A maternal high-fat diet impairs serotonin bioavailability in the fetal brain of male mice by disrupting the placental–brain signalling axis, which causes behavioural changes in the adult offspring. Depicted is an artistic representation of a pregnant woman, as the work also shows that high maternal blood lipids correlate with low fetal brain serotonin levels in humans, suggesting a potential mechanism of increased susceptibility to neurological disorders.

See Ceasrine et al.

Malita, Kubrak et al. show that the gut-derived hormone neuropeptide F (NPF) induces sugar satiety and promotes protein feeding in female Drosophila flies. Shown here are the entire nervous and gastrointestinal systems along with the ovaries from an adult female, with NPF labelled in gold.

See Malita, Kubrak et al.

Steuernagel et al. present HypoMap, a comprehensive single-cell transcriptomic atlas of the mouse hypothalamus, providing a useful resource for the neurometabolism field. The cover is an artistic representation of neural circuits within the whole brain.

See Steuernagel et al.

These images show the distribution of lipid species in control mouse kidneys (the top three lines) and mouse kidneys with ischaemia–reperfusion injury (the bottom two lines) as recorded by high-spatial-resolution MALDI-MSI. These images indicate the species and heterogeneity of lipids in different types of renal cell, which are disturbed after injury; therefore, they can be used to identify injured renal cells in situ.

See Wang et al.

Zhang et al. identify functionally distinct adipose progenitor subpopulations in mouse perigonadal adipose tissue, and go on to show that altering the adipogenic capacity of such progenitors has beneficial effects on metabolic health in adulthood. The cover image depicts a haematoxylin and eosin stain of a transverse section of the mouse gonadal region three days after birth.

See Zhang et al.

Different brain regions coordinate metabolic processes that range from dictating feeding behavior to shaping energy storage and expenditure. At the cellular level, metabolic networks influence neural function and survival. A better understanding of these processes has advanced our knowledge in how the brain regulates whole-body energy homeostasis.

See Cheng et al., Alcántara, Miranda-Tapia et al., Nampoothiri et al., Busquets-García et al. and Pekkurnaz and Wang

Ong et al. demonstrate how YAP/TAZ and mTORC1 signalling intersect in endothelial cells to regulate nutrient acquisition and vascular growth. The cover depicts a mouse retina, labelled for PECAM (cyan), VE-cadherin (grey) and phosphorylated ribosomal protein S6 (red), indicating high mTORC1 signalling in angiogenic endothelial cells of the growing vascular network.

See Ong et al.

Cheng et al. report that ammonia released from glutaminolysis binds to SCAP to trigger its dissociation from Insig, thus activating SREBP-1 and promoting lipogenesis to support tumour growth. Depicted is a human lung tumor section with adjacent normal tissue stained for SREBP-1.

See Cheng et al.

Apoptotic cell-derived methionine is shown to be taken up by macrophages through efferocytosis and is used for epigenetic regulation of genes involved in mediating resolution of inflammation.

See Ampomah et al.

Polyamines produced by endothelial cells in white adipose tissue support adipocyte lipolysis and have a role in maintaining healthy adipose tissue homeostasis. The cover image represents an artistic illustration of this concept, depicting the endothelium (magenta), polyamines (ultramarine), adipose tissue (yellow) and free fatty acids (yellow droplets), which are released as a result of lipolysis.

See Monelli et al.

Silva et al. show that, during starvation, neurons use glial-derived ketone bodies to sustain memory formation in flies. The expression of a neuronal ketone body transporter is shown here in a posterior view of the Drosophila brain.

See Silva et al.

CEL protein is produced in pancreatic acinar cells and is mutated in MODY8. Mutant CEL protein from acinar cells is shown to transfer to and aggregate in beta-cells during MODY8, contributing to beta-cell dysfunction. Depicted is a healthy human pancreas section stained for CEL (red), insulin (green) and nuclei (blue).

See Kahraman et al.