Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

Vol. 123, Issue 8 Issue 8 2026
106
Articles

Articles in this Issue

Lower charge, higher order: Revising electrostatic control of nematic phases in 2D polyelectrolytes

Mohsen Moazzami Gudarzi, Mohamad Ali Sanjari Shahrezaei, Seyed Hamed Aboutalebi Feb 24, 2026 10.1073/pnas.2527538123

Classical theories of nematic ordering in charged platelets predict that increasing surface charge stabilizes alignment. They also predict enhanced alignment when ionic strength is reduced. Here, in a...

Divergent dietary and defensive adaptations of closely related coexisting seed bugs

Nathaniel J. Carlson, Amy P. Hastings, Christophe Duplais et al. Feb 24, 2026 10.1073/pnas.2535697123

Ecologists use multiple approaches to decipher factors mediating the origin and maintenance of biodiversity. Using closely related species, we retrospectively investigated divergence in diet and defen...

The effect of land costs on the economic and sustainability performance of solar photovoltaics in China

Shi Chen, Xi Lu, Jiming Hao et al. Feb 24, 2026 10.1073/pnas.2512930123

Scaling up solar photovoltaics (PV) is essential for global decarbonization, particularly in China—the world’s largest greenhouse gas (GHG) emitter. Despite leading in PV installations, China has yet...

Spatially resolved denitrification coupled with methane and arsenite oxidation at the millimeter-scale straw–soil interface

Xin-Di Zhao, Ya-Qin Wang, Sha Zhang et al. Feb 24, 2026 10.1073/pnas.2521285123

Straw return reshapes the biogeochemical processes in paddy soils by driving microbial transformation of key elements. Despite growing awareness of these individual processes, the integration of these...

Extracellular stiffness regulates cell fate determination and drives the emergence of evolutionary novelty in the teleost heart

Sho Matsuki, Yusei Inoue, Ryuta Watanabe et al. Feb 24, 2026 10.1073/pnas.2511871123

The diversification of life is driven by the acquisition of new phenotypic traits, known as evolutionary novelties. While some genetic mechanisms underlying such traits have been identified, the role...

Genomes of the Golden Horde elites and their implications for the rulers of the Mongol Empire

Ayken Askapuli, Hideaki Kanzawa-Kiriyama, Tsuneo Kakuda et al. Feb 24, 2026 10.1073/pnas.2531003123

The Golden Horde, the northwestern extension of the Mongol Empire ruled by Genghis Khan’s descendants, holds a pivotal place in the history of Central Eurasia and Eastern Europe. Consequently, underst...

Lipid nanoparticle–mediated in vivo generation of panCAR immune cells for solid tumor immunotherapy

Qimeng Yin, Xue Liang, Chenchen Zhang et al. Feb 24, 2026 10.1073/pnas.2509698123

Adoptive cell therapies that genetically engineer immune cells with chimeric antigen receptors (CARs) have shown limited success against solid tumors due to the immunosuppressive tumor microenvironmen...

Correction for Lee et al., Saccade-related LFP power transients in the primate amygdala and hippocampus linked to the perception of social status

Feb 24, 2026 10.1073/pnas.2603598123

Lamin B receptor upregulation in metastatic melanoma causes nuclear envelope fragility in confined migration during cancer invasion

Michelle A. Baird, Cayla E. Jewett, Daniela A. Malide et al. Feb 24, 2026 10.1073/pnas.2513031123

Cancer cells migrate through regions of tissue confinement during metastasis, causing nuclear envelope (NE) rupture, which generates heritable DNA damage and disease aggression. We sought to determine...

β <sub>2</sub> -microglobulin inhibits <i> <i>Escherichia coli</i> </i> biofilm formation via selectively blocking curli assembly

Harshita Agarwal, Harita Ben, Amlan Chaini et al. Feb 24, 2026 10.1073/pnas.2515986123

Bacteria have evolved a remarkable strategy to thrive in hostile environments by creating well-organized microcommunities known as biofilms. Biofilms pose a serious global health challenge due to thei...

Aging of amorphous materials under cyclic strain

Dor Shohat, Paul Baconnier, Itamar Procaccia et al. Feb 24, 2026 10.1073/pnas.2515075123

Amorphous materials driven away from equilibrium display a diverse repertoire of complex, history-dependent behaviors. One striking feature is a failure to return to equilibrium after an abrupt change...

Democratizing space: India’s frugal space innovation provides key lessons for emerging nations

Luisa Corrado, Soniya Gupta-Rawal, Paul Kattuman et al. Feb 24, 2026 10.1073/pnas.2514657123

Reply to Fitzgerald et al.: Mischaracterizing our findings; the cognitive profile of elite footballers remains robust

Leonardo Bonetti, Torbjörn Vestberg, Reza Jafari et al. Feb 24, 2026 10.1073/pnas.2521662123

CDKL5 modulates the plasticity of excitatory synapses via liquid–liquid phase separation

Mingjie Li, Ziai Zhu, Dan Li et al. Feb 24, 2026 10.1073/pnas.2511123123

Activity-dependent synaptic remodeling, essential for neural circuit plasticity, is orchestrated by central organizers within the postsynaptic density (PSD), including the scaffolding protein PSD95. H...

Oncogenic function and transcriptional dynamics of MYCN in liver tumorigenesis

Xian-Yang Qin, Yali Xu, Hricha Mishra et al. Feb 24, 2026 10.1073/pnas.2521923123

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is a leading cause of cancer-related mortality. It is often diagnosed at advanced stages and characterized by high recurrence rates. Although chronic liver inflammation...

Cryo-EM structure of locked spike glycoprotein from bat SARS-like coronavirus WIV1, molecular dynamics and biophysics across host range

Chuan Liu, Jingjing Zheng, Yuhan Wang et al. Feb 24, 2026 10.1073/pnas.2516874123

As made evident by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 1 (SARS-CoV-1) and SARS-CoV-2 pandemics, the possibility of a SARS-like coronavirus (SL-CoV) emerging again in humankind after zoonotic...

A host-derived volatile primes context-dependent foraging behavior in parasitic nematodes via a lysosome-associated neural pathway

Sheng-Yen Wu, Yan Zhao, Yuntao Yang et al. Feb 24, 2026 10.1073/pnas.2520778123

Entomopathogenic nematodes (EPNs) are valued for sustainable pest control, yet their efficacy hinges on matching foraging behavior to host ecology. The nematode Steinernema carpoca...

Enhanced screening via a pure DNA-encoded peptide library enabled by an Fmoc modification

Qiujin He, Yanhui Wang, Xiyuan Tang et al. Feb 24, 2026 10.1073/pnas.2524999123

Peptide-based molecules have widespread therapeutic applications due to their potent binding affinity and relative metabolic safety. Peptide therapeutics are developed using library screening that sam...

Unraveling hidden symmetry breaking in racemic compounds

Weihao Wang, Fangyi Chen, Zhenghong Chen et al. Feb 24, 2026 10.1073/pnas.2531804123

Racemic compounds, consisting of an equimolar mixture of enantiomers in crystalline form, are conventionally regarded as fully symmetric and are often dismissed as a trivial phenomenon due to their ab...

Negative social ties as emerging risk factors for accelerated aging, inflammation, and multimorbidity

Byungkyu Lee, Gabriele Ciciurkaite, Siyun Peng et al. Feb 24, 2026 10.1073/pnas.2515331123

Negative social ties, or “hasslers,” are pervasive yet understudied components of social networks that may accelerate biological aging and morbidity. Using ego-centric network data and DNA methylation...

Cooperative environments bolster feelings of autonomy in dyads, teams, and organizations

Valentino E. Chai, Nir Halevy Feb 24, 2026 10.1073/pnas.2524773123

Autonomy promotes important psychological outcomes. Although cooperation and competition are the building blocks of social interactions, little is known about how they shape feelings of autonomy in dy...

Will online behavioral research follow the fate of online survey research?

S. Van der Stigchel, C. Strauch, B. de Zwart et al. Feb 24, 2026 10.1073/pnas.2535585123

Reply to Van der Stigchel et al.: Empirical evidence that AI survey contamination is real and substantial

Sean J. Westwood, Samuel Frederick Feb 24, 2026 10.1073/pnas.2537420123

The human insula encodes somatotopic representation of motor execution with an effector-specific connectome map to primary motor cortex

Panagiotis Kerezoudis, Michael A. Jensen, Bryan T. Klassen et al. Feb 24, 2026 10.1073/pnas.2517734123

Understanding motor representation in the human brain requires mapping beyond the primary motor cortex, into the distributed networks that coordinate complex movements. The insular cortex, a multifunc...

The ISR downstream effector ATF4 promotes mGluR-dependent long-term depression and associated behavior

Niaz Mahmood, Cong Loc Dang, Pei You Wu et al. Feb 24, 2026 10.1073/pnas.2532796123

The integrated stress response (ISR) plays a crucial role in cognition via bidirectional modulation of the two major forms of synaptic plasticity, long-term potentiation, and long-term depression (LTD...

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