Daily Research Papers

Sarcopenia, loss of muscle mass is a considerable health burden that demands immediate societal attention. Direct myogenic somatic cell reprogramming, a potential muscle regeneration method is constrained by an inability to control the signaling logic that governs cell fate. Here, we show that this barrier can be overcome using AI-designed receptor modulators. Screening de novo minibinders, we identify a synthetic… Read full abstract

Cellular proteostasis relies on the coordinated action of molecular chaperones and protein degradation pathways to maintain protein folding and turnover. While the roles of chaperones and the proteasome are well established, how ubiquitin E3 ligases contribute to the proteostasis network remains incompletely understood. Here, we analyzed proteostasis in melanoma cells using quantitative proteomics under mild protein folding stress induced by… Read full abstract

Acetylation of histone H3 regulates chromatin dynamics and transcription, but how specific acetylation sites affect RNA polymerase II (RNAPII) transcription through nucleosomes remains unclear. Here, we found that H3 acetylation at Lys56 and Lys122 markedly enhances RNAPII transcription through nucleosomes, whereas acetylation at Lys64 has little effect. To elucidate the structural basis for these functional differences, we determined cryo-electron microscopy… Read full abstract

The bacterial flagellar motor is a rotary nanomachine that powers motility by driving the rotation of a helical filament. Most of our mechanistic understanding of this motor derives from studies of model organisms, particularly Escherichia coli and Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium, yet recent structural work has revealed substantial architectural diversity, raising questions about the universality of established biophysical models. Here… Read full abstract

Carbon catabolite repression (CCR) can restrict xylose utilization during butyric acid production from lignocellulosic hydrolysates by Clostridium tyrobutyricum ATCC 25755. This study evaluated CCR behavior using 2-deoxy-D-glucose (2-DG), a glucose analog, and examined the effects of glucose-xylose composition on mixed-sugar fermentation. 2-DG caused concentration-dependent growth inhibition in xylose-containing medium, indicating CCR-like behavior. However, xylose was partially co-consumed in the presence… Read full abstract

Concentrated aqueous ZnCl₂ solutions determine the stability of mild zinc batteries, yet how rising salt concentration reshapes the Zn ²⁺ first solvation shell and ion association, and whether a classical non-polarizable force field can describe this behaviour, remain controversial. Here we ran all-atom molecular dynamics simulations of aqueous ZnCl₂ at four concentrations (1–10 mol·kg ⁻¹ ) at 298.15 K and… Read full abstract

Background Flueggea virosa (Roxb. ex Willd.) Royle is used in East Africa for traditional fertility regulation. Its methanolic root-bark fraction (KBLM) has demonstrated sperm-disrupting and contraceptive activity. This study aimed to evaluate the intravaginal tolerability of KBLM in female rabbits following 21 days repeated-dose and delineate its chemical composition to inform the viability of its development as a non-hormonal contraceptive… Read full abstract

Echinocandins are the first-line treatment for invasive fungal infections and work by inhibiting the fungal β-1,3-glucan synthase Fks1. Recently, a first-in-class triterpenoid Fks1 inhibitor, ibrexafungerp, was approved for clinical use. The extent to which the difference between these drug classes alters the landscape of resistance mutations in Fks1 is unknown. We used deep mutational scanning (DMS) to quantify the effects… Read full abstract

Hepatitis B virus (HBV) exhibits a narrow host range, largely determined by sodium taurocholate cotransporting polypeptides (NTCP), a hepatic bile acid transporter acting as the HBV receptor. NTCP among animals appears to have evolved following trade-off mutations to lose its viral receptor activity while preserving its transporter function. Here, through profiling of the NTCP homologs from 23 mammalian species, we… Read full abstract

Aims Orchard grass cultivation is widely used to improve soil conditions and alleviate continuous cropping obstacles, yet its capacity to reduce soil hydrogen cyanide (HCN, an autotoxin in replant orchard soils) and associated mechanisms remain unclear. Methods A field trial was carried out in a degraded continuously cropped peach orchard in the karst mountains of southwest China. Two non-nitrogen-fixing grasses… Read full abstract

The kynurenine pathway (KP) of tryptophan metabolism plays a key role in physiological processes such as neuronal modulation, aging and immunity. Although genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have identified genetic determinants of selected kynurenine metabolites, the genetic architecture of the pathway as a whole remains incompletely characterized. We performed GWAS on nine KP metabolites and seven biologically informed metabolite-ratios measured by… Read full abstract

Two-dimensional (2D) materials have attracted extensive attention because their stackable structures and tunable properties enable applications across various fields. Liquid metals (LMs), featuring atomically smooth surfaces, self-limiting oxidation, controllable phase transitions, and mechanical conformability, provide a versatile platform for the synthesis, transfer, and morphology engineering of 2D materials. In this review, we summarize three roles of LMs in 2D material… Read full abstract

Halfmetallic characteristics of inverse Heusler alloy with formula Ti 2 MnSb were investigated using WIEN2k based on density functional theory (DFT). Structure stable in an inverse Heusler alloy – Ti 2 MnSb, with face centered cubic structure. The value of total magnetic moment was 2μ B at optimized lattice constant a o = 6.33Å via energy vs volume curve for… Read full abstract

Groundwater in crystalline basement terrains serves as a critical water resource in southwestern Nigeria but is often influenced by lithological and seasonal controls that affect its quality. This study evaluates the lithological and seasonal influences on trace element distribution in groundwater from Oyo Town. A total of 80 groundwater samples were collected during wet (n = 40) and dry (n… Read full abstract

Cancer remains one of the leading causes of morbidity and mortality worldwide, necessitating continuous advances in therapeutic strategies to improve treatment efficacy and patient outcomes. Over recent decades, cancer management has evolved from conventional cytotoxic approaches toward more sophisticated, individualized interventions that target specific molecular alterations and harness the immune system. This review provides a comprehensive overview of the paradigm… Read full abstract

Hydrothermally synthesized magnesium oxide (MgO) nanoflakes (NFs) were developed as functional nanofillers for biodegradable active food packaging. X-ray diffraction confirmed a face-centered cubic crystal structure with an average crystallite size of 21.5 nm, while transmission electron microscopy revealed a flake-like morphology with particle sizes of 90–110 nm. The MgO NFs exhibited concentration-dependent antibacterial activity against Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli… Read full abstract

Proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) consistently alter the gut microbiome, but the contribution of these changes to systemic effects associated with PPI use remains unclear. Here, we show that PPI-associated microbiome remodelling induces systemic metabolic and transcriptional responses independently of direct drug exposure. Integrating human microbiome and metabolomics data with metabolic modelling, we identified consistent alterations in microbial metabolic functions and… Read full abstract

The photoreduction of CO 2 is usually terminated by two-electron processes resulting in predominantly products CO, the formulation of eight-electron products CH 4 still remains a great challenge limited by proton coupled electron transfer (PCET) abilities. Here, a novel type of two-dimensional (2-D) mesoporous TiO 2 (mTiO 2 ) has been synthesized based on the nanoscale titanium-oxo cluster units for… Read full abstract

Upstream start–stop elements represent an emerging class of translational regulators that can strongly repress downstream protein synthesis. However, the contribution of adjacent RNA secondary structures to their regulatory activity remains poorly understood. Here, we investigated the potential interplay between start–stop elements and downstream RNA G-quadruplexes (rG4s) in human mRNA 5′ untranslated regions (5′-UTRs). By integrating ribosome profiling data with experimentally… Read full abstract

Background UV–visible-NIR spectroscopy is widely used to monitor real-time transformations in material systems. However, accessible and open-source tools for real-time tracking and analysis of spectral features—including peak position, width, and intensity—remain limited. Existing workflows are often multi-step and/or reliant on proprietary software. Methods We developed PySpecTrace , an open-source, Python-based graphical user interface (GUI) for real-time spectroscopy analysis. The platform… Read full abstract