Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Articles in this Issue
Evolutionary adaptations to the hormonal regulation of vascular tissue development
Vascular tissues provide long-distance transport and physical support in the vascular plant lineage, providing a significant adaptive advantage. Although the cross talk between auxin and cytokinin in...
Noncanonical genetic markers resolve the pre-GOE emergence of aerobic bacteria in Earth’s history
The transition from anaerobic to aerobic life was a pivotal adaptation in Earth’s history, yet the timing and genomic drivers remain poorly resolved. Traditional approaches relying on oxygen-utilizing...
Widespread terrestrial ecosystem disruption at the onset of the Paleocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum
The Paleocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM, ~56 Mya) interval was marked by massive 13 C-depleted carbon emissions into the ocean/atmosphere system, manifested...
Liganded LolCDE structures reveal a common substrate-LolE interaction guiding bacterial lipoprotein transport
Bacterial lipoproteins are key structural components of the outer membrane in Gram-negative bacteria and vital components of machineries required for its biosynthesis and maintenance. The Lol system,...
Earliest perissodactyls reveal large-scale dispersals during the PETM
Perissodactyls were a diverse order of mammals in the Northern Hemisphere during the Paleogene, but very few species remain today. They first appear during the Paleocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM;...
Neurochemical imaging reveals changes in dopamine dynamics with photoperiod in a seasonally social vole species
Studying dopamine signaling in nonmodel organisms is crucial for understanding the broad range of behaviors not represented in traditional model systems. However, exploring new species is often hinder...
Droplet growth, Ostwald’s rule, and emergence of order in Fused in Sarcoma
The low-complexity domain of Fused in Sarcoma (FUS-LC) undergoes phase separation, forming a dense, liquid-like phase that gradually matures into an ordered, gel-like state over long-time scales. Duri...
A fully synthetic Golden Gate assembly system for engineering a <i>Pseudomonas aeruginosa</i> phiKMV-like phage
Bacteriophages have applications in biotechnology, including human and veterinary medicine, agriculture, food safety, and biosecurity. One example of resurging importance is phage therapy, the use of...
Direct observation of liquid–liquid phase coexistence in deeply supercooled water using an accurate polarizable multipole model
Liquid water can be supercooled up to about 50 K below the melting point before undergoing homogeneous ice nucleation. Based on experimental thermodynamic observations and computer simulations, it was...
Caspase-3 cleaves and activates the NADase SARM1 to promote apoptosis, linking two cell death mechanisms
Two major mechanisms of axon degeneration have been identified. The first, a caspase-dependent apoptotic pathway, is a major mediator of developmental axon degeneration triggered by loss of trophic su...
A quorum-sensing molecule from <i>Pseudomonas aeruginosa</i> induces defensive multicellularity in a coinfecting pathogen
Microorganisms commonly exist in polymicrobial communities, where they can respond to interspecies secreted molecules by altering behaviors and physiology; however, the underlying mechanisms remain un...
Molecular architecture and diversity of StopGo/2A translational recoding
Viral 2A sequences trigger a cotranslational peptide bond formation “skipping” event, termed “StopGo,” to generate two separate proteins from a single open reading frame without classical termination....
Cytoplasmic crowding acts as a porous medium reducing macromolecule diffusion
Intracellular transport of macromolecules is crucial for the proper functioning of most cellular processes. Although intracellular crowding is known to strongly alter macromolecule mobility, how cytop...
Nitrate-induced NLP1 SUMOylation regulates nitrate signaling and root nodulation
Nitrate serves both as an essential nutrient and a key signaling molecule that shapes plant growth. In legumes, high nitrate concentrations suppress symbiotic nitrogen fixation, a process mediated by...
A <i>Period1</i> inducer specifically advances circadian clock in mice
West-to-east transmeridian flights are more disruptive than east-to-west ones due to challenges in advancing the human circadian clock. Transient mammalian Period1...
STING single amino acid polymorphisms modulate iridovirus immune evasion and pathogenicity spectrum
The evolutionary arms race between viruses and hosts shapes host antiviral defenses and viral immune evasion, yet the mechanisms driving divergence in viral cross-species pathogenicity remain unclear....
Pharmacological chaperones mitigate noise-induced hearing loss by attenuating sustained PERK activation
Noise-induced hearing loss (NIHL) can be either temporary or permanent, depending on the intensity and duration of noise exposure. Excessive noise exposure activates various cellular mechanisms in the...
Social movements are transformative agents for biodiversity conservation
Civil society has long been a catalyst for social change by reshaping structures, influencing values, and challenging power dynamics; however, its role in driving transformative change for biodiversit...
Pore size dynamics control complex volume swelling in pyroptosis
Pyroptosis, an inflammatory form of cell death, is characterized by massive cell swelling and plasma membrane rupture. Although swelling was recently shown to occur in two steps, the molecular and bio...
A data-driven chromatin model reveals spatial and dynamic features of genome organization
Compacting chromatin within the cellular nucleus presents a significant challenge for biology. Chromosomes must be both condensed and spatially organized to enable essential processes such as transcri...
RecBCD-dependent post-UV replication restart in <i> <i>Escherichia coli</i> </i> triggers fork triplication
Ultraviolet (UV) irradiation induces pyrimidine dimers in DNA, which block replication, but are efficiently removed by excision, allowing replication restart. Interestingly, soon after restart, the ce...
Intermediate evolutionary state of motile sperm and pollen tubes in the extant gymnosperm <i>Cycas revoluta</i>
Evolutionary transitions in land plant fertilization from zooidogamy to siphonogamy were characterized by transformations of male reproductive cells. Basal land plants such as bryophytes and pteridoph...
Observation of emergent scaling of spin–charge correlations at the onset of the pseudogap
In strongly correlated materials, interacting electrons are entangled and form collective quantum states, resulting in rich low-temperature phase diagrams. Notable examples include cuprate superconduc...
Broad beta-CoV immunity and transmission blockade by a single-dose live-attenuated vaccine with atypical codon usage
Current COVID-19 vaccines have saved countless lives but primarily aim to induce immunity to the spike or its RBD protein and often fail to confer broad or durable protection against rapidly evolving...
A class of COPI cargo receptors regulates processing of transmembrane proteins by reinforcing their Golgi retention
Many transmembrane (TM) signaling receptors undergo essential posttranslational modification in the Golgi prior to their delivery to the plasma membrane (PM). Whether and how the passage and accompani...