Ecology
Anthropogenic habitat destruction and climate change are reshaping the geographic
distribution of plants worldwide. However, we are still unable to map species shifts
at high spatial, temporal, and taxonomic resolution. Here, we develop a deep learning
...
Evolution
A central goal in evolutionary biology is to understand how different evolutionary
processes cause trait change in wild populations. However, quantifying evolutionary
change in the wild requires linking trait change to shifts in allele frequencies at
...
Genetics
Truncating genetic variants of SORL1, encoding the endosome recycling receptor SORLA, have been accepted as causal of
Alzheimer’s disease (AD). However, most genetic variants observed in SORL1 are missense variants, for which it is complicated to ...
Immunology and Inflammation
While the acute inflammatory response to harmful stimuli is protective, unrestrained
neutrophil swarming drives collateral tissue damage and inflammation. Biosynthesized
from omega-3 essential polyunsaturated fatty acids, resolvins are a family of ...
Human C-reactive protein (CRP) is a pentameric complex involved in immune defense
and regulation of autoimmunity. CRP is also a therapeutic target, with both administration
and depletion of serum CRP being pursued as a possible treatment for autoimmune ...
Medical Sciences
Stereolithography enables the fabrication of three-dimensional (3D) freeform structures
via light-induced polymerization. However, the accumulation of ultraviolet dose within
resin trapped in negative spaces, such as microfluidic channels or voids, can ...
Epidemiological studies have revealed an inverse relationship between the incidence
of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and various cancers, including colorectal cancer (CRC).
We aimed to determine whether the incidence of CRC is reduced in AD-like mice and
...
Inflammatory syndromes, including those caused by infection, are a major cause of
hospital admissions among children and are often misdiagnosed because of a lack of
advanced molecular diagnostic tools. In this study, we explored the utility of circulating
...
Residual nonvisible bladder cancer after proper treatment caused by technological
and therapeutic limitations is responsible for tumor relapse and progression. This
study aimed to demonstrate the feasibility of a solution for simultaneous detection
and ...
We report two unrelated adults with homozygous (P1) or compound heterozygous (P2)
private loss-of-function variants of V-Rel Reticuloendotheliosis Viral Oncogene Homolog
B (RELB). The resulting deficiency of functional RelB impairs the induction of NFKB2 ...
Microbiology
We generated SARS-CoV-2 variants resistant to three SARS-CoV-2 main protease (Mpro) inhibitors (nirmatrelvir, TKB245, and 5h), by propagating the ancestral SARS-CoV-2WK521WT in VeroE6TMPRSS2 cells with increasing concentrations of each inhibitor and ...
Human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) glycoprotein B (gB) is a class III membrane fusion protein
required for viral entry. HCMV vaccine candidates containing gB have demonstrated
moderate clinical efficacy, but no HCMV vaccine has been approved. Here, we used ...
Organisms display an immense variety of shapes, sizes, and reproductive strategies.
At microscopic scales, bacterial cell morphology and growth dynamics are adaptive
traits that influence the spatial organization of microbial communities. In one such
...
Neuroscience
Finding optimal bipartite matchings—e.g., matching medical students to hospitals for
residency, items to buyers in an auction, or papers to reviewers for peer review—is
a fundamental combinatorial optimization problem. We found a distributed algorithm
for ...
Variations in interoceptive signals from the baroreceptors (BRs) across the cardiac
and respiratory cycle can modulate cortical excitability and so affect awareness.
It remains debated at what stages of processing they affect awareness-related event-...
Many RNA-binding proteins (RBPs) are linked to the dysregulation of RNA metabolism
in motor neuron diseases (MNDs). However, the molecular mechanisms underlying MN vulnerability
have yet to be elucidated. Here, we found that such an RBP, Quaking5 (Qki5), ...
In the brain, a microvascular sensory web coordinates oxygen delivery to regions of
neuronal activity. This involves a dense network of capillaries that send conductive
signals upstream to feeding arterioles to promote vasodilation and blood flow. ...
The retinal fovea in human and nonhuman primates is essential for high acuity and
color vision. Within the fovea lies specialized circuitry in which signals from a
single cone photoreceptor are largely conveyed to one ON and one OFF type midget bipolar
...
Physiology
The factors that contribute to pain after nerve injury remain incompletely understood.
Laser-assisted in situ keratomileusis (LASIK) and photorefractive keratectomy (PRK)
are common surgical techniques to correct refractive errors. After LASIK or PRK, a
...
Plant Biology
Root exudates are known signaling agents that influence legume root nodulation, but
the molecular mechanisms for nonflavonoid molecules remain largely unexplored. The
number of soybean root nodules during the initial growth phase shows substantial ...
In plants, development of all above-ground tissues relies on the shoot apical meristem
(SAM) which balances cell proliferation and differentiation to allow life-long growth.
To maximize fitness and survival, meristem activity is adjusted to the prevailing
...
Psychological and Cognitive Sciences
The transition to adolescence is a critical period for mental health development.
Socio-experiential environments play an important role in the emergence of depressive
symptoms with some adolescents showing more sensitivity to social contexts than others.
...
Corrections
Cover image: Pictured are chromium flocs with adsorbed hydroxyl radicals that have reacted with an organic pollutant. Manshu Zhao et al. analyzed the interactions between organic pollutants and flocs, or sludges, that form when chromium catalysts are used to treat industrial wastewater through oxidation processes. Chromium flocs first adsorbed hydroxyl radicals and then adhered to organic pollutants through hydrogen bonds and van der Waals forces, resulting in long-lasting pollutant removal. The results suggest that, rather than just being waste products, chromium and other transition metal flocs could be used to enhance wastewater treatment processes. See the article by Zhao et al. e2403072121. Image credit: Manshu Zhao and Mingming Gao.
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