2021 Top 25 Life and Biological Sciences Articles

Research highlights

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  Engineered whole cut meat-like tissue by the assembly of cell fibers using tendon-gel integrated bioprinting

  Mammalian cell-based cultured meat has mostly been unstructured, leaving a demand for artificial steak-like meat. Here the authors present an assembled steak-like tissue of bovine skeletal muscle, adipose tissue, and blood capillary tissue fabricated by tendon-gel integrated printing technology.

  • Dong-Hee Kang
  • Fiona Louis
  • Michiya Matsusaki

  ArticleOpen Access24 Aug 2021 Nature Communications
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  Confronting false discoveries in single-cell differential expression

  Differential expression analysis of single-cell transcriptomics allows scientists to dissect cell-type-specific responses to biological perturbations. Here, the authors show that many commonly used methods are biased and can produce false discoveries.

  • Jordan W. Squair
  • Matthieu Gautier
  • Grégoire Courtine

  ArticleOpen Access28 Sep 2021 Nature Communications
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  CRISPR-Cas9 effectors facilitate generation of single-sex litters and sex-specific phenotypes

  In areas such as animal research and agriculture a single sex is often required in abundance, leading to wasted resources and ethical considerations. Here the authors develop a CRISPR/Cas9 mediated synthetic lethal system that enables the production of single sex offspring that can be repurposed for use in multiple organisms.

  • Charlotte Douglas
  • Valdone Maciulyte
  • James M. A. Turner

  ArticleOpen Access3 Dec 2021 Nature Communications
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  Emergence of a neopelagic community through the establishment of coastal species on the high seas

  Discoveries of persistent coastal species in the open ocean shift our understanding of biogeographic barriers. Floating plastic debris from pollution now supports a novel sea surface community composed of coastal and oceanic species at sea that might portend significant ecological shifts in the marine environment.

  • Linsey E. Haram
  • James T. Carlton
  • Gregory M. Ruiz

  CommentOpen Access2 Dec 2021 Nature Communications
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  Identical twins carry a persistent epigenetic signature of early genome programming

  The mechanisms underlying how monozygotic (or identical) twins arise are yet to be determined. Here, the authors investigate this in an epigenome-wide association study, showing that monozygotic twinning has a characteristic DNA methylation signature in adult somatic tissues.

  • Jenny van Dongen
  • Scott D. Gordon
  • Dorret I. Boomsma

  ArticleOpen Access28 Sep 2021 Nature Communications
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  Bird population declines and species turnover are changing the acoustic properties of spring soundscapes

  Birdsong has long connected humans to nature. Historical reconstructions using bird monitoring and song recordings collected by citizen scientists reveal that the soundscape of birdsong in North America and Europe is both quieter and less varied, mirroring declines in bird diversity and abundance.

  • C. A. Morrison
  • A. Auniņš
  • S. J. Butler

  ArticleOpen Access2 Nov 2021 Nature Communications
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  Collapse of the mammoth-steppe in central Yukon as revealed by ancient environmental DNA

  ‘The timing and ecological dynamics of extinction in the late Pleistocene are not well understood. Here, the authors use sediment ancient DNA from permafrost cores to reconstruct the paleoecology of the central Yukon, finding a substantial turnover in ecosystem composition between 13,500-10,000 years BP and persistence of some species past their supposed extinctions.’

  • Tyler J. Murchie
  • Alistair J. Monteath
  • Hendrik N. Poinar

  ArticleOpen Access8 Dec 2021 Nature Communications
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  The genomes of 204 Vitis vinifera accessions reveal the origin of European wine grapes

  Reports on the origin of European wine grapes are controversial. Here, the authors perform population genetics analyses on a large set of representative wine-making varieties and reveal a single domestication event at the origin of the entire germplasm followed by repeated introgression from wild populations.

  • Gabriele Magris
  • Irena Jurman
  • Michele Morgante

  ArticleOpen Access21 Dec 2021 Nature Communications
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  Developmental genetics of color pattern establishment in cats

  Intricate color patterns are a defining aspect of morphological diversity in the Felidae. Here the authors apply morphological and single-cell gene expression analysis to fetal skin of domestic cats to identify when, where, and how, during fetal development, felid color patterns are established.

  • Christopher B. Kaelin
  • Kelly A. McGowan
  • Gregory S. Barsh

  ArticleOpen Access7 Sep 2021 Nature Communications
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  Unsupervised deep learning identifies semantic disentanglement in single inferotemporal face patch neurons

  Little is known about the brain’s computations that enable the recognition of faces. Here, the authors use unsupervised deep learning to show that the brain disentangles faces into semantically meaningful factors, like age or the presence of a smile, at the single neuron level.

  • Irina Higgins
  • Le Chang
  • Matthew Botvinick

  ArticleOpen Access9 Nov 2021 Nature Communications
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  Axonal TDP-43 condensates drive neuromuscular junction disruption through inhibition of local synthesis of nuclear encoded mitochondrial proteins

  Here, the authors show in human iPSC-derived motor neurons from ALS patients and a TDP-43 mouse model that axonal TDP-43 forms G3BP1 positive RNP condensates, which sequester mRNA of nuclear encoded mitochondrial proteins and decrease local protein synthesis in motor neuron axons and neuromuscular junctions.

  • Topaz Altman
  • Ariel Ionescu
  • Eran Perlson

  ArticleOpen Access25 Nov 2021 Nature Communications
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  A supergene underlies linked variation in color and morphology in a Holarctic songbird

  Trait genetic architecture influences how populations evolve and adapt. Genomic analysis finds that an inversion links genetic variation controlling redpoll finch color and bill shape, allowing the maintenance of latitudinal ecotypes despite a genome largely homogenized by gene flow.

  • Erik R. Funk
  • Nicholas A. Mason
  • Scott A. Taylor

  ArticleOpen Access25 Nov 2021 Nature Communications
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  The long lives of primates and the ‘invariant rate of ageing’ hypothesis

  The ‘invariant rate of ageing’ hypothesis suggests that the rate of ageing tends to be constant within species. Here, Colchero et al. find support for the hypothesis across primates, including humans, suggesting biological constraints on the rate of ageing.

  • Fernando Colchero
  • José Manuel Aburto
  • Susan C. Alberts

  ArticleOpen Access16 Jun 2021 Nature Communications
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  Single cell atlas for 11 non-model mammals, reptiles and birds

  Here the authors report single-nucleus RNA sequencing for several anatomical locations in 11 species, including cat, dog, hamster, lizard, goat, rabbit, duck, pigeon, pangolin, tiger, and deer, highlighting coexpression of SARS-CoV-2 entry factors ACE2 and TMPRSS2.

  • Dongsheng Chen
  • Jian Sun
  • Xun Xu

  ArticleOpen Access6 Dec 2021 Nature Communications
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  An ionizable lipid toolbox for RNA delivery

  RNA therapeutics have benefited significantly from decades of research on lipid nanoparticles, specifically its key component—the ionizable lipid. This comment discusses the major ionizable lipid types, and provides perspectives for future development.

  • Xuexiang Han
  • Hanwen Zhang
  • Michael J. Mitchell

  CommentOpen Access13 Dec 2021 Nature Communications
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  Dinosaur biodiversity declined well before the asteroid impact, influenced by ecological and environmental pressures

  Dinosaurs are thought to have been driven extinct by an asteroid impact 66 million years ago. Here, Condamine et al. show that six major dinosaur families were already in decline in the preceding 10 million years, possibly due to global cooling and competition among herbivores.

  • Fabien L. Condamine
  • Guillaume Guinot
  • Philip J. Currie

  ArticleOpen Access29 Jun 2021 Nature Communications
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  Evolution and dispersal of snakes across the Cretaceous-Paleogene mass extinction

  Snakes are one of the most successful groups of living vertebrates, but the timing of their diversification is unclear. Combining molecular clocks, fossils, and biogeography, Klein et al. show that snakes experienced a diversification, and underwent dispersal, around the time of the end-Cretaceous mass extinction.

  • Catherine G. Klein
  • Davide Pisani
  • Nicholas R. Longrich

  ArticleOpen Access14 Sep 2021 Nature Communications
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  Inference and analysis of cell-cell communication using CellChat

  Single-cell methods record molecule expressions of cells in a given tissue, but understanding interactions between cells remains challenging. Here the authors show by applying systems biology and machine learning approaches that they can infer and analyze cell-cell communication networks in an easily interpretable way.

  • Suoqin Jin
  • Christian F. Guerrero-Juarez
  • Qing Nie

  ArticleOpen Access17 Feb 2021 Nature Communications
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  Lipid droplet availability affects neural stem/progenitor cell metabolism and proliferation

  Lipid droplets (LDs) are central to lipid metabolism, which is known to regulate neural stem cell behavior. Here, the authors show that LDs influence neural stem cell proliferation and metabolic activity and change upon differentiation or quiescence.

  • Mergim Ramosaj
  • Sofia Madsen
  • Marlen Knobloch

  ArticleOpen Access21 Dec 2021 Nature Communications
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  A systematic genome-wide mapping of oncogenic mutation selection during CRISPR-Cas9 genome editing

  CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing can induce a p53 mediated damage response. Here the authors investigate the possibility of selection of pre-existing cancer driver mutations during CRISPR-Cas9 knockout based gene editing and identify KRAS mutants that may confer a selected advantage to edited cells.

  • Sanju Sinha
  • Karina Barbosa
  • Eytan Ruppin

  ArticleOpen Access11 Nov 2021 Nature Communications
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  A plant virus satellite RNA directly accelerates wing formation in its insect vector for spread

  The cucumber mosaic virus is accompanied by short RNA molecules, satellite RNAs. This study shows that leaves infected with Y-satellite RNA preferentially attract aphids and manipulate aphid physiology to promote their spread to neighbouring plants.

  • Wikum H. Jayasinghe
  • Hangil Kim
  • Chikara Masuta

  ArticleOpen Access6 Dec 2021 Nature Communications
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  Interpretation of T cell states from single-cell transcriptomics data using reference atlases

  One challenge of single cell RNA sequencing analysis is how to consistently identify cell subtypes and states across different datasets. Here the authors propose the use of a reference single-cell atlas as a stable system of coordinates to characterize T cell states across studies, diseases and species.

  • Massimo Andreatta
  • Jesus Corria-Osorio
  • Santiago J. Carmona

  ArticleOpen Access20 May 2021 Nature Communications
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  Face detection in untrained deep neural networks

  Face-selective neurons are observed in the primate visual pathway and are considered as the basis of face detection in the brain. Here, using a hierarchical deep neural network model of the ventral visual stream, the authors suggest that face selectivity arises in the complete absence of training.

  • Seungdae Baek
  • Min Song
  • Se-Bum Paik

  ArticleOpen Access16 Dec 2021 Nature Communications
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  RNA modifications detection by comparative Nanopore direct RNA sequencing

  Nanopore direct RNA Sequencing data contain information about the presence of RNA modifications, but their detection poses substantial challenges. Here the authors introduce Nanocompore, a new methodology for modification detection from Nanopore data.

  • Adrien Leger
  • Paulo P. Amaral
  • Tony Kouzarides

  ArticleOpen Access10 Dec 2021 Nature Communications
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  Find and cut-and-transfer (FiCAT) mammalian genome engineering

  Mammalian genome engineering has advanced tremendously over the last decade, however there is still a need for robust gene writing with size scaling capacity. Here the authors present Find Cut-and-Transfer (FiCAT) technology to delivery large targeted payload insertion in cell lines and in vivo in mouse models.

  • Maria Pallarès-Masmitjà
  • Dimitrije Ivančić
  • Marc Güell

  ArticleOpen Access3 Dec 2021 Nature Communications