Leopardus tilcayo is smaller than a housecat and covered in leopard-like spots. Plus, the brain might spawn from two types of precursor cell and how to maintain the foundations of human flourishing in...

Telomerase is a reverse transcriptase that synthesizes telomeric repeats at chromosome ends, safeguarding genome integrity. We present the cryo–electron microscopy structure of the budding yeast telom...

MicrobeAtlas (www.microbeatlas.org) is an integrated, reference-based resource for truly planet-wide microbiomics, analyzing hundreds of thousands of microbial lineages across diverse environments, co...

Nature Structural & Molecular Biology, Published online: 17 February 2026; doi:10.1038/s41594-026-01751-5Shajahan et al. unveil a repressive genomic compartment in totipotent-like cells, shaped by Zscan4 and guided by transient Z-DNA formation. This ‘Z compartment’ may be crucial for preserving totipotency in early embryos.

Cryo-electron microscopy structures of nucleotide excision repair complexes reveal the roles of the constituent proteins XPA, XPB, XPC, XPD, XPF, XPG and RPA in DNA bubble formation and excision ...

The emergence of a chemical system capable of self-replication and evolution is a critical event in the origin of life. RNA polymerase ribozymes can replicate RNA, but their large size and structural ...

Phylogenetic and biochemical analyses show a diversity of components of the DNA replication machinery in different Asgard archaea that contributed to the eukaryotic DNA replication machinery.

Archaea will sometimes turn antagonistic against Bacteria using hitherto unknown mechanisms. This Primer explores a new study in PLOS Biology that pioneers a homology-based approach to discover bacter...

It has been proposed that eukaryotic cells evolved via symbiosis between sulfate-reducing bacteria and hydrogen-producing archaea. Here we describe a highly enriched culture of a novel Asgard archaeon...

Nature Microbiology - Phylogenetic reconstructions with conserved protein markers from the 11 known DPANN phyla reveal their monophyletic placement within the Euryarchaeota.

Discovery of heterodimeric, microtubule-forming tubulins in Asgard archaea, the closest known relatives of eukaryotes, reveals snapshots of microtubule evolution.