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Biogeochemistry: Food
for early animal evolution
A revised
timeline for when algae became ecologically important
among plankton in the ancient oceans reveals a link
between chemical changes in those waters and the
emergence of animals in marine ecosystems. |
Global health:
Probiotic prevents infections in newborns
A
major cause of death and disease in babies is the
failure of their developing immune systems to block
life-threatening infections. A clinical trial reports
that the use of a probiotic can help to prevent such
infections. |
Biochemistry: A toxin
that fuels metabolism
Formaldehyde, a
DNA-damaging agent formed in cells, has now been shown
to support metabolic processes that involve molecular
units containing a single carbon atom — linking
metabolism to a DNA-protection mechanism. |
A randomized synbiotic
trial to prevent sepsis among infants in rural
India
A synbiotic
preparation of Lactobacillus plantarum and
fructooligosaccharide was found to significantly reduce
sepsis and infections of the lower respiratory tract in
a trial involving rural Indian newborns. |
Mammals divert
endogenous genotoxic formaldehyde into one-carbon
metabolism
The mechanism by
which formaldehyde, a potent DNA and protein
crosslinking agent, is generated from folate is
described, with implications for the treatment of
certain cancers. |
The primed
SNARE–complexin–synaptotagmin complex for neuronal
exocytosis
An atomic model
of the primed pre-fusion SNARE–complexin–synaptotagmin-1
complex in neuronal exocytosis accounting for vesicle
priming and cooperation in synchronizing and activating
evoked release on the sub-millisecond
timescale. |
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The rise of algae in
Cryogenian oceans and the emergence of
animals
Steroid
biomarkers provide evidence for a rapid rise of marine
planktonic algae between 659 and 645 million years ago,
establishing more efficient energy transfers and driving
ecosystems towards larger and increasingly complex
organisms. |
Vaccine-driven
pharmacodynamic dissection and mitigation of
fenethylline psychoactivity
A vaccine-driven
approach shows that the prominent stimulant features of
the psychoactive profile of fenethylline can be
attributed to amphetamine, with synergistic support from
theophylline, and no direct contributions from the
parent drug molecule. |
CDK4/6 inhibition
triggers anti-tumour immunity
Mouse models of
breast carcinoma and other solid tumours show that
selective cyclin-dependent kinase 4 and 6 (CDK4/6)
inhibitors not only induce tumour cell cycle arrest but
also promote anti-tumour immunity. |
Stromal R-spondin
orchestrates gastric epithelial stem cells and gland
homeostasis
Myofibroblast-derived
R-spondin 3 orchestrates regeneration of antral stomach
epithelium via Wnt signalling in Axin2+
stem cells. |
CMTM6 maintains the
expression of PD-L1 and regulates anti-tumour
immunity
CMTM6 maintains
PD-L1 at the plasma membrane by inhibiting its
lysosome-mediated degradation and promoting its
recycling. |
Mechanism of
intracellular allosteric β2AR antagonist
revealed by X-ray crystal structure
The authors
report the crystal structure of the β2
adrenergic receptor in complex with compound 15, an
allosteric modulator that binds to an alternative
binding pocket. |
Polylox
barcoding reveals haematopoietic stem cell fates
realized in vivo
An artificial
recombination locus, Polylox, that can generate
hundreds of thousands of individual barcodes is used to
trace the fates of haematopoietic stem cells in
mice. |
Identification of
CMTM6 and CMTM4 as PD-L1 protein regulators
CMTM6
and CMTM4 bind to and stabilize the inhibitory receptor
PD-L1 and regulate PD-L1 levels at the surface of human
tumour and immune
cells. | |
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For use with LC-MS/MS instruments,
Shimadzu's Noviplex Cards allow for rapid
collection of a volumetric sample of plasma from
an unmeasured amount of whole blood within
minutes. They can be used as a single step,
solid-phase method for sample preparation and
analyte extraction.
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New gliding
mammaliaforms from the Jurassic
Maiopatagium,
a haramiyid from the Jurassic Tiaojishan Formation
(around 160 million years ago) of China was specialised
for gliding with a patagium (wing membrane) and a fused
wishbone, reminiscent of that of birds.
Qing-Jin
Meng, David M. Grossnickle, Di Liu et
al. |
Integrative clinical
genomics of metastatic cancer
Clinical exome
and transcriptome sequencing of 500 adult patients with
metastatic solid tumours of diverse lineage and biopsy
site, as part of the Michigan Oncology Sequencing
(MI-ONCOSEQ) Program.
Dan
R. Robinson, Yi-Mi Wu, Robert J. Lonigro et
al. | |
Vigorous atmospheric
motion in the red supergiant star Antares
Mapping the
velocity of the gas at the surface and in the atmosphere
of the nearby red supergiant star Antares reveals
vigorous motion of several huge gas clumps in an
extended atmosphere, which cannot be fully explained by
convection.
K.
Ohnaka, G. Weigelt, K.-H. Hofmann |
Electronic in-plane
symmetry breaking at field-tuned quantum criticality in
CeRhIn5
Electronic
nematicity is observed in a heavy-fermion
superconductor, CeRhIn5, suggesting a close
link between unconventional superconductivity and the
appearance of nematicity.
F.
Ronning, T. Helm, K. R. Shirer et
al. |
Ram-pressure feeding
of supermassive black holes
The majority of
‘jellyfish’ galaxies, characterized by long ‘tentacles’
of gas, also have active nuclei, indicating that gas is
being fed to the central supermassive black hole by ram
pressure.
Bianca
M. Poggianti, Yara L. Jaffé, Alessia Moretti et
al. |
Chaotic dynamics in
nanoscale NbO2 Mott memristors for analogue
computing
A relaxation
oscillator incorporating nanoscale niobium dioxide
memristors that exhibit both a current- and a
temperature-controlled negative differential resistance
produces chaotic dynamics that aid biomimetic
computing.
Suhas
Kumar, John Paul Strachan, R. Stanley
Williams |
An early modern human
presence in Sumatra 73,000–63,000 years ago
Morphological
analysis of teeth found at Lida Ajer shows that these
belong to Homo sapiens, indicating that modern
humans were in Sumatra between 73,000 and 63,000 years
ago.
K.
E. Westaway, J. Louys, R. Due Awe et
al. |
New evidence for
mammaliaform ear evolution and feeding adaptation in a
Jurassic ecosystem
The fossil of a
gliding mammal from the Tiaojishan Formation of China
displays many unique features of its ears, teeth and
tooth-replacement pattern, illustrating the great
diversity of stem mammals living in the Jurassic
period.
Zhe-Xi
Luo, Qing-Jin Meng, David M. Grossnickle et
al. |
Rewiring the taste
system
Taste-receptor
cells use distinct semaphorins to guide wiring of the
peripheral taste system; targeted ectopic expression of
SEMA3A or SEMA7A leads to bitter neurons responding to
sweet tastes or sweet neurons responding to bitter
tastes.
Hojoon
Lee, Lindsey J. Macpherson, Camilo A. Parada et
al. |
Correction of aberrant
growth preserves tissue homeostasis
Intravital
imaging reveals unanticipated plasticity of adult skin
epithelium in mice when faced with mutational or
non-mutational insults, and elucidates the dynamic
cellular behaviours used for its return to a homeostatic
state.
Samara
Brown, Cristiana M. Pineda, Tianchi Xin et
al. |
m6A mRNA
methylation controls T cell homeostasis by targeting the
IL-7/STAT5/SOCS pathways
The authors
assess the role of N
6-methyladenosine in T cell development
and function, and show that RNA methylation controls T
cell homeostasis by regulating IL-7-mediated STAT5
activation.
Hua-Bing
Li, Jiyu Tong, Shu Zhu et al. |
Genome-scale
activation screen identifies a lncRNA locus regulating a
gene neighbourhood
Long noncoding
RNAs are investigated using a CRISPR–Cas9 activation
screen and shown to confer BRAF inhibitor resistance on
melanoma cells through various local
mechanisms.
Julia
Joung, Jesse M. Engreitz, Silvana Konermann et
al. |
mRNA 3′ uridylation
and poly(A) tail length sculpt the mammalian maternal
transcriptome
TUT4 and TUT7
mediate 3′ uridylation of mRNA transcripts,
preferentially those with short poly(A) tails; in the
absence of TUT4 and TUT7, oocytes cannot mature and
female mice are infertile.
Marcos
Morgan, Christian Much, Monica DiGiacomo et
al. |
Cryo-EM structure of
the protein-conducting ERAD channel Hrd1 in complex with
Hrd3
The structure of
yeast Hrd1 in complex with Hrd3 shows that Hrd1 forms an
aqueous cavity with a lateral seal within the
endoplasmic reticulum membrane, shedding light on how
misfolded proteins are transported out of the
endoplasmic reticulum.
Stefan
Schoebel, Wei Mi, Alexander Stein et
al. |
Structural insights
into ligand recognition by the lysophosphatidic acid
receptor LPA6
Determination of
the crystal structure of the zebrafish LPA6
receptor shows that the lipid ligand binds to an unusual
ligand-binding pocket in the receptor that is laterally
accessible through the membrane.
Reiya
Taniguchi, Asuka Inoue, Misa Sayama et
al. | | |
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