@article{15128, abstract = {We prove a universal mesoscopic central limit theorem for linear eigenvalue statistics of a Wigner-type matrix inside the bulk of the spectrum with compactly supported twice continuously differentiable test functions. The main novel ingredient is an optimal local law for the two-point function $T(z,\zeta)$ and a general class of related quantities involving two resolvents at nearby spectral parameters.}, author = {Riabov, Volodymyr}, issn = {0246-0203}, journal = {Annales de l'institut Henri Poincare (B) Probability and Statistics}, number = {1}, pages = {129--154}, publisher = {Institute of Mathematical Statistics}, title = {{Mesoscopic eigenvalue statistics for Wigner-type matrices}}, doi = {10.1214/23-AIHP1438}, volume = {61}, year = {2025}, } @misc{18712, abstract = {This file contains the code associated with the manuscript 'Effect of assortative mating and sexual selection on polygenic barriers to gene flow'. }, author = {Surendranadh, Parvathy and Sachdeva, Himani}, publisher = {Institute of Science and Technology Austria}, title = {{Mathematica notebook and Fortran code for 'Effect of assortative mating and sexual selection on polygenic barriers to gene flow'}}, doi = {10.15479/AT:ISTA:17344}, year = {2025}, } @article{18879, abstract = {Our brain has remarkable computational power, generating sophisticated behaviors, storing memories over an individual’s lifetime, and producing higher cognitive functions. However, little of our neuroscience knowledge covers the human brain. Is this organ truly unique, or is it a scaled version of the extensively studied rodent brain? Combining multicellular patch-clamp recording with expansion-based superresolution microscopy and full-scale modeling, we determined the cellular and microcircuit properties of the human hippocampal CA3 region, a fundamental circuit for memory storage. In contrast to neocortical networks, human hippocampal CA3 displayed sparse connectivity, providing a circuit architecture that maximizes associational power. Human synapses showed unique reliability, high precision, and long integration times, exhibiting both species- and circuit-specific properties. Together with expanded neuronal numbers, these circuit characteristics greatly enhanced the memory storage capacity of CA3. Our results reveal distinct microcircuit properties of the human hippocampus and begin to unravel the inner workings of our most complex organ. }, author = {Watson, Jake and Vargas Barroso, Victor M and Morse, Rebecca and Navas Olivé, Andrea C and Tavakoli, Mojtaba and Danzl, Johann G and Tomschik, Matthias and Rössler, Karl and Jonas, Peter M}, issn = {1097-4172}, journal = {Cell}, number = {2}, pages = {501--514.e18}, publisher = {Elsevier}, title = {{Human hippocampal CA3 uses specific functional connectivity rules for efficient associative memory}}, doi = {10.1016/j.cell.2024.11.022}, volume = {188}, year = {2025}, } @article{18882, abstract = {Ternary liquid-like thermoelectric materials have garnered significant attention due to their ultra-low lattice thermal conductivity. Among these, Ag8SnSe6 stands out for its exceptionally low sound velocity and thermal conductivity. However, the inherent poor electrical conductivity and suboptimal thermoelectric properties of Ag8SnSe6 necessitate further improvement. Here, a novel approach is initiated to enhance the thermoelectric properties of Ag8SnSe6 by combining low-dimensionalization with intrinsic doping. For the first time, this work successfully synthesizes single-phase Ag8SnSe6 nanocrystals, ≈10 nm in size, with the correct phase and composition using a robust and reliable colloidal method. This approach represents a significant improvement over previous reports on this material. Reducing the crystal domains of Ag8SnSe6 to the nanoscale induces quantum confinement effects, increasing the density of states near the Fermi surface. It also introduces additional grain boundaries, which lower the lattice thermal conductivity and simplify structural design. Moreover, incorporating small amounts of Sn nanopowder into the Ag8SnSe6 nanocrystals before consolidation further enhances the thermoelectric performance. Sn acts as a donor dopant, increasing the electronic concentration while at the same time improving their mobility by reducing interface barriers, thus significantly improving the material transport properties. Additionally, the presence of Sn leads to the formation of point defects, dislocations, and secondary phases, which increase phonon scattering and further reduce the thermal conductivity. Through this synergistic optimization, the figure of merit shows a significant increase across a wide temperature range. Overall, a strategy is presented for the controlled preparation of Ag8SnSe6 nanocrystals, the decoupling of their electrical and thermal transport, and the practical application of this material to thermoelectric single-leg modules.}, author = {Zhao, Xueke and Li, Mengyao and Jia, Mochen and Fiedler, Christine and Nan, Bingfei and Yang, Dongwen and Li, Lei and Yuan, Zicheng and Song, Hongzhang and Liu, Yu and Ibáñez, Maria and Wang, Ziyu and Shan, Chongxin and Cabot, Andreu}, issn = {1616-3028}, journal = {Advanced Functional Materials}, number = {24}, publisher = {Wiley}, title = {{Low-dimensional structure modulation in Ag8SnSe6 for enhanced thermoelectric performance}}, doi = {10.1002/adfm.202421449}, volume = {35}, year = {2025}, } @misc{18991, abstract = {Research data for the article "Learning reshapes the hippocampal representation hierarchy" from Chiossi et al. (PNAS, 2025). The data includes hippocampal CA1 unit activity and behaviour tracking of 5 Long Evans rats during the learning of an associative memory task. Detailed information can be found in the 'readme.txt' file.}, author = {Chiossi, Heloisa}, keywords = {hippocampus, electrophysiology, behavior}, publisher = {Institute of Science and Technology Austria}, title = {{Research data for the publication "Learning reshapes the hippocampal representation hierarchy"}}, doi = {10.15479/AT:ISTA:18991}, year = {2025}, } @article{19066, abstract = {We present a sample of 1956 individual stellar clumps at redshift 0.7 < z < 10, detected with JWST/NIRCam in 476 galaxies lensed by the galaxy cluster Abell2744. The lensed clumps present magnifications ranging between μ = 1.8 and μ = 300. We perform simultaneous size-photometry estimates in 20 JWST/NIRCam median and broad-band filters from 0.7 to 5 μm. Spectral energy distribution (SED) fitting analyses enable us to recover the physical properties of the clumps. The majority of the clumps are spatially resolved and have effective radii in the range Reff = 10–700 pc. We restrict this first study to the 1751 post-reionization era clumps with redshift < 5.5. We find a significant evolution of the average clump ages, star formation rates (SFRs), SFR surface densities, and metallicity with increasing redshift, while median stellar mass and stellar mass surface densities are similar in the probed redshift range. We observe a strong correlation between the clump properties and the properties of their host galaxies, with more massive galaxies hosting more massive and older clumps. We find that clumps closer to their host galactic centre are on average more massive, while their ages do not show clear sign of migration. We find that clumps at cosmic noon sample the upper-mass end of the mass function to higher masses than at z > 3, reflecting the rapid increase towards the peak of the cosmic star formation history. We conclude that the results achieved over the studied redshift range are in agreement with expectation of in situ clump formation scenario from large-scale disc fragmentation. }, author = {Claeyssens, Adélaïde and Adamo, Angela and Messa, Matteo and Dessauges-Zavadsky, Miroslava and Richard, Johan and Kramarenko, Ivan and Matthee, Jorryt J and Naidu, Rohan P.}, issn = {1365-2966}, journal = {Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society}, number = {3}, pages = {2535--2558}, publisher = {Oxford University Press}, title = {{Tracing star formation across cosmic time at tens of parsec-scales in the lensing cluster field Abell 2744}}, doi = {10.1093/mnras/staf058}, volume = {537}, year = {2025}, } @article{19067, abstract = {Modern experimental methods enable the creation of self-assembly building blocks with tunable interactions, but optimally exploiting this tunability for the self-assembly of desired structures remains an important challenge. Many studies of this inverse problem start with the so-called fully addressable limit, where every particle in a target structure is different. This leads to clear design principles that often result in high assembly yield, but it is not a scalable approach—at some point, one must grapple with “reusing” building blocks, which lowers the degree of addressability and may cause a multitude of off-target structures to form, complicating the design process. Here, we solve a key obstacle preventing robust inverse design in the “semiaddressable regime” by developing a highly efficient algorithm that enumerates all structures that can be formed from a given set of building blocks. By combining this with established partition-function-based yield calculations, we show that it is almost always possible to find economical semiaddressable designs where the entropic gain from reusing building blocks outweighs the presence of off-target structures and even increases the yield of the target. Thus, not only does our enumeration algorithm enable robust and scalable inverse design in the semiaddressable regime, our results demonstrate that it is possible to operate in this regime while maintaining the level of control often associated with full addressability.}, author = {Hübl, Maximilian and Goodrich, Carl Peter}, issn = {1079-7114}, journal = {Physical Review Letters}, number = {5}, publisher = {American Physical Society}, title = {{Accessing semiaddressable self-assembly with efficient structure enumeration}}, doi = {10.1103/PhysRevLett.134.058204}, volume = {134}, year = {2025}, } @misc{19409, abstract = {This .zip file contains the data to reproduce the figures and supplementary figures of "Exchange anisotropies in microwave-driven singlet-triplet qubits" by Jaime Saez-Mollejo et al. }, author = {Saez Mollejo, Jaime}, publisher = {Institute of Science and Technology Austria}, title = {{Exchange anisotropies in microwave-driven singlet-triplet qubits}}, doi = {10.15479/AT:ISTA:19409}, year = {2025}, } @article{19531, abstract = {In standard quantum electrodynamics (QED), the so-called non-minimal (Pauli) coupling is suppressed for elementary particles and has no physical implications. Here, we show that the Pauli term naturally appears in a known family of Dirac materials—the lead-halide perovskites, suggesting a novel playground for the study of analog QED effects. We outline measurable manifestations of the Pauli term in the phenomena pertaining to (i) relativistic corrections to bound states (ii) the Klein paradox, and (iii) spin effects in scattering. In particular, we demonstrate that (a) the binding energy of an electron in the vicinity of a positively charged defect is noticeably decreased due to the polarizability of lead ions and the appearance of a Darwin-like term, (b) strong spin-orbit coupling due to the Pauli term affects the exciton states, and (c) scattering of an electron off an energy barrier with broken mirror symmetry produces spin polarization in the outgoing current. Our study adds to the understanding of quantum phenomena in lead-halide perovskites and paves the way for tabletop simulations of analog Dirac-Pauli equations.}, author = {Shiva Kumar, Abhishek and Maslov, Mikhail and Lemeshko, Mikhail and Volosniev, Artem and Alpichshev, Zhanybek}, issn = {2397-4648}, journal = {npj Quantum Materials}, publisher = {Springer Nature}, title = {{Massive Dirac-Pauli physics in lead-halide perovskites}}, doi = {10.1038/s41535-025-00754-7}, volume = {10}, year = {2025}, } @phdthesis{19557, author = {Schwarz, Lena A}, issn = {2663-337X}, pages = {124}, publisher = {Institute of Science and Technology Austria}, title = {{Mapping developmental dynamics of autism spectrum disorder mouse models at single-cell resolution}}, doi = {10.15479/AT-ISTA-19557}, year = {2025}, } @article{19617, abstract = {In this article, we propose a method for generating single microwave photons in superconducting circuits. We theoretically show that pure single microwave photons can be generated on demand and tuned over a large frequency band by making use of Landau-Zener transitions under a rapid sweep of a control parameter. We devise a protocol that enables fast control of the frequency of the emitted photon over two octaves, without requiring extensive calibration. Additionally, we make theoretical estimates of the generation efficiency, tunability, purity, and linewidth of the photons emitted using this method for both charge- and flux-qubit-based architectures. We also provide estimates of the optimal device parameters required for these architectures to realize the device.}, author = {Hawaldar, Samarth and Khaire, Siddhi Satish and Delsing, Per and Suri, Baladitya}, issn = {2331-7019}, journal = {Physical Review Applied}, number = {4}, publisher = {American Physical Society}, title = {{On-demand single-microwave-photon source in a superconducting circuit with wideband frequency tunability}}, doi = {10.1103/physrevapplied.23.044042}, volume = {23}, year = {2025}, } @article{19621, abstract = {In this paper we obtain a complete description of all indecomposable characters (central positive-definite functions) of inductive limits of the symmetric groups under block diagonal embedding. As a corollary we obtain the full classification of the isomorphism classes of these inductive limits.}, author = {Nessonov, Nikolay and Ngo, Nhok T}, issn = {1088-4165}, journal = {Representation Theory}, number = {8}, pages = {256--288}, publisher = {American Mathematical Society}, title = {{Indecomposable characters of inductive limits of symmetric groups}}, doi = {10.1090/ert/689}, volume = {29}, year = {2025}, } @article{19702, abstract = {Moran Birth-death process is a standard stochastic process that is used to model natural selection in spatially structured populations. A newly occurring mutation that invades a population of residents can either fixate on the whole population or it can go extinct due to random drift. The duration of the process depends not only on the total population size n, but also on the spatial structure of the population. In this work, we consider the Moran process with a single type of individuals who invade and colonize an otherwise empty environment. Mathematically, this corresponds to the setting where the residents have zero reproduction rate, thus they never reproduce. The spatial structure is represented by a graph. We present two main contributions. First, in contrast to the Moran process in which residents do reproduce, we show that the colonization time is always at most a polynomial function of the population size n. Namely, we show that colonization always takes at most 1/2n^3 - 1/2n^2 expected steps, and for each n, we identify the slowest graph where it takes exactly that many steps. Moreover, we establish a stronger bound of roughly n^2.5 steps for undirected graphs and an even stronger bound of roughly n^2 steps for so-called regular graphs. Second, we discuss various complications that one faces when attempting to measure fixation times and colonization times in spatially structured populations, and we propose to measure the real duration of the process, rather than counting the steps of the classic Moran process.}, author = {Kopfová, Lenka and Tkadlec, Josef}, issn = {1553-7358}, journal = {PLoS computational biology}, number = {5}, pages = {e1012868}, publisher = {Public Library of Science}, title = {{Colonization times in Moran process on graphs}}, doi = {10.1371/journal.pcbi.1012868}, volume = {21}, year = {2025}, } @inproceedings{19738, abstract = {Garbling is a fundamental cryptographic primitive, with numerous theoretical and practical applications. Since the first construction by Yao (FOCS’82, ’86), a line of work has concerned itself with reducing the communication and computational complexity of that construction. One of the most efficient garbling schemes presently is the ‘Half Gates’ scheme by Zahur, Rosulek, and Evans (Eurocrypt’15). Despite its widespread adoption, the provable security of this scheme has been based on assumptions whose only instantiations are in idealized models. For example, in their original paper, Zahur, Rosulek, and Evans showed that hash functions satisfying a notion called circular correlation robustness (CCR) suffice for this task, and then proved that CCR secure hash functions can be instantiated in the random permutation model. In this work, we show how to securely instantiate the Half Gates scheme in the standard model. To this end, we first show how this scheme can be securely instantiated given a (family of) weak CCR hash function, a notion that we introduce. Furthermore, we show how a weak CCR hash function can be used to securely instantiate other efficient garbling schemes, namely the ones by Rosulek and Roy (Crypto’21) and Heath (Eurocrypt’24). Thus we believe this notion to be of independent interest. Finally, we construct such weak CCR hash functions using indistinguishability obfuscation and one-way functions. The security proof of this construction constitutes our main technical contribution. While our construction is not practical, it serves as a proof of concept supporting the soundness of these garbling schemes, which we regard to be particularly important given the recent initiative by NIST to standardize garbling, and the optimizations in Half Gates being potentially adopted.}, author = {Acharya, Anasuya and Azari, Karen and Baig, Mirza Ahad and Hofheinz, Dennis and Kamath, Chethan}, booktitle = {28th IACR International Conference on Practice and Theory of Public-Key Cryptography}, isbn = {9783031918285}, issn = {1611-3349}, location = {Roros, Norway}, pages = {37--75}, publisher = {Springer Nature}, title = {{Securely instantiating ‘Half Gates’ garbling in the standard model}}, doi = {10.1007/978-3-031-91829-2_2}, volume = {15677}, year = {2025}, } @inproceedings{19778, abstract = {A verifiable delay function VDF(x, T)->(y, π) maps an input x and time parameter T to an output y together with an efficiently verifiable proof π certifying that y was correctly computed. The function runs in T sequential steps, and it should not be possible to compute y much faster than that. The only known practical VDFs use sequential squaring in groups of unknown order as the sequential function, i.e., y = x^2^T. There are two constructions for the proof of exponentiation (PoE) certifying that y = x^2^T, with Wesolowski (Eurocrypt’19) having very short proofs, but they are more expensive to compute and the soundness relies on stronger assumptions than the PoE proposed by Pietrzak (ITCS’19). A recent application of VDFs by Arun, Bonneau and Clark (Asiacrypt’22) are short-lived proofs and signatures, which are proofs and signatures that are only sound for some time t, but after that can be forged by anyone. For this they rely on “watermarkable VDFs”, where the proof embeds a prover chosen watermark. To achieve stronger notions of proofs/signatures with reusable forgeability, they rely on “zero-knowledge VDFs”, where instead of the output y, one just proves knowledge of this output. The existing proposals for watermarkable and zero-knowledge VDFs all build on Wesolowski’s PoE, for the watermarkable VDFs there’s currently no security proof. In this work we give the first constructions that transform any PoEs in hidden order groups into watermarkable VDFs and into zkVDFs, solving an open question by Arun et al. Unlike our watermarkable VDF, the zkVDF (required for reusable forgeability) is not very practical as the number of group elements in the proof is a security parameter. To address this, we introduce the notion of zero-knowledge proofs of sequential work (zkPoSW), a notion that relaxes zkVDFs by not requiring that the output is unique. We show that zkPoSW are sufficient to construct proofs or signatures with reusable forgeability, and construct efficient zkPoSW from any PoE, ultimately achieving short lived proofs and signatures that improve upon Arun et al.’s construction in several dimensions (faster forging times, arguably weaker assumptions). A key idea underlying our constructions is to not directly construct a (watermarked or zk) proof for y = x^2^T, but instead give a (watermarked or zk) proof for the more basic statement that x^l, y^l satisfy x^l = x ^r, y^l = y^r for some r, together with a normal PoE for y^l = (x^l)^2^T.}, author = {Hoffmann, Charlotte and Pietrzak, Krzysztof Z}, booktitle = {28th IACR International Conference on Practice and Theory of Public-Key Cryptography}, isbn = {9783031918193}, issn = {1611-3349}, location = {Roros, Norway}, pages = {36--66}, publisher = {Springer Nature}, title = {{Watermarkable and zero-knowledge Verifiable Delay Functions from any proof of exponentiation}}, doi = {10.1007/978-3-031-91820-9_2}, volume = {15674}, year = {2025}, } @article{19852, abstract = {Technology involving hybrid superconductor–semiconductor materials is a promising avenue for engineering quantum devices for information storage, manipulation, and transmission. Proximity-induced superconducting correlations are an essential part of such devices. While the proximity effect in the conduction band of common semiconductors is well understood, its manifestation in confined hole gases, realized for instance in germanium, is an active area of research. Lower-dimensional hole-based systems, particularly in germanium, are emerging as an attractive platform for a variety of solid-state quantum devices, due to their combination of efficient spin and charge control and long coherence times. The recent experimental realization of the proximity effect in germanium thus calls for a theoretical description that is tailored to hole gases. In this work, we propose a simple model to describe proximity-induced superconductivity in two-dimensional hole gases, incorporating both the heavy-hole (HH) and light-hole (LH) bands. We start from the Luttinger–Kohn model, introduce three parameters that characterize hopping across the superconductor–semiconductor interface, and derive explicit intraband and interband effective pairing terms for the HH and LH bands. Unlike previous approaches, our theory provides a quantitative relationship between induced pairings and interface properties. Restricting our general model to an experimentally relevant case where only the HH band crosses the chemical potential, we predict the coexistence of 𝑠-wave and 𝑑-wave singlet pairings, along with triplet-type pairings, and modified Zeeman and Rashba spin–orbit couplings. Our results thus present a starting point for theoretical modeling of quantum devices based on proximitized hole gases, fueling further progress in quantum technology.}, author = {Babkin, Serafim and Joecker, Benjamin and Flensberg, Karsten and Serbyn, Maksym and Danon, Jeroen}, issn = {2469-9969}, journal = {Physical Review B}, number = {21}, publisher = {American Physical Society}, title = {{Superconducting proximity effect in two-dimensional hole gases}}, doi = {10.1103/k4jh-pnxy}, volume = {111}, year = {2025}, } @phdthesis{19853, abstract = {The internal dynamical properties of red giant stars have been explored extensively in recent years as a result of the increase in high precision data availability from the space missions Kepler and TESS (Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite), and in this exploration, it has been discovered that some of these stars are not behaving as expected. Red giants are stars that have evolved off of the main sequence after having completed fusing hydrogen into helium in their core. Observational data shows that the cores are rotating significantly slower than models can recreate consistently across evolutionary stages. This discrepancy has prompted investigation into the efficiency of angular momentum transport mechanisms and mixing processes including meridional circulation, shear instability, internal gravity waves, Tayler-Spruit dynamo, fossil magnetic fields etc., to explain this behavior. Analyzing seismic oscillations in stars, via asteroseismology, is a powerful tool as it is the only way in which the deep stellar interior can be probed and subsequently characterized; this is possible as global oscillations modulating the stellar surface are effected by internal processes. For red giants, p-modes (pressure modes; resonating through the entire star) and g-modes (gravity-modes; resonating in the radiative interior) couple to create mixed modes. These mixed modes give access to the otherwise hidden stellar interior as g-modes couple to p-modes, delivering information from the interior to the surface. Internal magnetic signatures have been observationally confirmed in red giant stars via asteroseismology and characterized in two ways. One being that dipole mixed modes with ℓ = 1 will display a global asymmetric frequency shift of its azimuthal components; where the m = 0 and m = ±1 components of the ℓ = 1 dipole mode will be shifted by two different power laws, respectively. And the other being a reduced visibility of dipole mixed mode amplitudes in the power spectra, where stars presenting with this feature are denoted as suppressed. Several studies of the suppressed dipole mixed mode amplitudes have been carried out, but thus far, no dedicated studies of the asymmetric frequency shifts of suppressed red giants have been conducted; one reason being that the asymmetric frequency shifts cannot be characterized when the dipole mixed mode amplitudes are severely reduced in many of the suppressed stars. Sincefullysuppressedstarsdonothavedetectablemixed-modestoevaluate, partiallysuppressed stars, that is, red giant stars presenting with suppressed dipole mixed modes in select parts of their power spectra rather than across the entire spectra, will be the subject of this study as the respective mode amplitudes are still visible at high frequencies. As such, this study will search for asymmetric frequency shifts on the dipole mixed modes of partially suppressed red giant stars; the aim here is to investigate if both mode suppression and magnetic shifting of dipole mixed modes occur simultaneously. Thisstudywillbeconductedbycreatingapipelinetoestimatepriorsofasteroseismicparameters, use the priors to model the power spectra with the stellar modeling code sloscillations_ISTA, and perform a Bayesian fit of the parameters with the simulated data on the star KIC 6975038, a target with partially suppressed dipolar mode amplitudes identified in the literature, to fit its magnetic parameters. I present a novel method to model the stellar power spectra of partially suppressed red giants by application of a sigmoid profile to the ℓ= 1 dipolar mode component of the spectra. With the results of this study I aim at constraining the cause of this partial dipole mode amplitude suppression, allowing for more detailed studies regarding their astrophysical nature. Furthermore, the long term hope for the method used in this study will be to expand the sample of partially suppressed red giants and fit their asteroseismic parameters accordingly.}, author = {Smith, Kanah}, issn = {2791-4585}, keywords = {asteroseismology, stellar physics, red giant, magnetism, suppressed}, pages = {38}, publisher = {Institute of Science and Technology Austria}, title = {{Exploring internal magnetism in partially suppressed red giant stars}}, doi = {10.15479/AT-ISTA-19853}, year = {2025}, } @misc{19885, abstract = {This .zip file contains the data to reproduce the figures and supplementary figures of "Automated All-RF Tuning for Spin Qubit Readout and Control" by Cornelius Carlsson and Jaime Saez-Mollejo et al.}, author = {Saez Mollejo, Jaime}, publisher = {Institute of Science and Technology Austria}, title = {{Automated All-RF Tuning for Spin Qubit Readout and Control}}, doi = {10.15479/AT:ISTA:19885}, year = {2025}, } @phdthesis{20149, abstract = {Immune responses depend on the coordinated and efficient migration of leukocytes. These cells, which are embedded and tightly confined within tissues, must navigate and traverse diverse and complex three-dimensional environments. Leukocytes adapt their locomotory behavior to the mechanical, geometrical, and biochemical characteristics of their surroundings. In low-density environments, where the pore size of the interstitial matrix allows free passage, these cells position the nucleus directly behind the lamellipodium, the protrusive actin structure that forms the leading front of the cell. In this configuration, they use the nucleus as a gauge to identify the path of least resistance. Here, we show that in high-density environments, where the pore size precludes free passage of the cell body, leukocytes reposition the microtubule-organizing center (MTOC) and associated organelles in front of the nucleus. In this configuration, they use actin structures protruding orthogonally to the direction of migration in order to open a path for the cell body. We identify two distinct actin populations that serve this purpose at different subcellular localizations. At the leading edge, local indentation of the plasma membrane leads to recruitment of the Wiskott-Aldrich syndrome protein (WASp), which, via Arp2/3, results in the formation of individual actin foci. At the cell body, actin polymerization is triggered by DOCK8, a Cdc42 exchange factor, resulting in the formation of a central actin pool. We demonstrate that the central and peripheral actin pools are functionally communicating and that depletion of the central actin pool leads to increased actin accumulation at the cell front, resulting in excessive extension of the leading edge.}, author = {Dos Reis Rodrigues, Patricia}, issn = {2663-337X}, pages = {114}, publisher = {Institute of Science and Technology Austria}, title = {{Coordination of protrusive forces in immune cell migration }}, doi = {10.15479/AT-ISTA-20149}, year = {2025}, } @article{20184, abstract = {Specialized DNA polymerases facilitate various cellular processes. Despite extensive research, the mutagenic effects of these error-prone enzymes on genomes are not fully understood. Here we show that Pol IV promotes genomic instability in Pseudomonas aeruginosa by misincorporating oxidized guanine nucleotides. This activity led to a distinctive mutational signature, characterized by A-to-C transversions occurring preferentially at AT sites flanked by a 5’G and/or 3’C. Furthermore, Pol IV preferentially targeted pathogenicity genes located at specific chromosomal locations near the replication termination region and rRNA-encoding operons. Half of the mutation events catalyzed by Pol IV impaired gene function. This can be attributed to the bias of Pol IV for mutating codons with its preferred sequence contexts, leading to substitutions to unreactive alanine and glycine residues. Remarkably, mutation signatures identified for Pol IV were found in clinical isolate genomes of P. aeruginosa, providing compelling evidence for its role in genetic diversification during pathogen adaptation.}, author = {Castell, Sofía D. and Fernandez, Consuelo M. and Tumas, Ignacio N. and Margara, Lucía M. and Miserendino, Maria C and Ceschin, Danilo G. and Pezza, Roberto J. and Monti, Mariela R.}, issn = {2399-3642}, journal = {Communications Biology}, publisher = {Springer Nature}, title = {{The low-fidelity DNA Pol IV accelerates evolution of pathogenicity genes in Pseudomonas aeruginosa}}, doi = {10.1038/s42003-025-08589-5}, volume = {8}, year = {2025}, }