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Kuwabara et al. identify a novel long intergenic noncoding RNA (lincRNA), termed Lionheart, upregulated in pressure overloaded hearts in mice. Deleting this gene results in decreased systolic function and reduction in MYH6 protein levels following pressure overload. They demonstrate that Lionheart interacts with PURA, preventing its binding to the promoter region of Myh6 locus, leading to reduced MYH6 protein expression.

Ravindran et al. report the construction of synthetic immediate-early genes (SynIEGs), target genes of the Erk signaling pathway. SynIEGs implement user-defined regulation while tracking transcription and translation. This study underscores post-transcriptional regulation in signal decoding that may be masked by analyses of RNA abundance alone.

Limbocker et al. show that trodusquemine, an aminosterol, reduces the cytotoxicity of protein misfolded oligomers by displacing them from cell membranes in the absence of any overt structural/ morphological changes in them. This mechanism appears to be general, as they test it for oligomers of αS, Aβ and the model protein HypF-N to human neuroblastoma cells.

Ryoichi Yano et al. report a Nanopore-based reference genome assembly of muskmelon—a fruit known for its many cultivated varieties, including cantaloupe and honeydew—using the Japanese Harukei-3 cultivar. They identify structural genetic variation by comparing the reference to several melon genome assemblies and investigate tissue-wide gene expression patterns by RNA sequencing.

From a fermenting bacterium, Thermotoga maritima, Kuhns, Trifunovi ć et al. purify a complex that includes a respiratory enzyme, Rnf. They find that the Rnf complex requires Na⁺ for activity and that it catalyzes Na⁺ transport in liposomes. This study shows that the Rnf complex is indeed an ion translocating, respiratory enzyme.

Radford et al. monitored cattle marked with artificial eyespots in non-commercial cattle farms in northern Botswana, and demonstrate that cattle with these eyespot markings were more likely to avoid predation by large carnivores. Their findings have applications as a cost-effective tool to reduce livestock predation by ambush predators.

Ravasio et al. develop an assay to quantify the clustering of Eph receptor EphA2 upon ligand binding, based on the scoring of single cells. They discover that clustering phenotype predicts cell and population migration potential in cancer cells and reflects Eph associated gene expression profiles in cancer cell lines.

Shinzawa et al. develop a method that improves the transfection efficiency for Plasmodium parasites that cause malaria by transfecting Cas9-expressing parasites with linear donor templates. This method allows efficient integration of the donor template while preventing unexpected recombination.

Mochizuki, Fukumoto, Ohara, et al. study the protective role of the rare sugar d-tagatose against plant disease. They focus on its effects against the downy mildews and delineate the metabolic pathway that blocks the initial infection. Their work paves the way for the development of safe fungicidal agrochemicals using natural products.

Hwang et al. show that the activity of PRMT5 methyltransferase is regulated by Src kinase-mediated phosphorylation at Y324 in response to DNA damage. They also show that PRMT5 participates in NHEJ repair by regulating 53BP1 protein levels and is critical for cellular survival after DNA damage.

Ausar et al. show that the crystal structure of gdPT, a mutant pertussis toxin (PTx), is nearly identical to that of PTx. They also find that gdPT exhibits broader immunogenicity than the pertussis toxoid antigen. This study suggests a promising potential of gdPT as an improved acellular pertussis vaccine candidate due to its reduced toxicity and greater immunogenicity.

Maxwell Scott et al. report the genome of the New World screwworm, a devastating livestock pest in South America and the Caribbean. Using transcriptomic analysis of the insect’s developmental stages combined with genomic analyses, the authors identify genes that may be important for its parasitic lifestyle.

Wang et al. describe a strategy for quantitatively performing composition analysis of heparan sulfate using ¹³C-labeled disaccharides and polysaccharides that mimic the glycosaminoglycan chemical structure. They further show that these isotopically labelled small molecules can be used as internal standards for mass spectrometry analysis of heparan sulfate derived from mouse tissue and plasma.

Yandong Zhang, et al. develop iDentification and qUantification sEparaTion (DUET) to quantify target protein and its post-translational modification isoforms in single cells. Using their method, they report heterogeneities in the ubiquitination levels of histone H2B in single yeast cells and reveal the cell-cycle dynamics of H2B monoubiquitination.

Zhang, Wu, Feng et al. show that ligand-bound glutamine binding protein assumes multiple metastable binding sites, presenting a more dynamic energy landscape than its ligand-free form. This study provides insights into the ligand-binding mechanisms coupled with protein dynamics that underly the apparent binding affinity.

Tao Li et al. report crystal structure of MucA-MucB complex and identify a cavity region of MucB that binds PEG molecule. They further show that this hydrophobic cavity of MucB is a primary site for sensing lipid molecules and that lipid A stimulates MucB to release MucA for AlgW cleavage, helping to understand the regulation mechanism of alginate biosynthesis.

Vinod Kumar Singh, Arnav Rastogi, et al. study etiology of mutational signature 8 (SBS8) in human cancers. They develop genome-wide composite epigenomic context maps related to mutagenesis and DNA repair. They report that SBS8 preferentially occurs in heterochromatin and likely arises from late replication errors during cancer progression.

Douglas Arneson et al. develop MethylResolver that enables the deconvolution of cellular fractions from bulk DNA methylation data. Using this method, the authors resolve tumor purity-scaled immune cell-type fractions without requiring cancer-specific signatures and identify cellular fractions as prognostic factors of multiple human cancers.

Hao, Qiao, Gao et al. show that over ten thousand oligonucleotides encoding 445 KB of digital data can be stored in cultured bacterial cells. Data storage in living cells increases the information storage capacity while enabling its economical propagation.