Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Articles in this Issue
Thermodynamics of calcium binding to heparin: Implications of solvation and water structuring for polysaccharide biofunctions
Heparan sulfates are found in all animal tissues and have essential roles in living systems. This family of biomacromolecules modulates binding to calcium ions (Ca 2+...
Structure of the <i>Thomasclavelia ramosa</i> immunoglobulin A protease reveals a modular and minimizable architecture distinct from other immunoglobulin A proteases
Immunoglobulin A proteases (IgAPs) are a diverse group of enzymes secreted from bacteria that inhabit human mucosal tissues. These enzymes have convergently evolved to cleave human immunoglobulin A as...
Unveiling street art: A multimodal and multitechnique approach for analyzing and mapping painting materials on large murals
Street art murals are increasingly recognized as valuable contemporary artworks, often attaining significant artistic, historical, and social importance. As these murals become integral parts of cultu...
Flavin-deficient erythrocytes offer protection against malaria parasites
Studies from the 1980s and 1990s conducted in Italy, where malaria was once endemic, hypothesized that individuals with erythrocytes deficient in flavin mononucleotide and flavin adenine dinucleotide...
Rising global temperatures reduce soil microbial diversity over the long term
Soil microbial diversity is crucial to sustaining ecosystem productivity and improving carbon sequestration. Global temperature continues to rise, but how climate warming affects microbial diversity a...
De novo rates of a <i>Trypanosoma</i> -resistant mutation in two human populations
Mutation rates have long been measured as averages across many genomic positions. Recently, a method to measure the rates of individual mutations was applied to a narrow region in the human hemoglobin...
Local c-di-GMP signaling, triggered by cross-regulation of cAMP-CRP and c-di-GMP, controls biofilm formation under nutrient limitation
Bacteria have several nucleotide second messengers, most of which act as global regulators to control a wide range of bacterial physiological processes. Studies usually focus on a single second messen...
Loss of ICOSL expression in the progression to cervical carcinoma
Human papillomavirus (HPV)–related lesions contain types with benign outcomes and those with a risk of progression to cancer. We addressed the role of immune surveillance in 76 cervical biopsies (norm...
CryoEM structure of ALK2:BMP6 reveals distinct mechanism that allow ALK2 to interact with both BMP and activin ligands
Ligands in the transforming growth factor β (TGF-β) family [activins, Bone Morphogenetic Proteins (BMPs), and TGF-βs] signal by bringing together two type I and two type II receptors. Activin receptor...
Cohort mortality forecasts indicate signs of deceleration in life expectancy gains
The fast-paced improvements in mortality in high-income countries since the early 1900s have led to a sustained increase in life expectancy. However, whether this linear trend will continue or life ex...
Community detection for directed networks revisited using bimodularity
Community structure is a key feature omnipresent in real-world network data. Plethora of methods have been proposed to reveal subsets of densely interconnected nodes using criteria such as the modular...
G-quadruplexes as a source of vulnerability in BRCA2 <i>-</i> deficient granule cell progenitors and medulloblastoma
Biallelic pathogenic variants in the essential DNA repair gene BRCA2 cause Fanconi anemia complementation group D1. Patients in this group are highly prone to d...
Substantial reductions in black carbon from both fossil fuels and biomass burning during China’s Clean Air Action
Black carbon (BC) aerosols exacerbate air pollution and climate warming, but their climatic impacts and sources are poorly constrained by bottom–up emission inventories (EIs). China’s Clean Air Action...
Quantum relaxometry for detecting biomolecular interactions with single NV centers
The investigation of biomolecular interactions at the single-molecule level has emerged as a pivotal research area in life science, particularly through optical, mechanical, and electrochemical approa...
Microvilli’s grip on T cell development
Radiocarbon dating of Jerusalem’s Siloam Dam links climate data and major waterworks
Using well-established microarchaeological sampling methods, we reached a precise radiocarbon date of 800 BC for the Siloam Pool’s monumental water dam in Jerusalem. This date is a critical link conne...
Chants across seven traditions share acoustic traits that enhance subjective relaxation
For over 5,000 y, chanting has been practiced across many Western and Eastern traditions. However, there is hardly any empirical research on 1) whether chants from across the globe share common acoust...
Hottest year in recorded history compounds global biodiversity risks
As climate change accelerates, effectively monitoring and managing the growing impacts on biodiversity is an urgent priority. Here, we identify the exposure of species to unprecedented heat to evaluat...
Mid-Devonian ocean oxygenation enabled the expansion of animals into deeper-water habitats
The oxygenation history of Earth’s surface environments has had a profound influence on the ecology and evolution of metazoan life. It was traditionally thought that the Neoproterozoic Oxygenation Eve...
Single-strand DNA is the link between neutrophil extracellular traps and thrombin
Shared metabolism between a bacterial and fungal species that reside in the human gut
The fungal species Candida albicans and the bacterium Enterococcus faecalis are members of the human gut microbiome. To...
SHP2 genetic variants in NSML-associated RASopathies disrupt the PZR–IRX transcription factor signaling axis
Noonan syndrome with multiple lentigines (NSML) is a rare autosomal dominant disorder caused by mutations in PTPN11 (protein tyrosine phosphatase nonreceptor ty...
Broad neutralizing antibody response of a monomeric spike–based SARS-CoV-2 bivalent vaccine against diverse variants
severeacute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) bivalent vaccines show potential against variants but lack a full understanding of the immunological mechanisms that drive broadly neutraliz...
Quantum metric–induced giant and reversible nonreciprocal transport phenomena in chiral loop-current phases of kagome metals
Emergence of quantum orders with nontrivial quantum geometric properties in metals represent central issues in condensed matter physics. In this context, recently discovered chiral loop-current order...
Symbiosis with and mimicry of corals were facilitated by immune gene loss and body remodeling in the pygmy seahorse
A remarkable example of symbiosis involves the pygmy seahorse ( Hippocampus bargibanti ). It lives obligatorily on gorgonian corals, mimicking their polyps with...