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Plastids develop into nutrient-storing leucoplasts in seeds and roots. Efficient protein delivery is essential to modify biosynthetic processes in leucoplasts for human needs, but no effective transit peptide for leucoplasts is currently available. Using an in vitro leucoplast import system, we have identified six high-efficiency transit peptides. Compared to a widely used chloroplast transit peptide, these peptides delivered comparable amounts of GFP into chloroplasts, but 2-7 times more GFP into root and petal leucoplasts, attesting to the advantage of screening using leucoplasts. When used to deliver bacterial phytoene synthase (crtB) into rice calli and glyphosate-resistant EPSP synthase into Arabidopsis, these peptides enhanced carotenoid production and herbicide resistance, respectively. The correlation among levels of GFP delivery, carotenoid production and herbicide resistance indicate that the efficiency of these transit peptides is consistent across plant species and passenger proteins. Therefore, transit peptide selection offers an effective way to modulate production levels of engineered proteins. This study was published in Nature Plants on 13 June 2025. This work was supported by grants to H.-m.L. from the National Science and Technology Council and Academia Sinica of Taiwan.

Touch is a fundamental sensory function through which humans interact with the external world. Located deep within the skin, the Pacinian corpuscle is a specialized mechanoreceptor responsible for detecting high-frequency vibrations. With its onion-like multilayered structure, this organ has long been thought to rely primarily on sensory nerve endings for signal processing. However, a collaborative study by Kuo-Sheng Lee of Academia Sinica and Daniel Huber of the University of Geneva reveals that Schwann cells within the Pacinian corpuscle can actively sense mechanical stimuli and modulate neuronal firing, reshaping current models of tactile processing. By integrating high-resolution three-dimensional electron microscopy (3D-EM), optogenetics, and in vivo electrophysiology, the team reconstructed the architecture of individual lamellar Schwann cells and examined their direct structural and functional interactions with sensory neurons. The findings demonstrate that glial cells can also directly participate in mechanical sensing and play an active role in regulating neuronal activity, offering a new cellular framework for understanding touch. This discovery has implications for the development of bio-inspired tactile sensors and provides insights into the mechanisms underlying neuropathic pain and tactile hypersensitivity. The study was published on June 11, 2025, in Science Advances and was featured as the cover article. The study's lead authors include Kuo-Sheng Lee and Yuh-Tarng Chen from Academia Sinica, as well as Dominica de Thomas Wagner and Alastair J. Loutit from Daniel Huber’s lab at the University of Geneva. The research was supported by scientific funding agencies in both Taiwan and Switzerland, highlighting the strength of international collaboration in advancing neuroscience.

Carbon has an extremely rare form known as carbyne—a highly reactive state in which carbon exhibits unusual electronic properties. Until recently, scientists have faced significant challenges in isolating and characterizing these transient carbon species, particularly a highly variant known as carbon(I) radicals. A research team led by Dr. Tiow-Gan Ong at the Institute of Chemistry, Academia Sinica, has successfully synthesized and isolated a cationic carbon(I) radical species, [1-CDC]•+, by performing a single-electron transfer (SET) reaction between a carbodicarbene (CDC) and strongly electron-deficient 3-fluoronitrobenzene. The structure and electronic properties of [1-CDC]•+ were confirmed using electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) spectroscopy, single crystal X-ray diffraction, and quantum chemical calculations. Reactivity studies reveal that this radical species effectively promotes various C-O and C-C cross-coupling reactions, particularly with electron-deficient aryl halides. The research findings not only expand the understanding of carbon(I) radical chemistry but also open new avenues for radical methodologies in organic synthesis and catalysis.

The laboratory of Dr. Che-Ming Jack Hu at Academia Sinica leveraged a novel cellular polymerization technology to develop polymerised superparamagnetic APCs for label-free isolation of tumour-reactive T cells. The biomimetic capture probe enables stable immunological synapse formation with cognate T cells. The method overcomes fundamental barriers in bead- and live-cell based T cell capture and improves adoptive cell therapy and neoantigen-specific T cell identification. Funded by Academia Sinica and the Ministry of Health and Welfare, the study has broad applicability in immunotherapy development. The study was published in Nature Communications on 2 June, 2025.

Traditional optical microscopy struggles with nanoscale structures due to the diffraction limit. A research team led by Dr. Bi-Chang Chen at the Research Center for Applied Sciences, Academia Sinica, demonstrated an innovative approach for nanoscale super-resolution imaging of large biological samples using potassium (poly)acrylate-based expansion microscopy (KA-ExM) and a Bessel lightsheet microscope (ΔBLX).

The newest issue of the Journal of Social Sciences and Philosophy has just been published by the Research Center for Humanities and Social Sciences. Articles in this issue (Vol. 37, No. 1, Special Issue on EU-East Asia: A Relational Perspective) include

Bacteria deploy a diverse arsenal of toxic effectors to antagonize competitors, profoundly influencing the composition of microbial communities. Previous studies have identified an interbacterial toxin predicted to exhibit proteolytic activity that is broadly distributed among Gram-negative bacteria. However, the precise mechanism of intoxication remains unresolved. Here, we demonstrate that one such protease toxin from Escherichia coli, Cpe1, disrupts DNA replication and chromosome segregation by cleaving conserved sequences within the ATPase domain of type II DNA topoisomerases GyrB and ParE. This cleavage effectively inhibits topoisomerase-mediated relaxation of supercoiled DNA, resulting in impaired bacterial growth. Cpe1 belongs to the papain-like cysteine protease family and is associated with toxin delivery pathways, including the type VI secretion system and contact-dependent growth inhibition. The structure of Cpe1 in complex with its immunity protein reveals a neutralization mechanism involving competitive substrate binding rather than active site occlusion, distinguishing it from previously characterized effector-immunity pairs. Our findings unveil a unique mode of interbacterial intoxication and provide insights into how bacteria protect themselves from self-poisoning by protease toxins. This study was published on May 27, 2025, in the journal PLOS Biology.

Room-temperature nanolasers are crucial for advancing optical communication and photonic quantum technologies due to their capability to generate coherent light at a subwavelength scale. However, their development is constrained by challenges such as insufficient gain, material instability, and high lasing thresholds. A research team led by Dr. Yu-Jung Lu at the Research Center for Applied Sciences, Academia Sinica, and Dr. Chu-Chen Chueh from National Taiwan University, demonstrated a stable, wavelength-tunable, single-mode room-temperature plasmonic lasing by integrating quasi-two-dimensional (quasi-2D) perovskites with high-Q plasmonic nanostructures. The research findings provide a scalable, low-cost, and energy-efficient platform for nanolasing, with potential applications in next-generation photonic technologies, including LiDAR, sensing, optical communication, and computation. The research has been published on May 7, 2025 in Science Advances, and was featured on the journal’s homepage as a highlighted article. The first author is Yen-Yu Wang, a Ph.D. student of TIGP-Nano program at Academia Sinica. Xing-Hao Lee is listed as a co-first author and is currently affiliated with TSMC. The research was supported by Academia Sinica, the National Science and Technology Council, and NTU-AS Innovative Joint Program.

The research team led by Dr. Jun-An Chen’s group at the Institute of Molecular Biology, Academia Sinica, has achieved a significant breakthrough in studying Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) disease.

A study led by Dr. Jun-An Chen’s group at the Institute of Molecular Biology, Academia Sinica, has revealed a previously unrecognized micropeptide embedded within a misannotated long noncoding RNA (lncRNA). Motor neuron diversity in the spinal cord is crucial for coordinated movement, driven by a complex mix of internal programs and external cues. Dr. Jun-An Chen’s team, known for pioneering work on noncoding RNAs, has now uncovered a surprising discovery—a misannotated long noncoding RNA (lncRNA) that actually encodes a micropeptide named Sertm2. Highly expressed in embryonic spinal motor neurons, Sertm2 had remained unnoticed until now. Using a combination of embryonic stem cell and animal models, the team showed that deleting Sertm2 did not affect the generic motor neurons but selectively impaired certain subtypes, leading to motor coordination defects in mice. The culprit? Disrupted signaling of GDNF, a key neurotrophic factor essential for motor neuron health and a target in neurodegenerative disease research. Strikingly, reintroducing only Sertm2 micropeptide using lentiviral vectors restored normal motor neuron subtype production in the entire lncRNA genome locus, highlighting its critical role in neuronal development. The peptide’s function was also validated in human iPSC-derived motor neurons, confirming its evolutionary conservation. This study not only redefines how we view so-called “noncoding” RNAs but also positions micropeptides like Sertm2 as promising therapeutic tools and biomarkers in neurological disease and regenerative medicine. The study has been published in EMBO Reports (IF 7.7, 2025) on March 19, 2025. The study’s primary author, Fang-Yu Hsu, is a Ph.D. student in the Genome and Systems Biology Program at Academia Sinica and National Taiwan University. The research team also included Dr. Ya-Ping Yen, Hung-Chi Fan, and Mien Chang. This work was supported by Academia Sinica, the National Science and Technology Council, and the National Health Research Institutes of Taiwan.

We are pleased to announce the new publication of issue 26.2 of Language and Linguistics.

The newest issue of Bulletin of the Institute of History and Philology, Academia Sinica has just been published by the Institute of History and Philology.