Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

Vol. 123, Issue 12 Issue 12 2026
121
Articles

Articles in this Issue

Correction for Wang et al., Mechanistic insights into dengue virus inhibition by a clinical trial compound NITD-688

Mar 24, 2026 10.1073/pnas.2606246123

Defective RNA Polymerase III sensing of mitochondrial DNA in pulmonary epithelial cells impairs type I IFN immunity to SARS-CoV-2

Michelle Møhlenberg, Sofie Eg Jørgensen, Renée Marije van der Sluis et al. Mar 24, 2026 10.1073/pnas.2522111123

The clinical spectrum of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection ranges from asymptomatic cases to critical COVID-19 pneumonia. To investigate the role of host genetics...

Mechanics of dust bathing in birds

Po-Lin Kuo, Guan-Yu Chen, Yu-Chia Fan et al. Mar 24, 2026 10.1073/pnas.2521949123

Dust bathing is a widespread behavior among birds that helps remove ectoparasites, but its mechanical basis remains poorly understood. Here we show that wing flapping during dust bathing generates san...

Lethal toxin–equipped effector cells for the potential treatment of cancer

Alexander H. Pearlman, Brian J. Mog, Michael S. Hwang et al. Mar 24, 2026 10.1073/pnas.2506991123

Lethal toxins could become potent therapies against cancer, but their clinical utility is limited by adverse events upon systemic administration. These could be reduced if the toxins were delivered by...

Condensate-mediated shape transformations of cellular membranes by capillary forces

Lukas Hauer, Katharina Sporbeck, Joseph F. McKenna et al. Mar 24, 2026 10.1073/pnas.2424126123

Phase-separated biomolecular condensates with liquid-like properties play a key role in the organization and compartmentalization of the intracellular environment. Condensate-mediated capillary forces...

High-affinity, structure-validated and selective macrocyclic peptide tools for chemical biology studies of Huntingtin

Rebeka Fanti, Esther Wolf, Tatsuya Ikenoue et al. Mar 24, 2026 10.1073/pnas.2520462123

Huntington’s disease (HD) is a fatal neurodegenerative disorder caused by a Cytosine-Adenosine-Guanine (CAG) repeat expansion in the Huntingtin (...

Correction for Guo et al., A ribosomally synthesized and posttranslationally modified peptide with ADP-ribosylation

Mar 24, 2026 10.1073/pnas.2607090123

Rational quantum mechanics: Testing quantum theory with quantum computers

Tim Palmer Mar 24, 2026 10.1073/pnas.2523350123

Motivated in part by John Wheeler’s assertion that the continuum nature of Hilbert Space conceals the “it-from-bit” information-theoretic character of the quantum wavefunction, a theory of quantum phy...

Cannibalism, predation, and refuges of juvenile blue crabs from a 37-year experiment

Anson H. Hines, Margaret A. Kramer, Kimberly D. Richie et al. Mar 24, 2026 10.1073/pnas.2533461123

This 37-y record (1989–2025) of field experiments tested seasonal and annual variation in predation on juvenile blue crabs ( Callinectes sapidus ) in a represen...

Dengue virus harnesses mosquito Syntenin to load and secrete viral RNA into salivary exosomes

Florian Rachenne, Norman Schneider, Félix Rey-Cadilhac et al. Mar 24, 2026 10.1073/pnas.2520697123

Viruses exploit extracellular vesicles (EVs) to transfer infection-enhancing viral RNAs. However, mechanisms underlying viral RNA loading remain elusive. We leveraged our previous discovery that dengu...

Correction for Chen et al., RNA-binding activity of PHGDH drives amyloid-beta production in a human brain organoid model of sporadic Alzheimer’s disease

Mar 24, 2026 10.1073/pnas.2606894123

Dislodging the drift barrier: Why do mutation rates vary?

Sarah Schaack Mar 24, 2026 10.1073/pnas.2601432123

Biosphere expansion drives Earth’s secular oxygenation while tectonics modulate oxygen variability revealed by machine learning

Zhen-Jie Zhang, Dong-Jie Tang, Qiu-Ming Cheng Mar 24, 2026 10.1073/pnas.2536681123

The rise of atmospheric oxygen fundamentally transformed Earth’s surface environment and enabled the evolution of complex life. However, the processes driving long-term oxygen fluctuations remain poor...

Reply to Vankov et al.: Reasoning traces are linked to accuracy and capture key dimensions of problem complexity

Andrea Gregor de Varda, Ferdinando Pio D’Elia, Hope Kean et al. Mar 24, 2026 10.1073/pnas.2603574123

Pharmaco-behavioral profiling identifies suppressors of autism gene–associated phenotypes in zebrafish

Priyanka Jamadagni, Yi Dai, Yunqing Liu et al. Mar 24, 2026 10.1073/pnas.2518846123

Pharmaco-behavioral screens in scalable in vivo systems have critical advantages for drug discovery relevant to large-effect autism spectrum disorder (ASD) genes. Here, we establish a database and ope...

Underwater cultural heritage and extreme events: Storm impacts under climate change

Luigi Germinario, Stuart J. McLelland, Claudio Mazzoli Mar 24, 2026 10.1073/pnas.2523844123

Extreme weather events cause severe ecological disruptions to the marine environment and socioeconomic impacts, while also endangering the evidences of human history resting underwater. Storms, in par...

Mosaic phenotypic evolution underlies the adaptive success of water-surface colonization in Gerromorpha

Zezhong Jin, Mu Qiao, Siying Fu et al. Mar 24, 2026 10.1073/pnas.2534611123

Understanding how the remarkable phenotypic diversity observed in organisms arises through shifts in macroevolutionary patterns and tempos is a fundamental challenge in evolutionary biology. Phenotype...

Bert W. O’Malley (1936–2025): A great scientist, mentor, and proud Irishman

Donald P. McDonnell Mar 24, 2026 10.1073/pnas.2605957123

Bert W. O’Malley, the “father/grandfather” of the field of molecular endocrinology passed away on November 11, 2025, at the age of 88. In a distinguished career that spanned over 60 years, he probed f...

Creating a responsible authorship culture in science: Anchoring authorship practices in principles of transparency, credit, and accountability

Véronique Kiermer, Sofia Adams, Kirsten Bibbins-Domingo et al. Mar 24, 2026 10.1073/pnas.2531268123

Authorship remains the primary currency of academic credit and a cornerstone of research integrity, yet current practices often fail to reflect the collaborative and interdisciplinary nature of modern...

Global biodiversity and the expanding Tree of Life

John J. Wiens, Ellerie G. Blomenkamp, Miles Corliss et al. Mar 24, 2026 10.1073/pnas.2530656123

Global biodiversity is increasingly threatened, but still poorly known. Preserving higher taxa (e.g., genera, families, orders) is especially important because each higher taxon may represent more gen...

Rapid ice-marginal lake growth in Alaska driven by glacier retreat through bed overdeepenings

Daniel McGrath, Louis Sass, William H. Armstrong et al. Mar 24, 2026 10.1073/pnas.2513289123

The number and cumulative area of ice-marginal lakes have expanded globally in recent decades, with many lakes residing in glacier-bed overdeepenings, which are subglacial basins formed through prefer...

Radiocarbon dating and chemical imaging of carbon black–based Paleolithic cave art in the Dordogne region (France)

Ina Reiche, Lucile Beck, Ingrid Caffy et al. Mar 24, 2026 10.1073/pnas.2524751123

Paleolithic parietal art in the Dordogne, Southwestern France, was known to present representations solely made with mineral coloring matters. We found a significant number of carbon black-based figur...

Multifaceted ceramic analysis in the study of political expansion: Insights from the Zhou expansion in Shandong, China

Yitzchak Jaffe, Andrew Womack, Karine Taché et al. Mar 24, 2026 10.1073/pnas.2531422123

This paper demonstrates the importance of applying multiple analytical methods in ceramic analysis for understanding colonial contact in the past. We examine the Shang–Zhou transition (circa 1000 BCE)...

Local Ras/actin signaling orients individual pseudopods in shallow gradients

Peter J. M. van Haastert Mar 24, 2026 10.1073/pnas.2526852123

Reply to van Haastert: Local competition between Ras/actin-driven protrusions

Albert Alonso, Julius B. Kirkegaard, Robert G. Endres Mar 24, 2026 10.1073/pnas.2601215123

All Issues

Journal Info

Publisher National Academy of Sciences
ISSN 0027-8424
E-ISSN 1091-6490
Subject Life Sciences
Language English
View Full Journal Page