Research articles

Human infections with Campylobacter fetus are often assumed to be derived from livestock. Here, Iraola et al. provide evidence that healthy humans may act as carriers and dispersers, and C. fetus may have originated in humans as an intestinal pathobiont and then adapted as a livestock pathogen.

Layered materials have strikingly anisotropic mechanical properties. Here, the authors use Raman spectroscopy and first-principles calculations to unveil that MoS₂, an archetypal layered material, possesses a coupling between in-plane uniaxial strain and interlayer shear, enabling derivation of an unexplored off-diagonal elastic constant.

Owing to their layered nature, transition metal dichalcogenides possess an anisotropic electronic structure whose impact on carrier dynamics is not fully known. Here, the authors use X-ray spectroscopy to unveil the electronic coupling and attosecond dynamics in SnS₂, a prototypical van der Waals layered crystal.

Peptide-based supramolecular assemblies are a promising class of nanomaterials with important biomedical applications, but their antibacterial properties can be overlooked. Here the authors show the antibacterial activity of self-assembled diphenylalanine, which emerges as the minimal model for antibacterial supramolecular polymers.

The phenomenon of wave mixing is expected to show peculiar features when scaled down to the quantum level. Here, the authors show how coherent electromagnetic waves propagating in a 1D transmission line with an embedded two-level artificial atom are mapped into a quantised spectrum of narrow peaks.

Previous transport studies of graphite in strong magnetic fields have found a sequence of phase transitions with a still unresolved microscopic origin. Here the authors present ultrasound measurements enabling sharper resolution and demonstrating the thermodynamic nature of these transitions.

Although optomechanics enables precision metrology, measurements beyond mechanical properties often require hybrid devices. Here, Kim et al. demonstrate that a ferromagnetic needle integrated with a torsional resonator can determine the magnetic properties and amplify or cool the resonator motion.

N-methylated amines display high biological activity in living organisms. Here, the authors show the convenient synthesis of a wide range of biologically relevant N-methylamines via reduction of nitrobenzenes using a recyclable iron catalyst and paraformaldehyde without additional hydrogen pressure.

Acetylation of the histone variant H2A.Z at gene promoters is associated with oncogene activation; however, it is unclear if such modification has a role in regulating the function of enhancers. Here the authors show that acetylated H2A.Z is redistributed at cancer neo-enhancers and regulates the activity of specific enhancers of cancer-related genes.

Strong laser light can intervene and modify the dynamical processes of matter. Here, the authors show how an intense laser field affects the spatial distribution of fragments in a molecular bond-breaking process, and how the intensity of this laser field can be used as an external knob to control it.

Though tractography is widely used, it has not been systematically validated. Here, authors report results from 20 groups showing that many tractography algorithms produce both valid and invalid bundles.

Aggregation of amyloidogenic peptides into fibrils and crystals has incidence in several amyloid-related diseases. Here, the authors investigate the origins of the fibril-to-crystal conversion in amyloidogenic hexapeptides pointing to the amyloid crystals as the ground state in the protein folding energy landscape.

Photocatalytic reduction and oxidation reactions, involving multiple electrons and operating in tandem, are extremely challenging to achieve. Here, with a hybrid structure of ZnO and Cu₂O, the authors report photocatalytic carbon dioxide reduction to methane with >99% selectivity using electrons from water.

Breeding has increased crop productivity, but whether it has also changed phenotypic plasticity is unclear. Here, the authors find maize genomic regions selected for high productivity show reduced contribution to genotype by environment variation and provide evidence for regulatory control of phenotypic stability.

Wing pattern mimicry in the butterfly Papilio polytes is controlled by a single Mendelian locus, the mimicry supergene doublesex. Here, Zhang and colleagues reconstruct the complex evolutionary history of the doublesex supergene and mimicry in the Papilio polytes species group.

TGFβ secretion in the tumor microenvironment inhibits T cell-mediated anti-tumor immune responses. Here the authors show that a mutation predisposing to autoimmune diseases confers T cells resistance to TGFβ inhibitory action and could be exploited to engineer immunotherapies for TGFβ secreting tumors.

The question of how significant barite deposits were able to form from early Earth’s low-sulfate seas remains controversial. Here, the authors show pelagic barite precipitation within a strongly barite-undersaturated ecosystem, highlighting the importance of particle-associated microenvironments.

Expression quantitative trait loci (eQTL) are widely studied, yet the mechanisms by which they exert their effects are largely unknown. Here, performing CAGE-seq on 154 lymphoblastoid cell lines, the authors map regulatory variants associated with promoter usage (puQTLs) and enhancer activity (eaQTLs).

Cationic metal-organic frameworks provide promising opportunities to capture anionic pollutants, but stable frameworks with sufficiently large pores are lacking. Here the authors present a thorium-based mesoporous, cationic and hydrolytically-stable MOF that can rapidly trap inorganic and organic anionic pollutants.

Topological surface states can lose their protection in many ways but the subtle mechanisms remain far from well understood. Here, Taskin et al. report a novel planar Hall effect in dual-gated Bi_2−x Sb _x Te₃ thin films, originating from anisotropic lifting of time reversal symmetry protection by an in-plane magnetic field.