Table Of Contents Page, PNAS Volume 122, Number 9
This Week in PNAS
Opinion
Commentaries
Perspective
Sociotechnical systems, where technological and human elements interact in a goal-oriented
manner, provide important functional support to our societies. Here, we draw attention
to the underappreciated concept of timeliness—i.e., system elements being ...
Letters
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The nonexistence of a paddlewheel effect in superionic conductors
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Toward understanding lipid reorganization in RNA lipid nanoparticles in acidic environments
This article has a reply:Reply to Trollmann et al.: Perspective on LNP structure and simulation
Brief Report
A key limitation of immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICI) therapy is their reduced efficacy
toward cancers with a low tumor mutational burden (TMB). Since low-TMB tumors express
fewer neoantigens, they are less responsive to ICI therapy like anti-PD-1 and ...
Physical Sciences
Applied Mathematics
Proteins and the complexes they form are central to nearly all cellular processes.
Their flexibility, expressed through a continuum of states, provides a window into
their biological functions. Cryogenic electron microscopy (cryo-EM) is an ideal tool
to ...
Faced with a dangerous epidemic humans will spontaneously social distance to reduce
their risk of infection at a socioeconomic cost. Compartmentalized epidemic models
have been extended to include this endogenous decision making: Individuals choose
their ...
Applied Physical Sciences
Artificial chiral-structural-color materials can carry high-dimensional information
based on multiple optical degrees of freedom, providing possibilities for advanced
optical security and information storage. However, current artificial chiral-structural-...
Analyzing cardiac pulse waveforms offers valuable insights into heart health and cardiovascular
disease risk, although obtaining the more informative measurements from the central
aorta remains challenging due to their invasive nature and limited ...
Chemistry
Broadband pump–probe spectroscopy has been widely used to measure vibrational decoherence
associated with the reaction coordinate in photoinduced ultrafast vibration-coupled
electron transfer (VCET) reactions. These experiments provide insight into the ...
The escalating demand for rare earth elements (REEs) highlights the necessity for
their sustainable recovery from waste streams and secondary resources. However, this
process requires materials with exceptional selectivity and capacity for REEs due
to ...
Single-particle tracking has enabled quantitative studies of complex systems, providing
nanometer localization precision and millisecond temporal resolution in heterogeneous
environments. However, at micro- or nanometer scales, probe dynamics become ...
The oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) in acidic media suffers from sluggish kinetics,
primarily due to the spin-dependent electron transfer involved. The direct generation
of spin-polarized electrons at catalytic surfaces remains elusive, and the underlying
...
Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences
The northern lowlands of early Mars could have contained a significant quantity of
liquid water. However, the ocean hypothesis remains controversial due to the lack
of conclusive evidence from the Martian subsurface. We use data from the Zhurong Rover
...
Engineering
Semiconductor quantum dots (QD) promise unique electronic, optical, and chemical properties,
which can be exquisitely tuned by controlling the composition, size, and morphology.
Semiconductor QDs have been synthesized primarily via two approaches, namely, ...
Mimicking hierarchical structures found in nature, such as nacre and tendon, has led
to remarkable successes in the creation of biomimetic materials with exceptional properties.
The depth of knowledge derived from nature extends far beyond mere trial-and-...
Mimicking metabolic pathways on electrodes enables in vivo metabolite monitoring for
decoding metabolism. Conventional in vivo sensors cannot accommodate underlying complex
reactions involving multiple enzymes and cofactors, addressing only a fraction of
...
Physics
Two-dimensional (2D) materials display nanoscale dynamic ripples that significantly
impact their properties. Defects within the crystal lattice are the elementary building
blocks to tailor the material’s morphology. While some studies have explored the ...
Charge density wave (CDW) material 1T-TaS2 was proposed as a quantum spin liquid candidate, on which a cluster Mott insulator
comes into being below the transition temperature. We report an experimental ultrafast
generation and detection of the coherent ...
The bulk photovoltaic effect (BPVE) generates a direct current photocurrent under
uniform irradiation and is a nonlinear optical effect traditionally studied in noncentrosymmetric
materials. The two main origins of BPVE are the shift and injection ...
Statistics
The genome-wide association studies identified genes associated with many diseases,
but the identification and verification of disease variants are still challenging
due to small effects and large number of individual variants. In this paper, we propose
a ...
Sustainability Science
A weakening of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) has been found
to be globally beneficial by economic assessments. This result emerges because AMOC
weakening would cool the Northern Hemisphere, thereby reducing expected climate ...
Social Sciences
Economic Sciences
Faced with a dangerous epidemic humans will spontaneously social distance to reduce
their risk of infection at a socioeconomic cost. Compartmentalized epidemic models
have been extended to include this endogenous decision making: Individuals choose
their ...
Current proposals aimed at reducing U.S. pharmaceutical prices would have immediate
benefits (particularly for low-income and elderly populations), but could dramatically
reduce firms’ investment in potentially highly welfare-improving Research and ...
Psychological and Cognitive Sciences
The experience of human parenthood is near ubiquitous and can profoundly alter one’s
body, mind, and environment. However, we know very little about the long-term neural
effects of parenthood for parents themselves, or the implications of pregnancy and
...
Social Sciences
High-profile incidents of police violence against Black citizens over the past decade
have spawned contentious debates in the United States on the role of police. This
debate has played out prominently in the news media, leading to a perception that
media ...
Sustainability Science
A weakening of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) has been found
to be globally beneficial by economic assessments. This result emerges because AMOC
weakening would cool the Northern Hemisphere, thereby reducing expected climate ...
Biological Sciences
Anthropology
The Huns appeared in Europe in the 370s, establishing an Empire that reshaped West
Eurasian history. Yet until today their origins remain a matter of extensive debate.
Traditional theories link them to the Xiongnu, the founders of the first nomadic empire
...
Applied Biological Sciences
Development of efficient cell factories that can compete with traditional chemical
production processes is complex and generally driven by case-specific strategies,
based on the product and microbial host of interest. Despite major advancements in
the ...
Biochemistry
Protein O-glycosylation is a critical modification in the brain, as genetic variants
in the pathway are associated with common and severe neuropsychiatric phenotypes.
However, little is known about the most abundant O-glycans in the mammalian brain,
which ...
Telomerase elongates telomeres to maintain chromosome stability in most eukaryotes.
Despite extensive studies across eukaryotic kingdoms, the telomerase holoenzyme in
arthropods remains poorly understood. In this study, we purify the telomerase ...
Efficient methods for conjugating proteins to RNA are needed for RNA delivery, imaging,
editing, interactome mapping, and barcoding applications. Noncovalent coupling strategies
using viral RNA binding proteins such as MS2/MCP have been widely applied but ...
Biophysics and Computational Biology
Scaffold proteins are key players in many signaling pathways where they ensure spatial
and temporal control of molecular interactions by simultaneous tethering of multiple
signaling components. The protein JIP1 acts as a scaffold within the c-Jun N-...
DNA is heterogeneously packaged into chromatin, which is further organized into topologically
associating domains (TADs) with sharp boundaries. These boundary locations are critical
for genome regulation. Here, we explore how the distribution of DNA-...
Myosin-IC (myo1c) is a class-I myosin that supports transport and remodeling of the
plasma membrane and membrane-bound vesicles. Like other members of the myosin family,
its biochemical kinetics are altered in response to changes in mechanical loads that
...
Cell Biology
The most common chemotherapeutics induce DNA damage to eradicate cancer cells, yet
defective DNA repair can propagate mutations, instigating therapy resistance and secondary
malignancies. Structural variants (SVs), arising from copy-number-imbalanced and -...
Developmental Biology
CTCF regulates global chromatin accessibility and transcription during rod photoreceptor development
Chromatin architecture facilitates accurate transcription at a number of loci, but
it remains unclear how much chromatin architecture is involved in global transcriptional
regulation. Previous work has shown that rapid depletion of the architectural ...
Female mosquitoes are vectors of many devastating human diseases because they require
blood feeding to initiate reproduction. Thus, elucidation of molecular mechanisms
managing female mosquito reproduction is essential. Although the regulation of gene
...
Ecology
The conservation of biodiversity represents a global challenge as the world experiences
its sixth mass extinction. Understanding how conservation efforts are allocated is
paramount to effectively protect threatened species. We analyzed ~14,600 ...
Many insect migrants rely on favorable seasonal winds to carry out long-range latitudinal
migrations. In East China, the annual advance and retreat of the East Asian summer
monsoon produces ideal conditions for seasonal range expansion and contraction of
...
Climate change is predicted to intensify lake algal blooms globally and result in
regime shifts. However, observed increases in algal biomass do not consistently correlate
with air temperature or precipitation, and evidence is lacking for a causal effect
...
Evolution
Modern ecosystems display complex associations of plants–insects that underwent a
long evolutionary process since the appearance of mid-Paleozoic vascular plants. Although
several major hypotheses explain the evolution of these plant–insect associations,
...
Larger, longer-lived species are expected to have a higher cancer prevalence compared
to smaller, shorter-lived species owing to the greater number of cell divisions that
occur during their lifespan. Yet, to date, no evidence has been found to support ...
Building differences between genetically equivalent units is a fundamental challenge
for all multicellular organisms and superorganisms. In ants, reproductive or worker
fate is typically determined during the larval stage, through feeding regimes managed
...
The H9N2 subtype of avian influenza virus (AIV) emerges as a significant member of
the influenza A virus family. However, the varying degrees of epidemiological dominance
among different lineages or clades of H9N2 AIVs have not been fully clarified. The
...
Genetics
Processivity clamps mediate polymerase switching for translesion synthesis (TLS).
All three Escherichia coli TLS polymerases interact with the β2 processivity clamp through a conserved clamp-binding motif (CBM), which is indispensable
for TLS. Notably, ...
Advances in sequencing technology have unveiled examples of nucleus-encoded polycistrons,
once considered rare. Exclusively polycistronic transcripts are prevalent in green
algae, although the mechanism by which multiple polypeptides are translated from a
...
Immunology and Inflammation
Conventional dendritic cells (cDCs) are potent antigen-presenting cells (APCs) that
integrate signals from their environment allowing them to direct situation-adapted
immunity. Thereby they harbor great potential for being targeted in vaccination, ...
Understanding both local and systemic immunity is essential to optimizing the effectiveness
of immunotherapy. However, the dynamic alterations in systemic immunity during tumor
development are yet to be clearly defined. Here, we identified a previously ...
B cells generate pathogen-specific antibodies and play an essential role in providing
adaptive protection against infection. Antibody genes are modified in evolutionary
processes acting on the B cell populations within an individual. These populations
...
Medical Sciences
Atherosclerosis and vessel wall trauma induce vascular smooth muscle cell (VSMC) phenotypic
modulation, leading to plaque cap growth and postintervention restenosis. Our systems
biology approach identified RNA binding protein, mRNA processing factor (...
Aldosterone-producing adenomas (APA), a major endocrine tumor and leading subtype
of primary aldosteronism, cause secondary hypertension with high cardiometabolic risks.
Despite potentially producing multiple steroid hormones, detailed cellular mechanisms
...
Approximately 30% of patients with myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) progress to secondary
acute myeloid leukemia (sAML) via accumulating gene mutations. Genomic analyses reveal
a complex interplay among mutant genes, with co-occurring and mutually exclusive ...
Microbiology
Successful tuberculosis therapy requires treatment with an unwieldy multidrug combination
for several months. Thus, there is a growing need to identify novel genetic vulnerabilities
that can be leveraged to develop new, more effective antitubercular ...
Neuroscience
The experience of human parenthood is near ubiquitous and can profoundly alter one’s
body, mind, and environment. However, we know very little about the long-term neural
effects of parenthood for parents themselves, or the implications of pregnancy and
...
During cortical development, radial glial cells (neural stem cells) initially are
neurogenic, generating intermediate progenitor cells that exclusively produce glutamatergic
pyramidal neurons. Next, radial glial cells generate tripotential intermediate ...
Ectopic mouse TMC1 and TMC2 alone form mechanosensitive channels that are potently modulated by TMIE
The mechanotransduction (MT) channel expressed in cochlear and vestibular hair cells
converts the mechanical stimulation of sound and head movements into electrochemical
signals. Recently, TMC1 and TMC2 (TMC1/2) have been recognized as the pore-forming
...
Glioblastoma (GBM) is the deadliest brain cancer in adults, and all patients succumb
to the tumor. While surgery followed by chemoradiotherapy delays disease progression,
these treatments do not lead to tumor control, and targeted therapies or biologics
...
Molluscan brains are composed of morphologically consistent and functionally interrogable
neurons, offering rich opportunities for understanding how neural circuits drive behavior.
Nonetheless, detailed component-level CNS maps are often lacking, total ...
cAMP response element-binding protein (CREB)-regulated transcription coactivator 1
(CRTC1) plays an important role in synaptic plasticity, learning, and long-term memory
formation through the regulation of neuronal activity-dependent gene expression, and
...
Depletion or inhibition of core stress granule proteins, G3BP1 in mammals and TIAR-2
in Caenorhabditis elegans, increases the growth of spontaneously regenerating axons. Inhibition of G3BP1 by
expression of its acidic or “B-domain” accelerates axon ...
Neural activity in sensory cortex is modulated by behavioral and cognitive factors,
and this modulation is thought to contribute to the selection of specific sensory
information needed to achieve behavioral goals. In contrast, more abstract behavioral
...
Repeat expansions in the C9orf72 gene are the most common genetic cause of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and familial
frontotemporal dementia (ALS/FTD). To identify molecular defects that take place in
the dorsolateral frontal cortex of patients with ...
Sustainability Science
The conservation of biodiversity represents a global challenge as the world experiences
its sixth mass extinction. Understanding how conservation efforts are allocated is
paramount to effectively protect threatened species. We analyzed ~14,600 ...
Corrections
SI Correction
Cover image: Pictured is a great pond snail (Lymnaea stagnalis) floating upside down on the water’s surface. Michael Crossley et al. used high-resolution X-ray imaging to rapidly capture the detailed brain structure of L. stagnalis, including a neuron-level reconstruction of the feeding circuit. The resulting 3D atlas revealed key design principles of the molluscan brain and guided the identification of three previously unreported neuron types. The approach could be used to map the nervous systems of a variety of model organisms. See the article by Crossley et al. e2422706122. Image credit: Max Staras (photographer) and Kevin Staras.
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