When locusts gather in high population densities and undergo transformation from a solitary to a gregarious phase, they cause severe plagues. Dr. KANG Le's team from the Institute of Zoology found a specific regulatory factor responsible for this unique coloration.

Researchers from the Shanghai Advanced Research Institute and Wuhan University reported a self-activating mechanism in which the Sau3AI C-terminal domain opens the N-terminal catalytic domain through allosteric effects to achieve cleavage of DNA-specific sites.

ZHANG Ping of the Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden reviewed recent advances in the understanding of diet and food components as contributing factors in the etiology of allergy, molecular targets of nutrient regulation of immune cells and structural cells involved in allergy, and clinical findings on nutritional intervention in the treatment of allergic diseases.

Researchers from the Wuhan Botanical Garden conducted a phylogenetic analysis of Hydnora plants in the family Hydnoraceae through plastid genome sequencing, assembly and annotation after extensive data querying and data collation.

GAO Caixia's group at the Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology and her collaborators at Qi Biodesign have reported a modular, CRISPR-free base editing system, which they call CyDENT, to achieve effective base editing in the nucleus, mitochondria and chloroplast genomes of plant and human cells.

During a botanical exploration, researchers from the Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden collected an unknown species of Isotrema in the Menglai Grand Canyon, Cangyuan County, Yunnan Province. After careful morphological examination and literature review, they confirmed that it was a new species.

Researchers from the Qingdao Institute of Bioenergy and Bioprocess Technology revealed the significant role of β-glucosidase in the metabolism of cellobiose and laminaribiose in C. thermocellum.

A research team led by Prof. XU Ruiming from the Institute of Biophysics (IBP) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, in collaboration with Prof. LI Guohong, Prof. ZHU Bing and Prof. LIU Chaopei, all from IBP, reported high-resolution structures of CAF-1 and CAF-1 bound to histones H3-H4.

Researchers led by Dr. JIN Guangzhao from the Xinjiang Institute of Ecology and Geography and their collaborators have discovered a new species of Artemisia — Artemisia qingheensis in China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.

Prof. LI Xin's group from the Shanghai Institute of Nutrition and Health of the Chinese Academy of Sciences constructed a gene dosage constraint map from large human transcriptome biobanks. The dosage map uncovers a mechanistic link between Mendelian inheritance and homeostasis of biological systems.

A researcher from Xishuangbanna Tropical botanical Garden collected an unknown population of Sonerila species, and named it Sonerila mapelo.

A research team led by Prof. SHA Zhongli from the Institute of Oceanology has investigated the adaptability of microorganisms inhabiting metal-rich ferromanganese nodule sediments.