Research articles

Damaged mitochondria are known to cause neuronal death, suggesting clearance as a potential therapy. Here, Moskal et al. show that ROCK inhibitors promote Parkin recruitment and mitophagy and have neuroprotective effects in fruit flies challenged with a toxin that induces mitochondrial damage.

It is important to analyse the local resolution of cryo-EM maps. Here the authors present MonoDir, a fully automatic and parameter free method for the directional local resolution analysis of cryo-EM maps that requires only the final map as input and they also propose indicators for assessing map quality.

Here, the authors observe that laser illumination allows to displace a vial of nanoparticle solution over centimetre-scale distances. In order to explain this, they describe a novel mechanism for laser propulsion of a macroscopic object, based on light-induced thermophoresis.

Transition metal dichalcogenides demonstrate fascinating capabilities for electrocatalytic H₂ evolution, although the activities vary widely depending on nanomaterial sites available. Here, authors show the grain boundaries of atomically thin MoS₂ to be especially active sites for H₂ evolution.

Microtubule (MT) organization is regulated by many microtubule-associated proteins (MAPs) that contain intrinsically disordered regions. Here authors produce [¹³C, ¹⁵N] labeled, functional microtubules from human cells for solid-state NMR which allows studying MAP-MT interactions.

Intestinal aging is associated with declines in structure and absorption of nutrients. Here, the authors show that aging related intestinal decline is mediated by activation of the mTORC1-p38MAPK-p53 pathway in intestinal stem cells and can be ameliorated by abrogating mTORC1 or p38MAPK activity.

It is interesting phenomenon that chiral order can emerge in intrinsically achiral liquid crystals. Here Čopar et al. demonstrate achiral-to-chiral transition of the nematic liquid crystals flow in microfluidic channels and their behaviour, stability, and dependence on geometric and material parameters.

The secretory pathway is used in the production of most biopharmaceuticals, but the associated biosynthetic costs are little understood. Here, the authors integrate the core secretory pathway into genome-scale metabolic models of human, mouse, and CHO cells, enabling in silico analysis.

Majority of human long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) are not conserved in mouse. Here the authors identify metabolic trait-associated lncRNA genes and show a functional role of a non-conserved human lncRNA, LINC01018, in lipid metabolism using a humanized mouse model.

Though artificial sensory systems based on electronic devices have been realized, further transformation of data into spikes is required for neural network optimization. Here, based on NbO_x Mott memristors, the authors report artificial spiking afferent nerves for accessing spiking systems and demonstrate spiking mechanoreceptor systems.

Sertoli cells and other somatic cells of the testis comprise the germ cell niche and are critical to regulate spermatogenesis. Here the authors present a method in which Sertoli cells are selectively targeted for ablation by the compound benzalkonium chloride (BC) in mice, and the spermatogenic niche is subsequently repopulated in regions that have been affected by BC treatment.

Although artificial Lieb lattices have been recently synthesized, the realization of a Lieb lattice in a real material is still challenging. Here the authors use tight-binding and first principle calculations to predict tunable topology and magnetism in recently discovered two-dimensional covalent-organic frameworks.

Pheromones are an essential cue for species recognition and mate selection in many insects including the butterfly Bicyclus anynana. Here the authors show that females with a short social experience of a new male learn preferences for novel pheromone blends, a preference which also occurs in their daughters.

Dietary fiber-derived short-chain fatty acids (SCFA) act as histone deacetylase (HDAC) inhibitors on Tregs and innate immune cells, promoting immune tolerance by altering gene expression. Here the authors show that SCFA HDAC inhibitor activity impacts B cell differentiation, antibody responses and antibody-driven autoimmunity.

Little is known about the genetics of sclerosing stromal tumor of the ovary, a rare type of sex cord-stromal tumor. Here, the authors use sequencing strategies to show that in a cohort of 26 tumor samples 65% carry a FHL2-GLI2 fusion gene and demonstrate in vitro that the fusion gene has oncogenic properties.

Brain circuits exhibit different amounts of plasticity over different developmental stages. Here authors show that there is a transition of the influence of spatiotemporal patterns, from instructive to permissive, around the time of the onset of visual experience.

Many intracellular pathogens mimic extracellular matrix motifs to specifically interact with the host membrane which may influences virus particle uptake. Here authors use single molecule tension sensors to reveal the minimal forces exerted on single virus particles and demonstrate that the uptake forces scale with the adhesion energy.

Renewable energy based wireless power transfer is challenging. Here the authors show a resonant-coupled triboelectric nanogenerator as a wireless power source and have further utilized this system to explore two fully self-powered wireless chipless sensors.

The physical origins of charge density waves in 1T-TiSe2 and their response to ultrafast excitation have long been a topic of theoretical and experimental debate. Here the authors present an ab initio theory that successfully captures the observed dynamics of charge density wave formation.

SnRK2 kinases activate abiotic stress responses in plants following ABA-dependent phosphatase inhibition or ABA-independent osmotic stress signalling. Here Takahashi et al. show that MAPKK-kinases phosphorylate and activate SnRK2s thus enabling robust ABA and osmotic stress signal transduction.