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HaeWon Jung, Tao Liu et al. combine multimodal adaptive optics with indocyanine green angiography to improve imaging of the human eye. This combination allowed visualization of photoreceptors, retinal pigment epithelial cells, and choriocapillaris of the living eye with remarkable resolution.
Tsion Zewdu Minas et al. find that men carrying an IFNL4 variant that is more common in African Americans and is associated with impaired viral clearance have a higher risk of prostate cancer. Specifically, this risk is increased in IFNL4 variant carriers with more lifetime sexual partners, suggesting a link to impaired clearance of sexually transmitted infections
Kelly Chacón et al. report insights into the mechanism of copper transfer between CusF and CusB, which are involved in heavy metal export as a part of bacterial host-defense strategies. Their results indicate fast formation of a complex involving a shared metallosite with ligands derived from each partner, followed by slower intra-complex metal transfer.
Jessica Ericson et al. examine the viability of Antarctic krill when exposed to near-future levels of ocean acidification for one year. These lab-based simulations of future ocean acidification show that adult krill actively maintain their body acid-base balance, enhancing their resilience.
Hannah Barkley and Anne Cohen and colleagues used bleaching signatures in coral skeletons to examine the Jarvis Island coral community response to multiple El Niño heatwaves. They find the historically productive ecosystem experienced 10 bleaching events in the past 60 years and its recovery provides insights into coral reef resilience under ocean warming.
Okamoto et al. report that APOL1 RNA, but not protein, expressed from chronic kidney disease (CKD)-associated alleles activates protein kinase R, inducing glomerular injury in a mouse model. The secondary structure of APOL1 risk variant RNA acts as a scaffold for protein kinase R, suggesting potential therapeutic strategies for CKD.
Michael Ochsenkühn et al. look at the microbial and metabolic composition of coral surfaces and the surrounding seawater. They find that the metabolites found on the surface of the coral create a concentration gradient that influences the surrounding microbiome.
Chufei Tang and Katie E. Davis et al. show that an elevated atmospheric CO2 promotes the speciation rates of mosquitoes. They demonstrate that climate change can expedite the evolution of mammalian disease vectors, potentially increasing vector−pathogen interactions and affecting human health.
Lauren Ostrowski, Amanda Hall et al. report a molecular characterization of Pbp1, the yeast ortholog of the neurodegenerative disease-associated human ATXN2. They find that Pbp1 knockout or polyQ expansion compromises rDNA repeat stability via a mechanism linking neurodegenerative protein aggregation and aging.
Rupert A. Collins et al. show that environmental DNA degrades faster in the inshore urban environment than the ocean-influenced offshore environment. This study suggests that environmental DNA can be reliably detected for two days, providing an optimal time window of high local fidelity.
Jeremy Woodward et al. report that substrate specificity in nitrilases from Capsella rubella depend on their helical twist rather than substitutions in the substrate-binding site. They show that mutating interfacial residues can alter substrate specificity and helical twist.
Cheng Dong et al. resolve the crystal structure of NTMT2, presenting the molecular basis for substrate recognition. Using structural and biochemical studies, they identified a specific residue within NTMT2 that controls its binding affinity to unmethylated or monomethylated substrates.
Fan Zhang et al. present CRISPRminer, a comprehensive database for exploring CRISPR-Cas systems in more than 3500 microbial species and a web-server for in-depth data mining. CRISPRminer allows researchers to predict CRISPR-Cas systems and investigate self-targeting CRISPRs, microbe-phage interaction networks, and anti-CRISPR features.
Anna Biernacka, Yingjie Zhu et al. present i-BLESS, a universal method for detecting genome-wide DNA double strand breaks, optimized here for yeast. By immobilizing cells on agarose beads, the authors are able to achieve efficient diffusion of reagents and labeling of double strand breaks, including ultra-rare breaks such as those at G-quadruplexes.
Rachel Graham et al. show that coronaviruses with extensively rewired transcription regulatory networks are effective vaccine candidates against Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus. The reversion of live-attenuated vaccine strains to virulence can be avoided with these vaccines.
Chun-Ting Cheng et al. demonstrate that arginine starvation kills arginine-auxotrophic cancer cells by depleting them of aspartate through asparagine synthetase (ASNS) and disrupting their mitochondrial metabolism. This study presents ASNS-induced aspartate depletion as an anti-cancer therapeutic strategy.
Hui Ma et al. report a new mechanism by which activated hepatic stellate cells promote the epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT) in hepatocellular carcinoma. They find that transglutaminase 2 is upregulated by activated hepatic stellate cells via inflammatory signalling, which leads to a pseudohypoxic state promoting EMT.
Samadhan Patil et al. report a new method for improving the sensitivity and reproducibility of mechanobiological measurements in malignant cancer cells. Their findings provide insight into the interaction of cells with each other and the microenvironment and may impact our understanding of metastasis.
James Dai et al. report the first whole-genome sequencing study of esophageal adenocarcinoma (EAC) in Chinese patients. They find distinct genomic alterations and signatures compared to EAC in patients from Western countries.
Shi Yu et al. show that the dynamics of fluorescently labeled DNA loci and cytoplasmic particles in E. coli respond differently to mechanical compression of the cell. These results suggest DNA elasticity is more important for determining the diffusivity of DNA loci in response to mechanical force than is cytoplasmic viscoelasticity.