X-ray phase contrast tomography is emerging as a powerful method for imaging large volumes of brain tissue at sub-cellular resolution. However, current sample preparation methods are largely inherited...

In a case of obligate cross-species cloning, female ants of Messor ibericus need to clone males of Messor structor to obtain sperm for producing the worker caste, resulting in males from the same moth...

The Guardian joins a Jordanian military airdrop for a rare chance to observe a landscape devastated by Israel’s offensive

Menchero et al. generate a single-cell transcriptomic atlas in the opossum and show rapid progression of transcriptional programs in specific tissues relative to morphological landmarks. This shift in...

A mentoring event at a scientific Congress called for better support of early-career scientists — but what followed sent mixed signals…

Single-cell RNA-seq facilitates the study of transcriptome diversity in individual cells. Here, authors introduce a tool for isoform quantification at the single-cell level using 3’ scRNA-seq data, co...

More than 2,700 human mRNA 3′UTRs have hundreds of highly conserved (HC) nucleotides, but their biological roles are unclear. Here, we show that mRNAs with HC 3′UTRs mostly encode proteins with long intrinsically disordered regions (IDRs), including MYC, UTX, and JMJD3. These proteins are only fully active when translated from mRNA templates that include their 3′UTRs, raising the possibility of functional interactions between 3′UTRs and IDRs. Rather than affecting protein abundance or localization, we find that HC 3′UTRs control transcriptional or histone demethylase activity through co-translationally determined protein oligomerization states that are kinetically stable. 3′UTR-dependent changes in protein folding require mRNA-IDR interactions, suggesting that mRNAs act as IDR chaperones. These mRNAs are multivalent, a biophysical RNA feature that enables their translation in network-like condensates, which provide favorable folding environments for proteins with long IDRs. These data indicate that the coding sequence is insufficient for the biogenesis of biologically active conformations of IDR-containing proteins and that RNA can catalyze protein folding. ### Competing Interest Statement The authors have declared no competing interest. Pershing Square Foundation, https://ror.org/04tce9s05 G. Harold & Leila Y. Mathers Foundation National Institutes of Health, DP1GM123454, R35GM144046 Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, https://ror.org/02yrq0923, P30 CA008748

An RNA codon-expansion strategy enables incorporation of non-canonical amino acids into proteins of interest orthogonally to existing methods by inserting pseudouridine codons into specific mRNA transcripts and using an engineered decoder tRNA.

Every spring, Bogong moths use the starry night sky as a compass to navigate up to 1,000 km towards their alpine migratory goal.

Rao et al. identified thousands of previously unknown 2A peptides across both viruses and eukaryotes using an HMMER analysis. The authors further identified a unique class of 2A peptides, class B, who...