| | Synthetic biology: Precision timing in a cell
A 16-year-old synthetic genetic circuit that produces gene-expression oscillations in bacterial cells has been given an upgrade, making it an exceptionally precise biological clock.
| Artificial intelligence: Deep neural reasoning
The human brain can solve highly abstract reasoning problems using a neural network that is entirely physical. The underlying mechanisms are only partially understood, but an artificial network provides valuable insight.
| Palaeontology: Ancient avian aria from Antarctica
A discovery of the sound-producing vocal organ known as the syrinx in a bird fossil from the end of the 'age of dinosaurs' highlights the anatomical basis for myriad aspects of avian social and behavioural evolution.
| Drug discovery: Chemical diversity targets malaria
A molecule selected from a library of compounds that have structures similar to natural products targets several stages of the malarial parasite's life cycle, offering single-dose treatment of the disease in mouse models.
| Social science: Female genital cutting under the spotlight
Variations in opinion between members of a community can be exploited to facilitate desirable changes in attitude, as exemplified by films that explore different beliefs about female genital cutting.
| Hybrid computing using a neural network with dynamic external memory
A 'differentiable neural computer' is introduced that combines the learning capabilities of a neural network with an external memory analogous to the random-access memory in a conventional computer.
| Arginine phosphorylation marks proteins for degradation by a Clp protease
| Upper-mantle water stratification inferred from observations of the 2012 Indian Ocean earthquake
Postseismic recordings of the moment magnitude 8.6 Indian Ocean earthquake of 2012, combined with the characteristics of olivine creep, provide constraints on the water content of the asthenosphere.
| Asthenosphere rheology inferred from observations of the 2012 Indian Ocean earthquake
Analysis of the postseismic deformation of the moment magnitude 8.6 Indian Ocean earthquake in 2012 reveals that the asthenospheric layer must be thin and of low viscosity, constraining the structure of oceanic upper-mantle rheology.
| Amide-directed photoredox-catalysed C–C bond formation at unactivated sp3 C–H bonds
The formation of carbon–carbon bonds is achieved via directed cleavage of traditionally non-reactive carbon–hydrogen bonds and their subsequent coupling with readily available alkenes.
| Catalytic alkylation of remote C–H bonds enabled by proton-coupled electron transfer
Catalytic alkylation of C–H bonds is achieved via homolysis of N–H bonds of N-alkyl amides through proton-coupled electron transfer.
| Fetal liver endothelium regulates the seeding of tissue-resident macrophages
PLVAP selectively controls the seeding of fetal liver monocyte-derived tissue-resident macrophages, seemingly by interacting with chemotactic and adhesive molecules at the diaphragms of liver sinusoidal endothelium.
| Allogeneic transplantation of iPS cell-derived cardiomyocytes regenerates primate hearts
Allogenic induced pluripotent stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes transplanted directly into infarcted cynomolgus monkey hearts show electrical coupling with host cardiomyocytes improve cardiac contractile function after mild immunosuppression.
| Cortico-fugal output from visual cortex promotes plasticity of innate motor behaviour
Projections from the mouse visual cortex to the brainstem accessory optic system promote the adaptive plasticity of the optokinetic reflex, which stabilizes images on the retina when an animal is moving.
| A renewed model of pancreatic cancer evolution based on genomic rearrangement patterns
Pancreatic cancer is not caused by a specific series of genetic alterations that occur sequentially but by one, or few, catastrophic events that result in simultaneous oncogenic genetic rearrangements, giving rise to highly aggressive tumours.
| Molecular basis of Lys11-polyubiquitin specificity in the deubiquitinase Cezanne
The structures of the deubiquitinating enzyme Cezanne alone or in complex with its substrate or product are solved, showing how Cezanne specifically targets Lys11-linked polyubiquitin.
| Synchronous long-term oscillations in a synthetic gene circuit
The first synthetic genetic oscillator or 'repressilator' is simplified using insights from stochastic theory, thus achieving remarkably precise and robust oscillations and informing current debates about the next generation of synthetic circuits and their potential applications in cell-based therapies.
| Fossil evidence of the avian vocal organ from the Mesozoic
Birds make sound in the syrinx, a unique vocal organ situated deep in the chest, but little is known about the evolution of this structure; a fossilized Cretaceous age syrinx from Antarctica is described from a species that might have been capable of making a goose-like honking sound.
| Changing cultural attitudes towards female genital cutting
Entertaining movies addressing both individual values and marriageability can provide a way to change cultural attitudes towards female genital cutting within certain cultures.
| Variability in plant nutrients reduces insect herbivore performance
| | In vitro and ex vivo strategies for intracellular delivery
Intracellular delivery methods, which are critical to both fundamental research applications and cell-based therapies, are reviewed, concentrating on membrane-disruption-based methods and the use of nanotechnology, microfluidics and laboratory-on-chip technology.
Martin P. Stewart, Armon Sharei, Xiaoyun Ding et al. | The evolution of Ebola virus: Insights from the 2013–2016 epidemic
A comprehensive review of how analysis of genome sequences provided insights into the origins, evolution and spread of Ebola virus during the 2013–2016 epidemic in West Africa.
Edward C. Holmes, Gytis Dudas, Andrew Rambaut et al. | | The Simons Genome Diversity Project: 300 genomes from 142 diverse populations
Deep whole-genome sequencing of 300 individuals from 142 diverse populations provides insights into key population genetic parameters, shows that all modern human ancestry outside of Africa including in Australasians is consistent with descending from a single founding population, and suggests a higher rate of accumulation of mutations in non-Africans compared to Africans since divergence.
Swapan Mallick, Heng Li, Mark Lipson et al. | A genomic history of Aboriginal Australia
Whole-genome sequence data for 108 individuals representing 28 language groups across Australia and five language groups for Papua New Guinea suggests that Aboriginal Australians and Papuans diverged from Eurasian populations approximately 60–100 thousand years ago, following a single out-of-Africa dispersal and subsequent admixture with archaic populations.
Anna-Sapfo Malaspinas, Michael C. Westaway, Craig Muller et al. | | Formation of new chromatin domains determines pathogenicity of genomic duplications
Genomic duplications in the SOX9 region are associated with human disease phenotypes; a study using human cells and mouse models reveals that the duplications can cause the formation of new higher-order chromatin structures called topologically associated domains (TADs) thereby resulting in changes in gene expression.
Martin Franke, Daniel M. Ibrahim, Guillaume Andrey et al. | Evidence for a limit to human lifespan
Demographic analysis of life expectancy and maximum reported age at death provides evidence that human lifespan has reached its natural limit.
Xiao Dong, Brandon Milholland, Jan Vijg | Genomic analyses inform on migration events during the peopling of Eurasia
Whole-genome sequencing of individuals from 125 populations provides insight into patterns of genetic diversity, natural selection and human demographic history during the peopling of Eurasia and finds evidence for genetic vestiges of an early expansion of modern humans out of Africa in Papuans.
Luca Pagani, Daniel John Lawson, Evelyn Jagoda et al. | A cholinergic basal forebrain feeding circuit modulates appetite suppression
A mouse study reveals that acetylcholine signalling networks have a role in the regulation of body weight homeostasis, with increased activity of cholinergic neurons decreasing food consumption through downstream hypothalamic targets.
Alexander M. Herman, Joshua Ortiz-Guzman, Mikhail Kochukov et al. | Genome-wide associations for birth weight and correlations with adult disease
Multi-ancestry genome-wide association analyses for birth weight in 153,781 individuals identified 60 genomic loci in which birth weight and fetal genotype were associated and found an inverse genetic correlation between birth weight and cardiometabolic risk.
Momoko Horikoshi, Robin N. Beaumont, Felix R. Day et al. | The phylogenetic roots of human lethal violence
The percentage of human deaths caused by interpersonal violence reflects our membership of a particularly violent clade of mammals, although changes in socio-political organization have led to marked variations in this proportion.
José María Gómez, Miguel Verdú, Adela González-Megías et al. | Enhanced flexoelectric-like response in oxide semiconductors
Semiconducting single crystals of doped barium titanate and titanium dioxide exhibit a flexoelectric-like response upon bending that is much larger than in their undoped, insulating counterparts, reaching unprecedentedly large effective flexoelectric coefficients.
Jackeline Narvaez, Fabian Vasquez-Sancho, Gustau Catalan | Tissue-specific mutation accumulation in human adult stem cells during life
Stem cells of the liver, colon and small intestine gradually accumulate mutations throughout life at a similar rate even though cancer incidence varies greatly among these tissues.
Francis Blokzijl, Joep de Ligt, Myrthe Jager et al. | Two distinct RNase activities of CRISPR-C2c2 enable guide-RNA processing and RNA detection
The CRISPR-associated bacterial enzyme C2c2 is shown to contain two separable, distinct sites for the highly sensitive detection and cleavage of single-stranded RNA.
Alexandra East-Seletsky, Mitchell R. O'Connell, Spencer C. Knight et al. | De novo assembly and phasing of a Korean human genome OPEN
De novo assembly and phasing of the genome of an individual from Korea using a combination of different sequencing approaches provides a useful population-specific reference genome and represents the most contiguous human genome assembly so far.
Jeong-Sun Seo, Arang Rhie, Junsoo Kim et al. | 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.
B. Radha, A. Esfandiar, F. C. Wang et al. | Quantifying crater production and regolith overturn on the Moon with temporal imaging
High-resolution 'before and after' imaging of the Moon is used to quantify the rate of crater production and provide insights into the cratering process.
Emerson J. Speyerer, Reinhold Z. Povilaitis, Mark S. Robinson et al. | Evolution of global temperature over the past two million years
Reconstruction of global average surface temperature for the past two million years shows continuous cooling until about 1.2 million years ago, followed by a general flattening, with close coupling of global temperature and atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations over the past 800,000 years.
Carolyn W. Snyder | Progressive incision of the Channeled Scablands by outburst floods
Simulations of water flow and erosion in Moses Coulee suggest that the floods that carved this canyon only partially filled it, implying much lower flood discharges than previously thought.
Isaac J. Larsen, Michael P. Lamb | | | | |
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