Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

Vol. 123, Issue 2 Issue 2 2026
87
Articles

Articles in this Issue

Neural substrate of conditioned stimulus for associative learning in the hippocampus

Kyogo S. Kobayashi, Ren Sogabe, Tsuyoshi Tatsukawa et al. Jan 13, 2026 10.1073/pnas.2519161123

Associative learning allows animals to learn the predictive relationships between events. Presentation of a conditioned stimulus (CS) preceding an unconditioned stimulus (US) within a short interval a...

Systematic identification of single transcription factor perturbations that drive cellular and tissue rejuvenation

Janine Sengstack, Jiashun Zheng, Turan Aghayev et al. Jan 13, 2026 10.1073/pnas.2515183123

Cellular rejuvenation through transcriptional reprogramming is an exciting approach to counter aging. Using a fibroblast-based model of human cell aging and Perturb-seq screening, we developed a syste...

Primate-informed neural network for visual decision-making

Jie Su, Fang Cai, Shu-Kuo Zhao et al. Jan 13, 2026 10.1073/pnas.2426883123

The human brain excels at complex tasks with remarkable efficiency, adaptability, and resilience, making it a powerful source of inspiration for AI. Here, we present a neural dynamics model inspired b...

Hyperglycemia promotes SIRT3-mediated deacetylation of SARM1 to exacerbate diabetic peripheral neuropathy in mice

Chunyu Chen, Liliang Zhu, Wenxi Li et al. Jan 13, 2026 10.1073/pnas.2517110123

Diabetic peripheral neuropathy (DPN), the most common complication of diabetes, lacks effective treatments and is characterized by early axonal degeneration mediated by sterile alpha and Toll/interleu...

M cell–dependent commensal uptake confers encephalitogenic phenotypes on γδT17 cells in Peyer’s patches

Seiga Komiyama, Yotaro Kodaira, Rae Maeda et al. Jan 13, 2026 10.1073/pnas.2506550123

Interleukin-17-producing γδT cells (γδT17 cells) play a dual role in immune regulation, serving as both protectors in various tissues and orchestrators of inflammatory responses in autoimmune diseases...

Pathogen-inspired engineering of plant protease enhances late blight resistance

Jie Huang, Alice Penrose, Laura Ossorio Carballo et al. Jan 13, 2026 10.1073/pnas.2524700123

The apoplast is an important battlefield in plant–pathogen interactions. The late blight oomycete pathogen Phytophthora infestans, for instance, secretes cystat...

Nonsense-mediated decay controls a negative feedback loop in innate immune sensing

Simon Boudreault, Yahira Rivera-Lopez, Max B. Ferretti et al. Jan 13, 2026 10.1073/pnas.2517478123

Nonsense-mediated decay (NMD) is an mRNA decay pathway which degrades potential harmful transcripts that contain premature termination codons. However, NMD’s importance also extends to the control of...

The major ion chemistry of seawater was closely coupled to the long-term carbon cycle during the Cenozoic

David Evans, Yair Rosenthal, Jonathan Erez et al. Jan 13, 2026 10.1073/pnas.2511781122

A ~fivefold decrease in the atmospheric concentration of CO 2 took place during the Cenozoic. This has often been viewed within the context of silicate weatheri...

Cell numbers contribute to cell fate during Ciona cardiopharyngeal mesoderm specification

Emily Singer, Haram Kim, Michael S. Levine et al. Jan 13, 2026 10.1073/pnas.2530472123

The Ciona heart cell lineage can be accurately traced back to a pair of blastomeres, the B7.5 cells, that form at the 64-cell stage. In addition to the adult he...

Elucidating cooperative genetic events in DCIS progression in mutant <i>p53</i> –driven breast cancer

Rhiannon L. Morrissey, Joy M. McDaniel, Gilda P. Chau et al. Jan 13, 2026 10.1073/pnas.2526544123

Ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) is a precursor mammary lesion characterized by abnormal epithelial cells in mammary ducts that remain confined to the luminal space. Not all DCIS becomes invasive, and...

Prevention of ubiquitination at K6 and K9 in mutant huntingtin exacerbates disease pathology in a knock-in mouse model

Pengfei Qi, Libo Yu-Taeger, Hezhou Han et al. Jan 13, 2026 10.1073/pnas.2527258122

Huntington disease (HD) is caused by an expansion of the polyglutamine (polyQ) tract in the huntingtin protein (HTT), leading to its misfolding and aggregation. The subcellular localization of mutant...

SARS-CoV-2 peptide fragments selectively dysregulate specific immune cell populations via Gaussian curvature targeting

Yue Zhang, Carlos Silvestre-Roig, Han Fu et al. Jan 13, 2026 10.1073/pnas.2521841122

Immune cell populations are dysregulated in COVID-19 for currently unknown reasons: Plasmacytoid dendritic cell (pDC) populations are reduced, thus hampering antiviral responses. CD8...

Domestication drives repeated evolution of sexual–asexual life cycle trade-offs in yeast

Carmen Becerra-Rodríguez, Pia Thiele, Gauthier Brach et al. Jan 13, 2026 10.1073/pnas.2526682123

For thousands of years, humans have domesticated animals and cultivated crops by managing reproduction and selecting for desirable traits. In contrast, microbial domestication has often occurred unint...

Targeting C1q signaling in fibro-adipogenic progenitors prevents regenerative fibrosis of aged muscle

Abhijnya Kanugovi, Paola Aguiari, Rachel Choi et al. Jan 13, 2026 10.1073/pnas.2423340122

Skeletal muscle fibrosis, as occurs with age, in response to injury, or in the setting of degenerative diseases, results in impairments of muscle regeneration and function. Fibro-adipogenic progenitor...

Pathogenic role of MIF receptor (CD74) expressing T cells in inflammatory arthritis

Edward Doherty, Lais Osmani, Joshua Bilsborrow et al. Jan 13, 2026 10.1073/pnas.2509156123

High expression alleles of the innate cytokine, macrophage migration inhibitory factor (MIF), are associated with the development or the severity of autoimmune inflammatory diseases, including rheumat...

Enhanced episodic specificity and socioemotional content in older adults’ everyday autobiographical thoughts

Vannia A. Puig Rivera, Eric Andrews, Leelu J. Cervantes et al. Jan 13, 2026 10.1073/pnas.2513990123

Cognitive aging research has long observed that older adults’ autobiographical memories and future thoughts, as assessed in laboratory contexts, lack spatiotemporal detail compared to young adults. Do...

Implementing the Kunming-Montreal Biodiversity Targets

John L. Gittleman, Stuart L. Pimm, Berndt J. Van Rensburg et al. Jan 13, 2026 10.1073/pnas.2514761123

The Kunming-Montreal Biodiversity Targets present the most ambitious and serious conservation agenda ever developed—the overarching goal of preserving 30% of the planet by 2030. An organizational fram...

Early life-stage thermal resilience is determined by climate-linked regulatory variation

Joaquin C. B. Nunez, Sumaetee Tangwancharoen, Kylie M. Finnegan et al. Jan 13, 2026 10.1073/pnas.2518358123

The ecological context of developmental physiology remains largely unexplored. We previously showed that thermal selection primarily targets early embryos in...

The anticipation of imminent events is time-scale invariant

Matthias Grabenhorst, David Poeppel, Georgios Michalareas Jan 13, 2026 10.1073/pnas.2518982123

Humans predict the timing of imminent events to generate fast and precise actions, decisions, and other behaviors. Such temporal anticipation is critical over wide timescales, and especially salient o...

T-bet-expressing Tr1 cells driven by dietary signals dominate the small intestinal immune landscape

Eduard Ansaldo, Daniel Yong, Nathan Carrillo et al. Jan 13, 2026 10.1073/pnas.2520747122

Intestinal immunity defends against enteric pathogens, mediates symbiotic relationships with the resident microbiota, and provides tolerance to food antigens, safeguarding critical nutrient absorption...

The right environment switches the enzymatic character

Ku-Lung Hsu Jan 13, 2026 10.1073/pnas.2531791123

Adult neural stem cells mediate hippocampal synapse elimination for circuit homeostasis through MERTK

Dezhe Qin, Qiang Liu, Ziqi Liang et al. Jan 13, 2026 10.1073/pnas.2517096123

Although radial-like neural stem cells (rNSCs) give rise to functional neurons throughout life in discrete regions of the adult brain, their functions are not limited to neurogenesis. Recent studies i...

Reply to Sun: Real-world bulk density changes support high carbon sequestration potential of biochar

Jingrui Yang, Kees Jan van Groenigen, Jun Meng et al. Jan 13, 2026 10.1073/pnas.2533070123

Effective chilling temperatures for dormancy release in extratropical forest trees increase from cold to warm regions

Rui Zhang, Fucheng Wang, Jinbin Zheng et al. Jan 13, 2026 10.1073/pnas.2531077123

Seasonal dormancy in extratropical trees is a critical adaptation that synchronizes growth with favorable climatic conditions. Traditionally, the effective chilling temperatures (ECT) required for dor...

O-acyltransferase genes involved in the production of volatile sex pheromones in <i> <i>Caenorhabditis elegans</i> </i>

Xuan Wan, Sarah M. Cohen, Yan Yu et al. Jan 13, 2026 10.1073/pnas.2524778123

Gene family expansions are critical for functional diversification, yet the contributions of paralogs to metabolic pathways are often unclear. In Caenorhabditis...

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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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