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An open access @NaturePortfolio journal publishing high-quality primary research articles, reviews and commentary in all areas of the chemical sciences. nature.com/commschem/

Communications Chemistry, Published online: 08 June 2026; doi:10.1038/s42004-026-02093-5Designing drug-like molecules that satisfy both property requirements and structural constraints is a persistent challenge. Here, the authors introduce BiSP-GP, a bidirectional structure-property generative pretraining framework that unifies molecular generation and property prediction through shared autoregressive sequence modeling, enabling joint learning and bidirectional optimization of structure-property relationships, thereby enhancing controllable molecular generation while supporting molecular property prediction and candidate drug optimization tasks.

Communications Chemistry, Published online: 29 May 2026; doi:10.1038/s42004-026-02081-9Amino acid and polyamine metabolism are crucial for cellular functions, yet its pathway usage varies with context and compensatory mechanisms. Here, the authors employ short-term, low-dose heavy water labeling to trace these metabolic processes, revealing tissue-specific biosynthetic capacities.

Communications Chemistry, Published online: 08 June 2026; doi:10.1038/s42004-026-02084-6The transition of bacterial phytochromes from the red-absorbing Pr state to the far-red-absorbing Pfr state may proceed through the formation of a Pr/Pfr heterodimer, as revealed by a recent single-particle cryo-EM study of a phytochrome from the myxobacterium Stigmatella aurantiaca. By illuminating this protein immediately before vitrification, the authors captured the Pr/Pfr heterodimer intermediate on a millisecond timescale and observed a large rotation of the C-terminal histidine kinase domain, a conformational change that is likely to regulate light-induced signal transduction.

Communications Chemistry, Published online: 08 June 2026; doi:10.1038/s42004-026-02087-3SAM-dependent methyltransferases facilitate methyl transfer from cofactors to substrates, yet the structural dynamics influencing cofactor-substrate binding cooperativity remain unclear. Here, the authors reveal that SbSOMT, a plant O-methyltransferase, exhibits bilateral and positive cofactor-substrate cooperativity driven by a dynamic π-stacking network and is sensitive to the cofactor-substrate interaction at the methyl binding site.

Communications Chemistry, Published online: 08 June 2026; doi:10.1038/s42004-026-02088-2Friedel-Crafts alkylation reactions are generally accepted to proceed via an electrophilic aromatic substitution mechanism, but alternative pathways remain underexplored. Here, the authors demonstrate that zeolite MCM-22 catalyzes the alkylation of thiophene with styrene through a non-conventional mechanism, highlighting the role of protonated thiophene and offering insights for designing more efficient catalytic processes.

Communications Chemistry, Published online: 06 June 2026; doi:10.1038/s42004-026-02086-4Organic crystals influence ice formation in natural environments, but the underlying mechanisms remain underexplored. Here, the authors show that the freezing efficiency of phloroglucinol (PGL) stems from nucleation pathways involving its crystalline surface — which acts as an ice template — and dissolved molecules in solution that assemble into nanoscale aggregates capable of nucleating ice even below the solubility limit.

Communications Chemistry, Published online: 02 June 2026; doi:10.1038/s42004-026-02079-3Allylsilanes are typically used in C–C bond formation, but their potential as silylating agents for Si–O bond creation has been limited by the need for acid catalysis. Here, the authors introduce an acid-free method using hexafluoroisopropanol to efficiently convert alcohols and silanols into silyl ethers, siloxanes, and borasiloxanes.

Communications Chemistry, Published online: 05 June 2026; doi:10.1038/s42004-026-02077-5Understanding the thermodynamics of biomacromolecules is crucial for elucidating their mechanisms yet remains challenging with current cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM) methodology. Here, the authors introduce a deep learning framework that reconstructs a “digital twin" of cryo-EM data, enabling precise thermodynamic analysis using only cryo-EM data and revealing insights into biomolecular dynamics without supplementary assumption.

Communications Chemistry, Published online: 04 June 2026; doi:10.1038/s42004-026-02083-7Experiments have linked the plasmon-driven reduction of 4-nitrobenzenethiol (4-NBT) to the presence of transient negative ions and nonthermal multiquantum vibrational excitation, but the molecular nature of the electronically excited anionic state involved in this process remains underexplored. Here, the authors use time-dependent density functional theory to study hot-electron injection in Au5−4-NBT, showing that the NO2 symmetric stretching coordinate is key to accessing a low-lying quartet excited anionic state from which radiative decay can take place.

Communications Chemistry, Published online: 29 May 2026; doi:10.1038/s42004-026-02061-zFunctionalized oxetanes and azetidines hold potential as bioisosteres, but their use in agrochemical and pharmaceutical screenings is hindered by synthetic challenges. Here, the authors employ XtalFluor-E® for a mild one-step deoxyamination, achieving 30–97% yields in one hour or less, and provide mechanistic insights through multivariate linear regression and density functional theory, enhancing their synthetic accessibility.