| | Cancer: Double trouble for tumours
When some cancer cells delete a tumour-suppressor gene, they also delete nearby genes. It emerges that one of these latter genes has a key metabolic role, revealing a therapeutic opportunity that might be relevant for many tumours. | Virology: Phages make a group decision
It emerges that phage viruses, which infect bacteria, use small peptides to communicate with each other. This observation of intercellular communication also reveals how viruses make a key developmental decision. | Materials science: Versatile gel assembly on a chip
Materials called hydrogels have potential applications as scaffolds for tissue engineering, but methods are needed to assemble them into complex structures that mimic those found in nature. Just such a method has now been reported. | IL-17 is a neuromodulator of Caenorhabditis elegans sensory responses
Interleukin-17 functions as a neuromodulator in the roundworm Caenorhabditis elegans, acting directly on RMG hub interneurons to alter their response properties and contribution to behaviour. | Structure of a eukaryotic cyclic-nucleotide-gated channel
The first high-resolution (3.5 Å) structure of a full-length cyclic-nucleotide-gated channel, revealing an unconventional, voltage-insensitive voltage-sensor domain and a unique coupling mechanism between cyclic-nucleotide-binding and pore-opening. | Neurotoxic reactive astrocytes are induced by activated microglia
A reactive astrocyte subtype termed A1 is induced after injury or disease of the central nervous system and subsequently promotes the death of neurons and oligodendrocytes. | Communication between viruses guides lysis–lysogeny decisions
Some phages—viruses that infect bacteria—encode peptides that are secreted from infected cells and that, beyond a certain threshold, stimulate other viruses to switch from the lytic (killing the host cell) to lysogenic (dormant) phase. | Compensatory water effects link yearly global land CO2 sink changes to temperature
A study of how temperature and water availability fluctuations affect the carbon balance of land ecosystems reveals different controls on local and global scales, implying that spatial climate covariation drives the global carbon cycle response. | Ultrafast nonthermal photo-magnetic recording in a transparent medium
Ultrafast photo-magnetic recording in transparent films of the dielectric cobalt-substituted garnet has very low heat load and is much faster than existing alternatives. | The ligand Sas and its receptor PTP10D drive tumour-suppressive cell competition
Wild-type Drosophila epithelial cells outcompete proto-oncogenic cells through translocation of the ligand Sas to the wild-type–tumour cell interface, where it binds the PTP10D receptor of the tumour cell, initiating pro-apoptotic signalling. | Genomic deletion of malic enzyme 2 confers collateral lethality in pancreatic cancer
Depletion of malic enzyme 3 in pancreatic cancer cells that have a deletion of the gene for malic enzyme 2 selectively kills the cells, suggesting that the enzyme might represent a therapeutic target for this subset of cancers. | Evolutionary genomics of the cold-adapted diatom Fragilariopsis cylindrus OPEN
The genome of the Southern Ocean phytoplankton Fragilariopsis cylindrus differs markedly from the genomes of its more temperate relatives, with divergent alleles being differentially expressed in environmentally specific conditions such as freezing and darkness. | | Corrigendum: Structural basis of N6-adenosine methylation by the METTL3–METTL14 complex | | Frontiers in biology
Orli Bahcall, Angela K. Eggleston, Nathalie Le Bot et al. | Tracing the peopling of the world through genomics
Rasmus Nielsen, Joshua M. Akey, Mattias Jakobsson et al. | From morphogen to morphogenesis and back
Darren Gilmour, Martina Rembold, Maria Leptin | Elements of cancer immunity and the cancer–immune set point
Daniel S. Chen, Ira Mellman | Scaling single-cell genomics from phenomenology to mechanism
Amos Tanay, Aviv Regev | Chemical and structural effects of base modifications in messenger RNA
Emily M. Harcourt, Anna M. Kietrys, Eric T. Kool | | Asgard archaea illuminate the origin of eukaryotic cellular complexity
This work describes the Asgard superphylum, an assemblage of diverse archaea that comprises Odinarchaeota, Heimdallarchaeota, Lokiarchaeota and Thorarchaeota, offering insights into the earliest days of eukaryotic cells and their complex features.
Katarzyna Zaremba-Niedzwiedzka, Eva F. Caceres, Jimmy H. Saw et al. | Rational design of reconfigurable prismatic architected materials
A robust and scale-independent strategy for the design of reconfigurable architected materials (in which properties are adjusted by altering structure rather than composition) is described, based on space-filling assemblies of polyhedra.
Johannes T. B. Overvelde, James C. Weaver, Chuck Hoberman et al. | Genomic hallmarks of localized, non-indolent prostate cancer
Genomic analyses of localized, non-indolent prostate cancer identify recurrent aberrations that can predict relapse, and also highlight differences between early prostate cancer and metastatic, castration-resistant disease.
Michael Fraser, Veronica Y. Sabelnykova, Takafumi N. Yamaguchi et al. | Reversible methylation of m6Am in the 5′ cap controls mRNA stability
Fat mass and obesity-associated protein (FTO) preferentially demethylates m6Am, a modified adenosine that, when present at the 5′ end of certain mRNAs, positively influences mRNA stability by preventing DCP2-mediated decapping.
Jan Mauer, Xiaobing Luo, Alexandre Blanjoie et al. | Integration of temporal and spatial patterning generates neural diversity
Combinatorial inputs from temporal and spatial axes act together to promote medullary neural diversity in the optic lobes of Drosophila.
Ted Erclik, Xin Li, Maximilien Courgeon et al. | | Hurricane intensification along United States coast suppressed during active hurricane periods
In general, if there are fewer Atlantic hurricanes, those near the US coast are more likely to intensify, whereas if there are many hurricanes, then those near the coast are more likely to weaken because of high local wind shear and low sea surface temperatures.
James P. Kossin | Structural basis for nutrient acquisition by dominant members of the human gut microbiota
The authors present structures of nutrient transport complexes of the commensal bacterium Bacteroides thetaiotaomicron and the mechanism by which it imports glycans.
Amy J. Glenwright, Karunakar R. Pothula, Satya P. Bhamidimarri et al. | Genetic variants regulating expression levels and isoform diversity during embryogenesis
The effects of genetic variation on transcriptional and post-transcriptional regulation are systematically mapped across multiple stages of embryogenesis in eighty inbred Drosophila lines, identifying thousands of quantitative trait loci affecting approximately 17% of expressed genes, often with heteroalleic interactions.
Enrico Cannavò, Nils Koelling, Dermot Harnett et al. | The role of interfacial lipids in stabilizing membrane protein oligomers
Membrane lipids such as cardiolipin act as molecular glue to preserve the oligomeric states of membrane proteins with low oligomeric stability.
Kallol Gupta, Joseph A. C. Donlan, Jonathan T. S. Hopper et al. | Hyoliths are Palaeozoic lophophorates
Analysis of exceptionally preserved fossils of the Cambrian hyolith Haplophrentis leads to a proposed evolutionary relationship with Lophophorata, the group containing brachiopods and phoronids, on the basis of a newly described tentacular feeding apparatus.
Joseph Moysiuk, Martin R. Smith, Jean-Bernard Caron | PLA2G16 represents a switch between entry and clearance of Picornaviridae
The phospholipase PLA2G16 is required for the entry of picornaviruses, and in its absence, virus infection is prevented by a galectin-8-mediated process.
Jacqueline Staring, Eleonore von Castelmur, Vincent A. Blomen et al. | Subcycle quantum electrodynamics
Few-femtosecond laser pulses are used to generate squeezed mid-infrared light transients and to detect distorted quantum fluctuations of the electric field directly in the time domain.
C. Riek, P. Sulzer, M. Seeger et al. | Kinetically E-selective macrocyclic ring-closing metathesis
Ring-closing metathesis is a widely used chemical transformation that can generate organic macrocycle compounds; here, an approach is described by which the E-stereoisomer of a macrocycle is generated selectively, exemplified by synthesizing the antibiotic recifeolide and the anti-cancer drug pacritinib.
Xiao Shen, Thach T. Nguyen, Ming Joo Koh et al. | Evolution of the global phosphorus cycle
Low phosphorus burial in shallow marine sedimentary rocks before about 750 million years ago implies a change in the global phosphorus cycle, coinciding with the end of what may have been a stable low-oxygen world.
Christopher T. Reinhard, Noah J. Planavsky, Benjamin C. Gill et al. | A theoretical foundation for multi-scale regular vegetation patterns
Empirically validated mathematical models show that a combination of intraspecific competition between subterranean social-insect colonies and scale-dependent feedbacks between plants can explain the spatially periodic vegetation patterns observed in many landscapes, such as the Namib Desert ‘fairy circles’.
Corina E. Tarnita, Juan A. Bonachela, Efrat Sheffer et al. | Microenvironmental autophagy promotes tumour growth
During early-stage tumour growth in Drosphila, tumour cells acquire necessary nutrients by triggering autophagy in surrounding cells in the tumour microenvironment.
Nadja S. Katheder, Rojyar Khezri, Fergal O’Farrell et al. | | | | |
