Table Of Contents Page, PNAS Volume 121, Number 47
This Week in PNAS
Editorial
Profile
Commentary
Perspective
The ethnoracial future of the United States has been framed as a demographic binary:
Whites vs. people of color. The argument here is that this binary distorts by failing
to take into adequate account the rapidly growing group of Americans who have been
...
Letters
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Brief Reports
The objective of this work was to develop a long-acting form of the lipidated peptide
semaglutide that can be administered to humans once-monthly. Semaglutide was attached
to hydrogel microspheres by a cleavable linker with an expected in vivo release ...
The long-standing hypothesis that autism is linked to changes in the visual magnocellular
system of the human brain has never been directly examined due to technological constraints.
Here, we used a recently developed 7-Tesla functional MRI (fMRI) ...
Physical Sciences
Applied Mathematics
Topological transport is determined by global properties of physical media where it
occurs and is characterized by quantized amounts of adiabatically transported quantities.
Discovered for periodic potential, it was also explored in disordered and ...
Accurate estimation of the dispersal velocity or speed of evolving organisms is no
mean feat. In fact, existing probabilistic models in phylogeography or spatial population
genetics generally do not provide an adequate framework to define velocity in a ...
Applied Physical Sciences
Researchers looking for sustainable materials with optimal mechanical properties may
draw inspiration from a baseball tradition. For nearly 100 y, a mysterious mud harvested
from an undisclosed river site in New Jersey (USA) has been the agent of choice ...
Spin and orbital degrees of freedom are crucial in not only fundamental particles
but also classical waves such as optical systems, wherein the spin–orbit interaction
(SOI) of light provides new perspectives for manipulating electromagnetic waves. Elastic
...
Microscale objects responding to chemical gradients by migrating toward or away from
a preferred species is a simple yet constitutive mechanism by which transport occurs
in biological organisms. Synthetic chemotaxis provides key physical descriptions of
...
The distinctive characteristics of water, evident in its thermodynamic anomalies,
have implications across disciplines from biology to geophysics. Considered a valid
hypothesis to rationalize its unique properties, a liquid–liquid phase transition
in ...
Photosynthetic algae play a significant role in oceanic carbon capture. However, their
performance is constantly challenged by fluctuations in environmental light conditions.
While phototaxis is a common strategy to cope with such fluctuations, nonmotile ...
Biophysics and Computational Biology
Microorganisms have evolved sophisticated sensor-actuator circuits to perform taxis
in response to various environmental stimuli. How any given circuit can select between
different taxis responses in noisy vs. saturated stimuli conditions is unclear. Here,...
Vertebrate development and phylogeny are intimately connected through the vertebral
formula, the numerical distribution of vertebrae along the body axis into different
categories such as neck and chest. A key window into this relationship is through
the ...
Animals chain movements into long-lived motor strategies, exhibiting variability across
scales that reflects the interplay between internal states and environmental cues.
To reveal structure in such variability, we build Markov models of movement ...
Chemistry
Lipid bilayers, ubiquitous in living systems, form lubricious boundary layers in aqueous
media, with broad relevance for biolubrication, especially in mechanically stressed
environments such as articular cartilage in joints, as well as for modifying ...
The extraordinary chemistry of microdroplets has reshaped how we as a community think
about reactivity near multiphase boundaries. Even though interesting physico-chemical
properties of microdroplets have been reported, “sessile” droplets’ inherent ...
Cooperative spin crossover (SCO) compounds are one of the most promising molecular
bistable solids due to their intriguing thermal hysteresis phenomena around room temperature.
It is well known that hysteresis is an essential kinetic effect, however, ...
Mercury (Hg) is a heavy metal that exhibits high biological toxicity. Monomethylmercury
and dimethylmercury are neurotoxins and a significant environmental concern as they
bioaccumulate and biomagnify within the aquatic food web. Microbial Hg methylation
...
Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences
Northeast China’s Early Cretaceous Yixian Formation preserves spectacular fossils
that have proved extraordinarily important in testing evolutionary hypotheses involving
the origin of birds and the distribution of feathers among nonavian dinosaurs. These
...
Polar vortices are ubiquitous features of planetary atmospheric flows, from the Earth-like
rocky planets to Jupiter- and Saturn-like gas giant planets. Very little is known
about their existence or dynamics on the Sun. What should be expected near the Sun’...
The mechanisms underlying the current greenhouse gas (GHG) forced decline in Mediterranean
rainfall remain a matter of debate. To inform our understanding of the current and
projected drying, we examined extended arid intervals in the late Quaternary, ...
The Snowball Earth hypothesis predicts global ice cover; however, previous descriptions
of Cryogenian (720-635 Ma) glacial deposits are limited to continental margins and
shallow marine basins. The Tavakaiv (Tava) sandstone injectites and ridges in ...
Fracture networks are preferential flow paths playing a critical role in a wide range
of environmental and industrial problems. Their complex multiscale structure leads
to broad distributions of fluid travel times, affecting many biogeochemical processes.
...
Engineering
To mimic physiological microenvironments in organ-on-a-chip systems, physiologically
relevant parameters are required to precisely access drug metabolism. Oxygen level
is a critical microenvironmental parameter to maintain cellular or tissue functions
and ...
Efficient lithium recovery from geothermal brines is crucial for the battery industry.
Current electrochemical separation methods struggle with the simultaneous presence
of Na+, K+, Mg2+, and Ca2+ because these cations are similar to Li+, making it ...
Electrooxidation of renewable and CO2-neutral biomass for low-cost hydrogen production is a promising and green technology.
Various biomass platform molecules (BPMs) oxidation assisted hydrogen production technologies
have obtained noticeable progress. ...
To tackle significant environmental and energy challenges from increased greenhouse
gas emissions in the atmosphere, we propose a method that synergistically combines
cost-efficient integrated systems with parallel catalysis to produce high-value ...
This study presents the design, fabrication, and evaluation of a general platform
for the creation of three-dimensional printed devices (3DPDs) for tissue engineering
applications. As a demonstration, we modeled the liver with 3DPDs consisting of a
pair ...
Physics
We demonstrate an approach successfully measuring very small nuclear isomeric excitation
cross sections (on the order of 10 to 100 picobarns) via laser–cluster interaction.
The interaction between an intense laser pulse and Kr atomic clusters generates a
...
Sliding electrical contacts are commonly applied in electrical connectors, such as
conductive slip rings, pantographs, switches, and commutators. However, they suffer
from several unavoidable problems caused by friction and wear, including high energy
...
Social Sciences
Anthropology
This study investigates the temporal and spatial factors driving the domestication
of Capsicum annuum var. annuum L. in Mexico. This species exhibits the greatest morphological diversity in fruit
among Capsicum species—a characteristic that is even more ...
Economic Sciences
Impulsive reactions in social interactions may result in poor or even detrimental
outcomes. Particular cognitive states, such as mental fatigue induced by extended
practice with cognitively demanding activities, especially if combined with sleep
...
Psychological and Cognitive Sciences
Nearly five billion people use and receive news through social media and there is
widespread concern about the negative consequences of misinformation on social media
(e.g., election interference, vaccine hesitancy). Despite a burgeoning body of research
...
How do people search for information when they are given the opportunity to freely
explore their options? Previous research has suggested that people focus on reducing
uncertainty before making a decision, but it remains unclear how exactly they do so
and ...
Biological Sciences
Agricultural Sciences
Transgenic crops producing crystalline (Cry) proteins from the bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) have been used extensively to control some major crop pests. However, many populations
of the noctuid moth Helicoverpa zea, one of the most important crop ...
Applied Biological Sciences
To mimic physiological microenvironments in organ-on-a-chip systems, physiologically
relevant parameters are required to precisely access drug metabolism. Oxygen level
is a critical microenvironmental parameter to maintain cellular or tissue functions
and ...
Cell phase engineering can significantly impact protein synthesis and cell size, potentially
enhancing the production of lipophilic products. This study investigated the impact
of G1 phase extension on resource allocation, metabolic functions, and the ...
Biochemistry
Mercury (Hg) is a heavy metal that exhibits high biological toxicity. Monomethylmercury
and dimethylmercury are neurotoxins and a significant environmental concern as they
bioaccumulate and biomagnify within the aquatic food web. Microbial Hg methylation
...
Sulfur is an essential element for life. Bacteria can obtain sulfur from inorganic
sulfate; but in the sulfur starvation–induced response, Pseudomonads employ two-component flavin-dependent monooxygenases (TC-FMOs) from the msu and sfn operons to ...
As a unique type of glycosylation, O-linked β-N-acetylglucosamine (O-GlcNAc) modification
(O-GlcNAcylation) on Ser/Thr residues of proteins was discovered 40 y ago. O-GlcNAcylation
is catalyzed by two enzymes: O-GlcNAc transferase (OGT) and O-GlcNAcase (...
Tuberculosis is one of the most common causes of death worldwide, with a rapid emergence
of multi-drug-resistant strains underscoring the need for new antituberculosis drugs.
Recent studies indicate that lansoprazole—a known gastric proton pump inhibitor ...
Activin receptor type 1 (ACVR1; ALK2) and activin receptor like type 1 (ACVRL1; ALK1)
are transforming growth factor beta family receptors that integrate extracellular
signals of bone morphogenic proteins (BMPs) and activins into Mothers Against ...
Biophysics and Computational Biology
Lipid bilayers, ubiquitous in living systems, form lubricious boundary layers in aqueous
media, with broad relevance for biolubrication, especially in mechanically stressed
environments such as articular cartilage in joints, as well as for modifying ...
The concept of targeted protein degradation is at the forefront of modern drug discovery,
which aims to eliminate disease-causing proteins using specific molecules. In this
paper, we explored the idea to design protein degraders based on the section of ...
Cell Biology
Microorganisms have evolved sophisticated sensor-actuator circuits to perform taxis
in response to various environmental stimuli. How any given circuit can select between
different taxis responses in noisy vs. saturated stimuli conditions is unclear. Here,...
This study presents the design, fabrication, and evaluation of a general platform
for the creation of three-dimensional printed devices (3DPDs) for tissue engineering
applications. As a demonstration, we modeled the liver with 3DPDs consisting of a
pair ...
Mitochondrial biogenesis relies on both the nuclear and mitochondrial genomes, and
imbalance in their expression can lead to inborn errors of metabolism, inflammation,
and aging. Here, we investigate N6AMT1, a nucleo-cytosolic methyltransferase that
...
Forecasted increases in the prevalence and severity of extreme weather events accompanying
changes in climatic behavior pose potential risk to the reproductive capacity of humans
and animals of ecological and agricultural significance. While several ...
Tyrosine phosphorylation of metabolic enzymes is an evolutionarily conserved posttranslational
modification that facilitates rapid and reversible modulation of enzyme activity,
localization, or function. Despite the high abundance of tyrosine ...
Primary osteoporosis, manifesting as decreased bone mass and increased bone fragility,
is a “silent disease” that is often ignored until a bone breaks. Accordingly, it is
urgent to develop reliable biomarkers and novel therapeutic strategies for ...
Axonemal dynein, the macromolecular machine that powers ciliary motility, assembles
in the cytosol with the help of dynein axonemal assembly factors (DNAAFs). These DNAAFs
localize in cytosolic foci thought to form via liquid–liquid phase separation. ...
Plasticity, a key hallmark of cancer, enables cells to transition into different states,
driving tumor heterogeneity. This cellular plasticity is associated with cancer progression,
treatment resistance, and relapse. Cancer stem cells (CSCs) play a ...
Cancer cells often display errors in chromosome segregation, some of which result
from improper chromosome alignment at the spindle midplane. Chromosome alignment is
facilitated by different rates of microtubule poleward flux between sister kinetochore
...
Poly (ADP-ribose) glycohydrolase (PARG) is a dePARylating enzyme which promotes DNA
repair by removal of poly (ADP-ribose) (PAR) from PARylated proteins. Loss or inhibition
of PARG results in replication stress and sensitizes cancer cells to DNA-damaging
...
Developmental Biology
The role of transcription factors in photoreceptor gene regulation is fairly well
understood, but knowledge of the cell-type-specific function of transcriptional cofactors
remains incomplete. Here, we show that the transcriptional corepressor samd7 ...
Early embryos undergo profound changes in their genomic architecture to establish
the totipotent state, enabling pioneer factors to access chromatin and drive zygotic
genome activation (ZGA). However, the mechanisms by which the totipotent state is
...
Environmental Sciences
This study investigates the temporal and spatial factors driving the domestication
of Capsicum annuum var. annuum L. in Mexico. This species exhibits the greatest morphological diversity in fruit
among Capsicum species—a characteristic that is even more ...
Evolution
Northeast China’s Early Cretaceous Yixian Formation preserves spectacular fossils
that have proved extraordinarily important in testing evolutionary hypotheses involving
the origin of birds and the distribution of feathers among nonavian dinosaurs. These
...
Accurate estimation of the dispersal velocity or speed of evolving organisms is no
mean feat. In fact, existing probabilistic models in phylogeography or spatial population
genetics generally do not provide an adequate framework to define velocity in a ...
Vertebrate development and phylogeny are intimately connected through the vertebral
formula, the numerical distribution of vertebrae along the body axis into different
categories such as neck and chest. A key window into this relationship is through
the ...
Genomic structural variants (SVs) play a crucial role in adaptive evolution, yet their
average fitness effects and characterization with pangenome tools are understudied
in wild animal populations. We constructed a pangenome for House Finches (Haemorhous ...
Genetics
The Hedgehog (Hh) pathway plays diverse roles in cellular processes by activating
the transcription factor Cubitus interruptus (Ci). Abnormal regulation of this pathway
has been linked to various human diseases. While previous studies have focused on
how ...
The glucocorticoid and mineralocorticoid receptors (GR and MR, respectively) have
distinct, yet overlapping physiological and pathophysiological functions. There are
indications that both receptors interact functionally and physically, but the precise
...
While increased mutation rates typically have negative consequences in multicellular
organisms, hypermutation can be advantageous for microbes adapting to the environment.
Previously, we identified two hypermutator Cryptococcus neoformans clinical ...
Immunology and Inflammation
Current evidence suggests that ontogeny may account for the functional heterogeneity
of some tissue macrophages, but not others. Here, we asked whether developmental origin
drives different functions of skin Langerhans cells (LCs), an embryo-derived ...
Porphyromonas gingivalis is a gram-negative anaerobic bacterium linked to periodontal disease. Remarkably,
P. gingivalis thrives in an inflamed environment rich in activated neutrophils. Toll-like receptor
2 (TLR2) recognition is required for P. ...
RIG-I-like receptors (RLRs)-mitochondrial antiviral signaling protein (MAVS) are crucial
for type I interferon (IFN) signaling pathway and innate immune responses triggered
by RNA viruses. However, the regulatory molecular mechanisms underlying RNA virus-...
The importance of CD4+ T cells in cancer immunotherapy has gained increasing recognition. Particularly,
a specific subset of CD4+ T cells coexpressing the T helper type 1 (Th1) and Th17 markers has demonstrated
remarkable antitumor potential. However, the ...
Medical Sciences
The gut microbiota has a significant impact on the development and function of intestinal
epithelial cells (IECs) by modifying bile acid (BA) metabolites. Recently, specific
gut microbiome-derived BAs, such as 7-oxo-deoxycholic acid (7-oxo-DCA) and ...
Triple-negative breast cancers (TNBC) are treated primarily by chemotherapy and lack
clinically validated therapeutic targets. In particular, inhibitors of the PI3K/AKT/mTOR
pathway, abnormally activated in many breast cancers, failed to achieve clinical ...
Microbiology
Mumps virus (MuV) is a highly contagious paramyxovirus that is endemic in most regions
of the world and continues to cause outbreaks even in highly immunized populations.
Outbreaks of mumps in countries with high measles, mumps, and rubella vaccination
...
Hepatitis E virus (HEV) infections are one of the most common causes of acute viral
hepatitis, annually causing over 3 million symptomatic cases and 70,000 deaths worldwide.
Historically, HEV was described as a hepatotropic virus, but has recently been ...
The gut microbiota produces high concentrations of antimicrobial short-chain fatty
acids (SCFAs) that restrict the growth of invading microorganisms. The enteric pathogen
Salmonella enterica serovar (S.) Typhimurium triggers inflammation in the large ...
Neuroscience
Animals chain movements into long-lived motor strategies, exhibiting variability across
scales that reflects the interplay between internal states and environmental cues.
To reveal structure in such variability, we build Markov models of movement ...
Attraction and mating between male and female animals depend on effective communication
between conspecifics. However, in mosquitoes, we have only a rudimentary understanding
of the sensory cues and receptors critical for the communication that is ...
Electrical motor cortex stimulation can produce corticospinal system plasticity and
enhance motor function after injury. We investigate molecular mechanisms of structural
and physiological plasticity following electrical neuromodulation, focusing on ...
Animal behavior is organized into nested temporal patterns that span multiple timescales.
This behavior hierarchy is believed to arise from a hierarchical neural architecture:
Neurons near the top of the hierarchy are involved in planning, selecting, ...
Inherited forms of motor neuron disease (MND), including hereditary spastic paraplegias
(HSP), are associated with the death or dysfunction of nerve cells that control skeletal
muscle activity. However, in some cases, the impacts of genetic variants ...
Imaging methods that span both functional measures in living tissue and anatomical
measures in fixed tissue have played critical roles in advancing our understanding
of the brain. However, making direct comparisons between different imaging modalities,
...
Reactive inhibitory control is crucial for survival. Traditionally, this control in
mammals was attributed solely to the hyperdirect pathway, with cortical control signals
flowing unidirectionally from the subthalamic nucleus (STN) to basal ganglia output
...
Dopaminergic (DA) neurons exhibit significant diversity characterized by differences
in morphology, anatomical location, axonal projection pattern, and selective vulnerability
to disease. More recently, scRNAseq has been used to map DA neuron diversity at ...
Plant Biology
Glyphosate is a broad-spectrum herbicide that kills most vascular plant weeds but
is ineffective against many bryophytes. Glyphosate competitively inhibits the enolpyruvyl
transferase enzyme 5-enolpyruvylshikimate-3-phosphate synthase (EPSPS). EPSPS ...
Acetyl-TAG (3-acetyl-1,2-diacylglycerol), unique triacylglycerols (TAG) possessing
an acetate group at the sn-3 position, exhibit valuable properties, such as reduced viscosity and freezing points.
Previous attempts to engineer acetyl-TAG production in ...
Plants use seasonal cold to time the transition to reproductive development. Short-
and long-term cold exposure is registered via parallel transcriptional shutdown and
Polycomb-dependent epigenetic silencing of the Arabidopsis thaliana major flowering ...
Psychological and Cognitive Sciences
Impulsive reactions in social interactions may result in poor or even detrimental
outcomes. Particular cognitive states, such as mental fatigue induced by extended
practice with cognitively demanding activities, especially if combined with sleep
...
Human hearing is robust to noise, but the basis of this robustness is poorly understood.
Several lines of evidence are consistent with the idea that the auditory system adapts
to sound components that are stable over time, potentially achieving noise ...
In everyday tasks, our focus of attention shifts seamlessly between contents in the
sensory environment and internal memory representations. Yet, research has mainly
considered external and internal attention in isolation. We used magnetoencephalography
...
Corrections
Cover image: Pictured are mitochondrial RNA granules (yellow, purple, green) in HeLa cells. Mads M. Foged et al. explored how the methyltransferase enzyme N6AMT1 controls the balance between the nuclear and mitochondrial genomes in mitochondrial biogenesis. The authors found that N6AMT1 helps translate mitochondrial RNAse P enzymes in the cytosol. Inactivation of the N6AMT1 gene led to impaired mitochondrial RNA processing, accumulation of unprocessed RNA, and an immune response. The findings underscore the role of N6AMT1 in mitochondrial protein synthesis as well as the role of the cytosol in mitochondrial biogenesis. See the article by Foged et al. e2414187121. Image credit: Emeline Recazens.
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