Research articles

There is some evidence of a hereditary risk for developing testicular germ cell tumours. Here, the authors use whole-exome sequencing and identify a risk variant for the disease in DNAAF1, a gene involved in microtubule-based cilia.

Frustration in lattices of interacting spins can lead to rich and exotic physics, such as fractionalized excitations and emergent order. Here, the authors demonstrate a low-temperature transition from a disordered spin-ice-like phase to an emergent charge ordered phase in the bulk kagome Ising magnet Dy₃Mg₂Sb₃O₁₄.

Actinide electronic structure determination is fundamentally challenging. Here, the authors assemble a family of uranium(V)-nitrides and quantify the electronic structure of the molecules, defining the relative importance of spin orbit coupling and crystal field interactions.

Chimpanzees appear helpful in some studies yet they do not usually share food, suggesting that they are prosocial when costs are low and goals are clear. Here, Tennie et al. show that chimpanzee helping behaviour might be a byproduct of task design and that these apes might not be as prosocial as supposed.

Current databases of V genes for antibody repertoire have limitations. Here Corcoran et al. develop a computational approach named IgDiscover that can identify germline V gene sequences from expressed antibody repertoires to high specificity and completeness.

Experience constantly shapes perception, but the neural mechanisms of this rapid plasticity are unclear. Here, Holdgraf et al. record neural activity in the human auditory cortex and show that listening to normal speech elicits rapid plasticity that increases the neural gain for features of sound that are key for speech intelligibility.

Tunnelling currents through molecular junctions are affected by quantum interference effects, but understanding the factors leading to them remains a challenge. Here the authors show that through-space conjugation in self-assembled monolayers leads to conformation-dependent quantum interference that suppresses conductivity.

The tunable pore size and functionalization of metal-organic frameworks offers great potential for efficient and selective separation of molecular mixtures. Here, the authors report a metal-organic membrane containing photoresponsive linkers which offers a dynamic control of selectivity by remote signals

We can often ‘fill in’ missing or occluded sounds from a speech signal—an effect known as phoneme restoration. Leonard et al. found a real-time restoration of the missing sounds in the superior temporal auditory cortex in humans. Interestingly, neural activity in frontal regions prior to the stimulus can predict the word that the participant would later hear.

mRNA surveillance is essential to maintain homeostasis in eukaryotes and is activated by mRNAs lacking a stop codon. Here the authors describe a high resolution cryo-EM structure of a nonstop complex that shows how arrested ribosome recognition is achieved during Dom34-mediated mRNA surveillance.

Vasculature is denser in soft than in stiff tissues. Kragl et al. suggest a mechanistic link between biomechanical tissue properties and vascularization by showing that integrin-linked kinase reduces the contractile forces of the cell cortex in endocrine pancreatic cells, facilitating their adhesion to blood vessels and enabling pancreatic islet vascularization.

Kinetic models of microbial metabolism have great potential to aid metabolic engineering efforts, but the challenge of parameterization has so far limited them to core metabolism. Here, the authors introduce a genome-scale metabolic model of E. colimetabolism that satisfies fluxomic data for a wild-type and 25 mutant strains in various growth conditions.

Astrocytes regulate synaptic signalling via EAAT glutamate uptake, though whether they play a role in Hebbian plasticity is unknown. Here, the authors find targeting EAAT2 disrupts the emergence of spike timing-dependent plasticity, which highlights the role of astrocytes as gatekeepers for Hebbian plasticity.

SMAD7 is a transcriptional target and a negative regulator of TGFβ signalling forming a negative feedback loop. Here the authors show that in cancer cells TGFβ activates the expression of microRNA-182 that suppresses SMAD7 protein, promoting TGFβ-mediated breast tumour invasion and bone metastasis.

Magmas may migrate through hydrothermal fluids, but magma-hydrothermal interactions are poorly understood. Here, Chiodini et al. use physical and volatile models showing that at a critical degassing pressure the release of magmatic gases can heat hydrothermal fluids triggering deformation leading to eruption.

Low-frequency earthquakes (LFEs) in megathrusts are due to weak shear strength and high fluid pressure, but controls on LFE location remain unclear. Nakajima and Hasegawa show that LFE occurrence is limited to beneath unmetamorphosed undrained portions of the overlying plate.

Transparent conductors are fundamental for optoelectronics. Using the transfer matrix method to optimise a multistructure of anti-reflection coatings containing an ultrathin metal film, Maniyaraet al. achieve the highest transmittance of an antireflection transparent conductor combined with low resistance.

Twin transmission across grain boundaries has important influence on deformation and fracture in hexagonal close-packed metals. Here, experimental and computational statistical analyses show that whether twins cross grain boundaries depends not only on crystal misorientation but also strongly on anisotropy in crystallographic slip.

Surface meltwater draining to the bed of the Greenland Ice Sheet each summer causes ice flow changes inconsistent with the prevailing theory of channelizing subglacial drainage. Here, the authors show this is caused by limited, gradual leakage of water from previously ignored weakly connected regions of the bed.

Mammalian eggs release cortical granules to avoid being fertilized by more than a single sperm as polyspermy results in nonviable embryos. Here, the authors describe the mechanism driving translocation of the granules to the cortex in the mouse egg and show this process is essential to prevent polyspermy.