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Table of Contents — April 14, 2026, 123 (15) | PNAS

Table Of Contents Page, PNAS Volume 123, Number 15

This Week in PNAS

Opinion

QnAs

Retrospective

With the death of Charles Weissmann, molecular biology has lost of one of its most productive, outstanding, and critical representatives. A molecular biologist who became famous through his ground-breaking discoveries, as well as his scientific ...

Commentaries

Perspectives

The cerebellum is implicated in nearly every domain of human cognition, yet our understanding of how this subcortical structure contributes to cognition remains elusive. Efforts on this front have tended to fall into one of two camps. On one side are ...

Letters

Brief Reports

We exploited co-occurrences between color and other properties of natural scenes to identify and visualize functionally distinct brain regions. For each voxel in the Natural Scenes Dataset (NSD), we computed a scaled response-weighted average of the ...
Large cardinal axioms extend the standard set of axioms for mathematics by asserting that very large infinite sets exist. A prominent line of current research in mathematical logic is identifying ever stronger principles of this kind; this serves as an ...
Clinical trials and experimental observations have shown that B cells are essential for development of T cell–mediated organ-specific autoimmunity, although their exact contribution is not clear. As antigen presentation by B cells is focused on antigens ...
The evolution of reproductive specialization, in which somatic cells forfeit reproduction, represents a fundamental innovation in complex multicellular life. This specialization imposes a fitness cost: because somatic cells do not produce offspring, ...

Physical Sciences

Applied Mathematics

This paper presents a bioinspired optimization approach to address a class of inverse problems involving entropy optimization (EOP) from knowledge of the moments of a distribution function. In particular, we study the Hausdorff moment problem, where one ...
We present an automated procedure for computing model gradients for partial differential equation (PDE) solvers built on sparse spectral methods, a broad class of numerical techniques widely used in the study of fluid dynamics, continuum mechanics, waves, ...

Applied Physical Sciences

Chemputation treats chemical synthesis as the execution of reaction code on programmable hardware. We show that a Chemputer, equipped with an extensible set of reagents, catalysts, and process conditions, together with a compiler that maps reaction and ...
Laser-driven control of droplets is important in microfluidics, targeted delivery, and droplet-based laser–matter interactions, yet propulsion direction and breakup remain difficult to predict. Here, we demonstrate that an acoustically levitated droplet’s ...
Understanding how grain boundaries mediate fracture remains a critical challenge in designing ductile, high-performance refractory alloys. Here, we extend the Rice–Thomson criterion to account for the angle between cracks and the impinging grain ...

Biophysics and Computational Biology

RNA molecules form homotypic clusters in a variety of contexts. mRNAs enriched in germ granules in Drosophila embryos are a canonical example, with polar granule component (pgc) mRNAs colocalized with other pgc mRNAs, and nanos mRNAs with other nanos ...
In eukaryotic cells, mitochondria form networks that range from highly fused interconnected structures to fragmented populations of individual organelles that undergo transient interactions. These structures can be described as temporal networks of ...
How living organisms utilize physical mechanisms to sense their environments and make informed decisions is an open question at the interface of biology and physics. In filamentous organisms like fungal hyphae, the decisions are taken by their growing tip ...
Nonsegmented negative-sense RNA viruses (nsNSVs) rely on a multifunctional RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RdRP) complex for transcription and replication. In measles virus (MeV), the nonstructural protein C has long been implicated in regulating RNA ...

Chemistry

In this work, the stabilization enthalpy of patchy core–shell nanocomplexes is used to assess their thermodynamic stability. It is defined as the enthalpy of formation of a hydrated core–shell complex from hydrated (uncoated) core and hydrated shell ...
Chemically complex extracellular matrices define cellular microenvironments and shape cell behavior across all domains of life. But how has evolution optimized these materials to ensure the success of multicellular communities? Inspired by the well-...
Ferroelectric anomalous photovoltaic (APV) effect, as a fascinating physical conceptual phenomenon, holds significant potentials for new optoelectronic device applications. However, due to the lack of knowledge on the origin and underlying mechanism of ...

Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences

During the Eocene–Oligocene Transition (34.4 to 33.7 Ma), major climatic and tectonic changes initiated Earth’s current icehouse climate. Plate motion intensified mountain building, reduced atmospheric CO2, and triggered global cooling. Crucially, the ...
Accurate subseasonal to seasonal (S2S) weather forecasts are critical for managing risks to society, yet improving forecast skill remains challenging. Ensemble forecasting mitigates atmospheric chaos but is limited by computational cost and by declining ...
Rocks release subtle geochemical warning signals before breaking. These signals, coming from naturally occurring nuclides (e.g., radon, helium, argon, and thoron), have often been reported before earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, landslides, and rock and ...

Environmental Sciences

Alluvial rivers have long been described by hydraulic geometry theory, which links equilibrium channel dimensions to flow discharge. Yet natural rivers are inherently dynamic, with planforms evolving over time and widths fluctuating around an equilibrium ...

Social Sciences

Demography

Human aging is marked by a steady rise in the risk of dying with age–a process demographers call senescence. Over the past century, life expectancy has risen dramatically, but is this because we are aging slower, or simply starting it later? Vaupel ...
Accelerated global population aging challenges conventional economic growth paths. Yet, the mechanisms underlying the transition from the age-based demographic dividend, derived from a favorable age support ratio (ASR), to a skill-based dividend, driven ...

Political Sciences

Qualitative studies on local police collaborations with federal immigration enforcement authorities reveal risks to the well-being of noncitizens, particularly the undocumented, and their families and communities. Yet statistical evidence of these ...

Psychological and Cognitive Sciences

We often share personal memories with others, but the social function of episodic memory retrieval is not clear. In two experiments (N1 = 50, N2 = 125), run in two different labs, in different countries with different languages, and using naturalistic as ...
Many college students experience introductory physics as psychologically threatening. In a preregistered RCT, we applied the biopsychosocial model of challenge-threat to describe patterns of threat in introductory physics and test whether a 5-d ...
Prosocial and antisocial behaviors can reflect the actor’s positive or negative feelings toward a specific person and their broader disposition toward others’ welfare. Observers’ inferences about these motives shape what they learn about the actor’s ...
Everyday cognition depends on the brain’s capacity to shift between sensing the external world and constructing it from memory. To achieve this, large-scale cortical systems must flexibly integrate incoming sensory signals with internally generated ...

Social Sciences

Does more schooling cause higher lifetime earnings? Social scientists have long sought to determine the economic returns to schooling given its importance to individual life chances and public policy. Prior estimates are limited by unobserved confounding ...

Sustainability Science

To mitigate the potential impacts of wildfire, communities across the United States are engaging in collaborative wildfire risk mitigation planning. Planning involves identifying a set of goals, developing management strategies to achieve those goals, and ...

Biological Sciences

Applied Biological Sciences

The hinge ligament of bivalves exhibits remarkable flexibility and compressive strength due to its composite structure of aragonite nanofibers embedded in an organic matrix. While these nanofibers are crucial for shell mechanics, the molecular mechanisms ...
Developing safe, reversible, and nonhormonal male contraceptives has been hindered by the lack of defined biological windows that can be transiently interrupted without compromising long-term fertility. Here, we tested whether meiotic prophase I can serve ...
Infestation of potato by the potato tuber moth (Phthorimaea operculella) varies markedly among cultivars, yet the chemical and molecular mechanisms underlying this variation remain poorly understood. Here, we combine field surveys, chemical ecology, ...
Engineered extracellular vesicles (EVs) are a class of nonviral delivery vectors for RNA-based vaccines and gene therapies. A specialized form of engineered EVs, known as enveloped protein nanocages (EPNs), has been developed to enhance cargo loading and ...

Biochemistry

In this work, the stabilization enthalpy of patchy core–shell nanocomplexes is used to assess their thermodynamic stability. It is defined as the enthalpy of formation of a hydrated core–shell complex from hydrated (uncoated) core and hydrated shell ...
Envenomation by sicariid spiders such as the brown recluse can cause loxoscelism, a syndrome involving localized dermonecrosis and/or systemic effects like hemolysis. The causative venom toxins are unusual interfacial phospholipase D enzymes that cyclize ...
Heat shock proteins 70 (Hsp70) represent a ubiquitous and conserved family of molecular chaperones involved in a variety of cellular processes. The conformational cycles of several Hsp70 chaperones, driven by ATP binding and hydrolysis, and regulated by ...
The root-like holdfast of the tunicate Halocynthia roretzi provides strong underwater adhesion. However, the biological processing and biochemical composition underlying its adhesive remain largely unknown. Here, we identify a nanocondensate-based ...
The Arg/N-degron pathway of Saccharomyces cerevisiae is mediated by two interacting E3 ubiquitin ligases, Ubr1 and Ufd4. We show here that the mitotic checkpoint kinase Chk1 bears a C-degron that can be recognized by both Ubr1 and Ufd4. Ubr1 is an E3 that ...
In organisms ranging from Archaea to humans, a subset of genes encoding tRNAs contain introns. Upon splicing, the tRNA exons are joined and the released free introns are rapidly degraded. Although tRNAs introns were previously considered to be “junk” ...

Biophysics and Computational Biology

RNA molecules form homotypic clusters in a variety of contexts. mRNAs enriched in germ granules in Drosophila embryos are a canonical example, with polar granule component (pgc) mRNAs colocalized with other pgc mRNAs, and nanos mRNAs with other nanos ...
While it is well known that ion binding can stabilize RNA structure, little is known about how transient/probabilistic ionic interactions facilitate biologically relevant conformational rearrangements. To address this, we developed a theoretical model ...
Neurotransmitter release requires the precise localization and assembly of the SNARE machinery at presynaptic release sites. Although liquid–liquid phase separation of active zone scaffolds is known to organize these sites, the mechanism for the specific ...
Inferring protein production kinetics in dividing cells is complicated by protein inheritance from the mother cell. For instance, fluorescence measurements commonly used to assess gene activation may reflect not only newly produced proteins but also those ...
Temperature-sensitive transient receptor potential melastatin subfamily 4 (TRPM4) ion channels convert intracellular calcium increases into membrane depolarization, thereby linking these two powerful cellular signaling pathways in diverse physiological ...
De novo design of membrane proteins (MPs) is a rapidly growing field with transformative potential for synthetic biology. Yet, progress has lagged behind that of soluble proteins, largely due to limited understanding of the fundamental principles ...
The chemokine system, comprising a network of chemokines and their receptors, orchestrates leukocyte migration and plays a central role in immune surveillance and inflammation. Targeting this system has emerged as a promising strategy in cancer ...
PIEZO channels are critical for sensory mechanotransduction. While MyoD-family inhibitor proteins were identified as PIEZO1 auxiliary subunits, their broader regulatory roles, particularly in sensory cells, remained unclear. Here, we demonstrate native ...
Human glycoprotein hormones such as thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH) and follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) belong to a broader family of cystine-knot hormones (CKHs), all of which act through leucine-rich-repeat (LRR)-containing G protein–coupled ...
Many protein–protein interactions (PPIs) are mediated by the binding of short linear motifs (SLiMs) to peptide recognition domains (PRDs). Here, we describe PrePPI-SLiM, a proteome-scale computational pipeline that leverages data from the Eukaryotic ...

Cell Biology

In eukaryotic cells, mitochondria form networks that range from highly fused interconnected structures to fragmented populations of individual organelles that undergo transient interactions. These structures can be described as temporal networks of ...
Most plant tissues are symplasms in which cells are connected by plasmodesmata, membrane-lined cytosplasmic bridges that enable diffusive and/or advective cell-to-cell movements of components of the cytosol. Current models assume that hydrodynamic radius ...
Invasion plasticity allows malignant cells to toggle between collective, mesenchymal, and amoeboid phenotypes while traversing extracellular matrix (ECM) barriers. Current dogma holds that collective and mesenchymal invasion programs trigger the ...
Iridosomes, the guanine crystal-forming organelles of pigment-producing iridophores, are among the most versatile, visually striking yet mechanistically uncharacterized organelles in vertebrate biology. Lysosome-related organelles (LROs) support cell type–...
The small GTPase Rac is an essential regulator of cell shape, migration, macropinocytosis, and phagocytosis. We found that expression of constitutively active RacG12V is sufficient to cause a few migratory cells called border cells to cannibalize ...

Developmental Biology

Adult stem cells maintain tissue homeostasis, yet are themselves vulnerable to loss. One common mechanism to replace lost stem cells is dedifferentiation, in which progeny revert to stem cell identity. It is a paradox how stem cells and progeny retain the ...
View related content:

QnAs with Yukiko Yamashita

Zygotic genome activation (ZGA) marks the first transcriptional milestone and establishes embryonic totipotency. Although pioneer factors have been reported to initiate this process, how chromatin is primed for the totipotent state, allowing the binding ...

Ecology

Parental care enhances offspring survival and growth but often entails a trade-off in which caregivers temporarily suppress their own reproduction to invest in existing young. In vertebrates, these parental reproductive cycles are controlled by offspring-...

Environmental Sciences

China is the largest emitter of cropland gaseous reactive nitrogen (Ngr, including NH3, N2O, and NOx), which greatly affects regional air quality, climate change, and human health. Despite the substantial spatial and temporal variations in cropland Ngr ...

Evolution

Ancestral state reconstruction (ASR) is a foundational tool in comparative biology, offering insights into the evolutionary history of lineages. With each new evolutionary model, our ability to estimate ancestral states with increased biological realism ...
While sex chromosome systems show frequent evolutionary transitions in some clades, in many others they show long-term stability. Previous explanations of this stasis rely on evolutionary dynamics peculiar to sex chromosomes, such as the accumulation of ...
Probabilistic models such as the sequentially Markovian coalescent have long provided a powerful framework for population genetic inference, enabling reconstruction of demographic history and ancestral relationships from genomic data. However, these ...

Genetics

Repetitive DNA sequences can adopt alternative (i.e., non-B) DNA structures, which represent an endogenous source of genetic instability. Z-DNA, a non-B-DNA structure, has been implicated in the development of age-related genetic disorders such as cancer ...
Translational fusion of two separate genes into a compound sequence encoding a fusion protein is a key evolutionary mechanism which underpins the emergence of new protein activities, families, and architectures. In biotechnology, gene fusion is a valuable ...
Circulating hormones, that mediate communications across organs to maintain physiological balance, are commonly detected and quantified using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISAs). However, while ELISA is well suited for organisms where sample blood ...
Mitochondria are central to energy metabolism and cellular signaling, and mutations in mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) can disrupt these processes and contribute to human disease. However, progress in defining how mtDNA variation influences adaptation, ...

Immunology and Inflammation

Bacterial sepsis remains a devastating clinical problem. Here, we describe a protective role for the recently discovered acid-sensitive, proton-activated chloride channel, PACC1 (PAC/ASOR/TMEM206), during sepsis. Initially, we found PACC1 was enriched in ...
Bladder cancer remains a significant therapeutic challenge due to its marked heterogeneity and capacity for immune evasion. Here, we employ spatial metabolomics and spatial transcriptomics to systematically characterize and visualize the metabolic and ...
Receptor-interacting protein kinase 1 (RIPK1) is a key regulator of cell death and inflammation, with its activation modulated by diverse posttranslational modifications. While ubiquitination of RIPK1 at lysine 376 (K376) has been shown to inhibit ...
Microbial-derived short-chain fatty acids regulate a variety of pathways in the healthy colonic mucosa. In particular, butyrate serves as the primary energy source for colonocytes and regulates gene transcription by stabilizing the transcription factor ...
The tumor necrosis factor (TNF) receptor 1 (TNF-R1) plays critical roles in inflammatory response and autoimmune diseases. The underlying mechanisms on posttranslational regulation of TNF-R1 and its functional significance remain enigmatic. In this study, ...
Tumor heterogeneity poses a major challenge to tumor therapy due to the expression of unique, poorly recognized immunogenic proteins driven by environmental stress. The broad antigenic repertoire of cell-based vaccines, particularly their inclusion of ...

Medical Sciences

Sepsis-induced myocardial dysfunction strongly contributes to high mortality in patients with sepsis by exacerbating systemic organ failure; however, the onset and molecular mechanisms driving this vicious cycle remain unclear. Here, we revealed that DRP1-...
Targeted protein degradation (TPD) has emerged as a promising therapeutic strategy; however, most TPD technologies employ either the ubiquitin–proteasome system or the lysosomal degradation system. Here, we report the development of midnolin-based ...
Ewing sarcoma is driven by chromosomal translocations that fuse a FET RNA-binding protein to an ETS transcription factor, most commonly generating the EWS-FLI1 fusion oncoprotein. EWS-FLI1 engages GGAA microsatellite repeats to form de novo enhancers that ...

Microbiology

Chemically complex extracellular matrices define cellular microenvironments and shape cell behavior across all domains of life. But how has evolution optimized these materials to ensure the success of multicellular communities? Inspired by the well-...
Nonsegmented negative-sense RNA viruses (nsNSVs) rely on a multifunctional RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RdRP) complex for transcription and replication. In measles virus (MeV), the nonstructural protein C has long been implicated in regulating RNA ...
Hypovirulence-associated mycoviruses can be frequently isolated in nature despite their likely compromised ecological fitness, but how their fungal hosts survive in natural environments remains largely unresolved. The discovery of more mycoviruses ...
Light is one of the most pervasive physical cues in aquatic environments, yet its impact on nonphototrophic pathogens remains largely unexplored. Here, we show that a strain of cholera bacterium Vibrio cholerae directly couples illumination to motility ...
Infections by Gram-negative pathogens like Salmonella and Shigella rely on type III secretion system (T3SS) effectors. While the opportunistic pathogen Chromobacterium violaceum encodes a crucial T3SS (Cpi-1/-1a), its full effector repertoire remains ...
The immune mechanisms responsible for protection and pathogenesis in pneumoviral infection are not well defined. We demonstrated that pharmacological activation of the hypoxic inducible factor (HIF) signaling axis using daprodustat limited viral ...
Antagonistic systems of bacteria are often tightly regulated. The human gut Bacteroidales harbor three distinct antagonistic type VI secretion systems (T6SS), one of which is present only in Bacteroides fragilis, known as the GA3 T6SS. Although this is ...
As crucial ecosystem engineers in global drylands, desert cyanobacteria regulate biogeochemical cycling and contribute to the stabilization of arid soils. These extremophiles frequently exploit nocturnal dew deposition to resume metabolism, activate ...
Activation of the Toll, Immunodeficiency (IMD), Jun-kinase (JNK), and Signal Transducer and Activator of Transcription (STAT) innate immune signaling pathways limits Plasmodium infection in Anopheles gambiae. Hemocytes (mosquito immune cells) restrict ...
Coronaviruses pose a serious threat to public health, driving the need for antiviral therapeutics and vaccines. Therefore, it is paramount to understand how this family of viruses evades cellular antiviral responses and establishes productive infection. ...

Neuroscience

The hippocampus supports episodic memory by binding spatial and semantic information, yet how this information is simultaneously organized along its long axis remains debated. Gradient accounts propose a continuous shift in representational scale, from ...
Myo7a, a gene mutated in Usher syndrome and nonsyndromic deafness, encodes an unconventional myosin essential for hair cell function. Our previous work revealed that cochlear hair cells express distinct Myo7a isoforms with unique spatial and cell type–...
The subplate (SP) is a transient fetal brain compartment supporting neuronal migration, axonal ingrowth, and early cortical activity, yet the dynamics of its regional development remain poorly understood in vivo. Using T2-weighted fetal MRI of 68 ...
Behavioral flexibility relies on transient neural dynamics that govern cortical state transitions. However, whether humans can deliberately learn to control such state transitions and generalize trained neural dynamics beyond contexts remains unclear. ...
In many species, chemosensory cues convey important information about reproductive status, but their role in shaping social interactions among women is less understood. Here, we combined functional neuroimaging with behavioral measures to test how ...
Microexons of 3 to 27 nucleotides selectively regulated in the vertebrate nervous system have attracted attention as new elements for modifying the function of neuronal proteins. Protein tyrosine phosphatase δ (PTPRD) is one of presynaptic hubs for ...
Dopamine critically modulates prefrontal circuits underlying cognitive control, but how D1-type (D1R) and D2-type (D2R) receptors influence abstract decision coding is unclear. We recorded single-neuron activity in two monkeys performing a number ...
Astrocytes and tanycytes play essential roles in hypothalamic metabolic sensing, yet how glial–glial communication translates metabolic cues into neuronal activity remains poorly understood. We previously demonstrated that tanycytes release lactate and ...

Pharmacology

Pharmacological reversal of abnormal promoter DNA hypermethylation at tumor suppressor genes (TSGs) is a key therapeutic paradigm for cancer management. However, the clinical efficacy of currently approved nucleoside analog hypomethylating agents (HMAs) ...

Physiology

Up to a third of the global population is afflicted by metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease with excessive triglyceride accumulation in the liver. Prolonged fasting rapidly causes hepatic steatosis via excessive influx of free fatty ...

Plant Biology

The capacity of trees to withstand intensifying hot drought events depends on the coordination between hydraulic safety and leaf thermoregulation, yet the limits of this coordination under chronic stress remain poorly understood. Here, we show that 5 y of ...
Plants in the family Solanaceae produce steroidal glycoalkaloids (SGAs), specialized metabolites that are toxic to consumers while providing protection against herbivores. The Colorado potato beetle (CPB) is a major foliar pest of potatoes, and the wild ...
Plants secrete a variety of proteases as a defense response during infection by microbial pathogens. However, the relationship between their catalytic activities and antimicrobial functions remains largely unknown. Particularly, few biologically relevant ...
Chromalveolate algae such as diatoms, haptophytes, and dinoflagellates are main contributors to oceanic primary production, sustaining marine ecosystems and global carbon cycles while synthesizing a striking array of acetylated carotenoids like ...
The Flowering Locus C (FLC) gene is a flowering repressor in annual plants, but its function in perennial woody species remains less understood. Here, we explored the role of BpFLC in Betula platyphylla using a genotype that flowers after 5 to 6 y of ...

Population Biology

Human aging is marked by a steady rise in the risk of dying with age–a process demographers call senescence. Over the past century, life expectancy has risen dramatically, but is this because we are aging slower, or simply starting it later? Vaupel ...

Psychological and Cognitive Sciences

Everyday cognition depends on the brain’s capacity to shift between sensing the external world and constructing it from memory. To achieve this, large-scale cortical systems must flexibly integrate incoming sensory signals with internally generated ...

Systems Biology

Genome-scale metabolic models (GEMs) have become essential tools for understanding human metabolism. Here, we introduce Human2, a consensus human GEM with enhanced precision and biological relevance, which leverages large language models (LLMs) and GitHub ...

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