|
|
Phenology: Spring greening in a warming world
Warmer temperatures have been associated with an earlier emergence of spring leaves each year. New data, however, suggest that leaf emergence is becoming less sensitive to temperature as global temperatures rise.
|
Architecture of the mammalian mechanosensitive Piezo1 channel
Piezo1, a mechanosensitive cation channel, senses shear stress of blood flow for proper blood vessel development, regulates red blood cell function and controls cell migration and differentiation; here a trimeric architecture of this novel class of ion channel is reported, suggesting that Piezo1 may use its peripheral propeller-like ‘blades’ as force sensors to gate the central ion-conducting pore.
|
The origins of high hardening and low ductility in magnesium
Practical applications of magnesium as a lightweight structural metal are limited by its high work hardening, low ductility and fracture at very low strains; now molecular dynamics simulations reveal the origins of these problems and offer a route to design magnesium alloys with improved mechanical properties.
|
Dilution of the cell cycle inhibitor Whi5 controls budding-yeast cell size
Saccharomyces cerevisiae controls its cell size through the differential size-dependency of the synthesis of the cell cycle activator Cln3 relative to the cell cycle inhibitor Whi5.
|
Sex‐specific demography and generalization of the Trivers–Willard theory
The Trivers–Willard theory proposing that maternal condition influences offspring sex ratio is extended by analysing how differences in mortality rates, age‐specific reproduction and life history tactics between males and females may affect adaptive offspring sex ratio adjustment in two systems.
|
Binding of dinitrogen to an iron–sulfur–carbon site
A synthetic complex with a sulfur-rich coordination sphere is described that, upon reduction, breaks an Fe–S bond and binds N2, providing a model for the iron–molybdenum cofactor used by nitrogenase enzymes to produce ammonia.
|
Deep imaging of bone marrow shows non-dividing stem cells are mainly perisinusoidal
α-catulin is identified as a marker to locate functional haematopoiteic stem cells in deep imaging experiments of bone marrow, showing that α-catulin–GFP+c-kit+ cells commonly reside in perisinusoidal niches throughout the bone marrow.
|
Multiple mechanisms for CRISPR–Cas inhibition by anti-CRISPR proteins
Bacterial cells evolved an immune system known as CRISPR–Cas to protect themselves from viral infection, triggering viruses to evolve anti-CRISPR proteins; here, three anti-CRISPR proteins are characterized, with each one interfering with the host CRISPR system at a different point.
|
New genomic and fossil data illuminate the origin of enamel
Enamel is a tissue unique to vertebrates, and nowadays associated with teeth; here, histological material from a fossil bony fish and genomic data from an extant, armour-plated fish are analysed to show that enamel originated on the body surface and only later colonized the teeth.
|
Single-cell analysis reveals a stem-cell program in human metastatic breast cancer cells
Single-cell analysis of gene expression in metastatic cells from distinct human breast tumour models shows that early metastatic cells possess basal, stem and mesenchymal cell properties, whereas advanced metastatic cells have more proliferative properties and are more mature, enabling them to be targeted with an anti-proliferative compound.
|
The soft palate is an important site of adaptation for transmissible influenza viruses
Efficient airborne transmission of influenza viruses between humans is associated with use of α2,6-linked sialic acids, not α2,3-linked sialic acids; however, using a loss-of-function approach in which a 2009 pandemic H1N1 influenza virus was engineered to bind α2,3 sialic acids, this study shows in ferrets that the soft palate is an important site for the switch of receptor usage to take place, and reveals that this tissue rapidly selects for transmissible influenza virus with human receptor preference.
|
In situ structural analysis of the human nuclear pore complex
The most comprehensive architectural model to date of the nuclear pore complex reveals previously unknown local interactions, and a role for nucleoporin 358 in Y-complex oligomerization.
|
Declining global warming effects on the phenology of spring leaf unfolding
Spring leaf unfolding has been occurring earlier in the year because of rising temperatures; however, long-term evidence in the field from 7 European tree species studied in 1,245 sites shows that this early unfolding effect is being reduced in recent years, possibly because the reducing chilling and/or insolation render trees less responsive to warming.
|
Erratum: Mechanism of phospho-ubiquitin-induced PARKIN activation
|
Erratum: IgG1 protects against renal disease in a mouse model of cryoglobulinaemia
|
Corrigendum: Cleavage of CAD inhibitor in CAD activation and DNA degradation during apoptosis
|
Corrigendum: Biocontainment of genetically modified organisms by synthetic protein design
|
Corrigendum: Recoded organisms engineered to depend on synthetic amino acids
|
|
| Brief Communications Arising |
|
| |
Hallmarks of pluripotency
In response to the need for a defined set of criteria to assess stem-cell potency, this review proposes guidelines for the evaluation of newly derived pluripotent stem cells, from functional assays to integrative molecular analyses of transcriptional, epigenetic and metabolic states.
Alejandro De Los Angeles, Francesco Ferrari, Ruibin Xi et al. |
|
Epicardial FSTL1 reconstitution regenerates the adult mammalian heart
The secreted factor follistatin-like 1 (FSTL1) becomes undetectable in the epicardium of infarcted hearts; when reconstituted using a collagen patch sutured onto an infarcted heart, FSTL1 can induce cell cycle entry and division of pre-existing cardiomyocytes, thus boosting heart function and survival in mouse and pig models of myocardial infarction.
Ke Wei, Vahid Serpooshan, Cecilia Hurtado et al. |
Structure of the toxic core of α-synuclein from invisible crystals
A short segment of α-synuclein called NACore (residues 68–78) is responsible for the formation of amyloid aggregates responsible for cytotoxicity in Parkinson disease; here the nanocrystal structure of this invisible-to-optical-microscopy segment is determined using micro-electron diffraction, offering insight into its function and simultaneously demonstrating the first use of micro-electron diffraction to solve a previously unknown protein structure.
Jose A. Rodriguez, Magdalena I. Ivanova, Michael R. Sawaya et al. |
Structure of mammalian eIF3 in the context of the 43S preinitiation complex
The cryo-electron microscopy structure of the eukaryotic initiation factor 3 (eIF3) within the larger 43S complex is determined; the improved resolution enables visualization of the secondary structures of the subunits, as well as the contacts between eIF3 and both eIF2 and DHX29.
Amedee des Georges, Vidya Dhote, Lauriane Kuhn et al. |
|
A concise synthesis of (+)-batzelladine B from simple pyrrole-based starting materials
The complex anti-HIV alkaloid (+)-batzelladine B is efficiently synthesized by using aromatic heterocycles as synthetic precursors.
Brendan T. Parr, Christos Economou, Seth B. Herzon |
Loss of Karma transposon methylation underlies the mantled somaclonal variant of oil palm
The oil palm fruit ‘mantled’ abnormality is a somaclonal variant that markedly reduces yield; here, a genome-wide DNA methylation analysis finds that hypomethylation of a single Karma family retrotransposon embedded in a homeotic gene intron is common to all mantled clones and is associated with aberrant splicing and termination of the gene transcript, and that loss of methylation predicts a loss of oil palm yield.
Meilina Ong-Abdullah, Jared M. Ordway, Nan Jiang et al. |
BET inhibitor resistance emerges from leukaemia stem cells
BET inhibitors that target bromodomain chromatin readers such as BRD4 are being explored as potential therapeutics in cancer; here, in a MLL–AF9 mouse leukaemia model, resistance to BET inhibitors is shown to emerge from leukaemia stem cells, and be partly due to increased Wnt/β-catenin signalling.
Chun Yew Fong, Omer Gilan, Enid Y. N. Lam et al. |
Lithospheric controls on magma composition along Earth’s longest continental hotspot track
A 2,000-kilometre-long volcanic hotspot track is identified in eastern Australia, along which magma composition and volcanic outcrop show a strong correlation with lithospheric thickness, providing an observational constraint on the sub-continental melting depth of mantle plumes.
D. R. Davies, N. Rawlinson, G. Iaffaldano et al. |
The diurnal cycle of water ice on comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko
Observations of water ice on the surface of comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko show the ice appearing and disappearing in a cyclic pattern that follows local illumination conditions, providing a source of localized activity and leading to cycling modification of the ice abundance on the surface.
M. C. De Sanctis, F. Capaccioni, M. Ciarniello et al. |
Controlling neutron orbital angular momentum
Interferometry reveals quantized changes in the angular momentum of neutrons that have been ‘twisted’ by passage through a spiral staircase structure.
Charles W. Clark, Roman Barankov, Michael G. Huber et al. |
Neutrophil ageing is regulated by the microbiome
Neutrophil ageing, which encourages inflammation and vaso-occlusion in a mouse model of sickle-cell disease, is shown to depend on the intestinal microbiota and activation of the TLR/Myd88 signalling pathways.
Dachuan Zhang, Grace Chen, Deepa Manwani et al. |
A sexually dimorphic hypothalamic circuit controls maternal care and oxytocin secretion
Sexual dimorphism in neuronal circuits is proposed to underlie sex differences in behaviour, such as virgin female mice acting maternally toward alien pups, while males ignore or attack them; here the authors show that specific tyrosine hydroxylase-expressing neurons in the hypothalamus are more numerous in mothers than in virgin females and males, and that they control parental behaviour in a sex-specific manner.
Niv Scott, Matthias Prigge, Ofer Yizhar et al. |
Novel competitors shape species’ responses to climate change
Species’ range dynamics depend not only on their ability to track climate, but also on the migration of their competitors, and the extent to which novel and current competitors exert differing competitive effects.
Jake M. Alexander, Jeffrey M. Diez, Jonathan M. Levine |
Cell-fate determination by ubiquitin-dependent regulation of translation
This study shows that a vertebrate-specific ubiquitin ligase modulates neural crest specification in Xenopus development and human embryonic stem-cell differentiation; a proteomics approach reveals that the CUL3KBTBD8 ligase modulates translation by targeting the modulators of ribosomes production NOLC1 and its paralogue TCOF1, which is mutated in a neural-crest-associated syndrome.
Achim Werner, Shintaro Iwasaki, Colleen A. McGourty et al. |
Crystal structures of a double-barrelled fluoride ion channel
Microorganisms can export toxic fluoride ions through highly selective channels of the Fluc family; here, the crystal structures of two bacterial Fluc homologues are presented, revealing that selectivity for small F− ions may arise from the proteins’ narrow pores and unusual anion coordination.
Randy B. Stockbridge, Ludmila Kolmakova-Partensky, Tania Shane et al. |
The formation of submillimetre-bright galaxies from gas infall over a billion years
Submillimetre-bright galaxies at high redshift are the most luminous, heavily star-forming galaxies in the Universe, but cosmological simulations of such galaxies have so far been unsuccessful; now a cosmological hydrodynamic galaxy formation simulation is reported that can form a submillimetre galaxy that simultaneously satisfies the broad range of observed physical constraints.
Desika Narayanan, Matthew Turk, Robert Feldmann et al. |
Transcriptional plasticity promotes primary and acquired resistance to BET inhibition
BET bromodomain inhibitors are being explored as potential therapeutics in cancer; here, AML cells are shown to evade sensitivity to BET inhibition through rewiring the transcriptional regulation of BRD4 target genes such as MYC in a process that is facilitated by suppression of PRC2 and WNT signalling activation.
Philipp Rathert, Mareike Roth, Tobias Neumann et al. |
|
|
|
|
