Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Articles in this Issue
Flexible protein–ligand docking with diffusion-based side-chain packing
Understanding protein structure and dynamics is crucial for basic biology and drug design. Conventional methods often provide static conformations that inadequately capture protein flexibility. We pre...
Anellovirus protein encoded by <i>ORF2/3</i> functions as the viral replication initiation protein
Anelloviridae is a family of single-stranded DNA viruses that are thought to be nonpathogenic and commensal. Despite their ubiquitous presence in human populations, little is known...
Energetic and structural control of polyspecificity in a multidrug transporter
Multidrug efflux pumps are dynamic molecular machines that drive antibiotic resistance by harnessing ion gradients to export chemically diverse substrates. Despite their clinical importance, the molec...
Loss of vitamin C biosynthesis protects from the pathology of a parasitic infection
The ability to synthesize essential molecules is sometimes lost in evolution. A classic example is ascorbate (vitamin C), which is synthesized in most animals by L-gulonolactone oxidase (GULO), an enz...
Early emergence of perceptual biases in the secondary somatosensory cortex
Working memory (WM) is distributed across multiple cortical areas, suggesting that behaviors relying on WM arise from interactions between these regions. In a recent study, we found that during delaye...
Neural crest cell recruitment and reprogramming as central drivers of embryonic limb regeneration
Unlike regeneration-competent species, mammals lack epimorphic regeneration capacity, except for the most distal part of their digits. Here, we show that E10.5 mouse embryos can initiate regeneration...
Heterogeneous conditions and power law robustness in intergenerational resource transfers
Organisms in nature and humans in socioeconomic systems alike face tradeoffs between selfish consumption of resources and investment in the welfare of their offspring. Previous work across the discipl...
A SynB1-conjugated antibody cocktail crosses the blood–brain barrier to produce a therapeutic effect on rabies
Rabies, caused by the neurotropic lyssavirus rabies virus (RABV), is nearly 100% fatal after symptom onset. A fundamental challenge for rabies therapy is that t...
Neural synchrony links sensorimotor cortices in a network for facial motor control
Primate societies rely on the production and interpretation of social signals, in particular those displayed by the face. Facial movements are controlled, according to the dominant neuropsychological...
Competition between glycine and GABA <sub>A</sub> receptors for gephyrin controls their equilibrium populations at inhibitory synapses
Glycine receptors (GlyR) and γ-aminobutyric acid type A receptors (GABA A R) are ligand-gated chloride channels that mediate inhibitory neurotransmission throug...
MicroRNA164d suppresses the HvNAC92-HvHKT1;5 module to enhance salinity tolerance in barley
Cereal crops (e.g., rice, wheat, maize, and barley) constituted the major component of global human diet and fundamentally changed human society since the dawn of agriculture around 12,000 y ago. Orig...
<i>Arabidopsis</i> kinesins KCH3 and KCH7 promote root gravitropism through actin bundling in the stele
Root gravitropism is essential for plant adaptation to the environment. The cytoskeleton is known to play a critical role in gravitropism, but the underlying mechanisms remain unclear. In this study,...
Arg–Tyr cation–π interactions drive phase separation and β-sheet assembly in native spider dragline silk
Liquid–liquid phase separation (LLPS) is a fundamental principle of protein organization in intrinsically disordered proteins (IDPs) and biomaterials, yet the residue-level interactions that link cond...
Controllable gap junctions by vitamin B <sub>12</sub> and light
Gap junctions mediate rapid signal transduction between contiguous cells, which are indispensable for multicellular organisms to coordinate cellular activities across numerous physiological processes....
Behavioral, experiential, and physiological signatures of mind blanking
Does being awake necessarily mean being conscious of something? This study investigates the phenomenon of mind blanking (MB), characterized by an “emptiness of mind,” comparing it with mind wandering...
PIP <sub>2</sub> corrects an endothelial Piezo1 channelopathy
Brain capillaries are sensors of neural activity. When a brain region is active, capillary endothelial cells (ECs) sense neuron-derived mediators and elicit a local increase in blood flow (functional...
Goldilocks zone of lignin: Two extremes of valve lignification lead to silique indehiscence in <i>Brassicaceae</i>
The spring-loaded spontaneous seed dispersal mechanism known as dehiscence, has been a critical plant feature for the successful colonization of land by angiosperms. Although advantageous for seed dis...
A PSAT1 buff of YBX1 transcriptionally sustains HLA-E-mediated evasion of NK immunity
Despite great success in certain cancers, immunotherapy made little progress in treating immune cold tumors, largely attributed to an immune-suppressive tumor microenvironment with elusive mechanisms....
Antibiotic-induced microbiota depletion impairs the proregenerative response to a biological scaffold
Therapeutic biological scaffolds promote tissue repair primarily through the induction of type 2 immunity. However, systemic immunological factors, including aging, sex, and previous infections, can m...
Multicolor photoreactions of the red light–activated channelrhodopsin Chrimson
Channelrhodopsins are light-gated ion channels that are used in modern neurosciences for the precise control of cellular ion fluxes by light. With a peak absorption at 585 nm, Chrimson is the most red...
Phage satellites break into the jumbo era
Fishing fleets as ecosystem sentinels
Marine apex predators are promising sentinels for detecting the ecological impacts of climate variability and change. Fishermen are increasingly recognized as marine apex predators, and there are exte...
Sandball genesis from raindrops
In the water cycle, erosion begins with the entrainment of soil by raindrops. The discrete, discontinuous, and three-phase nature of raindrop erosion—at the boundary of fluid and granular mechanics—ma...
A closed-loop microneedle-integrated physiological model for predictive glycemic management
Continuous biomarker monitoring and on-demand therapy are essential for chronic disease management, with diabetes being a key example. Although continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) and insulin pumps ar...
Complex multiannual cycles of <i>Mycoplasma pneumoniae</i> : Persistence and the role of stochasticity
The epidemiological dynamics of Mycoplasma pneumoniae is characterized by poorly understood complex multiannual cycles. The origins of these cycles have long be...