People drive significantly less in European cities with a metro system than in cities that only have trams or no rail-based public transport at all. This is shown by a new study from the Complexity Science Hub (CSH), published in Nature Cities.

A team led by Xiao-Ming Chen and Pei-Qin Liao at Sun Yat-Sen University has created an electrolyzer with a MOF-based membrane. It enriches CO₂ from air (0.04% to 2.05%) and flue gas (15% to 82.5%), then converts it to pure formic acid, achieving record efficiency and cutting costs by 15% vs. pure CO₂ feedstocks.

Seoul National University College of Engineering announced that a research team led by Professor Hyun Oh Song from the Department of Computer Science and Engineering has developed a new AI technology called “KVzip” that intelligently compresses the “conversation memory” of large language model (LLM)-based chatbots used in long-context tasks such as extended dialogue and document summarization.

Tomato spotted wilt virus (TSWV) is among the world’s most destructive plant viruses, threatening global tomato yield and quality. Through fine mapping and genetic validation, researchers identified a co-chaperone gene, Sldnaj, carrying a 61-base-pair promoter deletion that causes tomato susceptibility to TSWV. Functional assays revealed that plants with this deletion exhibited enhanced virus accumulation and weakened defense responses, whereas knockout or silencing of Sldnaj significantly improved resistance. The study highlights Sldnaj as a critical susceptibility gene affecting the salicylic acid/jasmonic acid signaling pathways, offering new insight into molecular mechanisms of disease regulation and valuable guidance for developing resistant tomato cultivars.

Citrus fruit flavor depends largely on citric acid, the main organic acid determining its sourness and market appeal. Researchers have now identified CsAIL6, an AP2/ERF transcription factor that directly suppresses citric acid accumulation in citrus fruits. Overexpressing CsAIL6 in citrus or tomato significantly lowered fruit acidity, whereas silencing it led to higher citric acid levels. The study further revealed that CsAIL6 physically interacts with the WD40 protein CsAN11, a component of the MBW regulatory complex responsible for vacuolar acidification. This discovery unveils a new molecular mechanism controlling citrus acidity and provides a promising target for breeding and biotechnological strategies to enhance fruit flavor and quality.