Browse Articles

Integration of single-cell RNA sequencing data between different samples has been a major challenge for analyzing cell populations. Here the authors benchmark 46 workflows for differential expression analysis of single-cell data with multiple batches and suggest several high-performance methods under different conditions based on simulation and real data analyses.

A genome-wide association study of cardiac magnetic resonance-derived left ventricular mass index including 43,000 UK Biobank participants reveals 12 associations (11 novel), implicating genes involved in cardiac contractility and cardiomyopathy.

Cardiac neural crest must differentiate and migrate correctly to achieve proper cardiovascular development. Here, the authors use single cell analyses to show how these cells are altered non-autonomously by loss of Tbx1, the major gene for 22q11.2 deletion syndrome.

One of the main sources of uncertainty in carbon budgets is that continental landscapes are made up of a heterogeneous mosaic of ecosystems. Here the authors put forward an integrative framework to improve estimates of land-atmosphere carbon exchange based on the accumulation of carbon in the landscape as constrained by its lateral export through rivers.

Uracil was identified in the sample returned from the asteroid Ryugu. Having been provided to the early Earth as a component in such asteroidal materials, these molecules might have played a role for prebiotic chemical evolution on the early Earth

Isolated fetal ventriculomegaly is the most common antenatally-diagnosed brain abnormality. Here, the authors show that isolated fetal ventriculomegaly is associated with autism spectrum disorder traits.

Fluorescence imaging of the spinal cord poses challenges, including depth of imaging. Here the authors describe a custom microscope and chronically implanted microprism that enables multicolor translaminar imaging of sensory and motor evoked activity in behaving mice, and show that spinal astrocytes show sensorimotor program-dependent calcium excitation.

Cooperative transitions have acquired much attention for low transition barriers, ultrafast kinetics, and structural reversibility but cooperative transitions are rare in molecular crystals and their origin is poorly understood. Here the authors show that reorientation of the alkyl side chains in a 2-dimensional quinoidal terthiophene triggers cooperative behavior, and establish alkyl chain engineering to control the polymorphic behavior.

Animal gut microbiomes are fairly stable over time despite large daily fluctuations in diet and introductions of environmental bacteria. Here the authors report that fruit flies maintain the stability of their microbiome in part through a physical niche in the esophagus.

Immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICI) may have unanticipated side effects in transplant recipients who subsequently develop tumors. Here the authors used single-cell sequencing to identify and characterize allogeneic reactive T cells that developed after an ICI course for melanoma in a transplant recipient.

Pan-genomes provide useful resources for evolutionary studies, functional genomics and breeding of cultivated plants. Here, the authors report a new rice pan-genome including 73 Asian rice and two wild relatives (Oryza rufipogon and O. punctata), and reveal the prevalence and scale of large inversions across the pan-genome.

Establishing sustainable approaches for human space exploration is key to achieve independency from terrestrial resources, as well as for ethical considerations. Here the authors highlight microbial biotechnologies that will support sustainable processes for space-based in situ resource utilization and loop-closure, and may be translatable to Earth applications.

Schwannomas are mainly caused by NF2 tumour suppressor inactivation, but they display intratumoural heterogeneity. Here the authors show that this heterogeneity is caused by the loss of polarity and acquisition of different programmes of ErbB ligand production in NF2-mutant Schwann cells.

A more equitable global distribution of vaccines can benefit the world, while a multilateral benefit-sharing instrument needs to be developed to remove some of the disincentives for early equitable vaccines distribution globally.

TRIM72 oligomerization via intermolecular disulfide bonds is important for cells to repair damaged membranes. Here, authors report the crystal structure of TRIM72 dimer and show that TRIM72 B-box dimerization facilitates TRIM72 oligomerization.

The authors present BARASA, an approach to assign backbone triple resonance spectra of proteins that augments traditional approaches with a Bayesian statistical analysis of the observed chemical shifts. The algorithm employs a simulated annealing engine to establish a consensus set of resonance assignments and is tested against systems ranging in size to over 450 amino acids including examples of intrinsically disordered proteins.

Many properties of human primary visual cortex (V1) are ‘adult-like’ by childhood. Here, using fMRI, the authors show that V1 of children and adults differentially sample the visual field, indicating a late-stage change in cortical organization.

Visualization of large complex networks is challenging with limitations for the network size and depicting specific structures. The authors propose a Graph Neural Network based algorithm with improved speed and the quality of graph layouts, which allows for fast and informative visualization of large networks.

The prefrontal cortex is involved in cocaine abuse disorders. Here, the authors show that cocaine suppresses frontal association cortex (FrA) in awake mice and induces locomotor sensitization through a dopamine dependent VTA-vmPFC-FrA pathway.

A big challenge for artificial intelligence is to gain the ability of learning by experience like biological systems. Here Bianchi et al. propose a hardware neural network based on resistive-switching synaptic arrays which dynamically adapt to the environment for autonomous exploration.