Table Of Contents Page, PNAS Volume 122, Number 46
This Week in PNAS
Opinion
Commentaries
Perspective
Two recent conferences on mechanotransduction in biology and medicine showcased remarkable
progress in this field and the potential for bringing mechanobiology into the clinic.
In this Perspective, we discuss recent advances, the conceptual frameworks ...
Brief Reports
Protein homeostasis is exquisitely regulated through processes involving protein synthesis
essential for cellular health and disease prevention. Repeat-associated non-AUG (RAN)
translation at expanded GGGGCC repeats in the C9orf72 gene produces dipeptide ...
Mutations in Argonaute proteins (AGOs) cause Argonaute syndrome, a neurodevelopmental
disorder (NDD), yet the underlying molecular mechanism remains unclear. We determined
cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM) structures of wild-type (WT) AGO1 and the ...
Physical Sciences
Applied Mathematics
The Euler Characteristic Transform (ECT) of Turner et al. provides a way to statistically
analyze nondiffeomorphic shapes without relying on landmarks. In applications, this
transform is typically approximated by a discrete set of directions and heights, ...
During the COVID-19 pandemic early years, infection prevention measures suppressed
transmission of seasonal influenza and other respiratory viruses. The early onset
and moderate severity of the US 2022–2023 influenza season may have resulted from
reduced ...
Applied Physical Sciences
Microfluidics involves the manipulation of flows at the microscale, typically requiring
external power sources to generate pressure gradients. Alternatively, harnessing flows
from active fluids, which are usually chaotic, has been proposed as a paradigm ...
Electrokinetic transport of nanoparticles in porous media is crucial for separation
technologies, but the boundary-field coupling effects in three-dimensional (3D) interconnected
porous spaces remain challenging to understand. Using superresolution 3D ...
We study the hydrodynamic flutter and wrinkling of a retracting elastic sheet and
the resulting interfacial flow phenomena. A simple experimental model is constructed
in which the elastic sheet is initially stretched and floats on a free surface. When
the ...
Biophysics and Computational Biology
Abnormal blood vessels limit the delivery and function of endogenous T cells as well
as adoptively transferred Chimeric Antigen Receptor (CAR)-T cells in tumor microenvironment
(TME). We recently showed that vascular normalization using anti-VEGF therapy ...
Coacervates are suggested to be viable protoenzymes due to their propensity to act
as catalytic microreactors for biochemical reactions. However, the mechanism by which
they alter reaction thermodynamics remains unclear. While extensive research has been
...
Peptide release factor 2 (RF2) catalyzes the release of the nascent polypeptide chain
from the bacterial ribosomal complex during translation termination and a subset of
ribosome rescue pathways. Despite its critical role, the mechanisms that govern RF2
...
Chemistry
Membrane-based technologies are essential for realizing sustainable ion-sieving processes
such as lithium extraction. Much effort was devoted to designing new membrane materials,
whereas the effect of charge distribution has been largely overlooked. Here, ...
We demonstrate a remarkable change in the chemical bonding of iron under pressure
that underlies the distribution of elements in the Earth’s mantle and core. Using
a massive-scale, first-principles study, we show that while reacting with p-block elements ...
DNA computing circuits leverage molecular interactions to construct a highly parallel
and biologically compatible information processing paradigm. However, their development
has been constrained by a critical gap between intrinsic computational ...
Computer Sciences
We introduce and benchmark a stochastic local search heuristic for the Nondeterministic
Polynomial Time (NP) complete satisfiability problem 3-SAT that drastically outperforms
existing solvers in the notoriously difficult realm of critically hard ...
Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences
The angrite parent body (APB) is the most volatile-depleted among known differentiated
bodies in the Solar System, yet the mechanisms responsible remain poorly constrained.
Here, we present high-precision nickel (Ni) isotope data from a suite of angrite ...
Engineering
Naturally evolved materials and structures inspire next-generation sustainable manufacturing
workflows and the development of intelligent, multifunctional, high-performance materials.
However, integrating compositional and structural elements from diverse ...
Environmental Sciences
China faces the challenge of simultaneously improving fine particulate matter (PM2.5) and ozone (O3) air quality while tackling climate change. However, most studies have focused on
either the cocontrol of PM2.5 and O3 or the synergy between CO2 reduction ...
No-till (NT) is a key component of conservation agriculture aiming at producing crops
with minimal soil disturbance. This land management practice offers numerous economic
and ecological advantages over conventional tillage as evidenced by its rapid ...
Physics
Liquid electrolytes adsorbed at the surface of metallic electrodes display a multitude
of structures that can largely differ from the parent bulk system, both in terms of
composition and local organization. In particular, the existence of disorder–order
...
We show that the braiding of anyons in a quantum spin liquid leaves a distinct dynamical
signature in the nonlinear pump–probe response. Using a combination of exact diagonalization
and matrix product state techniques, we study the nonlinear pump–probe ...
We extend the hopping method, traditionally used in condensed matter physics to calculate
electron distribution in crystalline structures, to mechanical systems. This extension
offers an efficient and convenient approach for constructing the dynamical ...
Andreev spectroscopy is one of the few phase-sensitive experiments done on moiré graphene
superconductors (SC) that can shed light on the pairing symmetry. Its interpretation
however is unclear, as Scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) experiments in the ...
Statistics
Characterizing cell-type-specific spatially variable genes (SVGs) within tissue context
is essential for exploring the landscape of complex biological systems in spatial
transcriptomic (ST) studies. In this paper, we present a unified framework, the ...
Sustainability Science
China faces the challenge of simultaneously improving fine particulate matter (PM2.5) and ozone (O3) air quality while tackling climate change. However, most studies have focused on
either the cocontrol of PM2.5 and O3 or the synergy between CO2 reduction ...
Social Sciences
Demography
Structured population projection models are fundamental to many fields of science.
They enable abundance forecasting for populations categorized by various traits such
as age (for demography), patch (for spatial ecology), genotype (for genetics), ...
Psychological and Cognitive Sciences
People tend to form impressions of others’ trustworthiness based on their facial appearance
and make trust-related decisions accordingly. In such face-based trustworthiness judgments
(FBTJs), older adults are generally more likely than younger adults to ...
Poverty is characterized by multidimensional economic, social, and psychological constraints
that undermine people’s agency to pursue new opportunities and shape their life outcomes.
How can interventions best support the agency of low-income individuals ...
Covert visual attention allows the brain to select different regions of the visual
world without eye movements. Predictive cues of a target location orient covert attention
and improve perceptual performance. In most computational models, researchers ...
Biological Sciences
Agricultural Sciences
No-till (NT) is a key component of conservation agriculture aiming at producing crops
with minimal soil disturbance. This land management practice offers numerous economic
and ecological advantages over conventional tillage as evidenced by its rapid ...
Applied Biological Sciences
Metabolic rewiring helps to construct efficient microbial cell factories; however,
these cells suffer from metabolic stress during long-term fed-batch fermentation.
Thus, the construction of robust cells is vital for industrial application of microbial
...
Biochemistry
Peptide release factor 2 (RF2) catalyzes the release of the nascent polypeptide chain
from the bacterial ribosomal complex during translation termination and a subset of
ribosome rescue pathways. Despite its critical role, the mechanisms that govern RF2
...
Mak16 and its interacting partner Rpf1 play a critical role at an early step in the
maturation of the ribosomal 60S subunit of eukaryotes, as revealed by cryoelectron
microscopy structures. While these studies suggested no metal participation or the
...
All life requires loading ring-shaped sliding clamp protein complexes onto DNA. The
sliding clamp loader is a conserved AAA+ ATPase that binds the sliding clamp, opens
the ring, and places it onto DNA. While recent structural work on both the canonical
...
Transcription-coupled repair in Escherichia coli which is mediated by the Mfd translocase is responsible for higher repair rate in
lacZ and lacI genes upon induction of transcription. Here, we analyze the entire E. coli genome for the effect of Mfd on UV-...
Biophysics and Computational Biology
Characterizing cell-type-specific spatially variable genes (SVGs) within tissue context
is essential for exploring the landscape of complex biological systems in spatial
transcriptomic (ST) studies. In this paper, we present a unified framework, the ...
Originating 2 to 3 millennia ago in a Scandinavian population, the SERPINA1 Z allele
(Glu342Lys) is present in up to 2.5% of populations of Northern European descent and
accounts for 95% of severe α1-antitrypsin deficiency. The α1-antitrypsin Z variant ...
Epithelia are intricate tissues whose function is intimately linked to mechanics.
While mechanobiology has primarily focused on factors such as cell-generated contractility
and mechanical properties of extracellular matrix, a interesting mechanobiological
...
G protein–coupled receptors (GPCRs), the largest superfamily of human membrane proteins
with >800 members, are primary targets for ~1/3 of all marketed drugs. Recent fluorescence
experiments underscored the pivotal role of GPCR–G protein complex lifetime ...
Cell Biology
Mice overexpressing Sirt6 or fed a caloric restriction (CR) diet live longer with
improved health. CR increases Sirt6 levels, and its beneficial effects are mediated
by the gasotransmitter H2S, a one-carbon pathway product. Yet, the role of this pathway ...
Oxygen tension dynamically regulates stem cell fate and tissue regeneration, yet how
local oxygen availability is controlled within the bone marrow niche remains poorly
understood. While bone marrow injury, such as by bone fracture, disrupts marrow ...
Metastatic outgrowth requires that cancer cells delaminate from the primary tumor,
intravasate, survive in circulation, extravasate, migrate to, and proliferate at a
distal site. Recurrent genetic drivers of metastasis remain elusive, suggesting that
...
The formation of cilia involves the assembly of axonemal microtubules, the structural
core of the organelle, from tubulins that are delivered by intraflagellar transport
and diffusion. Whether and how this process is controlled are not clear. Here, we
...
Epigenetic and transcriptional dysregulation plays a fundamental role in tumor lineage
plasticity (LP). However, the underlying mechanisms, especially for the initial events
of LP development, are still poorly understood. Here, we report that in ...
During autophagy, the contents enclosed within autophagosomes are degraded, while
the outer membrane components are recycled from autolysosomes by the recycler complex
through the recently discovered autophagosomal components recycling (ACR) process.
This ...
Developmental Biology
The unique, hypnotic pulsation behavior of certain soft corals of the Xeniidae family,
the result of rhythmic opening and closing of their tentacles, has fascinated scientists
since the 18th century. Repetitive motion is regulated by autonomous neural ...
Although Methoprene-tolerant (MET) is well established as the intracellular receptor
mediating the genomic actions of juvenile hormone (JH) in insects, the identity of
the receptor responsible for initiating extranuclear JH responses has remained elusive.
...
In Drosophila, germline cysts arise through synchronous mitotic divisions and acquire
a polarized architecture organized by the fusome, which guides oocyte specification
and supports meiotic progression. Similar cyst structures exist in nonmammalian ...
Ecology
Theory predicts that metacommunities, or connected ensembles of local communities,
can be stabilized by dispersal in the face of environmental changes. Using a 25-y
dataset from 80 grassland sites embedded in a 2,800-ha landscape, we tested for ...
Evolution
The Ordovician saw one of the greatest evolutionary radiations in the Earth’s history,
precipitating the assembly of modern animal-dominated ecologies in the aftermath of
the Cambrian Explosion. However, Ordovician nonmineralized faunas are rare and ...
Genetic diversity is a crucial component of biodiversity, and as such, its maintenance
and preservation is of high conservation concern. Tropical environments are undergoing
intense rates of environmental change, and these changes may be driving large ...
Genetics
The potential impact of new mutations on organismal function and evolution depends
on the developmental fate of the affected cells. Stem cells in the shoot apical meristem
form much of the plant body, but only those in the L2 can form gametes. This raises
...
Histological images offer a wealth of data. Mining these data holds significant potential
for enhancing disease diagnosis and prognosis, though challenges remain, especially
in noncancer contexts. In this study, we developed a statistical framework that ...
Immunology and Inflammation
Chronic wounds (CWs) represent a major clinical challenge, characterized by persistent
inflammation and failed repair. While proresolving pathways are known to regulate
inflammatory responses, their potential dysfunction in CWs remains unexplored. Here,
...
Macrophages rely on dynamic cytoskeletal rearrangements to respond to their environment.
This plasticity supports biomechanical transitions and functional polarization, mediating
tissue homeostasis, antimicrobial defense, and repair processes. In the ...
The immune system plays a pivotal role in pathogenesis of intestinal injury and subsequent
regenerative processes, particularly macrophages, orchestrate the inflammatory response
and tissue repair. Here, we identified that loss of double PHD fingers 2 (...
Autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease (ADPKD) is the most common genetic kidney
disease. Limited treatment options lead to renal failure in the vast majority of affected
individuals. Novel therapeutic approaches are needed. Recent evidence has ...
Medical Sciences
Abnormal blood vessels limit the delivery and function of endogenous T cells as well
as adoptively transferred Chimeric Antigen Receptor (CAR)-T cells in tumor microenvironment
(TME). We recently showed that vascular normalization using anti-VEGF therapy ...
Cardiovascular diseases (CVDs), the primary cause of global mortality, face persistent
therapeutic challenges due to poor drug targeting and systemic side effects. While
innovative nanotherapeutic approaches offer improved drug delivery through targeting
...
The WNT signaling pathway has long been implicated in tumorigenesis across multiple
cancer types, including breast cancer. However, the complexity arising from the large
number of WNTs and their receptors has made it challenging to pinpoint specific ...
The mechanisms underlying sustained proliferation and aberrant cellular plasticity
that drive early breast tumorigenesis remain unclear. Using CRISPR knockout (KO) screens,
we systematically characterized the regulators of cellular fitness in the normal ...
Microbiology
The fungus Candida albicans and the Gram-positive bacterium Enterococcus faecalis share mucosal niches in the human body. As opportunistic pathogens, both are found
to expand population size during dysbiosis, and can cause severe systemic infections
in ...
Dihydrodichlorofluorescein derivatives have been employed as reporters of intracellular
reactive oxygen species (ROS) in innumerable studies. Their use in bacteria has led
investigators to conclude that a wide array of cellular stresses owe their toxicity
...
Unlike host-specific parasites, broad-spectrum pathogens often exhibit an enigmatic
strain/race-level preference for infecting particular host species over others. Here,
we identify a polymorphic effector (termed Bhe1) that exhibits a binary presence–...
Bacteriophages show therapeutic promise for treating bacterial pathogens including
nontuberculous mycobacteria (NTM). A major impediment is the paucity of therapeutically
useful phages and the great variation in the phage infection profiles, especially
...
Neuroscience
Covert visual attention allows the brain to select different regions of the visual
world without eye movements. Predictive cues of a target location orient covert attention
and improve perceptual performance. In most computational models, researchers ...
Each year, hundreds of millions of people are sickened by diseases that are transmitted
through mosquito bites, including dengue, Zika, and malaria. Mosquito biting does
not occur uniformly throughout the day and peak biting times follow species-specific
...
Presynaptic active zones (AZs) perform essential functions in orchestrating speedy
and accurate neurotransmission. Despite extensive studies on their molecular constituents,
it remains unclear how transsynaptic signals are organized at AZs. The two ...
Locomotor control is facilitated by mechanosensory inputs that report how the body
interacts with a physical medium. Effective representation of compliant wing deformations
is particularly challenging due to the many degrees of freedom. Structural ...
Plant Biology
Macroautophagy (hereafter autophagy) is essential for cells to respond to nutrient
deficiency by delivering cytosolic contents to vacuoles for degradation via the formation
of a multilayer organelle named an autophagosome. A set of autophagy-related (ATG)
...
The vascular cambium contains bifacial stem cells producing secondary phloem in one
and secondary xylem to the opposite direction. In Arabidopsis roots, these stem cells are first established adjacent to primary xylem cells suggesting
that ...
A longstanding question in ecology asks whether or not species that achieve large
geographic ranges also have large climatic niche breadths. Using a dataset of ~250,000
terrestrial plant species spanning diverse clades (bryophytes, ferns, gymnosperms,
and ...
Gravitropism, the patterning of postembryonic growth in relation to the gravity vector,
allows plants to optimize the use of limited and nonhomogenous resources in their
immediate environment. Since the current model of root gravitropism has not been able
...
SOMATIC EMBRYOGENESIS RECEPTOR-LIKE KINASEs (SERKs), particularly BRASSINOSTEROID
INSENSITIVE1-ASSOCIATED KINASE 1 (BAK1) (SERK3) and BKK1 (SERK4), function as pleiotropic
coreceptors to transduce extracellular developmental and immune signals in ...
Carboxysomes in cyanobacteria and certain proteobacteria enable efficient CO2 fixation by encapsulating ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase/oxygenase (Rubisco)
and carbonic anhydrase (CA) within a semipermeable shell. Sequestered CA catalyze
the rapid ...
Population Biology
During the COVID-19 pandemic early years, infection prevention measures suppressed
transmission of seasonal influenza and other respiratory viruses. The early onset
and moderate severity of the US 2022–2023 influenza season may have resulted from
reduced ...
Structured population projection models are fundamental to many fields of science.
They enable abundance forecasting for populations categorized by various traits such
as age (for demography), patch (for spatial ecology), genotype (for genetics), ...
Corrections
Retraction
Cover image: Pictured is the wing of a dragonfly species called the pied sapphire flutterer (Rhyothemis regia). Alexandra Yarger et al. explored how mechanosensors on dragonfly wings encode critical flight information. The authors found that the sensors are positioned within high-strain regions shaped by the wing’s structural architecture. Under normal conditions, only a few sensors monitor strain, but a greater number of sensors are activated under perturbation. The findings could inspire artificial neural networks that integrate sensor feedback to enable the control of dynamic systems. See Yarger et al. e2518032122. Image credit: Samuel T. Fabian (University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom).
Sign up for PNAS alerts.
Get alerts for new articles, or get an alert when an article is cited.
Manage alertsStay connected
Advertisement
Recent Issues
Submit to PNAS
Submit to the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) and have your research discovered by millions of researchers in the biological, physical, and social sciences.
Submit your manuscript