Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

Evolution and evolvability of rifampicin resistance across the bacterial tree of life

Predicting the ability of bacteria to develop antibiotic resistance is challenging, especially for the vast majority of species for which no experimental data are available. Here, we investigated the...

Evolutionary features in a minimal physical system: Diversity, selection, growth, inheritance, and adaptation

We present a simple physical model that recapitulates several features of biological evolution, while being based only on thermally driven attachment and detachment of elementary building blocks. Thro...

ELAPOR1 is a copper-dependent tethering factor driving proacrosomal vesicle fusion during acrosome biogenesis

The acrosome is a crucial organelle essential for sperm function and male fertility. During acrosome biogenesis, numerous proacrosomal vesicles (PAVs) are transported to the concave region of the nucl...

Tat-dependent bundling pilus of a halophilic archaeon assembles by a strand donation mechanism and facilitates biofilm formation

Diverse extracellular filaments present on the surface of archaea mediate multiple key processes, such as motility, adhesion, and biofilm formation. Although several archaeal filament types have been...

Whole-genome duplication increases genetic diversity and load in outcrossing <i>Arabidopsis arenosa</i>

Genetic variation underpins evolutionary change, but mutation accumulation increases genetic load. Various factors affect the extent of load, such as population size and breeding system, but other imp...

PyReconstruct: A fully open-source, collaborative successor to Reconstruct

As the serial section community transitions to volume electron microscopy, tools are needed to balance rapid segmentation efforts with documenting the fine detail of structures that support cell funct...

Surface delivery quantification reveals distinct trafficking efficiencies among clustered protocadherin isoforms

Proteins that transmit molecules and signals across the plasma membrane are crucial in cell biology because they enable cells to sense and respond to their surroundings. A major challenge for studying...

Hybridization of molecules via a common photonic mode

Atoms and molecules usually hybridize and form bonds when they come in very close proximity of each other. In this work, we show that molecules can hybridize even through far-field electromagnetic int...

QnAs with Blake C. Meyers

Three things we can do now to reduce the risk of avian influenza spillovers

Essential new insights into human cerebellar Purkinje cell biology from studies of essential tremor

Nonsubstrate PI(4,5)P ₂ interacts with the interdomain linker to control electrochemical coupling in voltage-sensing phosphatase (VSP)

Voltage-sensing phosphatase (VSP) comprises a voltage sensor domain (VSD) and a cytoplasmic catalytic region (CCR), achieving a unique electrochemical signal conversion. Previous studies suggest that...

Structural basis for the evolution of a domesticated group II intron–like reverse transcriptase to function in host cell DNA repair

A previous study found that a bacterial group II intron–like reverse transcriptase (G2L4 RT) evolved to function in double-strand break repair (DSBR) via microhomology-mediated end-joining (MMEJ) and...

Exact linear theory of perturbation response in a space- and feature-dependent cortical circuit model

What are the principles that govern the responses of cortical networks to their inputs and the emergence of these responses from recurrent connectivity? Recent experiments have probed these questions...

Mobile gene clusters and coexpressed plant–rhizobium pathways drive partner quality variation in symbiosis

Plant–microbe symbioses such as the legume–rhizobium mutualism are vital in the web of ecological relationships within both natural and managed ecosystems, influencing primary productivity, crop yield...

AI–AI bias: Large language models favor communications generated by large language models

Are large language models (LLMs) biased in favor of communications produced by LLMs, leading to possible antihuman discrimination? Using a classical experimental design inspired by employment discrimi...

Coupling of excitation energy to photochemistry in natural marine phytoplankton communities under iron stress

Oxygenic photosynthesis requires excitation energy transfer from light-harvesting complexes (LHCs) to reaction centers (RCs) to drive photochemical redox chemistry. The effective absorption cross sect...

Synthesis of large single-transcript pathways from oligonucleotide pools: Design of STARBURST, an autobioluminescent reporter

Methods for fast and inexpensive gene synthesis from oligonucleotide pools enable rapid iteration of genetic designs. Here, we describe iggypop (indexed Golden...

<i>Prg4</i> + fibroadipogenic progenitors in muscle are crucial for bone fracture repair

Clinically, compromised fracture healing often occurs at sites with less muscle coverage and muscle flaps can provide the necessary healing environment for appropriate healing in severe bone loss. How...

Integrating spatial omics and single-cell mass spectrometry imaging reveals tumor–host metabolic interplay in hepatocellular carcinoma

Metabolic crosstalk among diverse cellular populations contributes to shaping a competitive and symbiotic tumor microenvironment (TME) to influence cancer progression and immune responses, highlightin...

How RAG1/2 evolved from ancestral transposases to initiate V(D)J recombination without transposition

The recombination activating genes 1 and 2 (RAG1/2) recombinase, which initiates V(D)J recombination in jawed vertebrates, evolved from RNaseH-like transposases such as Transib and ProtoRAG. However,...

Cryo-EM structure and polar assembly of the PS2 S-layer of <i>Corynebacterium glutamicum</i>

The polar-growing Corynebacteriales have a complex cell envelope architecture characterized by the presence of a specialized outer membrane composed of mycolic...

A granulin-positive macrophage subtype in mycobacterial granulomas alleviates tissue damage by limiting excessive inflammation

Granulomas play a crucial role in the pathology of tuberculosis, but the immune environment governing their formation remains largely unknown. To explore the dynamic changes in the immune microenviron...

Deficiency in transmitter release triggers homeostatic transcriptional changes that increase presynaptic excitability

Weakening of synaptic transmission at the Drosophila larval neuromuscular junction triggers two forms of homeostatic compensation, one that increases the probab...

The power of coalescent methods for inferring recent and ancient gene flow in endangered Bactrian camels

Genomic sequence data harbor valuable information concerning the history of species divergence and interspecific gene flow and may offer important insights into conservation of endangered species. How...