Table Of Contents Page, PNAS Volume 122, Number 18
This Week in PNAS
Science and Culture
Retrospective
In October 2024, the scientific world lost Diane E. Griffin, a highly accomplished
physician–scientist who greatly heightened our understanding of viral pathogenesis.
Apart from being a leading virologist in her time, she was unusual in working tirelessly
...
Commentaries
Perspective
China’s shale gas production has grown annually by 21% since 2017 with long-term national
energy strategy calling for continued expansion. This large-scale shale gas development
is challenged by constraints on water supply. It requires over 6,000 new ...
Brief Report
Air pollution is a global health crisis that disproportionately affects lower- and
middle-income countries. We examine global air quality monitoring data, highlighting
persistent inequalities in high-exposure regions, and assess the potential of emerging
...
Physical Sciences
Applied Physical Sciences
The transient excitonic condensate is a nonequilibrium electron–hole Bardeen–Cooper–Schrieffer
state in a photoexcited semiconductor and semimetal, where electron–hole pairs undergo
a phase transition and condense into a single coherent quantum state. ...
Dynamic elastography uses an imaging system to visualize the propagation of elastic
waves, the speed of which is directly related to the elasticity felt by palpation.
Very few studies have focused on X-ray elastography because of the technical challenges
...
State-of-the-art synthesis strategies of two-dimensional (2D) materials have been
designed following the nucleation-dominant pattern for structure control. However,
this classical methodology fails to achieve the precise layer- and stacking-resolved
...
A long-unrealized goal in solid-state nanopore sensing is to achieve out-of-plane
electrical sensing and control of DNA during translocation, which is a prerequisite
for base-by-base ratcheting that enables DNA sequencing in biological nanopores. Two-...
Metasurfaces have garnered significant attention for unnatural abilities to modulate
waves across various physics domains, including elastics. However, existing elastic
metasurfaces are limited to narrowband operations due to chromatic aberrations; ...
At high concentration, long Watson/Crick (WC) double-helixed DNA forms columnar crystal
or liquid crystal phases of linear, parallel duplex chains packed on periodic lattices.
This can also be a structural motif of short NA oligomers such as the 5’-GTAC-3’...
Biophysics and Computational Biology
Tau forms fibrillar aggregates that are pathological hallmarks of a family of neurodegenerative
diseases known as tauopathies. The synthetic replication of disease-specific fibril
structures is a critical gap for developing diagnostic and therapeutic ...
TMEM16A is a Ca2+-activated Cl− channel that has crucial roles in various physiological and pathological processes.
However, the structure of the open state of the channel and the mechanism of Ca2+-induced pore opening have remained elusive. Using ...
In eukaryotes, the expression of specific genes is regulated by a combination of transcription
factors (TFs) bound on regulatory regions of the genomic DNA (promoters and enhancers).
Recent advances in genomic sequencing technology have enabled the ...
Bacteria are known to allocate their proteomes according to how fast they grow, and
the allocation strategies employed strongly affect bacterial adaptation to different
environments. Much of what is currently known about proteome allocation is based on
...
In the common cellular space, hundreds of binding reactions occur reliably and simultaneously
without disruptive mutual interference. The design principles that enable this remarkable
compatibility have not yet been adequately elucidated. In order to ...
Chemistry
Carbonaceous particles are widespread in combustion, atmospheric, extraterrestrial,
and nanomaterials environments. Resonance-stabilized radicals (RSRs) are commonly
identified in fuel combustion and pyrolysis processes and play an essential role in
...
Materials with pure organic circularly polarized afterglow (CPA) have attracted significant
attention due to their spatiotemporal-resolved optical properties, yet achieving simultaneous
high dissymmetry factor (glum) and multicolor ultralong emission ...
Supported by chiral stationary phase high-performance liquid chromatography HPLC (CSP-HPLC),
examples of chiral mechanically interlocked organic molecules, including knots, rotaxanes,
and catenanes, have been reported. However, the exploration of ...
Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences
For a volcanic system, evaluating potential eruption probability requires understanding
the extent of melt and gas accumulation in the upper crustal reservoir, which is challenging
to resolve. Here, we jointly use geophysical imaging and petrophysical ...
Twice during the Neoproterozoic Era, Earth experienced runaway ice-albedo catastrophes
that resulted in multimillion year, low-latitude glaciations: the Sturtian and Marinoan
snowball Earths. In the snowball climate state, CO2 consumption through silicate ...
Climate-driven sea-level rise is increasing the frequency of coastal flooding worldwide,
exacerbated locally by factors like land subsidence from groundwater and resource
extraction. However, a process rarely considered in future sea-level rise scenarios
...
Contrary to all terrestrial rocks, planets and meteorites exhibit oxygen isotope variations
decorrelated with the mass difference of their atomic nuclei. It has been proposed
that, in the protosolar nebula (PSN), these variations could result from mass ...
This paper presents pore unit assembly-discrete element model (PUA-DEM), a pore-scale
hydromechanical framework that resolves interactions between mobile granular particles
and multiphase fluids in unsaturated granular media. The framework uniquely ...
The isotope anomalies of noncarbonaceous (NC) and carbonaceous (CC) extraterrestrial
materials provide a framework for tracing the distribution and accretion of matter
in the early solar system. Here, we extend this framework to sulfur (S)—one of six
“...
Engineering
Biofilm formation and encrustation are major issues in indwelling medical devices,
such as urinary stents and catheters, as they lead to blockages and infections. Currently,
to limit these effects, frequent replacements of these devices are necessary, ...
Reptiles in nature have evolved excellent adhesion systems to adapt to complex natural
environments, inspired by which high-performance bioinspired dry adhesives have been
consistently created by precisely replicating the natural structures. Stiffness ...
Stimuli-responsive engineered living materials (ELMs) can respond to environmental
or biochemical cues and have broad utility in biological sensors and machines, but
have traditionally been limited to biocompatible scaffolds. This is because they are
...
Mathematics
In 2013, Lee, Li, and Zelevinsky introduced combinatorial objects called compatible
pairs to construct the greedy bases for rank-2 cluster algebras, consisting of indecomposable
positive elements including the cluster monomials. Subsequently, Rupel ...
Physics
This work treats resonant collisions between five identical ultracold bosons in the
framework of the adiabatic hyperspherical representation. The five-body recombination
rate coefficient is quantified using a semiclassical description in conjunction with
...
Traditional quantum imaging is featured by remarkable sensitivity and signal-to-noise
ratio, but limited by bulkiness and static function (either phase contrast imaging
or edge detection). Our report synergizes a polarization-entangled source with a ...
Statistics
Constructing single-cell atlases requires preserving differences attributable to biological
variables, such as cell types, tissue origins, and disease states, while eliminating
batch effects. However, existing methods are inadequate in explicitly modeling ...
Social Sciences
Anthropology
Rapid social–ecological intensification is a recurrent feature of human history. It
occurred in different forms and contexts; its outcomes may have been sustainable or
transient. Until recently, such intensifications usually accompanied state formation:
...
Economic Sciences
Through a field study (N = 1,519) that uses a technology to record real-time data
on waste sorting, we find that offering the opportunity to sign a pledge increases
the effectiveness of an environmental campaign. With a timespan of over four years,
the ...
Environmental Sciences
Increasing educational attainment is one of the most important and effective strategies
for health and economic improvements. The extent to which extreme climate events disrupt
education, resulting in reduced educational attainment, remains understudied. ...
Political Sciences
Despite its importance to society and many decades of research, key questions about
the social and psychological processes of political persuasion remain unanswered,
often due to data limitations. We propose that AI tools, specifically generative large
...
Psychological and Cognitive Sciences
In a world where teams serve as the backbone of collaboration and innovation, women
must feel safe when contributing to teamwork. Unfortunately, an increasing number
of women report experiencing sexual harassment in workplaces and other collective
...
STEM disciplines are traditionally stereotyped as being for men and boys. However,
in two preregistered studies of Grades 1 to 12 students in the United States (N = 2,765), we find a significant divergence in students’ gender stereotypes about
different ...
Governments need to develop and implement effective policies to address pressing societal
problems of our time, such as climate change and global pandemics. While some policies
focus on changing individual thoughts and behaviors (e.g., informational ...
Social Sciences
Existing estimates of human migration are limited in their scope, reliability, and
timeliness, prompting the United Nations and the Global Compact on Migration to call
for improved data collection. Using privacy protected records from three billion ...
Sustainability Science
Through a field study (N = 1,519) that uses a technology to record real-time data
on waste sorting, we find that offering the opportunity to sign a pledge increases
the effectiveness of an environmental campaign. With a timespan of over four years,
the ...
Increasing educational attainment is one of the most important and effective strategies
for health and economic improvements. The extent to which extreme climate events disrupt
education, resulting in reduced educational attainment, remains understudied. ...
Biological Sciences
Agricultural Sciences
Animals often exhibit increased aggression in response to starvation, while parasites
often manipulate host behavior. In contrast, underlying molecular mechanisms for these
behavioral changes are mostly unknown. The diamondback moth, Plutella xylostella, ...
Biochemistry
For over four decades, our understanding of cellular actin dynamics has been guided
by the concept of treadmilling. However, this paradigm has been challenged by the
evidence that twinfilin can uncap and promote depolymerization of filament barbed
ends, ...
Site-one protease (S1P) carries out the first proteolytic step to activate membrane-bound
effector proteins in the Golgi. S1P matures through an autocatalytic process that
begins in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) and culminates with the displacement of ...
Biophysics and Computational Biology
Constructing single-cell atlases requires preserving differences attributable to biological
variables, such as cell types, tissue origins, and disease states, while eliminating
batch effects. However, existing methods are inadequate in explicitly modeling ...
TMEM16A is a Ca2+-activated Cl− channel that has crucial roles in various physiological and pathological processes.
However, the structure of the open state of the channel and the mechanism of Ca2+-induced pore opening have remained elusive. Using ...
In eukaryotes, the expression of specific genes is regulated by a combination of transcription
factors (TFs) bound on regulatory regions of the genomic DNA (promoters and enhancers).
Recent advances in genomic sequencing technology have enabled the ...
Autocatalysis is seen as a potential key player in the origin of life, and perhaps
more generally in the emergence of Darwinian dynamics. Building on recent formalizations
of this phenomenon, we tackle the computational challenge of exhaustively detecting
...
Understanding the effects of missense mutations or single amino acid variants (SAVs)
on protein function is crucial for elucidating the molecular basis of diseases/disorders
and designing rational therapies. We introduce here Rhapsody-2, a machine ...
Cell Biology
Recurrent spontaneous abortion (RSA) is a pregnancy-related condition characterized
by a complex etiology. While placental trophoblast dysfunction is strongly associated
with the development and progression of RSA, the underlying molecular mechanisms ...
The direct reprogramming of cells has tremendous potential in in vitro neurological
studies. Previous attempts to convert blood cells into induced neurons have presented
several challenges, necessitating a less invasive, efficient, rapid, and convenient
...
Tight regulation of gene expression is achieved through the coordinated action of
transcription factors and cofactors that often can act as both repressors and activators
in response to regulatory signals, with their activity modulated by context-specific
...
Glioblastoma (GBM) is the most aggressive form of brain cancer, with limited therapeutic
options. While microglia contribute to GBM progression, the mechanisms by which they
foster a protumorigenic immune environment remain poorly understood. We identify ...
Ecology
Recent increases in woody plant density in dryland ecosystems—or “woody encroachment”—around
the world are often attributed to land-use changes such as increased livestock grazing
and wildfire suppression or to global environmental trends (e.g., ...
Environmental Sciences
Rapid social–ecological intensification is a recurrent feature of human history. It
occurred in different forms and contexts; its outcomes may have been sustainable or
transient. Until recently, such intensifications usually accompanied state formation:
...
Most of the global antibiotic consumption is by the livestock industry, making livestock
farms a hotspot of antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs). Farm air poses direct ARG exposure
to workers, but the health risks of air resistomes remain unclear. We ...
Evolution
Many organisms employ reversible dormancy, or seedbank, in response to environmental
fluctuations. This life-history strategy alters fundamental ecoevolutionary forces,
leading to distinct patterns of genetic diversity. Two models of dormancy have been
...
We present a complete, time-scaled, evolutionary tree of the world’s bird species.
This tree unites phylogenetic estimates for 9,239 species from 262 studies published
between 1990 and 2024, using the Open Tree synthesis algorithm. The remaining species
...
Spermatogenesis is a key developmental process underlying the origination of newly
evolved genes. However, rapid cell type–specific transcriptomic divergence of the
Drosophila germline has posed a significant technical barrier for comparative single-cell ...
Rates of evolution are fundamental to understand the processes that shaped the history
of life. The predominant view holds that high rates of phenotypic evolution result
from lineage transitions across peaks in an adaptive landscape, with subsequent slow-...
Many domesticated species exhibit remarkable phenotypic diversity. In nature, selection
produces not only divergence but also convergence when organisms experience similar
selective pressures. Whether artificial selection during domestication also ...
Genetics
Horizontal transfer of nuclear DNA between cells of host and cancer is a potential
source of adaptive variation in cancer cells. An understanding of the frequency and
significance of this process in naturally occurring tumors is, however, lacking. We
...
Stop-loss mutations cause over twenty different diseases. The effects of stop-loss
mutations can have multiple consequences that are, however, hard to predict. Stop-loss
in ITM2B/BRI2 results in C-terminal extension of the encoded protein and, upon furin ...
Transposable elements (TEs) make up the bulk of eukaryotic genomes and examples abound
of TE-derived sequences repurposed for organismal function. The process by which TEs
become coopted remains obscure because most cases involve ancient, ...
Serine protease cascades regulate key innate immune responses. Their activation cleaves
a series of inactive protease zymogens, which then activate downstream effector enzymes,
ensuring a rapid response. In mosquitoes, these cascades involve clip-domain ...
Genomic imbalance refers to the more severe phenotypic consequences of changing a
single chromosome compared to changing the whole genomic set. Previous genomic imbalance
studies in maize have identified gene expression modulation in aneuploids of single
...
Aneuploidy is observed as gains or losses of whole chromosomes or chromosome arms
and is a common hallmark of cancer. Whereas models for the generation of aneuploidy
in cancer invoke mitotic chromosome segregation errors, whole-arm losses might occur
...
Immunology and Inflammation
We developed a two-tiered strategy aiming to identify gut bacteria functionally linked
to the development of multiple sclerosis (MS). First, we compared gut microbial profiles
in a cohort of 81 monozygotic twins discordant for MS. This approach allowed to ...
Plasmacytoid Dendritic cells (pDCs) are the most potent producers of interferons,
which are critical antiviral cytokines. pDC development is, however, compromised following
a viral infection, and this phenomenon, as well as its relationship to ...
Retinitis pigmentosa (RP) is a group of inherited retinal diseases characterized by
the progressive loss of photoreceptors. Neuroinflammation has been implicated in the
pathophysiology of RP and its progression. Previous studies have suggested that the
...
Medical Sciences
Biofilm formation and encrustation are major issues in indwelling medical devices,
such as urinary stents and catheters, as they lead to blockages and infections. Currently,
to limit these effects, frequent replacements of these devices are necessary, ...
Primary ciliary dyskinesia (PCD) is an autosomal recessive disorder caused by mutations
in one of at least 50 different genes that encode proteins involved in the biogenesis,
structure, or function of motile cilia. Genetically inherited defects in motile ...
Metabolic dysfunction–associated steatohepatitis (MASH) represents a progressive form
of steatotic liver disease which increases the risk for fibrosis and advanced liver
disease. The accumulation of discrete species of bioactive lipids has been postulated
...
Immune checkpoint inhibitors such as anti-Programmed Death-1 antibodies (aPD-1) can
be effective in treating advanced cancers. However, many patients do not respond,
and the mechanisms underlying these differences remain incompletely understood. In
this ...
Microbiology
Bacteria are known to allocate their proteomes according to how fast they grow, and
the allocation strategies employed strongly affect bacterial adaptation to different
environments. Much of what is currently known about proteome allocation is based on
...
Extracellular vesicles (EVs) produced by bacteria contain many bacterial-derived molecules,
which play an important role in host interactions and as mediators of bacterial communication.
However, the role of EVs in interspecies interactions and their ...
Materials in low Earth orbit (LEO) face radiation, atomic oxygen erosion, and extreme
temperature fluctuations, which can severely compromise their structural and functional
integrity. Developing lightweight, multifunctional materials capable of ...
Hepatitis E virus (HEV) genotype 1 (HEV-1) infection in pregnant women is associated
with adverse outcomes of pregnancy including fulminant hepatic failure, fetal loss,
premature birth, and neonatal mortality, although the underlying mechanisms remain
...
Neuroscience
Efficient behavior is supported by humans’ ability to rapidly recognize acoustically
distinct sounds as members of a common category. Within the auditory cortex, critical
unanswered questions remain regarding the organization and dynamics of sound ...
SYNGAP1 is a key Ras-GAP protein enriched at excitatory synapses, with mutations causing
intellectual disability and epilepsy in humans. Recent studies have revealed that
in addition to its role as a negative regulator of G-protein signaling through its
...
The extinction of conditioned fear responses is crucial for adaptive behavior, and
its impairment is a hallmark of anxiety disorders such as posttraumatic stress disorder.
Fear extinction takes place when animals form a new memory that suppresses the ...
Homeostatic regulation ensures stable neural circuit output under changing conditions.
We find that in Drosophila larvae, either presynaptic weakening due to perturbation of transmitter release or
postsynaptic weakening due to perturbation of glutamate ...
Pharmacology
The 1,4-dihydropyridines, drugs with well-established bioavailability and toxicity
profiles, have proven efficacy in treating human hypertension, peripheral vascular
disorders, and coronary artery disease. Every 1,4-dihydropyridine in clinical use
blocks ...
Heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF) represents a significant global
health burden, yet effective pharmacotherapies remain elusive. The angiotensin-like
1 receptor, also known as the apelin receptor (APLNR), is a promising target for ...
Mycobacterium abscessus is a rapidly growing nontuberculous Mycobacterium causing severe pulmonary infections, especially in immunocompromised individuals
and patients with underlying lung conditions like cystic fibrosis (CF). While rifamycins
are the ...
Psychological and Cognitive Sciences
In a world where teams serve as the backbone of collaboration and innovation, women
must feel safe when contributing to teamwork. Unfortunately, an increasing number
of women report experiencing sexual harassment in workplaces and other collective
...
Systems Biology
In the common cellular space, hundreds of binding reactions occur reliably and simultaneously
without disruptive mutual interference. The design principles that enable this remarkable
compatibility have not yet been adequately elucidated. In order to ...
Correction
View the original article:
Retraction
Cover image: Pictured are a pug (left) and a Persian cat (right). Abby Grace Drake et al. analyzed skull shape in domesticated dogs and cats. The authors found greater skull shape diversity among domesticated varieties of dogs and cats, compared with modern wild canids and felids. Some breeds of dogs and cats were more similar to each other in skull shape than to other members of their own species. According to the authors, the convergent evolution of domesticated dogs and cats—species that diverged 50 million years ago—occurred multiple times within each species. See the article by Drake et al. e2413780122. Image Credit: Image of pug taken by Richard Katriss (Chanan Photography, Mira Loma, CA). Image of Persian cat taken by Tim Flach (photographer).
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