Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Articles in this Issue
Biomolecular analyses reveal grape-based beverages, dairy processing, and pottery function in Kura–Araxes culinary practices
The Kura–Araxes culture emerged in the South Caucasus in the mid-4th millennium BCE as an expression of small-scale, household-based communities. It subsequently expanded across the highlands, becomin...
Polychaete annelids from the earliest Cambrian Period
Unambiguous body fossils of annelids (ringed worms) first appear in the Cambrian Period but are so far known exclusively as flattened specimens preserved in Burgess Shale-type Lagerstätten. Here, we r...
A millennium of cold-water coral habitat loss in the East Pacific during low ENSO variability in the mid- to late Holocene
The evolution of El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) under past and future climate change and its influence on marine ecosystems is highly debated. To examine links between tropical climate variabilit...
Stable flapping flight in morphological space: Model, simulation, and explicit stability criteria
Understanding flight evolution requires quantifiable metrics. The complex flight dynamics and the vast morphological space insects have explored make it extremely challenging to define and understand...
AR-targeted therapies sensitize prostate cancer to cuproptosis by transcriptionally activating <i>FDX1</i>
Androgen receptor (AR) signaling is central to prostate cancer progression, yet resistance to AR-targeted therapies remains a major clinical challenge. Understanding the molecular consequences of AR p...
Importin-9 recognizes the winged-helix fold of ETS transcription factors to mediate nuclear import
Protein trafficking between the cytoplasm and the nucleus is a fundamental process in eukaryotic cell biology. While linear nuclear localization signals (NLSs) are well characterized, many nuclear pro...
Structural basis of iron piracy by human gut <i>Bacteroides</i>
Iron is an essential element that can be growth-limiting in microbial communities, particularly those present within host organisms. To acquire iron, many bacteria secrete siderophores, secondary meta...
Cellular Feimin promotes cold-induced thermogenesis
Adaptive thermogenesis is a fundamental defense against obesity through energy dissipation, yet the molecular mechanisms that couple energy sensing to transcriptional control remain incompletely under...
The evolution of trust under institutional moral hazard
We study the behavior of an institution that broadcasts reputational signals to facilitate trust in a population. Using an online marketplace as a motivating example, we develop a theoretical model in...
An inverse correlation between structural linguistic and human genetic diversity
Linguistic structures show uneven global distributions, but it remains unknown to what extent such distributions are driven by human population history at a global scale. Here, we track population his...
Gingipain proteases from the bacterium <i>Porphyromonas gingivalis</i> confer protection against airway viral infection
Physical interactions with bacterial colonizers at mucosal barrier surfaces can have beneficial or detrimental effects on viral infectivity and transmission. The oropharyngeal mucosal surface is a maj...
Iron supply from the Oregon margin to the ocean dominated by hypoxia-dependent particles
Continental margins are sources of iron (Fe), a critical oceanic micronutrient limiting productivity over nearly a third of the ocean. Paradoxically, they are also sinks of Fe and other particle-react...
Homologous specialization of arcuate fasciculus ventrolateral frontal connectivity in marmosets and humans
The arcuate fasciculus (af) is a crucial dorsal pathway underpinning human language, yet its weak frontal connectivity in macaques—the standard primate model—creates an evolutionary puzzle. Here, we i...
Broad neutralization of influenza B hemagglutinin antibodies via receptor mimicry and glycan engagement
Influenza B virus contributes to seasonal influenza epidemics and causes global morbidity and mortality. The two antigenically distinct lineages, Victoria and Yamagata, cocirculate within the populati...
How ketamine works: An actionable hypothesis
Ketamine has been shown to reduce depression and suicidality in individuals resistant to treatment by other drugs. Exactly how ketamine works is not known. Here, I propose a new hypothesis that involv...
High-rate quantum key distribution with compact state preparation and detection
Quantum key distribution (QKD) is a promising technology for information-theoretic secure communications. The practicality of QKD systems is critical for large-scale network deployment, requiring both...
Targeted knockout of a host peroxisomal peptidase confers field resistance to maize lethal necrosis
Maize lethal necrosis (MLN) is a severe disease caused by the combined infection of maize chlorotic mottle virus (MCMV) and a potyvirus, most often sugarcane mosaic virus (SCMV). This disease seriousl...
Purine metabolic adaptation protects the endothelium from disturbed flow–induced DNA damage and atherosclerosis
Despite effective lipid-lowering therapies, atherosclerosis continues to be a leading cause of death, with considerable residual cardiovascular risk. Atherosclerotic lesions develop preferentially at...
Nanowire-based AFM-IR microscopy: Unveiling chemical structure at sub-10-nm resolution with silver nanowire–functionalized AFM probes
Atomic force microscopy–based infrared (AFM-IR) microscopy has emerged as a powerful tool for nanoscale chemical imaging, combining the topographical precision of AFM with the molecular specificity of...
Spontaneous Coulomb fissions of drops on lubricated surfaces
Charged water drops are more widespread than commonly acknowledged. For example, raindrops typically carry charges of order...
Quantifying direct genetic signal captured by principal component adjustment
Contemporary genomic studies of complex traits, such as genome-wide association studies and polygenic index (PGI) analyses, frequently include the principal components of the genotype matrix (PCs) amo...
Resource availability structures microbial competition through genomic niche partitioning
Microbial competition for scarce resources shapes biodiversity patterns and ecosystem function across global biomes, yet quantifying this process from genomic data has remained elusive. Here, we intro...
Regulation of Tmem30b-mediated apical membrane homeostasis in auditory outer hair cells is critical for hearing
Mechanotransduction within the cochlea depends on the precise architecture of hair bundles, yet our comprehension of the mechanisms that govern the formation and maintenance of the sound-receptive str...
Quantitative assessment of flow between cerebrospinal and interstitial fluid compartments in humans
According to glymphatic system theory, cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) perfuses the brain’s interstitial space to support waste clearance, but the magnitude of this flow and the outflow pathway of interstit...
Cellular responses to FGF1 are modulated by palmitoylation of the docking protein FRS2α
An important mechanism by which receptor tyrosine kinases (RTKs) mediate cellular responses involves the formation of signaling complexes through direct interactions with membrane-associated docking p...