Volcanism in the Solar System.

The myriad bodies that occur in the Solar System have a wide range of properties, from giant gaseous planets such as Jupiter to small, solid, rocky satellites such as our Moon. Exploration by spacecraft during the past four decades has shown that volcanism — an important mechanism by which internal heat is transported to the surface — is common on many of these bodies. There are many common traits; for example, relatively quiet eruptions of molten rock occur on such diverse bodies as the Earth, Mars and Jupiter's moon Io. The volcanic constructs produced, however, vary strikingly, and range from Olympus Mons on Mars, at over 20 km high, to relatively tiny cones on Earth no more than a few tens of metres high. The recognition of icy volcanoes spewing water or organic liquids on some of Saturn's moons constitutes one of the most exciting results to emerge from recent space missions

Heterozygous BTNL8 variants in individuals with multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C)

Multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C) is a rare condition following SARS-CoV-2 infection associated with intestinal manifestations. Genetic predisposition, including inborn errors of the OAS-RNAseL pathway, has been reported. We sequenced 154 MIS-C patients and utilized a novel statistical framework of gene burden analysis, “burdenMC,” which identified an enrichment for rare predicted-deleterious variants in BTNL8 (OR = 4.2, 95% CI: 3.5–5.3, P < 10−6). BTNL8 encodes an intestinal epithelial regulator of Vγ4+γδ T cells implicated in regulating gut homeostasis. Enrichment was exclusive to MIS-C, being absent in patients with COVID-19 or bacterial disease. Using an available functional test for BTNL8, rare variants from a larger cohort of MIS-C patients (n = 835) were tested which identified eight variants in 18 patients (2.2%) with impaired engagement of Vγ4+γδ T cells. Most of these variants were in the B30.2 domain of BTNL8 implicated in sensing epithelial cell status. These findings were associated with altered intestinal permeability, suggesting a possible link between disrupted gut homeostasis and MIS-C-associated enteropathy triggered by SARS-CoV-2