28 September 2026

Cryo-electron tomography of intact Mycoplasma pneumoniae cells resolved 140 maps of the ribosome across initiation, elongation and recycling. The maps include transcription-translation complexes and structural evidence for a long-proposed supercomplex linking transcription, translation and membrane attachment.

Cell · doi:10.1016/j.cell.2026.08.054

In the same minimal bacterium, an unknown surface complex seen by in-cell tomography turned out to be the conserved Sec translocon topped by an extracellular dome made mostly of three previously uncharacterized proteins. It was identified by combining tomography, proteomics and structure prediction.

Cell · doi:10.1016/j.cell.2026.08.055

Phage Tn-seq applies Tn5 transposon mutagenesis with anti-CRISPR selection to map which genes a phage needs. It worked across diverse phages, including a nucleus-forming jumbo phage, and its essentiality calls agreed with structural proteomics and core-gene conservation.

Nature Microbiology · doi:10.1038/s41564-026-02486-1

Reporter assays in chondrocytes tested 561,410 human-derived substitutions and found 15,077 loci with human-specific regulatory activity. Combined with human-ape hybrid cells, they show suppressed glycosaminoglycan synthesis and a three- to fourfold lower joint glycosaminoglycan content in humans than in apes, a change that carries signatures of selection.

Nature · doi:10.1038/s41586-026-11053-x

Mammalian cells hold elemental sulfur as cyclo-octasulfur (S8) at millimolar levels in mitochondrial membranes and lipid droplets. A lipid droplet-associated nitric oxide synthase makes it, and it limits lipid peroxidation and ferroptosis; injecting S8 into mouse joints reduced lipid peroxidation in an osteoarthritis model.

Science · doi:10.1126/science.aec5473

Stinging cells of jellyfish and sea anemones carry hair bundles with extracellular tethers like vertebrate hair cells, and the channel proteins TMC5 and TMC7 sit in those bundles. Knocking them down reduced stinging-cell firing in Clytia and Nematostella, supporting an evolutionary link to vertebrate hearing cells.

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · doi:10.1073/pnas.2607106123

Lake sediment microfossils, radiocarbon dates and sediment DNA show the invasive spiny water flea was in inland Ontario lakes at least 100 years before its reported arrival via ballast water in the 1980s.

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · doi:10.1073/pnas.2622864123

Across 360 teleost species, more complex intermuscular bones go with wider ecological niches and faster burst swimming. Single-cell data from four fish species show the bones arose by co-opting a tendon-associated bone-forming program driven by runx2b and mkxa/b, and were lost repeatedly when those genes changed.

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · doi:10.1073/pnas.2533268123

Before the 2009 H1N1 pandemic virus emerged from pigs, its haemagglutinin gained A227E, which lowers receptor binding, and its neuraminidase gained S369N, which lowers cleavage. The neuraminidase change alone hurt replication in human and swine airway cultures; the haemagglutinin change restored it.

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · doi:10.1073/pnas.2609870123

AICO tests whether each input feature of a trained machine-learning model contributes to its predictions by masking the feature and measuring the change. It gives exact finite-sample p-values and confidence intervals without retraining or distributional assumptions.

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · doi:10.1073/pnas.2530045123

Diamond-anvil experiments at magma-ocean conditions show platinum-group metals partition less strongly into metal at high temperature. Accretion models using these values reproduce the mantle's excess of these elements without the late veneer of meteorite material usually invoked.

Science Advances · doi:10.1126/sciadv.aef0411

The SWOT satellite is showing how extensively humans have altered rivers, and its measurements are challenging models used to predict floods.

Science · doi:10.1126/science.aem6543

A Nature investigation describes a network of sham scientific societies that recruit prominent researchers through deceptive practices.

Nature · doi:10.1038/d41586-026-02980-w

AI agents are increasingly contacting researchers directly to solicit collaborations, money and time.

Nature · doi:10.1038/d41586-026-03005-2

A synthetic immune circuit switches on plant defence only when a virus produces its subgenomic RNA. It protected Nicotiana benthamiana, tomato and other hosts against pepino mosaic, tobacco mosaic and cucumber mosaic viruses.

Science Advances · doi:10.1126/sciadv.aeg0007

Two peptides from the Arabidopsis central cell, SALVAGER3 and SALVAGER4, attract pollen tubes when normal synergid-cell guidance fails, and also attract pollen tubes of other species, raising the chance of interspecific hybridization.

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · doi:10.1073/pnas.2600459123

An Anthropic AI biolab used about 950 AI agents working for more than 21 hours through DNA sequence databases and found 'CRISPR-like' DNA in viruses.

Nature · doi:10.1038/d41586-026-03039-6

The AlphaFold database added predicted structures of protein complexes from common viruses, intended for pandemic preparedness; the predictions still need experimental confirmation.

Nature · doi:10.1038/d41586-026-03022-1

A boron phase made under pressure conducts electricity a million times better than chemists expected and can be stretched.

Nature · doi:10.1038/d41586-026-03001-6

EEG recordings show dogs, like humans, track words better in speech streams structured by consonants than by vowels, a bias non-human primates lack.

Science · doi:10.1126/science.adw7709