nature

THIS WEEK

Editorials

A growing problem ▶

Without careful stewardship, genetically engineered crops will do little to stop the spread of herbicide-resistant weeds.

Good practice ▶

Standardized procedures and analyses should help to get stem-cell therapies to the clinic.

Open goal ▶

International researchers can help to improve the scientific enterprise in South America.

World View

Jordan’s stem-cell law can guide the Middle East ▶

A ban on private companies using stem cells from human embryos provides a policy framework for other Arab and Islamic countries, says Rana Dajani.

Seven Days

Seven days: 6–12 June 2014 ▶

The week in science: Germany quits mega-telescope project; a $4.5-billion proposal for the US BRAIN initiative; and NASA is told to plot a course for Mars.

NEWS IN FOCUS

Fetal-cell revival for Parkinson’s ▶

Moratorium on controversial therapy lifted as stem cells emerge as alternative source of treatment.

Space-station science ramps up ▶

NASA pushes research agenda in face of Russian resistance.

Cancer-gene data sharing boosted ▶

Efforts to get more breast-cancer gene variants into public databases are gaining ground.

Sound clue in hunt for MH370 ▶

Hydroacoustic signal caught by sensors in the Indian Ocean may be linked to crash of Malaysian airliner.

Features

Stars of South American science ▶

Growing resources for research and development are creating opportunities across the continent, but many countries still struggle to build their programmes.

South America by the numbers ▶

South America: Big players ▶

Despite myriad problems in many countries, pockets of excellence thrive in South American science.

Research training: Homeward bound ▶

South American efforts to repatriate scientists are paying off.

COMMENT

Capacity building: Architects of South American science ▶

Ten research leaders call for policies to build science, and ways to build science into policy.

Fellowships: Turning brain drain into brain circulation ▶

Overseas scholarships that encourage scientists to return to their home countries are helping to rebuild science in Latin America, says Torsten Wiesel.

Books and Arts

Arts: The third culture ▶

Michael John Gorman is intrigued by a survey of art informed and invigorated by science.

Q&A: The nutrient hunter ▶

Investigative food journalist Jo Robinson has spent more than a decade scouring the literature on plant nutrition. Her demonstration garden in Washington state opens this month as her book Eating on the Wild Side (Little, Brown, 2013) emerges in paperback. She talks about eating tomatoes to protect from sunburn, why bitter is better — and how purple is the new green.

Correspondence

Alfred Russel Wallace: An early champion of women's rights U. Kutschera | Synthetic biology: missing the point Sam Weiss Evans | Synthetic biology: a global approach Jay D. Keasling | Academia and industry: Successes for UK cancer partnership Paul Workman | Library science: Forgotten founder of bibliometrics Ronald Rousseau

Correction

Corrections ▶

RESEARCH

Latest Online

Structural biology: Wobble puts RNA on target ▶

Oscar Vargas-Rodriguez, Karin Musier-Forsyth

Cancer: Natural-born killers unleashed ▶

Emilio Hirsch, Francesco Novelli

Crystal structure of a human GABA_A receptor ▶

Paul S. Miller, A. Radu Aricescu

GABA_A receptors are the principal mediators of rapid inhibitor synaptic transmission in the brain, and a decline in GABA_A signalling leads to diseases including epilepsy, insomnia, anxiety and autism; here, the first X-ray crystal structure of a human GABA_A receptor, the human β3 homopentamer, reveals structural features unique for this receptor class and uncovers the locations of key disease-causing mutations.

Genetics of ecological divergence during speciation ▶

Matthew E. Arnegard, Matthew D. McGee, Blake Matthews et al.

Traits responsible for recent niche divergence between sympatric threespine stickleback species are subjected to forward genetic analysis; additive variation at several loci across the genome accounts for most of the genetic basis of ecological divergence, with a further role for epistatic interactions that disadvantage hybrids.

The genome of Eucalyptus grandis OPEN ▶

Alexander A. Myburg, Dario Grattapaglia, Gerald A. Tuskan et al.

The Eucalyptus grandis genome has been sequenced, revealing the greatest number of tandem duplications of any plant genome sequenced so far, and the highest diversity of genes for specialized metabolites that act as chemical defence and provide unique pharmaceutical oils; genome sequencing of the sister species E. globulus and a set of inbred E. grandis tree genomes reveals dynamic genome evolution and hotspots of inbreeding depression.

Single-cell RNA-seq reveals dynamic paracrine control of cellular variation ▶

Alex K. Shalek, Rahul Satija, Joe Shuga et al.

Large-scale single-cell RNA-seq of stimulated primary mouse bone-marrow-derived dendritic cells highlights positive and negative intercellular signalling pathways that promote and restrain cellular variation.

The selective tRNA aminoacylation mechanism based on a single G•U pair ▶

Masahiro Naganuma, Shun-ichi Sekine, Yeeting Esther Chong et al.

X-ray crystal structures of a tRNA synthetase bound to wild-type and mutant alanine tRNAs reveal the structural basis for selectivity.

Horizontal genome transfer as an asexual path to the formation of new species ▶

Ignacia Fuentes, Sandra Stegemann, Hieronim Golczyk et al.

The formation of a new species can occur by an asexual mechanism by transfer of entire nuclear genomes between plant cells as shown by the creation of a new allopolyploid plant from parental herbaceous and woody plant species, this mechanism is a potential new tool for crop improvement.

Ultraviolet radiation accelerates BRAF-driven melanomagenesis by targeting TP53 ▶

Amaya Viros, Berta Sanchez-Laorden, Malin Pedersen et al.

Exposing mice with the BRAF (V600E) mutation to levels of ultraviolet radiation that mimic mild sunburn in humans is shown to induce mutations in the tumour suppressor Trp53 (TP53 in humans), accelerating the development of melanoma; these results support the use of sunscreen in individuals at risk of this cancer.

SOX2 controls tumour initiation and cancer stem-cell functions in squamous-cell carcinoma ▶

Soufiane Boumahdi, Gregory Driessens, Gaelle Lapouge et al.

Here, in a mouse model of skin squamous cell carcinoma, a key role is demonstrated for the transcription factor SOX2 in the initiation and progression of skin tumours.

The structural basis of transfer RNA mimicry and conformational plasticity by a viral RNA ▶

Timothy M. Colussi, David A. Costantino, John A. Hammond et al.

RNA molecules can perform multiple functions, which can be driven by different conformational states; here, the crystal structure of the transfer-RNA-like structure of the turnip yellow mosaic virus is solved, providing insight into the structural basis of RNA multifunctionality.

A primitive fish from the Cambrian of North America ▶

Simon Conway Morris, Jean-Bernard Caron

Fossils of Metaspriggina, one of the earliest known and most primitive fishes, are described, with the structure of the gills shown to presage that of jawed vertebrates in many ways.

Dynamic pathways of −1 translational frameshifting ▶

Jin Chen, Alexey Petrov, Magnus Johansson et al.

To investigate the mechanism of frameshifting during messenger RNA translation, a technique was developed to monitor translation of single molecules in real time using Förster resonance energy transfer (FRET); ribosomes were revealed to pause tenfold longer than usual during elongation at the frameshifting sites.

Inactivation of PI(3)K p110δ breaks regulatory T-cell-mediated immune tolerance to cancer ▶

Khaled Ali, Dalya R. Soond, Roberto Piñeiro et al.

The kinase PI(3)Kδ is shown to be required for the immunosuppressive function of regulatory T cells; inactivation of PI(3)Kδ in these cells leads to enhanced cytotoxic T-cell function and restricts tumour growth and metastasis in a variety of mouse tumour models.

Innate immune sensing of bacterial modifications of Rho GTPases by the Pyrin inflammasome ▶

Hao Xu, Jieling Yang, Wenqing Gao et al.

The Pyrin inflammasome detects the presence of a pathogen not through recognition of a microbial molecule but by the activity of a bacterial toxin that modifies host Rho activity.

Articles and Letters

Targeted genome editing in human repopulating haematopoietic stem cells ▶

Pietro Genovese, Giulia Schiroli, Giulia Escobar et al.

The feasibility of targeted genome editing in human haematopoietic stem cells is demonstrated; the study overcomes previously existing barriers by tailoring delivery platforms and culture conditions.

Homologue engagement controls meiotic DNA break number and distribution ▶

Drew Thacker, Neeman Mohibullah, Xuan Zhu et al.

DNA double-stranded breaks (DSBs) are shown to form in greater numbers in yeast cells lacking ZMM proteins, which are traditionally regarded as acting strictly downstream of DSB formation; these findings shed light on how cells balance the beneficial and deleterious outcomes of DSB formation.

Elevated CO₂ further lengthens growing season under warming conditions ▶

Melissa Reyes-Fox, Heidi Steltzer, M. J. Trlica et al.

A grassland warming and CO₂ enrichment experiment shows that temperature increase brings forward the growing season of early leafing species, but does not affect or delays senescence in late species, the latter enhanced by elevated CO₂.

Emergence of reproducible spatiotemporal activity during motor learning ▶

Andrew J. Peters, Simon X. Chen, Takaki Komiyama

Inhibitory neuron activity is found to be relatively stable during motor learning whereas excitatory neuron activity is much more dynamic — the results indicate that a large number of neurons exhibit activity changes early on during motor learning, but this population is refined with subsequent practice.

The unfolded protein response governs integrity of the haematopoietic stem-cell pool during stress ▶

Peter van Galen, Antonija Kreso, Nathan Mbong et al.

Molecular, pharmacological and functional data show that haematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) are predisposed to ER-stress-mediated apoptosis compared to closely related progenitors; a framework for understanding how stress signalling is coordinated within the hematopoietic hierarchy and integrated with stemness is provided, and may have implications for the improvement of clinical transplantation of HSCs.

Human embryonic-stem-cell-derived cardiomyocytes regenerate non-human primate hearts ▶

James J. H. Chong, Xiulan Yang, Creighton W. Don et al.

Regeneration of the heart muscle after myocardial infarction with cardiomyocytes derived from human embryonic stem cells is demonstrated in non-human primates, with the grafts showing evidence of electromechanical coupling, although they were also associated with non-fatal arrhythmias.

Therapeutic targeting of BET bromodomain proteins in castration-resistant prostate cancer ▶

Irfan A. Asangani, Vijaya L. Dommeti, Xiaoju Wang et al.

Small-molecule compounds that target the BET domain in proteins such as BRD4 have recently been identified as potential anticancer agents; here, the efficacy of the BRD4-targeting compound JQ1 is demonstrated in castration-resistant prostate cancer driven by deregulated androgen receptor action.

SMYD3 links lysine methylation of MAP3K2 to Ras-driven cancer ▶

Pawel K. Mazur, Nicolas Reynoird, Purvesh Khatri et al.

SMYD3 is a methyltransferase overexpressed in several human tumours; here methylation of the MAP3K2 kinase by SMYD3 is shown to be critical for Ras-induced tumour development in mouse models and human tumour cells, showing an unexpected role for methylation in a kinase signalling pathway and revealing a candidate therapeutic target.

CTP synthase 1 deficiency in humans reveals its central role in lymphocyte proliferation ▶

Emmanuel Martin, Noé Palmic, Sylvia Sanquer et al.

Loss-of-function mutations in the human CTP synthase 1 gene cause an immunodeficiency disease with impaired T cell proliferation after antigen stimulation, revealing a potential new target for immunosuppressive drugs.

A Ctf4 trimer couples the CMG helicase to DNA polymerase α in the eukaryotic replisome ▶

Aline C. Simon, Jin C. Zhou, Rajika L. Perera et al.

This study shows how the yeast Ctf4 protein couples the DNA helicase, Cdc45–MCM–GINS, to DNA polymerase α — the GINS subunit of the helicase and the polymerase use a similar interaction to bind Ctf4, suggesting that, as Ctf4 is a trimer, two polymerases could be simultaneously coupled to a single helicase during lagging-strand synthesis.

Quantitative flux analysis reveals folate-dependent NADPH production ▶

Jing Fan, Jiangbin Ye, Jurre J. Kamphorst et al.

A metabolomics quantification of NADPH production and consumption fluxes in proliferating mammalian cells reveals that, in addition to canonical pathways such as the oxidative pentose phosphate pathway, NADPH can also be produced by a folate metabolism pathway, a discovery providing new insights into the metabolism of cell growth.

News & Views

Plant biology: Pass the ammunition ▶

Mark C. Mescher, Consuelo M. De Moraes

Immunology: When lymphocytes run out of steam ▶

André Veillette, Dominique Davidson

Cancer biology: Enzyme meets a surprise target ▶

Marian M. Deuker, Martin McMahon

Gene therapy: Repair and replace ▶

Alain Fischer

Structural biology: Wobble puts RNA on target ▶

Oscar Vargas-Rodriguez, Karin Musier-Forsyth

Cancer: Natural-born killers unleashed ▶

Emilio Hirsch, Francesco Novelli

Research Highlights

Climate change: Acidic oceans shrink plankton | Ecotoxicology: Venom pesticide safe for bees | Virology: Chemicals wake up dormant HIV | Cancer: Immune cells targeted in cancer | Biochemistry: Easy monitoring of drug by camera | Immunology: Skin sensor soothes psoriasis | Animal cognition: Crow brain recalls images

NEWS & COMMENT

A growing problem | Jordan’s stem-cell law can guide the Middle East | Good practice | Fetal-cell revival for Parkinson’s | Q&A: The nutrient hunter | Synthetic biology: missing the point | Synthetic biology: a global approach | Academia and industry: Successes for UK cancer partnership | Space-station science ramps up | Cancer-gene data sharing boosted

More Biological Sciences ▶

RESEARCH

Latest Online

Cancer: Natural-born killers unleashed ▶

Emilio Hirsch, Francesco Novelli

Ultraviolet radiation accelerates BRAF-driven melanomagenesis by targeting TP53 ▶

Amaya Viros, Berta Sanchez-Laorden, Malin Pedersen et al.

Exposing mice with the BRAF (V600E) mutation to levels of ultraviolet radiation that mimic mild sunburn in humans is shown to induce mutations in the tumour suppressor Trp53 (TP53 in humans), accelerating the development of melanoma; these results support the use of sunscreen in individuals at risk of this cancer.

SOX2 controls tumour initiation and cancer stem-cell functions in squamous-cell carcinoma ▶

Soufiane Boumahdi, Gregory Driessens, Gaelle Lapouge et al.

Here, in a mouse model of skin squamous cell carcinoma, a key role is demonstrated for the transcription factor SOX2 in the initiation and progression of skin tumours.

Inactivation of PI(3)K p110δ breaks regulatory T-cell-mediated immune tolerance to cancer ▶

Khaled Ali, Dalya R. Soond, Roberto Piñeiro et al.

The kinase PI(3)Kδ is shown to be required for the immunosuppressive function of regulatory T cells; inactivation of PI(3)Kδ in these cells leads to enhanced cytotoxic T-cell function and restricts tumour growth and metastasis in a variety of mouse tumour models.

Articles and Letters

Human embryonic-stem-cell-derived cardiomyocytes regenerate non-human primate hearts ▶

James J. H. Chong, Xiulan Yang, Creighton W. Don et al.

Regeneration of the heart muscle after myocardial infarction with cardiomyocytes derived from human embryonic stem cells is demonstrated in non-human primates, with the grafts showing evidence of electromechanical coupling, although they were also associated with non-fatal arrhythmias.

Therapeutic targeting of BET bromodomain proteins in castration-resistant prostate cancer ▶

Irfan A. Asangani, Vijaya L. Dommeti, Xiaoju Wang et al.

Small-molecule compounds that target the BET domain in proteins such as BRD4 have recently been identified as potential anticancer agents; here, the efficacy of the BRD4-targeting compound JQ1 is demonstrated in castration-resistant prostate cancer driven by deregulated androgen receptor action.

SMYD3 links lysine methylation of MAP3K2 to Ras-driven cancer ▶

Pawel K. Mazur, Nicolas Reynoird, Purvesh Khatri et al.

SMYD3 is a methyltransferase overexpressed in several human tumours; here methylation of the MAP3K2 kinase by SMYD3 is shown to be critical for Ras-induced tumour development in mouse models and human tumour cells, showing an unexpected role for methylation in a kinase signalling pathway and revealing a candidate therapeutic target.

CTP synthase 1 deficiency in humans reveals its central role in lymphocyte proliferation ▶

Emmanuel Martin, Noé Palmic, Sylvia Sanquer et al.

Loss-of-function mutations in the human CTP synthase 1 gene cause an immunodeficiency disease with impaired T cell proliferation after antigen stimulation, revealing a potential new target for immunosuppressive drugs.

News & Views

Plant biology: Pass the ammunition ▶

Mark C. Mescher, Consuelo M. De Moraes

Immunology: When lymphocytes run out of steam ▶

André Veillette, Dominique Davidson

Cancer biology: Enzyme meets a surprise target ▶

Marian M. Deuker, Martin McMahon

Gene therapy: Repair and replace ▶

Alain Fischer

Cancer: Natural-born killers unleashed ▶

Emilio Hirsch, Francesco Novelli

Research Highlights

Cancer: Immune cells targeted in cancer | Biochemistry: Easy monitoring of drug by camera

NEWS & COMMENT

Good practice | Fetal-cell revival for Parkinson’s | Q&A: The nutrient hunter | Academia and industry: Successes for UK cancer partnership | Space-station science ramps up | Cancer-gene data sharing boosted

More Health Sciences ▶

RESEARCH

Latest Online

Quantum computing: Powered by magic ▶

Stephen D. Bartlett

Single-cell RNA-seq reveals dynamic paracrine control of cellular variation ▶

Alex K. Shalek, Rahul Satija, Joe Shuga et al.

Large-scale single-cell RNA-seq of stimulated primary mouse bone-marrow-derived dendritic cells highlights positive and negative intercellular signalling pathways that promote and restrain cellular variation.

Contextuality supplies the ‘magic’ for quantum computation ▶

Mark Howard, Joel Wallman, Victor Veitch et al.

Quantum computing promises advantages over classical computing for certain problems; now ‘quantum contextuality’ — a generalization of the concept of quantum non-locality — is shown to be a critical resource that gives the most promising class of quantum computers their power.

Articles and Letters

Search for Majorana neutrinos with the first two years of EXO-200 data ▶

Neutrinos are known to have mass, in contradiction to the predictions of the standard model, and one explanation of this mass is that they are Majorana fermions; this conjecture could be proved by observation of the neutrinoless double-β decay process, but new experiments with 136Xe find no statistically significant evidence for this process.

Two γ-ray bursts from dusty regions with little molecular gas ▶

B. Hatsukade, K. Ohta, A. Endo et al.

Emission spectra from the host galaxies of two γ-ray bursts reveal that the regions where the bursts occur are rich in dust but not in molecular gas, which is unexpected because γ-ray bursts are associated with the explosions of massive stars that require molecular gas as fuel.

Nanotwinned diamond with unprecedented hardness and stability ▶

Quan Huang, Dongli Yu, Bo Xu et al.

Nanotwinned diamond synthesized with onion carbon nanoparticles as precursors has much higher hardness and thermal stability than natural diamond; its enhanced hardness is due to the reduced size of its twin structures.

News & Views

Materials science: Diamond gets harder ▶

James Boland

Particle physics: The hunt for Majorana neutrinos hots up ▶

David Wark

Quantum computing: Powered by magic ▶

Stephen D. Bartlett

Research Highlights

Physics: Another source for static electricity

NEWS & COMMENT

Sound clue in hunt for MH370 | Space-station science ramps up

More Physical Sciences ▶

RESEARCH

Articles and Letters

Increased frequency of extreme Indian Ocean Dipole events due to greenhouse warming ▶

Wenju Cai, Agus Santoso, Guojian Wang et al.

Extreme positive-Indian-Ocean-dipole events cause devastating floods in eastern tropical Africa and severe droughts in Asia; increasing greenhouse gas emissions will make these dipole events about three times more frequent in the twenty-first century.

Research Highlights

Climate change: Acidic oceans shrink plankton | Planetary science: Early planet helped make Moon

NEWS & COMMENT

Sound clue in hunt for MH370

More Earth & Environmental Sciences ▶

A test that fails ▶

A standard test for admission to graduate school misses potential winners, say Casey Miller and Keivan Stassun.

Careers related news & comment

Open goal | Seven days: 6–12 June 2014 | Stars of South American science | South America by the numbers Richard Van Noorden | South America: Big players Michele Catanzaro, Giuliana Miranda, Lisa Palmer et al. | Research training: Homeward bound Barbara Fraser | Capacity building: Architects of South American science | Fellowships: Turning brain drain into brain circulation Torsten Wiesel | Synthetic biology: a global approach Jay D. Keasling | Academia and industry: Successes for UK cancer partnership Paul Workman

Research Technician

University of Bristol 

Research Associate

Imperial College London 

PhD Fellowships

Universität Konstanz 

Postdoctoral Scholar

University of Chicago 

International Study Group for Systems Biology 2014: From Cell to Organism

2 September 2014 Durham, UK