| | Food security: A collaboration worth its weight in grain
Interventions to improve crop yields in rural China through collaboration between researchers and farmers illustrate how the goal of increasing global food production can be approached locally. | Evolution: Teenage tetrapods
Bone analysis of aquatic tetrapods from around the time when these four-limbed vertebrates began to move onto land reveals that the large specimens were only juveniles, raising questions about how these animals developed. | Plant science: Hybrid vigour characterized
Crossing different plant varieties to improve yield and fertility is common practice. A dissection of the genomic architecture that underlies such hybrid vigour might help to inform future crop-improvement strategies. | Genomics: Geography matters for Arabidopsis
A free database describes genome sequences, gene expression and molecular modifications to DNA for more than 1,000 Arabidopsis thaliana plants, providing valuable information on the complex history and current variation of this species. | Activation mechanism of endothelin ETB receptor by endothelin-1
The X-ray crystal structures of human endothelin type B receptor in the ligand-free form and in complex with the endogenous agonist endothelin-1. | Locus coeruleus and dopaminergic consolidation of everyday memory
Projections from the locus coeruleus, an area typically defined by noradrenergic signalling, to the hippocampus drive novelty-based memory enhancement through possible co-release of dopamine. | m6A RNA methylation promotes XIST-mediated transcriptional repression
The methylation of adenosine residues on the long non-coding RNA XIST is essential for X-chromosome transcriptional repression during female mammalian development. | Genomic architecture of heterosis for yield traits in rice
Insights into the genomic architecture of heterosis for grain yield in rice are presented, and further mapping of grain yield loci resolves candidate genes that could be useful for breeding. | | Diversity-oriented synthesis yields novel multistage antimalarial inhibitors | Key new pieces of the HIMU puzzle from olivines and diamond inclusions
Trace-element analyses of olivine phenocrysts and diamond inclusions indicate that carbonatite-metasomatized subcontinental mantle may be the source of the HIMU mantle end-member, as opposed to recycled basaltic oceanic crust. | High-molecular-weight organic matter in the particles of comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko
The COSIMA mass spectrometer on the Rosetta spacecraft has analysed the solid organic matter found in dust particles emitted by comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko; this matter is similar to the insoluble organic matter extracted from carbonaceous chondrites such as the Murchison meteorite, but is perhaps more primitive. | Life history of the stem tetrapod Acanthostega revealed by synchrotron microtomography
Analysis of fossil limb bones suggests that a mass-death deposit of the Devonian tetrapod Acanthostega may consist entirely of juveniles, throwing new light on the life history of this species and the evolution of terrestriality. | CHD8 haploinsufficiency results in autistic-like phenotypes in mice
Heterozygous Chd8 mutant mice display autistic-like behaviours and small but global changes in brain gene expression, which are associated with delays in neuronal development. | Molecular transport through capillaries made with atomic-scale precision
Nanometre-scale graphitic capillaries with atomically flat walls are engineered and studied, revealing unexpectedly fast transport of liquid water through channels that accommodate only a few layers of water. | Closing yield gaps in China by empowering smallholder farmers
The authors report on attempts to increase the yield of smallholder farms in China using ten practices recommended by the Science and Technology Backyard for farming maize and wheat at county level. | | Atomic structure of the entire mammalian mitochondrial complex I | | On-Target Efficacy of a HIF2α Antagonist in Preclinical Kidney Cancer Models | | Targeting Renal Cell Carcinoma with a HIF-2 antagonist | | Formation of new stellar populations from gas accreted by massive young star clusters | | Photocontrol of fluid slugs in liquid crystal polymer microactuators
A light-actuated liquid crystal polymer material system precisely manipulates liquid drops through capillary forces, and can be formed into a variety of shapes.
Jiu-an Lv, Yuyun Liu, Jia Wei et al. | Structure-based discovery of opioid analgesics with reduced side effects
Computational docking to the the μ-opioid-receptor identifies PZM21, a novel selective biased agonist that generates substantial affective analgesia in mice without altering respiration or inducing drug reinforcement.
Aashish Manglik, Henry Lin, Dipendra K. Aryal et al. | Cryo-EM structure of the spliceosome immediately after branching
Cryo-EM reveals the configuration of substrate pre-mRNA within the active spliceosome and suggests how remodelling occurs prior to exon ligation.
Wojciech P. Galej, Max E. Wilkinson, Sebastian M. Fica et al. | Structure of the voltage-gated calcium channel Cav1.1 at 3.6 Å resolution
The cryo-electron microscopy structure of the rabbit voltage-gated calcium channel Cav1.1 complex at a nominal resolution of 3.6 ångströms.
Jianping Wu, Zhen Yan, Zhangqiang Li et al. | Structural basis for the antifolding activity of a molecular chaperone
The solution structure of SecB, a molecular chaperone that exhibits strong antifolding activity, in complex with alkaline phosphatase and maltose-binding protein captured in their unfolded states.
Chengdong Huang, Paolo Rossi, Tomohide Saio et al. | | Oxidative diversification of amino acids and peptides by small-molecule iron catalysis
Two small-molecule iron catalysts are shown to be capable of facilitating the targeted C–H oxidative modification of amino acids and peptides with preservation of α-centre chirality (a challenging synthesis), producing a diverse range of amino acids and peptides.
Thomas J. Osberger, Donald C. Rogness, Jeffrey T. Kohrt et al. | A progressively wetter climate in southern East Africa over the past 1.3 million years
A 1.3-million-year-long climate history from the Lake Malawi basin in eastern Africa displays a trend towards progressively wetter conditions superimposed on strong 100,000-year eccentricity cycles of temperature and rainfall since the Mid-Pleistocene Transition around 900,000 years ago.
T. C. Johnson, J. P. Werne, E. T. Brown et al. | Digits and fin rays share common developmental histories
Hoxa- and Hoxd-deficient zebrafish generated using Crispr/Cas with fate mapping have reduced fin rays and increased endochondral elements, establishing homology between the developmental programs that create fin rays and the wrists and digits of mammals.
Tetsuya Nakamura, Andrew R. Gehrke, Justin Lemberg et al. | Massive radius-dependent flow slippage in carbon nanotubes
The pressure-driven flow rate through individual carbon nanotubes is precisely determined from the hydrodynamics of emerging water jets, revealing unexpectedly large and radius-dependent surface slippage.
Eleonora Secchi, Sophie Marbach, Antoine Niguès et al. | Proteasome inhibition for treatment of leishmaniasis, Chagas disease and sleeping sickness
A selective inhibitor of the kinetoplastid proteasome (GNF6702) is identified that is highly efficacious in vivo, clearing the parasites that cause leishmaniasis, Chagas disease and sleeping sickness from mice, highlighting the possibility of developing a single class of drugs for these neglected diseases.
Shilpi Khare, Advait S. Nagle, Agnes Biggart et al. | Compression and ablation of the photo-irradiated molecular cloud the Orion Bar
One-arcsecond-resolution millimetre-wave images enable the surface of the Orion Bar molecular cloud to be resolved, revealing a fragmented ridge of high-density substructures, photoablative gas flows and instabilities that suggest that the cloud edge has been compressed by a high-pressure wave expanding into the molecular cloud, in contrast to predictions from static equilibrium models.
Javier R. Goicoechea, Jérôme Pety, Sara Cuadrado et al. | Germinal centre hypoxia and regulation of antibody qualities by a hypoxia response system
Hypoxia in germinal centres regulates B cell class switching via its effects on mTOR complex 1 and activation-induced cytosine deaminase activity.
Sung Hoon Cho, Ariel L. Raybuck, Kristy Stengel et al. | The long non-coding RNA Morrbid regulates Bim and short-lived myeloid cell lifespan
The long non-coding RNA Morrbid controls myeloid cell lifespan and regulates apoptosis by repressing the adjacent pro-apoptotic Bcl2l11 gene in cis.
Jonathan J. Kotzin, Sean P. Spencer, Sam J. McCright et al. | PionX sites mark the X chromosome for dosage compensation
Recognition of the X chromosome by the dosage compensation complex in Drosophila relies on the sequence and shape of PionX sites.
Raffaella Villa, Tamas Schauer, Pawel Smialowski et al. | Insights from biochemical reconstitution into the architecture of human kinetochores
Biochemical reconstitution of a synthetic human kinetochore with 21 protein subunits and centromeric nucleosomal DNA unveils fundamental principles of kinetochore organization and function.
John R. Weir, Alex C. Faesen, Kerstin Klare et al. | | | | |
