Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Volume 122, Issue 13, April 2025. <br/>
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Volume 122, Issue 13, April 2025. <br/>SignificanceDengue virus (DENV) is the most important mosquito-borne flavivirus affecting humans, yet no effective therapies exist. NITD-688 represents a promising panserotype DENV drug candidate currently in Phase II clinical trials. Understanding the ...
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Volume 122, Issue 13, April 2025. <br/>SignificanceIn numerous severe conditions, including pneumonia, autoimmune disorders, cancer metastasis, and even neurodegenerative diseases, translocation of gut bacteria into host circulation is considered as a key factor in the onset and progression of ...
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Volume 122, Issue 13, April 2025. <br/>SignificanceUnderstanding the mechanism of how neural networks learn features from data is a fundamental problem in machine learning. Our work explicitly connects the mechanism of neural feature learning to a widely used class of algorithms for sparse ...
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Volume 122, Issue 13, April 2025. <br/>SignificanceFeeding behaviors of wild animals are influenced by the repetitive cycle of feeding phases: Food procurement, consumption, and termination. However, neural circuits controlling the food consumption phase remain unclear. Here, we found that the ...
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Volume 122, Issue 13, April 2025. <br/>SignificanceThe peptide bombesin (BN) was first discovered in frog skin and subsequently the BN-related neuropeptides gastrin-releasing peptide and neuromedin B were identified in mammals and other vertebrates as regulators of feeding, digestion, and ...
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Volume 122, Issue 13, April 2025. <br/>SignificanceUnderstanding how humans effortlessly control coordinated movements has been a long-standing challenge in neuroscience. This research introduces the “expansion hypothesis,” a new framework to explain how we develop, learn, and use motor ...
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Volume 122, Issue 13, April 2025. <br/>SignificanceMany transcriptional and post-transcriptional mechanisms control gene expression in eukaryotic cells. The zinc finger antiviral protein (ZAP) is induced by interferon and inhibits viral gene expression and replication by recruiting a ...
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Volume 122, Issue 13, April 2025. <br/>SignificancePerceptual judgments of ambiguous stimuli are often biased by prior expectations. These biases may offer a window into the neural computations that give rise to perceptual interpretations of the environment. However, isolating the neural ...
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Volume 122, Issue 13, April 2025. <br/>SignificanceReligion is a cross-cultural human universal, and religions may have been instrumental in the cultural evolution of widespread cooperation and prosociality. Nonetheless, religiosity has rapidly declined in some parts of the world over just a ...
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Volume 122, Issue 13, April 2025. <br/>SignificanceContrary to the conventional notion of feedforward mechanisms for object recognition, there is an equal role for feedback, carrying top–down influences of object expectation and working memory, which cause neurons to change their selectivity ...
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Volume 122, Issue 13, April 2025. <br/>SignificanceThe function and structure of the tryptophan-rich sensory proteins (TSPO) family have been the subject of contention. Here, we describe the finding of human mitochondrial TSPO1 as a cholesterol-dependent enzyme. This finding establishes the ...
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Volume 122, Issue 13, April 2025. <br/>SignificanceThe brain adjusts body physiology to the behavioral agenda of the organism through descending autonomic commands. Concomitantly, ascending autonomic (interoceptive) signals inform the brain about the physiological state of the body, closing a ...
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Volume 122, Issue 13, April 2025. <br/>SignificanceFor almost half the history of life on Earth, the complexity of all organisms was limited to that of simple prokaryotic cells such as contemporary bacteria. The process by which genes are activated, which is at the root of the functioning of ...
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Volume 122, Issue 13, April 2025. <br/>SignificanceNanometer-thin elastic sheets containing embedded magnetic particles offer special opportunity for remote actuation by magnetic fields because their small thickness endows them with extreme mechanical flexibility. However, in this ultrathin ...
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Volume 122, Issue 13, April 2025. <br/>SignificanceMyelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) and certain cancers are associated with mutations in the protein SF3B1, which is a subunit of the U2 snRNP. The U2 snRNP plays an important role in the pre-mRNA splicing process, which is essential to the ...
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Volume 122, Issue 13, April 2025. <br/>SignificanceAs AI systems become more capable, they may internally represent concepts outside the sphere of human knowledge. This work gives an end-to-end example of unearthing machine-unique knowledge in the domain of chess. We obtain machine-unique ...
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Volume 122, Issue 13, April 2025. <br/>SignificanceLoss-of-function mutations of the Kir2.1 K+channel subunit cause a triad of periodic paralysis, cardiac arrhythmia, and skeletal anomalies in the Andersen–Tawil syndrome. As with other forms of periodic paralysis, changes in K+may trigger ...
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Volume 122, Issue 13, April 2025. <br/>SignificanceNeurons form intricate shapes and networks, which may display sexual differences. Pinpointing these changes at the single-cell level, however, is challenging. InCaenorhabditis elegans, the PVD neuron is a powerful model for stereotypical ...
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Volume 122, Issue 13, April 2025. <br/>
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Volume 122, Issue 13, April 2025. <br/>SignificanceWe examined how the interaction of the peptide ligand parathyroid hormone (PTH) and its receptor (PTH1R) varies depending on receptor coupling to Gsor Gq. We found that the conformation of PTH and the stability of PTH1R complexed with a ...
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Volume 122, Issue 13, April 2025. <br/>SignificanceStomatal evolution was a primary driver in the radical transformation of Earth’s atmosphere over the past 400 my, providing plants with the ability to regulate water loss and optimize photosynthesis. Modulating guard cell turgor pressure was a ...
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Volume 122, Issue 13, April 2025. <br/>SignificanceLearning how interferons (IFNs) trigger biological responses is crucial for understanding the consequences of these natural antiviral and antitumor cytokines, and could help with development of optimized therapeutic strategies. By using mass ...
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Volume 122, Issue 13, April 2025. <br/>SignificanceF-type ATP synthase (F1FO) catalyzes proton motive force-driven ATP synthesis in mitochondria, chloroplasts, and bacteria. We have identified an architecture of F1FOfromChloroflexus aurantiacus(CaF1FO), a bacterium from the earliest branch ...
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Volume 122, Issue 13, April 2025. <br/>SignificanceCarbon source preference is critical for bacterial metabolism and physiology. Most microorganisms utilize glucose over other carbon sources when grown in laboratory media with plentiful Mg2+. However, pathogens such asSalmonella enterica...
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Volume 122, Issue 13, April 2025. <br/>SignificanceThis study introduces a macrocyclic peptide that selectively targets myeloid cell leukemia 1 (MCL1), a critical antiapoptotic protein. Structural analysis reveals its unique function as a molecular glue, capable of inducing homodimerization of ...
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Volume 122, Issue 13, April 2025. <br/>SignificanceThe species–area relationship (SAR), which describes how diversity scales with geographic area, is one of the few nearly ubiquitous phenomena in macroecology. In continental settings, nested SARs encapsulate both the number of species that ...
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Volume 122, Issue 13, April 2025. <br/>SignificanceUnderstanding friction forces at the cellular level is critical for understanding cell motion and function, yet their direct measurement in living systems is challenging due to the complex interplay of active biochemical processes. This study ...
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Volume 122, Issue 13, April 2025. <br/>SignificanceDemyelination, the loss of the myelin sheath around nerve fibers, disrupts electrical signaling in the brain and spinal cord, causing weakness, vision problems, and cognitive decline, as seen in multiple sclerosis (MS). Remyelination repairs ...
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Volume 122, Issue 13, April 2025. <br/>SignificanceNearly 90% of U.S. Christian religious leaders believe in anthropogenic climate change, with most believing human activity is a major contributor. Yet roughly half have never discussed it with their congregation, and only a quarter have ...
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Volume 122, Issue 13, April 2025. <br/>
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Volume 122, Issue 13, April 2025. <br/>SignificanceThe search for spin-triplet superconductors has been pursued for nearly seven decades, yielding to date no universally accepted success. The recently discovered heavy-fermion superconductor UTe2is the latest serious candidate for spin-triplet ...
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Volume 122, Issue 13, April 2025. <br/>SignificanceThe formation of biomolecular condensates through the process of phase separation is thought to be a central organizing principle underlying cellular matter and has been shown to play a key role in many human diseases. We here describe a ...
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Volume 122, Issue 13, April 2025. <br/>SignificanceCells can sense when the extracellular matrix has been exposed to matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs), even if the exposure is slight and does not alter matrix stiffness. We show that cells sense MMP-mediated degradation through its enhancement ...
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Volume 122, Issue 13, April 2025. <br/>SignificanceWe identified 60 genes with significant burden of monoallelic damaging variants, accounting for 10.1% of probands, with equal contributions from de novo and transmitted variants. Mutations often produced variable congenital heart disease (CHD) ...
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Volume 122, Issue 13, April 2025. <br/>SignificanceWhile F-box and WD repeat domain-containing 7 (FBXW7) is a typical tumor suppressor, frequently inactivated in human cancers, it is unknown whether FBXW7 also acts as a tumor suppressor via targeting cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs) in ...
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Volume 122, Issue 13, April 2025. <br/>SignificancePIP3is an important lipid that is involved in regulating many cellular processes such as proliferation and it is thought to be restricted to the plasma membrane. Using fluorescent biosensors that can be targeted to different subcellular ...
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Volume 122, Issue 13, April 2025. <br/>SignificanceThere is an unmet need for new antibiotic therapies effective against the multidrug-resistant, bacterial pathogens. Combination therapies have the potential to overcome resistance and broaden the spectrum of existing antibiotics. In this study,...
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Volume 122, Issue 13, April 2025. <br/>SignificanceExceeding the Paris Agreement’s 1.5 °C limit raises urgent questions of how countries’ responsibilities for climate action change in this new context. We introduce “net-zero carbon debt” as a forward-looking measure of responsibility for ...
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Volume 122, Issue 13, April 2025. <br/>SignificanceUnderstanding the link between genetic and environmental influences on the development of metabolic syndrome is crucial to developing better therapies for treatment and prevention. While studies have implicated the disruption of natural ...
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Volume 122, Issue 13, April 2025. <br/>SignificanceThe ability to evolve proteases that selectively cleave a desired protein in vivo could provide access to useful therapeutic agents. This would be especially powerful when targeting intrinsically disordered proteins (IDPs), a hard-to-drug ...
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Volume 122, Issue 13, April 2025. <br/>SignificanceAmerican students continue to fall behind in math. Aiming to improve math achievement among nearly 3 million elementary students, we conducted a megastudy with more than 140,000 teachers in partnership with Zearn Math, a nonprofit educational ...
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Volume 122, Issue 13, April 2025. <br/>SignificanceAerosol–cloud interactions (ACI) are one of the most uncertain aspects of global climate predictions, in part because there are insufficient process-specific constraints from observations. This method of decomposing the most radiatively ...
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Volume 122, Issue 13, April 2025. <br/>SignificanceIn recent years, tools such as videoconferencing have shifted many conversations online, with stark auditory ramifications—such that some voices sound clear and resonant while others sound hollow or tinny, based on microphone quality and ...
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Volume 122, Issue 13, April 2025. <br/>SignificanceThe “fluorinated interphase” is often seen as a catch-all solution for enhancing battery performance, despite LiF having a high Li-ion diffusion barrier. This study emphasizes evaluating its effects case-by-case. We developed weakly solvating ...
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Volume 122, Issue 13, April 2025. <br/>SignificanceIn living cells, compartmentalization drives functional complexity, yet most synthetic cell systems are confined to single compartments with uniform levels of molecular crowding. In this study, we introduce a protocell model with tunable phase ...
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Volume 122, Issue 13, April 2025. <br/>SignificancePlants utilize physical and biochemical defenses to protect themselves from herbivores, yet the role of nonnutritional components like mesoporous silica nanoparticles (MSNs) in plant–herbivore interactions is not well understood. In this study,...
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Volume 122, Issue 13, April 2025. <br/>SignificanceTYK2 inhibitors were proven to be potent modulators of autoimmune disorders. We have developed selective centrally penetrant TYK2 inhibitors that can modulate the pathogenesis of neuroinflammation in EAE (a preclinical model of MS) in ways ...
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Volume 122, Issue 13, April 2025. <br/>SignificanceThe interaction between climate change and methylmercury (MeHg) bioaccumulation poses significant challenges in assessing its impacts on food safety and human health. Our study explores this complex relationship, revealing that freshwater wild ...
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Volume 122, Issue 13, April 2025. <br/>SignificanceFreezing is an innate fear response triggered by visual stimuli. Here, we developed a visually evoked freezing paradigm in larval zebrafish and showed that presenting a moving dark disk could trigger immobility, as well as bradycardia, another ...
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Volume 122, Issue 13, April 2025. <br/>SignificanceIn a time of societal polarization, the combination of people’s search habits and the search tools they use being optimized for relevance may perpetuate echo chambers. We document this across various diverse studies spanning health, finance, ...
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Volume 122, Issue 13, April 2025. <br/>SignificanceStimulant medications like methylphenidate boost circulating dopamine levels and are effective treatments for attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), but they do not work for everyone. Here, we examined which individuals are most ...
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Volume 122, Issue 13, April 2025. <br/>
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Volume 122, Issue 13, April 2025. <br/>SignificanceDecane, undecane, and dodecane were detected in a Martian sample at the tens of pmol level and may originate from long-chain carboxylic acids. The detection of long-chain alkanes in the Sheepbed mudstone is important for extending studies of ...
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Volume 122, Issue 13, April 2025. <br/>
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Volume 122, Issue 13, April 2025. <br/>
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Volume 122, Issue 13, April 2025. <br/>
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Volume 122, Issue 13, April 2025. <br/>
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Volume 122, Issue 13, April 2025. <br/>
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Volume 122, Issue 13, April 2025. <br/>
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Volume 122, Issue 13, April 2025. <br/>
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Volume 122, Issue 13, April 2025. <br/>SignificanceWater transport through the xylem tissue of plants is critical for supporting growth and, consequently, terrestrial primary productivity. This process can fail due to the formation of gas bubbles, or embolism, which can be caused by extreme ...
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Volume 122, Issue 13, April 2025. <br/>
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Volume 122, Issue 13, April 2025. <br/>
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Volume 122, Issue 13, April 2025. <br/>
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Volume 122, Issue 13, April 2025. <br/>
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Volume 122, Issue 13, April 2025. <br/>
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Volume 122, Issue 13, April 2025. <br/>
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Volume 122, Issue 13, April 2025. <br/>
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Volume 122, Issue 13, April 2025. <br/>SignificanceAnimal shape supports functions and is therefore regulated throughout the animal’s lifetime. To understand how moon jellies keep their shape, we rearranged their shape by grafting. We find that although the jellies are characterized by their ...
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Volume 122, Issue 13, April 2025. <br/>SignificanceBiomechanical innovations are the underpinning of many great transitions in vertebrate evolution. The origin of birds is marked by radical transformations of the braincase, palate, and snout into a kinetic feeding system. New fossil ...
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Volume 122, Issue 13, April 2025. <br/>Recent findings show that stereotyped movement sequences (habits) need the cortex in the learning phase, but after learning, the cortex can be inactivated, and the movement still be performed flawlessly. The motor program is dependent on the sensorimotor ...