News & Comment

Tanja Woyke highlights a 2014 study by Kashtan et al., who applied single-cell genomics to populations of the marine cyanobacterium Prochlorococcus, revealing hundreds of subpopulations with distinct genomic backbones of this wild uncultured microorganism.

A study in Nature identified the presumed owner or maker of a 20,000-year-old pendant.

A study in Molecular Cell reveals how CTCF and cohesin contribute to genome organization through their roles in forming and stacking chromatin loops.

A study in Science describes a rationally designed synthetic gene oscillator that prolongs the lifespan of yeast.

Wagner et al. report an organism-wide map of non-coding RNA expression in ageing and rejuvenated mice, identifying a set of broadly deregulated microRNAs that may act as systemic regulators of ageing.

A new study in Nature Genetics describes how changes in the levels of transcription factors can affect normal-range phenotypic variation and disease.

Sen et al. describe the epigenetic changes that underpin aberrant transcription initiation during senescence and ageing.

Arutyunyan et al. describe a spatially resolved, single-cell multi-omics map of the entire maternal–fetal interface in the first trimester of human pregnancy.

In this Journal Club, Loic Yengo discusses a study by Tenesa et al., who used height as a model complex trait to estimate the degree to which height similarity between spouses is caused by mate choice.

Sophie von der Heyden highlights a paper by Barber et al. that examined variations in the genetic structuring of populations of the mantis shrimp Haptosquilla pulchella, furthering our understanding of the evolutionary dynamics of marine species.

A new study in Science reports the mechanism through which TDP-43 enables correct processing of STMN2 mRNA, and proposes strategies to restore neuronal Stathmin-2 synthesis in TDP-43 proteinopathies.

A paper in Cell introduces the EN-TEx resource, a detailed catalogue of allele-specific activity that can be used to develop deep learning models that analyse the biological impact of genetic variants.

Xu et al. report the development of genetic scores that predict multi-omic traits, enabling cost-effective and powerful analyses for studies that do not include multi-omics data.

Zhang et al. describe two technologies for the spatially resolved co-mapping of epigenome and transcriptome at near single-cell resolution.

A new study in Science identifies a role for USB1 in deadenylating microRNAs to regulate blood development.

Two studies analysing ancient hunter-gatherer genomes report detailed insights into the history and interactions of West Eurasian hunter-gatherer groups and highlight the genetic replacement of entire Ice Age populations.

A new study in Cell uses epigenome engineering to confer transgenerational inheritance of DNA methylation states and metabolic traits in mice.

A study in Nature Biotechnology reports a whole-genome sequencing methodology that combines genome and epigenome sequencing in a single run.

A paper in Science reports that circadian gene expression in humans is affected by sex and age, findings that might explain differential disease prevalence among these groups and have implications for treatment.

Nandita Garud recalls two seminal papers by Hermisson and Pennings that provide a framework for understanding when adaptation should be gradual versus rapid.