Volume 53 Issue 10, October 2021

Analysis of 2,170 SARS-CoV-2 sequences from the first wave of the COVID-19 epidemic in Spain provides insights into transmission patterns and the effects of lockdown on the emergence of new variants.

Genome-wide analyses in BioBank Japan, UK Biobank and FinnGen identify ~5,000 new loci associated with 220 human traits. Statistical decomposition of matrices of phenome-wide summary statistics further highlights variants underpinning diseases across populations.

Genome-wide association and Mendelian randomization analyses in the UK Biobank identify genetic variants associated with leukocyte telomere length and highlight putative causal links between telomere length and biomedical phenotypes.

Healthy tissues from individuals with germline mutations in POLE or POLD1 show increased mutational burden, suggesting that normal cells are capable of tolerating high mutation rates.

Mice bearing mutations in Flt3-ITD and Npm1c, which are commonly found in acute myeloid leukemia, are used to characterize the cooperative effects of these cancer drivers on the cellular epigenome and three-dimensional genome conformation during tumor development.

Single-cell DNA methylation and transcriptomic glioma analyses link local DNA methylation disorder and cellular plasticity. Increases in disorder are associated with stress and disease progression, suggesting a role in shaping the therapeutic response.

Multimodal DNA methylation and transcriptome profiling of single glioma cells links tumor cell transcriptional states to epigenetics via interaction with PRC2 and shows that these states are heritable and important for tumor plasticity.

Depletion of BRD4 reduces the chromatin occupancy of NIPBL, resulting in aberrant genome folding. Loss of BRD4 impedes neural crest differentiation, which can be rescued by depletion of WAPL.

Genomic analysis of allo-tetraploid common carp and goldfish identifies parallel subgenome structure and divergent expression processes.

A high-resolution reference panel based on whole-genome sequencing data enables accurate imputation of HLA alleles across diverse populations and fine-mapping of HLA association signals for HIV-1 host response.