Research articles

Traditional scintillators face challenges in achieving fast response and avoiding afterglow. Guzelturk et al. report colloidal quantum shell heterostructures with bright multiexciton emission, enabling efficient, fast, and robust scintillation for high-resolution and high-speed X-ray imaging.

Here the authors identify PCNA, a master regulator of DNA replication, as a ubiquitin substrate for the BRCA1/BARD1 heterodimer. This modification is crucial to avoid the appearance of unreplicated DNA gaps in the genome after replication.

Heart failure is characterised by a detrimental rise in the intracellular sodium concentration. Here the authors show that this reversibly reprogrammes energy metabolism in the heart making this a possible therapeutic target for the development of new drugs.

This study uses cryo-EM, biochemical, and computational approaches to shed light on the fundamental mechanisms underlying the human mitoribosome function, including ligand binding, modifications, Fe-S clusters, and aging-related polyamines.

Ferroptosis is a form of cell death that has been associated with different diseases. Here the authors describe an association of ferroptosis with COVID-19 pulmonary pathologies in both patient samples and hamster model and suggest that the dysregulation in iron and lipid metabolism could provide targets to reduce pathology.

The ability of anti-cancer therapies such as radiotherapy, chemotherapy and immunotherapy to induce ferroptosis has been linked to their efficacy. Here, the authors demonstrate that SOX13 promotes ferroptosis-resistance via transactivation of SCAF1, identifying SOX13 as a targeted therapeutic vulnerability in gastric cancer.

Understanding the microscopic variability of CMOS spin qubits is crucial for developing scalable quantum processors. Here the authors report a combined experimental and numerical study of the effect of interface roughness on variability of quantum dot spin qubits formed at the Si/SiO₂ interface.

Antifungal triazoles inhibit biosynthesis of ergosterol, a crucial component of the fungal plasma membrane. Here, Xie et al. show that Erg6, the enzyme that catalyzes a previous step in ergosterol biosynthesis, is essential for the viability of Aspergillus fumigatus, and its repression reduces the virulence of this fungal pathogen in an animal model of infection.

Gamma ray bursts (GRBs) are transient events and GRB 221009A was a particularly interesting event due to its brightness and duration. Here, the authors show detection of delayed 400 GeV photon from GRB 221009A, which may indicate cascade emission scenario.

The lateral prefrontal cortex (LPFC) is thought to maintain goal-relevant representations that promote cognitive control, but causal evidence has been limited. By targeting action-goal representations in LPFC with transcranial magnetic stimulation and fMRI, the authors found that LPFC promotes goal oriented behaviour during emotional processing. Reviewer recognition:

Secondary bile acids are microbially produced metabolites linked to metabolic diseases. A challenge in microbiota research is to understand how bacteria collaborate to produce such bioactive molecules. Here, the authors show that adding a single low-abundance bacterial species to a community can significantly affect the metabolic output and host physiology.

The authors show that in the halophyte Salicornia the sodium transporter SOS1 localizes to the tonoplast, likely storing sodium in the vacuole. The intrinsically disordered protein SALTY, increases yeast salt tolerance possibly stabilizing ribosomes in the ER.

Genetic sex introduces variation in phenotypic traits in sexually reproducing organisms. Here, the authors report a developmental gene expression atlas for C. elegans males and hermaphrodites, highlighting the key role of the insulin-like peptide INS-39 in male development and suggesting genetic underpinnings of sexual dimorphism.

This study shows that magma rising from deep in the Earth’s mantle is not a continuous process but occurs in episodes. This is observed in East Africa with simultaneously replenishing of four magma pockets.

The authors model the transient temperature response of micro-thermoelectric devices with AC current applied, which is locally integrated under a transient hot spot. They develop a strategy for actively canceling the transient temperature variations.

NCOMMS-23-44446C Vivid structural colours in butterflies are caused by photonic nanostructures scattering light, however insight into the development of such structures in vivo remains scarce. Here the authors show that actin plays a vital and direct templating role during structural colour formation in butterfly scales, providing ridge patterning mechanisms that are likely universal across lepidoptera.

Common variable immunodeficiency (CVID) is an inborn error of immunity, characterized clinically by low immunoglobulin levels, poor vaccine responses and recurrent sinopulmonary infections. Here authors show that the proportion of Vδ1⁺ γδ T cells in CVID is higher than in healthy controls and these cells respond to persistent cytomegalovirus viremia with expansion and phenotypic alterations.

Mars, an attractive candidate for potential presence of extraterrestrial life, contains oxychlorine species such as perchlorate at its surface. Here, the authors show perchlorate brines support folding and catalysis of functional RNAs, while inactivating representative protein enzymes, and that perchlorate enables new ribozyme functions, including ribozyme catalyzed chlorination of organic molecules.

The Neolithic site of Dispilio, Northern Greece, is a pile-dwelling site with 900+ piles excavated. Here, the authors use the 5259 BC Miyake event to date the juniper tree-ring chronology constructed from these piles to 5140 BC, making it the first Neolithic site in the region to be absolutely calendar dated.

The authors describe a new transcriptome-wide association study (TWAS) method that integrates single cell eQTL summary statistics with GWAS data to identify cell type-specific risk genes, together with a cell type-aware drug repurposing pipeline.