Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

Vol. 123, Issue 4 Issue 4 2026
101
Articles

Articles in this Issue

Force-dependent structural dynamics of the giant nesprin-2

Fei Shang, Yuhang Zhang, Jiaqing Ye et al. Jan 27, 2026 10.1073/pnas.2517922123

The nesprin protein family serves as a critical physical bridge between the cytoskeleton–a fundamental structural scaffold and mechanotransduction hub of the cell, and the nucleus–an intriguing and em...

Protein language models trained on biophysical dynamics inform mutation effects

Chao Hou, Haiqing Zhao, Yufeng Shen Jan 27, 2026 10.1073/pnas.2530466123

Structural dynamics are fundamental to protein functions and mutation effects. Current protein deep learning models are predominantly trained on sequence and/or static structure data, which often fail...

Generalizations of the quadratic bound optimization principle

Xun-Jian Li, Guo-Liang Tian, Hua Zhou et al. Jan 27, 2026 10.1073/pnas.2525320123

The quadratic bound (QB) principle proposed by Böhning and Lindsay in 1988 is an important special case of the majorization–minimization or minorization-maximization optimization principle. The quadra...

MTFR1L is a cardiac antiaging factor for maintenance of mitochondrial homeostasis

Le Shi, Zehui Sun, Yingxue Cao et al. Jan 27, 2026 10.1073/pnas.2527247123

Mitochondrial dysfunction is a hallmark of aging and a key contributor to age-related diseases including cardiovascular disease. However, molecular pathways that safeguard mitochondrial homeostasis in...

Gpr171 regulates embryonic hematopoietic stem cell emergence via ERK1/2 and Notch signaling

Kun Zhou, Hongyan Liu, Kai Zhu et al. Jan 27, 2026 10.1073/pnas.2516989123

Hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs), which sustain lifelong blood cell production, emerge from hemogenic endothelium during embryonic development through the regulation of multiple signaling pathways. How...

Cortical O <sub>2</sub> supply and metabolism are suppressed in the aged mice

Hongyi Kang, Sitong Zhou, Michael Giannetto et al. Jan 27, 2026 10.1073/pnas.2522765123

Current evidence suggests that the rejuvenating effects of parabiosis on brain function arise from the exchange of blood factors that enhance synaptic plasticity, promote neurogenesis, and reduce neur...

Discovery and mechanism of negative allosteric modulation of the α7 nicotinic acetylcholine receptor by nanobodies

Nathalie Barilone, Maria Vangelatou, F. Zahra Marouf et al. Jan 27, 2026 10.1073/pnas.2514734123

α7 nicotinic receptors are neurotransmitter-gated ion channels involved in neurological and inflammatory diseases. Ligands acting on its neurotransmitter binding site and on the channel domain of α7 h...

Impact of boiling liquid droplets: Vapor entrapment suppression

Bernardo Palacios-Muñiz, Edgar Ortega-Roano, Yee Li (Ellis) Fan et al. Jan 27, 2026 10.1073/pnas.2522654123

There hardly is a fluid mechanics phenomenon attracting more attention than the impact of a droplet, due to its undeniable beauty, many applications, and the numerous challenges it poses. One of the c...

Mating regulates growth, metabolism, and digestive efficiency in the female <i>Drosophila</i> midgut

Tahmineh Kandelouei, Madeline E. Houghton, Mitchell R. Lewis et al. Jan 27, 2026 10.1073/pnas.2525331123

Adaptive changes in organ size and function occur in most animals, but how these changes are regulated is not well understood. Previous research found that mating in Drosophila...

Dynamics of working memory drift and information flow across the cortical hierarchy

Hsin-Hung Li, Wei Ji Ma, Clayton E. Curtis Jan 27, 2026 10.1073/pnas.2518110123

Working memory is supported by widespread and distributed brain regions spanning across the cortical hierarchy. However, how working memory content evolves and is transmitted across cortical regions r...

Mechanistic basis for relaxation of DNA supercoils by human topoisomerase IIIα–RMI1–RMI2

Dian Spakman, Andreas S. Biebricher, Anna H. Bizard et al. Jan 27, 2026 10.1073/pnas.2406949123

Topoisomerase enzymes are essential for the regulation of DNA topology. Human topoisomerase IIIα is a Type 1A topoisomerase that exists as a complex with RMI1 and RMI2, known as TRR. The TRR complex c...

mGluR1 signaling is necessary for strengthening winner climbing fiber inputs in the developing mouse cerebellum

Miwako Yamasaki, Taisuke Miyazaki, Kouichi Hashimoto et al. Jan 27, 2026 10.1073/pnas.2425460123

Functional neural circuits are sculpted by strengthening frequently used synapses and removing unnecessary connections. At birth, cerebellar Purkinje cells receive inputs with similar synaptic strengt...

Clever algorithms for glasses work by time reparameterization

Federico Ghimenti, Ludovic Berthier, Jorge Kurchan et al. Jan 27, 2026 10.1073/pnas.2520818123

The ultraslow dynamics of glass-formers has been explained by two views often considered as mutually exclusive: One invokes locally hindered mobility, and the other rests on the complexity of the conf...

Coral species from another ocean may be the only way to save Caribbean reefs

Alejandro E. Camacho, David A. Dana, Mikhail Matz Jan 27, 2026 10.1073/pnas.2521543123

Perceiving AI as labor-replacing reduces democratic legitimacy and political engagement

Armin Granulo, Andreas Raff, Christoph Fuchs Jan 27, 2026 10.1073/pnas.2523508123

AI is expected to reshape society and labor markets, yet experts remain divided on whether AI will primarily displace human labor or generate new employment opportunities. Despite the importance of th...

Nuclear MBL-1 modulates mitochondrial morphology through carnitine palmitoyltransferase in <i>Caenorhabditis elegans</i> with toxic trinucleotide repeats

Joana Teixeira, Mikko J. Frilander, Ove Eriksson et al. Jan 27, 2026 10.1073/pnas.2514994123

Expansion of nucleotide repeat sequences is linked to a growing number of neuromuscular degenerative disorders. Metabolic changes, including disruptions in mitochondrial function and dynamics, charact...

Metabolic rewiring and biomass redistribution enable optimized mixotrophic growth in Chlamydomonas

Somnath Koley, Kevin Foley, Zoee Perrine et al. Jan 27, 2026 10.1073/pnas.2522572123

Aquatic photosynthetic systems account for approximately one-half of all global carbon assimilation and could be a significant source of renewable fuels and feedstocks. However, rapid growth and bioma...

A sexually dimorphic neuronal cluster in the mouse medial amygdala responds to male sexual status

Tamar Licht, Adan Akarieh, Aya Dhamshy et al. Jan 27, 2026 10.1073/pnas.2518703123

Increasing scientific interest has been directed toward understanding sexual dimorphism in the brain. Although several brain structures exhibit masculine or feminine characteristics, strictly binary a...

The EPS-I exopolysaccharide transforms <i>Ralstonia</i> wilt pathogen biofilms into viscoelastic fluids for rapid dissemination in planta

Matthew L. Cope-Arguello, Jiayu Li, Zachary Konkel et al. Jan 27, 2026 10.1073/pnas.2512757123

Ralstonia solanacearum species complex (RSSC) pathogens cause destructive plant wilt diseases of a wide variety of crops, leading to significant agricultural losses worldwide. Thes...

A surface-exposed cardiolipin synthase provides an unexpected paradigm for maintaining the Gram-negative outer membrane

Carmen M. Herrera, Lucas M. Demey, Courtney K. Ellison et al. Jan 27, 2026 10.1073/pnas.2524588123

Gram-negative bacteria have long been thought to confine primary glycerophospholipid synthesis to the inner membrane (IM). Here, we challenge this paradigm by identifying ClsO, an outer membrane (OM)...

Disorder-induced stress–flow misalignment in soft glassy materials revealed using multidirectional shear

Frédéric Blanc, Guillaume Ovarlez, Adam Trigui et al. Jan 27, 2026 10.1073/pnas.2521603123

Controlling the mechanical response of soft glassy materials—such as emulsions, foams, and colloidal suspensions—is key for many industrial processes. While their steady-state flow behavior is reasona...

Slippage reconfiguration of trinucleotide repeat hairpins impedes resolution by human replication protein A

Yu-Chi Kuang, Szu-Yu Chen, Hao-Yen Chang et al. Jan 27, 2026 10.1073/pnas.2526355123

Abnormal expansions of trinucleotide repeats (TNRs) are a major cause of neurodegenerative diseases, often driven by the formation of stable hairpin structures that interfere with protein machineries...

Symmetry-protected topological polarons

Kaifa Luo, Jon Lafuente-Bartolome, Feliciano Giustino Jan 27, 2026 10.1073/pnas.2514647123

Emergent quasiparticles in solids often exhibit unique topological properties as a result of the complex interplay between charge, orbital, spin, and lattice degrees of freedom. Among these quasiparti...

Optimization via the strategic law of large numbers

Xiaohong Chen, Zengjing Chen, Wayne Yuan Gao et al. Jan 27, 2026 10.1073/pnas.2519845123

This paper proposes a framework for the global optimization of a possibly multimodal continuous function in a bounded rectangular domain. We first show that global optimization is equivalent to an opt...

Type I IFN autoantibodies underlie chikungunya live-attenuated vaccine encephalitis

Adrian Gervais, Paul Bastard, Qian Zhang et al. Jan 27, 2026 10.1073/pnas.2532212123

Human autoantibodies neutralizing type I interferons (IFNs) have emerged as strong, common, and global determinants of a growing number of severe viral diseases, including hypoxemic viral pneumonia, a...

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Journal Info

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