Social institutions are systems of shared norms and rules that regulate people’s behaviors, often emerging without external enforcement. They provide criteria to distinguish cooperation from defection and establish rules to sustain cooperation, shaped through long-term trial and error. While principles for successful institutions have been proposed, the mechanisms underlying their emergence remain

When soft matter is driven out of equilibrium its constituents interact via effective interactions that escape Newton’s action–reaction principle. Prominent examples include the hydrodynamic interactions between colloidal particles driven in viscous fluids, phoretic interactions between chemically active colloids, and quorum-sensing interactions in bacterial colonies. Despite a recent surge of interest

Metastasis is an inefficient process requiring cancer cells to adapt metabolically for survival and colonization in new environments. The contributions of tumor metabolic reprogramming to lymph node (LN) metastasis and its underlying mechanisms remain elusive. Through single-cell RNA sequencing, we identified rare metastasis-initiating cells (MICs) with stem-like properties that drive early LN metastasis

Differentially private gradient descent (DP-GD) is a popular algorithm to train deep learning models with provable guarantees on the privacy of the training data. In the last decade, the problem of understanding its performance cost with respect to standard GD has received remarkable attention from the research community, which has led to upper bounds on the excess population risk R P in different

Ecosystems are experiencing changing global patterns of mean annual precipitation (MAP) and enrichment with multiple nutrients that potentially colimit plant biomass production. In grasslands, mean aboveground plant biomass is closely related to MAP, but how this relationship changes after enrichment with multiple nutrients remains unclear. We hypothesized the global biomass–MAP relationship becomes

Natural transformation (NT) represents one of the major modes of horizontal gene transfer in bacterial species. During NT, cells can take up free DNA from the environment and integrate it into their genome by homologous recombination. While NT has been studied for >90 y, the molecular details underlying this recombination remain poorly understood. Recent work has demonstrated that ComM is an NT-specific

Monoclonal antibody IE-3 prevents mouse fertilization by binding ZP2, a major component of the oocyte-specific zona pellucida (ZP). We show that an IE-3-derived single-chain variable fragment (scFV) is sufficient for blocking fertilization in vitro and determine the structural basis of IE-3/ZP2 recognition. The high affinity of this interaction depends on induced fit of the epitope, offering insights

Unraveling the relationship between structural information and the dynamic properties of supercooled liquids is one of the great challenges of physics. Dynamic heterogeneity, characterized by the propensity of particles, is often used as a proxy for dynamic slowing. Over the years, significant efforts have been made to capture the structural variations linked to dynamic heterogeneity in supercooled

Researchers are key contributors to innovation. Their migration results in talent circulation and recombination of ideas. Due to data shortage, little is known about subnational mobility of scientists and the interrelationships between their internal and international migration patterns. We used data on 30+ million Scopus publications of 19+ million authors to infer migration from changes in affiliations

In Drosophila ovaries, germ cells differentiate through several stages of cyst development before entering meiosis. This early differentiation program depends on both the stepwise deployment of specific regulatory mechanisms and on maintenance of germline sexual identity. The study of female sterile mutations that result in formation of germ cell tumors has been invaluable in identifying the mechanisms

The evolutionary adaptation of an organism to a stressful environment often comes at the cost of reduced fitness. For example, resistance to antimicrobial drugs frequently reduces growth rate in the drug-free environment. This cost can be compensated without loss in resistance by mutations at secondary sites when the organism evolves again in the stress-free environment. Here, we analytically and numerically

In supersymmetric Yang–Mills theories tension-degenerate domain walls are typical. Adding matter fields in fundamental representation, we arrive at supersymmetric quantum chromodynamics (SQCD) supporting similar walls. We demonstrate that the degenerate domain walls can belong to one of two classes: i) locally distinguishable, i.e. those which differ from each other locally (which could be detected

Wound healing after spinal cord injury involves highly coordinated interactions among multiple cell types, which are poorly understood. Astrocytes play a central role in creating a border against the non-neural lesion core. To do so, astrocytes undergo dramatic morphological changes by first thickening and elongating their processes and then overlapping them to form a physical barrier. We show here

Neural stem cells (NSCs) can self-renew and undergo differentiation via asymmetric division. Dysregulation in the balance between self-renewal and differentiation can lead to tumor formation or neurodevelopmental disorders. However, the regulation of phosphatidylinositol transfer protein (PITP)-dependent PI(4)P pools and myosin localization during asymmetric division in dividing cells is not well established

Runx2 is a master regulator of bone formation, and its dysfunction causes cleidocranial dysplasia (CCD) in humans. When iPS cells were generated from patients with CCD and Runx2-deficient iPS cells were generated using gene-editing techniques, abnormal laminopathy-like nuclei were observed. Runx2-deficient cells showed reduced Lamin A/C expression, but not protein levels. However, in Runx2-deficient

The hepatocyte Ashwell–Morell receptor (AMR) is the prototypical mammalian lectin and the first cell receptor isolated. This recycling endocytic receptor of the plasma membrane determines the concentrations of hundreds of circulating glycoproteins in the blood and plays important roles in host responses to and outcomes of infection. The compositional and topological determinants of a physiological

The microenvironment around catalytic sites plays crucial roles in enzymatic catalysis while its precise control in heterogeneous catalysts remains challenging. Herein, the coordinatively unsaturated metal nodes of Hf-based metal-organic framework nanosheets are simultaneously codecorated with catalytically active Co(salen) units and adjacent pyridyl-substituted alkyl carboxylic acids via a post modification

Advanced Placement (AP) provides college-level courses to over 1 million US secondary students annually. Black, Hispanic, and female students have historically been underrepresented in AP Computer Science (CS). A new, broadly focused course—AP CS Principles—launched nationally in 2016–17 with the goal of increasing student participation and diversity. We examine its effects on AP CS participation.

Pregnancy loss is a major problem in clinical medicine with devastating consequences for families. Next generation sequencing has improved our ability to identify underlying molecular causes, though over half of all cases lack a clear etiology. Here, we began with clinical evaluation combined with exome sequencing across independent families to identify bi-allelic candidate genetic variants in the

The Atg8-family proteins, including LC3B (microtubule-associated protein 1 light chain 3 beta), are pivotal for key steps in the autophagy process. Proper regulation of LC3B homeostasis is essential for its function. Although LC3B is modulated by various posttranslational modifications (PTMs), the impact of these modifications on LC3B protein homeostasis remains unclear. Neddylation, a recently identified

Microglia, the largest population of brain immune cells, play an essential role in regulating neuroinflammation by removing foreign materials and debris and in cognition by pruning synapses. Since liver X receptor β (LXRβ) has been identified as a regulator of microglial homeostasis, this study examined whether its removal from microglia affects neuroinflammation and cognitive function. We used a cell-specific

Cellular structure maintenance and function regulation critically depend on the composition and spatial distribution of numerous membrane proteins. However, current methods face limitations in spatial coverage and data scalability, hindering the comprehensive analysis of protein interactions in complex cellular nanoenvironment. Herein, we introduce p roximity- a ctivated D NA s canning e ncoded sequencing

Stomata, which are essential for the exchange of CO 2 and water vapor between plant leaves and the atmosphere, are regulated by a variety of environmental and internal factors. In this study, we identified and characterized two genes, Guard Cell Turgor Maintaining 1 ( GCT1 ) and its closest homolog GCT2 , which encode rapidly accelerated fibrosarcoma (RAF)-like protein kinases that play a critical

Loss of the tumor suppressor gene (TSG) Adenomatous Polyposis Coli ( APC ) is a hallmark event in colorectal cancers. Since it is not possible to directly target a TSG, no treatment options are available for these patients. Here, we identify SRP19 and the protein secretion machinery as a unique vulnerability in cancers with heterozygous APC loss. SRP19 is located 15 kb from APC and is almost always

Claims about lexical elaboration (e.g. Mongolian has many horse-related terms) are widespread in the scholarly and popular literature. Here, we show that computational analyses of bilingual dictionaries can be used to test claims about lexical elaboration at scale. We validate our approach by introducing BILA, a dataset including 1,574 bilingual dictionaries, and showing that it confirms 147 out of

The inhibitor of DNA binding protein ID3 has been associated with the progression of colorectal cancer (CRC). Despite its significance, its specific role in the immune evasion strategies utilized by CRC remains unclear. RNA-seq analysis revealed that ID3 was positively associated with the PD-L1 immune checkpoint. We further demonstrated that tumor cell–expressed ID3 enhanced PD-L1 expression, suppressed

Hodge theory is pivotal in studying algebraic varieties’ intricate geometry and topology: it provides essential insights into their structure. The Hodge decomposition theorem establishes a profound link between the geometry of varieties and their cohomology groups, helping to understand their underlying properties. Moreover, Hodge theory was crucial at the inception of the field of mirror symmetry

The trypanosomatid flagellates possess in their single mitochondrion a highly complex kinetoplast (k)DNA, which is composed of interlocked circular molecules of two types. Dozens of maxicircles represent a classical mitochondrial genome, and thousands of minicircles encode guide (g)RNAs, which direct the processive and essential uridine insertion/deletion messenger RNA (mRNA) editing of maxicircle

DNA methylation regulates fruit ripening in tomato, and disruption of the DNA demethylase DEMETER-LIKE 2 (DML2) results in genome-wide DNA hypermethylation and impaired ripening. We report here that the transcription factors Ripening Inhibitor (RIN) and FRUITFULL 1 (FUL1) play critical roles in mediating the effect of DNA methylation on tomato fruit ripening. RIN and FUL1 are silenced in dml2 mutant

Wetting of liquid droplets on passive surfaces is ubiquitous in our daily lives, and the governing physical laws are well understood. When surfaces become active, however, the governing laws of wetting remain elusive. Here, we propose chemically active wetting as a class of active systems where the surface is active due to a binding process that is maintained away from equilibrium. We derive the corresponding

The main form of intracellular protein glycosylation (O-GlcNAc) is reversible and has been mapped on thousands of cytoplasmic and nuclear proteins, including RNA polymerase II, transcription factors, and chromatin modifiers. The O-GlcNAc modification is catalyzed by a single enzyme known as O-GlcNAc Transferase, that is required for mammalian early development. Yet, neither the regulatory function

NARROW LEAF 1 ( NAL1 ), originally identified for its role in shaping leaf morphology, plant architecture, and various agronomic traits in rice, has remained enigmatic in terms of the molecular mechanisms governing its multifaceted functions. In this study, we present a comprehensive structural analysis of NAL1 proteins, shedding light on how NAL1 regulates the phase separation of its physiological

The interaction of mRNA and regulatory proteins is critical for posttranscriptional control. For proper function, these interactions, as well as the involved protein and RNA structures, are highly dynamic, and thus, mechanistic insights from structural biology are challenging to obtain. In this study, we employ a multifaceted approach combining single-molecule force spectroscopy (SMFS) with NMR spectroscopy

Biomolecular condensates are currently recognized to play a key role in organizing cellular space and in orchestrating biochemical processes. Despite an increasing interest in characterizing their internal organization at the molecular scale, not much is known about how the densely crowded environment within these condensates affects the structural properties of recruited macromolecules. Here, we adopted

Solvents within gels enhance the mobility of polymer chain segments while concurrently diminishing interchain interactions, thereby facilitating the ductility of glassy polymers at the cost of their mechanical strength. Here, we develop a solvent toughening strategy for the preparation of highly compressible and high-strength ionogels in the glassy state. This approach leverages the synergistic effects

The solid–electrolyte interphase (SEI) formed on a battery electrode has been a central area of research for decades. This structurally complex layer profoundly impacts the electrochemical deposition morphology and stability of metal anodes. Departing from conventional approaches, we investigate metal dissolution—the reverse reaction of deposition—in battery environments using a state-of-the-art electroanalytical

Collective migration of epithelial tissues is a critical feature of developmental morphogenesis and tissue homeostasis. Coherent motion of cell collectives requires large-scale coordination of motion and force generation and is influenced by mechanical properties of the underlying substrate. While tissue viscoelasticity is a ubiquitous feature of biological tissues, its role in mediating collective

The posttranslational modification (PTM) of innate immune sensor proteins by ubiquitin or ubiquitin-like proteins is crucial for regulating antiviral host responses. The cytoplasmic dsRNA receptor melanoma differentiation-associated protein 5 (MDA5) undergoes several PTMs including ISGylation within its first caspase activation and recruitment domain (CARD), which promotes MDA5 signaling. However,

Caspase-8 signaling has proapoptotic, antinecroptotic, and proinflammatory signaling roles dependent on interaction with the adapter molecule FADD, oligomerization, and autocleavage. Previously, a Caspase-8 binding partner cFLIP L (FLIP, encoded by Cflar ) was shown to prevent Caspase-8-dependent apoptosis, but permit Caspase-8-dependent inhibition of necroptosis. We sought to explore the role of FLIP

This study examines the relationship between academic achievement and strategic ability to coordinate among middle school students. We designed an experimental framework using repeated asymmetric Battle of the Sexes and Hawk–Dove games, to explore how cognitive and social skills related to academic success influence behavior. A total of 132 students participated, divided into groups of high and low

High juvenile susceptibility drives infectious disease epidemics across kingdoms, yet the evolutionary mechanisms that maintain this susceptibility are unclear. We tested the hypothesis that juvenile susceptibility is maintained by high costs of resistance by quantifying the genetic correlation between host fitness and age-specific innate resistance to a fungal pathogen in a wild plant. We separately

In eukaryotes, the origin recognition complex (ORC) promotes the assembly of minichromosome maintenance 2 to 7 complexes into a head-to-head double hexamer at origin DNA in a process known as replication licensing. In this study, we present a series of cryoelectron microscopy structures of yeast ORC mutants in complex with origin DNA. We show that Orc6, the smallest subunit of ORC, utilizes its transcription

Microbial colony development hinges upon a myriad of factors, including mechanical, biochemical, and environmental niches, which collectively shape spatial patterns governed by intricate gene regulatory networks. The inherent complexity of this phenomenon necessitates innovative approaches to comprehend and compare the mechanisms driving pattern formation. Here, we unveil the multistability of bacterial

Genome maintenance and stability rely on the repair of DNA double-strand breaks. Breaks can be repaired via the single-strand-annealing pathway mediated by the protein RAD52. RAD52 oligomerizes to rings that are thought to promote annealing. However, rings have only been observed at micromolar concentrations at which annealing activity is impaired. Thus, it is unclear which oligomeric form is responsible

We provide national-scale experimental evidence from China showing that transparency by local governments improves the management of air pollution. Governments that perform better have more reasons to be transparent, making the causal relationship between transparency and policy outcomes difficult to disentangle. In 2015, we randomly assigned municipal governments in China to a high-visibility, public

Meiotic crossovers rearrange allele combinations and create offspring diversity. Crossovers occur nonrandomly along chromosomes, predominantly in distal euchromatin and less in pericentromeric heterochromatin marked with histone H3 lysine 9 dimethylation (H3K9me2) and the H2A variant H2A.W in Arabidopsis thaliana . Loss of H3K9me2 increases heterochromatic crossovers, but how H2A.W affects crossover

Posttranslational modifications can critically affect conformational changes of amyloid-forming proteins. Ubiquitination of the microtubule-associated tau protein, an intrinsically disordered biomolecule, has been proposed to influence the formation of filamentous deposits in neurodegenerative conditions. Given the reported link between aggregation propensity and intrinsic structural preferences (e

Engineering small autonomous agents capable of operating in the microscale environment remains a key challenge, with current systems still evolving. Our study explores the fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster , a classic model system in biology and a species adept at microscale interaction, as a biological platform for microrobotics. Initially, we focus on remotely directing the walking paths of fruit

The integrated stress response (ISR) is a central signaling network that enables eukaryotic cells to respond to a variety of different environmental stresses. Such stresses cause ribosome collisions that lead to activation of the kinase Gcn2, resulting in the phosphorylation and inactivation of eukaryotic initiation factor 2 and thereby promoting selective translation of mRNAs to restore homeostasis

Magnetic anisotropy plays a crucial role in determining the critical behavior and phase transitions in two-dimensional magnetic systems. It is also required for the design of thin-film spintronic devices. Despite its significance, sensing extremely weak anisotropy has proven challenging in van der Waals antiferromagnetic/ferrimagnetic materials. Here, we first employ simulations of micromagnetic energy

Various strategies targeting spinal locomotor circuitry have been associated with functional improvements after spinal cord injury (SCI). However, the neuronal populations mediating beneficial effects remain largely unknown. Using a combination therapy in a mouse model of complete SCI, we show that virally delivered brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) (AAV-BDNF) activates hindlimb stepping and

Theoretically derived scaling laws capture the nonlinear relationships between rapidly expanding brain volume and cortical gyrification across mammalian species and in adult humans. However, the preservation of these laws has not been comprehensively assessed in typical or pathological brain development. Here, we assessed the scaling laws governing cortical thickness (CT), surface area (SA), and cortical

Fusobacterium nucleatum (Fn), a commensal in the human oral cavity, is overrepresented in the colon microbiota of colorectal cancer (CRC) patients and is linked to tumor chemoresistance, metastasis, and a poor therapeutic prognosis. Fn produces numerous adhesins that mediate tumor colonization and downregulation of the host’s antitumor immune response. One of these, the trimeric autotransporter adhesin

The tubulin tail is a key element for microtubule (MT) functionality, but the functional redundancy of tubulin genes complicates the genetic determination of their physiological functions. Here, we removed the C-terminal tail of five alpha- and four beta-tubulin genes in the C. elegans genome. Sensory cilia typically exhibit an axoneme that longitudinally differentiates into a middle segment with doublet

Most members of the dynamin superfamily of large guanosine triphophatases (GTPases) have an ability to remodel membranes in response to guanosine triphosphate (GTP) hydrolysis. Ring Finger Protein 112 (RNF112) (ZNF179/neurolastin) is a recently identified brain-specific dynamin-like protein possessing a really interesting new gene (RING) finger domain. Despite its essential role as an E3 ligase in

Photovoltaic technology has emerged as a key candidate for powering underwater devices. However, traditional solar cells face limitations in real marine environments. Flexible solar cells offer new possibilities for underwater energy harvesting. This study identifies the optimal bandgap and depth for flexible underwater solar cells through detailed balance calculations and experiments. We also established

Humans and other animals are adept at learning to perform cognitively demanding behavioral tasks. Neurophysiological recordings in nonhuman primates during such tasks find that the requisite cognitive variables are encoded strongly in core oculomotor brain regions. Here, we assembled a large dataset—11 monkeys performing an abstract visual categorization task, surveyed across more than 1,000 neural

Seismic fault slip and rupture propagation often occur at crustal depths in the presence of hot and pressurized aqueous fluids (i.e., hydrothermal conditions). Previous experiments investigated fault frictional properties under hydrothermal conditions, but at imposed subseismic fault slip velocities ( V ~μm/s). Here, using a rotary-shear apparatus equipped with a hydrothermal pressure vessel, we study