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Quantum physics: Death by experiment for local realism
A fundamental scientific assumption called local realism conflicts with certain predictions of quantum mechanics. Those predictions have now been verified, with none of the loopholes that have compromised earlier tests.
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Microbiology: Electrical signalling goes bacterial
The discovery that potassium ion channels are involved in electrical signalling between bacterial cells may help to unravel the role of ion channels in microbial physiology and communication.
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Economics: Higher costs of climate change
An attempt to reconcile the effects of temperature on economic productivity at the micro and macro levels produces predictions of global economic losses due to climate change that are much higher than previous estimates.
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Cancer: The enemy of my enemy is my friend
Reactive oxygen species have been viewed as stress-inducing molecules that promote cancer initiation. But new evidence indicates that oxidative stress can be beneficial — inhibiting the spread of a cancer to other sites.
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Ion channels enable electrical communication in bacterial communities
Ion channels in bacterial biofilms are shown to conduct long-range electrical signals within the biofilm community through the propagation of potassium ions; as predicted by a simple mathematical model, potassium channel gating is shown to coordinate metabolic states between distant cells via electrical communication.
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Microenvironment-induced PTEN loss by exosomal microRNA primes brain metastasis outgrowth
Expression of the tumour suppressor PTEN in disseminated primary tumour cells is lost after tumour cells metastasize to the brain, with downregulation instigated by microRNAs from astrocytes, which are transferred from cell to cell by exosomes; these findings reveal the dynamic nature of metastatic cancer cells when adapting to a new tissue environment.
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Yap-dependent reprogramming of Lgr5+ stem cells drives intestinal regeneration and cancer
This study finds that the Hippo pathway is essential for gut epithelial regeneration and tumour initiation; the Hippo component Yap holds off differentiation of intestinal stem cells to Paneth cells to promote a survival and self-renewal regenerative program through activation of the Egfr pathway.
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Structure of a eukaryotic SWEET transporter in a homotrimeric complex
The X-ray crystal structure is presented of a seven-transmembrane eukaryotic SWEET glucose transporter, revealing the link between seven-transmembrane eukaryotic SWEETs and their three-transmembrane bacterial homologues and providing insight into eukaryotic sugar transport mechanisms.
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Thalamic control of sensory selection in divided attention
The authors trained mice to attend to or suppress vision based on behavioral context and show, through novel and established techniques, that changes in visual gain rely on tunable feedforward inhibition of visual thalamus via innervating thalamic reticular neurons; these findings introduce a subcortical model of attention in which modality-specific thalamic reticular subnetworks mediate top-down and context-dependent control of sensory selection.
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Histone H1 couples initiation and amplification of ubiquitin signalling after DNA damage
At the initiation of DNA double-strand break repair, a number of ubiquitylation events occur; here, the RNF8 ubiquitin E3 ligase and the ubiquitin-conjugating E2 enzyme, UBC13, are shown to primarily modify H1-type linker histones, via a K63 linkage.
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CMT2D neuropathy is linked to the neomorphic binding activity of glycyl-tRNA synthetase
Charcot–Marie–Tooth diseases are hereditary peripheral neuropathies for which there are currently no effective therapies; here the type 2D subtype of these diseases is shown to be caused by mutations impeding a signalling pathway necessary for motor neuron survival.
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The inner workings of the hydrazine synthase multiprotein complex
Hydrazine is an intermediate in the process of anaerobic ammonium oxidation which has a major role in the Earth’s nitrogen cycle; the crystal structure of a hydrazine synthase enzyme provides insights into the mechanism of hydrazine synthesis.
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Bacteriocin production augments niche competition by enterococci in the mammalian gastrointestinal tract
The authors develop a mouse model of Enterococcus faecalis colonization to show that enterococci harbouring the bacteriocin-expressing plasmid pPD1 replace indigenous enterococci and have the ability to transfer the plasmid to other enterococci, which enhances the stability of the bacteriocin-expressing bacteria in the gut; this result suggests a therapeutic approach that leverages niche-specificity to eliminate antibiotic-resistant bacteria from infected individuals.
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Rhodium-catalysed syn-carboamination of alkenes via a transient directing group
Chemical methods for adding carbon-based or nitrogen-based functional groups to alkenes are well established, but strategies for adding both to the same double bond have limitations; here, a method for the carboamination of alkenes at the same double bond is described.
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Global non-linear effect of temperature on economic production
Economic productivity is shown to peak at an annual average temperature of 13 °C and decline at high temperatures, indicating that climate change is expected to lower global incomes more than 20% by 2100.
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An aqueous, polymer-based redox-flow battery using non-corrosive, safe, and low-cost materials
An affordable, safe, and scalable battery system is presented, which uses organic polymers as the charge-storage material in combination with inexpensive dialysis membranes and an aqueous sodium chloride solution as the electrolyte.
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Loophole-free Bell inequality violation using electron spins separated by 1.3 kilometres
A Bell experiment that is ‘loophole’ free—leaving no room for explanations based on experimental imperfections—reveals a statistically significant conflict with local realism
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Corrigendum: Whole–genome characterization of chemoresistant ovarian cancer
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Non-coding recurrent mutations in chronic lymphocytic leukaemia
Genomic approaches in more than 500 patients are used to extend the number of chronic lymphocytic leukaemia (CLL) driver alterations, and also identify novel recurrent mutations in non-coding regions, including an enhancer of PAX5 and the 3′ untranslated region of NOTCH1, which lead to aberrant splicing events, increased NOTCH1 protein stability and activity, and an adverse clinical outcome.
Xose S. Puente, Silvia Beà, Rafael Valdés-Mas et al. |
Mutations driving CLL and their evolution in progression and relapse
This study reports exome sequencing of samples from 538 individuals with chronic lymphocytic leukaemia (CLL), including 278 collected as part of a prospective clinical trial; recurrently mutated genes are identified and pathways involved in CLL are highlighted, as well as their evolution in progression and disease relapse.
Dan A. Landau, Eugen Tausch, Amaro N. Taylor-Weiner et al. |
Single cell activity reveals direct electron transfer in methanotrophic consortia
The anaerobic oxidation of methane in marine sediments is performed by consortia of methane-oxidizing archaea and sulfate-reducing bacteria; an examination of the role of interspecies spatial positioning on single cell activity reveals that interspecies electron transfer may overcome the requirement for close spatial proximity, a proposition supported by large multi-haem cytochromes in ANME-2 genomes as well as redox-active electron microscopy staining.
Shawn E. McGlynn, Grayson L. Chadwick, Christopher P. Kempes et al. |
Structural basis for gene regulation by a B12-dependent photoreceptor
Crystal structures are presented of Thermus thermophilus CarH, a photoreceptor that uses a vitamin B12 derivative, in all three relevant states: in the dark, both free and bound to operator DNA, and after light exposure.
Marco Jost, Jésus Fernández-Zapata, María Carmen Polanco et al. |
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Flows of X-ray gas reveal the disruption of a star by a massive black hole
High-resolution X-ray spectra reveal highly ionized X-ray gas flows in a nearby tidal disruption event, ASASSN-14li, near to the black hole of the galaxy PGC 043234.
Jon M. Miller, Jelle S. Kaastra, M. Coleman Miller et al. |
Biodiversity increases the resistance of ecosystem productivity to climate extremes
Data from experiments that manipulated grassland biodiversity across Europe and North America show that biodiversity increases an ecosystem’s resistance to, although not resilience after, climate extremes.
Forest Isbell, Dylan Craven, John Connolly et al. |
RAF inhibitors that evade paradoxical MAPK pathway activation
Next-generation RAF inhibitors that inhibit oncogenic BRAF without inducing paradoxical pathway activation in cells with mutant RAS might yield improved safety and more durable efficacy.
Chao Zhang, Wayne Spevak, Ying Zhang et al. |
The rise of fully turbulent flow
Experiments, asymptotic theory and computer simulations of wall-bounded shear flow uncover a bifurcation scenario that explains the transition from localized turbulent patches to fully turbulent flow.
Dwight Barkley, Baofang Song, Vasudevan Mukund et al. |
A comprehensive phylogeny of birds (Aves) using targeted next-generation DNA sequencing
A phylogeny of birds is presented from targeted genomic sequencing of 198 species of living birds representing all major avian lineages; the results find five major clades forming successive sister taxa to the rest of Neoaves and do not support the recently proposed Neoavian clades of Columbea and Passerea.
Richard O. Prum, Jacob S. Berv, Alex Dornburg et al. |
The vulnerability of Indo-Pacific mangrove forests to sea-level rise
Assessment of mangrove forest surface elevation changes across the Indo-Pacific coastal region finds that almost 70 per cent of the sites studied do not have enough sediment availability to offset predicted sea-level rise; modelling indicates that such sites could be submerged as early as 2070.
Catherine E. Lovelock, Donald R. Cahoon, Daniel A. Friess et al. |
Hedgehog actively maintains adult lung quiescence and regulates repair and regeneration
It is generally thought that the quiescence of tissue is not actively maintained, but rather a state reflecting the absence of proliferative signal; here the authors find that quiescence is actively maintained by paracrine hedgehog signalling provided by the epithelium in the mouse adult lung, and that hedgehog is dynamically regulated during injury repair and resolution for proper restoration of tissue homeostasis after injury.
Tien Peng, David B. Frank, Rachel S. Kadzik et al. |
A disintegrating minor planet transiting a white dwarf
The atmospheres of white dwarfs often contain elements heavier than helium, even though these elements would be expected to settle into the stars’ interiors; observations of the white dwarf WD 1145+017 suggest that disintegrating rocky bodies are orbiting the star, perhaps contributing heavy elements to its atmosphere.
Andrew Vanderburg, John Asher Johnson, Saul Rappaport et al. |
Observation of non-Hermitian degeneracies in a chaotic exciton-polariton billiard
In non-Hermitian systems, spectral degeneracies can arise that can cause unusual, counter-intuitive effects; here exciton-polaritons—hybrid light–matter particles—within a semiconductor microcavity are found to display non-trivial topological modal structure exclusive to such systems.
T. Gao, E. Estrecho, K. Y. Bliokh et al. |
Kidney organoids from human iPS cells contain multiple lineages and model human nephrogenesis
The kidney arises from two types of progenitors; here, the signalling conditions that induce the production of collecting ducts and functional nephrons from human pluripotent stem cells are determined, and organoids that recapitulate the functional regionalization of the kidney are produced.
Minoru Takasato, Pei X. Er, Han S. Chiu et al. |
Intercellular wiring enables electron transfer between methanotrophic archaea and bacteria
Marine anaerobic methanotrophic archaea and sulfate-reducing bacteria connect by pili-like nanowires, suggesting that direct interspecies exchange of electrons could be a fundamental mechanism in the anaerobic oxidation of methane.
Gunter Wegener, Viola Krukenberg, Dietmar Riedel et al. |
Dynamic m6A mRNA methylation directs translational control of heat shock response
Under stress, such as heat shock, the N6-methyladenosine (m6A) modification is shown to accumulate primarily in the 5′ untranslated region of induced mRNAs owing to the translocation of an m6A interacting protein, YTHDF2, into the nucleus, resulting in increased cap-independent translation of these mRNAs, indicating one possible mechanism by which stress-responsive genes can be preferentially expressed.
Jun Zhou, Ji Wan, Xiangwei Gao et al. |
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