Biofouling causes a huge economic loss to our society. This Perspective examines the biofouling process from microfouling to macrofouling, discusses a spectrum of chemical signals that induce and inhibit biofouling and argues for potential management by targeting the signaling responsible for biofilm dispersion or biofouling inhibition.

This Perspective discusses how macromolecular condensation can regulate the electrochemistry to affect biological function in living cells and provides a framework to study the electrochemical functions of biomolecular condensates.

Prokaryotic CRISPR–Cas systems are counteracted by phage-encoded anti-CRISPR elements, and how they protect themselves remains enigmatic. A study shows that CRISPR-repressed toxins defend CRISPR–Cas against anti-CRISPR proteins or RNAs by inducing abortive infection.

Arginine methylation acts as a signal for intracellular proteins to be degraded in lysosomes. We developed methylarginine targeting chimera (MrTAC), a chemical tool that induces proximity with protein arginine N-methyltransferase 1 (PRMT1) to trigger arginine methylation and thus targeted protein degradation in lysosomes.

An optogenetic tool called Opto-OGT has been developed that enables researchers to probe pathways involving modifications with O-linked β-N-acetylglucosamine (O-GlcNAc) such as OGT, mTOR and AMPK signaling with high spatiotemporal precision. The method is based on fusing a photosensitive cryptochrome protein to an O-GlcNAc transferase and enables OGT to be reversibly activated with blue light.

Loveless, Carlson and colleagues describe peCHYRON, a DNA recorder that propagates an unending chain of insertions. Each link contains a randomizable 3-bp ‘signature’ sequence that serves to record a cellular event in the order it occurred.

The sodium salts in corn stover hydrolysates have been identified as important inhibitors for cellulosic ethanol production. Adaptive evolution generated a robust yeast that converted both glucose and xylose into biofuel. Subsequent reverse engineering created a genetically defined yeast with equivalent performance to the evolved strain.

A high-throughput precision oncology pipeline for pharmacotranscriptomic profiling using live-cell barcoding and single-cell RNA sequencing was developed. Using this approach revealed a drug resistance feedback loop in high-grade serous ovarian cancer, suggesting that combining phosphatidylinositol 3-OH kinase, protein kinase B and mammalian target of rapamycin inhibitors with epithelial growth factor receptor inhibitors may overcome resistance.

A compound screen using zebrafish identified carbonic anhydrase (CA) as a modulator of tau toxicity. CA inhibition abrogates lysosomal acidification and causes tau secretion by lysosomal exocytosis without having a prion effect. This mechanism lowers intracellular tau and is neuroprotective in zebrafish and mouse models of tauopathy.

1,3-Pr2-6-OTs GlcNAlk is a precursor uniquely targeting the essential glycosyltransferase MGAT1 to selectively tag hybrid N-glycan-modified proteins. Some hybrid-glycan tagged proteins move through a route from the Golgi to the nucleus/nucleolus.