| | Global risks: Pool knowledge to stem losses from disasters
Public awareness, rigorous risk research and aligned targets will help policy-makers to increase resilience against natural hazards, say Susan L. Cutter and colleagues.
Susan L. Cutter, Alik Ismail-Zadeh, Irasema Alcántara-Ayala et al. | Climate policy: Steps to China's carbon peak
Regional targets and improved market mechanisms could enable the nation's carbon dioxide emissions to peak by 2030, say Zhu Liu and colleagues.
Zhu Liu, Dabo Guan, Scott Moore et al. | Plant science: Rediscovering the bush telegraph
Ian T. Baldwin assesses three books on the rich array of plant behaviours, from sensing to communication.
Ian T. Baldwin | Q&A: Maestros of graphene
Composer Sara Lowes has teamed up with materials scientist Cinzia Casiraghi at the University of Manchester, UK. The result, Lowes' six-part Graphene Suite, premieres next week at the Graphene Week 2015 conference in Manchester, part of the European Union's decade-long, €1-billion (US$1.1-billion) Graphene Flagship research programme. Lowes and Casiraghi talk crotchets, carbon chemistry and the commonalities between women in science and women in music.
Mark Peplow | | | | |
| | Tissue engineering: Organs from the lab
The body's organs are more complex than any factory. Attempts to mirror their physiology in the laboratory are getting closer to capturing their intricacies.
Vivien Marx | | | Nature Index: Nature Index 2015 Global | | | | Nature Index 2015 Global
Mike May, Herb Brody | Global overview
Three regions — North America, North & West Europe, and East & Southeast Asia — produced 91% of the overall 2014 output (WFC) in the Nature Index.
| North America
This region includes lots of strong institutions — from government agencies to universities — but curtailed funding raises concerns for the future.
| North & West Europe
Strong spending and recruitment keep countries in this region near the top of the world's output in the Index, and scientists from universities collaborate more with their neighbours.
| East & Southeast Asia
While remaining strong in chemistry and physical sciences, buoyed by China's growing contribution, the region embarks on collaborations that could extend its reach.
| Central & East Europe
Social change and economic stagnation create challenges for this region's biggest countries, but some of the smaller ones are shining.
| Australasia & Pacific Islands
Research is dominated by heavyweights Australia and New Zealand but shifts in science policy on both sides of the Tasman Sea are creating uncertainty about the future.
| West Asia
International projects — including an advanced particle accelerator and educational facilities — bolster this region's focus on chemistry and physical sciences.
| Central & South Asia
India's dominance continues in this region, but its future funding is tenuous, while neighbouring smaller countries face more fundamental obstacles to scientific success.
| Latin America & Caribbean Islands
There is scope for improvement with the volume and quality of research in this region, but some innovative programmes for study abroad might improve future publications.
| Africa
Public health demands might drive advances in research, but scientists, working against the odds, must also strive to publish in global journals.
| A guide to the Nature Index
A description of the terminology and methodology used in this supplement, and a guide to the functionality available free online at natureindex.com.
| Nature Index tables
| | | | | | |
| | Plant science: Precision positioning with peptides
Two related peptides compete for binding to the same receptor to regulate the spacing of cells on the lower surfaces of leaves. This discovery highlights the complexity of cell signalling in plants.
| Biochemistry: Unexpected role for vitamin B2
An enzyme has been found that alters the molecular structure of vitamin B2, adding a fourth ring to its existing three-ring system. The product catalyses new types of chemistry in concert with certain other enzymes.
| Addendum
| Atomic structure of the APC/C and its mechanism of protein ubiquitination
A cryo-electron microscopy determination of the atomic structures of anaphase-promoting complex (APC/C)–coactivator complexes with either Emi1 or a UbcH10–ubiquitin conjugate.
| HIF-driven SF3B1 induces KHK-C to enforce fructolysis and heart disease
Myocardial hypoxia activates HIF1α, which activates the splicing factor SF3B1, which mediates a splice switch of the fructose-metabolising enzyme KHK, so that the C isoform that has superior affinity for fructose is expressed in the heart—pathological heart growth and contractile dysfunction can therefore be suppressed by depleting SF3B1 or deleting KHK.
| Competitive binding of antagonistic peptides fine-tunes stomatal patterning
An investigation of the molecular mechanism of stomatal development and patterning finds an unexpected signalling mechanism: two signalling peptides (STOMAGEN, a positive regulator of stomatal development; and EPF2, a negative regulator of this process) use the same receptor kinase, ERECTA, to fine-tune stomatal development.
| Unusual biology across a group comprising more than 15% of domain Bacteria
More than 15% of the bacterial domain consists of a radiation of phyla about which very little is known; here, metagenomics is used to reconstruct 8 complete and 789 draft genomes from more than 35 of these phyla, revealing a shared evolutionary history, metabolic limitations, and unusual ribosome compositions.
| Spatiotemporal control of a novel synaptic organizer molecule
Neuronal synapses need to be formed at the right time and the right place during nervous system development; here, three gene-regulatory factors (the UNC-30, LIN-14 and UNC-55 DNA-binding proteins) are shown to operate in an intersectional manner to control the expression of a novel synaptic organizer molecule, OIG-1.
| UbiX is a flavin prenyltransferase required for bacterial ubiquinone biosynthesis
Ubiquinone is an essential component of electron transfer chains found both in bacteria and in mitochondria; the bacterial enzyme UbiX involved in ubiquinone biosynthesis is a flavin prenyltransferase, and the flavin-derived cofactor synthesized by UbiX is used by the UbiD decarboxylase in the ubiquinone biosynthetic pathway.
| New cofactor supports α,β-unsaturated acid decarboxylation via 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition
The Fdc1 protein from Aspergillus niger (which is homologous to the UbiD enzyme) uses a new prenylated flavin cofactor to achieve 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition chemistry and catalyse the reversible decarboxylation of aromatic carboxylic acids.
| Single-cell chromatin accessibility reveals principles of regulatory variation
A single-cell method for probing genome-wide chromatin accessibility has been developed; the results provide insight into the relationship between cell-to-cell variation associated with specific trans-factors and cis-elements, as well insights into the relationship between chromatin accessibility and three-dimensional genome organization.
| Temporal and spatial analysis of the 2014–2015 Ebola virus outbreak in West Africa OPEN
Analysis of 179 new Ebola virus sequences from patient samples collected in Guinea between March 2014 and January 2015 shows how different lineages evolved and spread in West Africa.
| Corrigendum: Genome-wide characterization of the routes to pluripotency
| Corrigendum: Divergent reprogramming routes lead to alternative stem-cell states
| | | | | 
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| | | | | | | | | | | | | Pacific western boundary currents and their roles in climate
A review of western boundary currents in the Pacific Ocean explores their far-reaching influence on the El Niño/Southern Oscillation, the Indonesian Throughflow, Asian monsoons, and ocean circulation in the South China Sea, and concludes that major conceptual and technical progress will be needed to close the regional mass budget and provide robust projections of Pacific western boundary currents in a changing climate.
Dunxin Hu, Lixin Wu, Wenju Cai et al. | | Hippocampal–prefrontal input supports spatial encoding in working memory
Spatial working memory is known to involve the prefrontal cortex and the hippocampus, but the specificities of the connection have been unclear; now, a direct path between these two areas is defined that is necessary for the encoding of spatial cues in mice, but is not required for the maintenance or retrieval of these cues.
Timothy Spellman, Mattia Rigotti, Susanne E. Ahmari et al. | A novel multiple-stage antimalarial agent that inhibits protein synthesis
The description of a compound (DDD107498) with antimalarial activity against multiple life-cycle stages of Plasmodium falciparum and good pharmacokinetic and safety properties, with potential for single-dose treatment, chemoprotection and prevention of transmission.
Beatriz Baragaña, Irene Hallyburton, Marcus C. S. Lee et al. | | A permanent, asymmetric dust cloud around the Moon
Observations are reported of a permanent, asymmetric dust cloud around the Moon, caused by impacts of high-speed cometary dust particles on eccentric orbits, as opposed to particles of asteroidal origin following near-circular paths striking the Moon at lower speeds.
M. Horányi, J. R. Szalay, S. Kempf et al. | Multiple complexation of CO and related ligands to a main-group element
Transition metal–ligand fragments are often able to bind and release several carbon monoxide molecules, such as the catalysts used in industrial-scale acetic acid synthesis and the active sites of hydrogenase enzymes, but main-group elements have never shown an ability to bind more than one carbon monoxide molecule; here a boron-based compound stable to moisture and air is synthesized and shown to contain multiple carbon monoxide units bound to the central boron atom.
Holger Braunschweig, Rian D. Dewhurst, Florian Hupp et al. | An enigmatic plant-eating theropod from the Late Jurassic period of Chile
A new dinosaur from the Late Jurassic period of Chile (about 150 million years ago) has been discovered and identified as a primitive kind of theropod that, unusually, was herbivore.
Fernando E. Novas, Leonardo Salgado, Manuel Suárez et al. | Activating positive memory engrams suppresses depression-like behaviour
Acute re-activation of a positive memory engram suppresses depression-like behaviour in mice exposed to chronic stress, mediated by a hippocampus–amygdala–nucleus-accumbens pathway.
Steve Ramirez, Xu Liu, Christopher J. MacDonald et al. | α-Synuclein strains cause distinct synucleinopathies after local and systemic administration
Brain α-synuclein deposits are the hallmark of various distinct neurodegenerative diseases, and it is proposed that α-synuclein assemblies with different structural characteristics or 'strains' (ribbons or fibrils) could account for pathological differences between these diseases; here different human α-synuclein strains are injected into rat brain, and are shown to propagate in a strain-dependent manner and cause different pathological and neurotoxic phenotypes.
W. Peelaerts, L. Bousset, A. Van der Perren et al. | MET is required for the recruitment of anti-tumoural neutrophils
Whether neutrophils exert an anti- or pro-tumorigenic function has remained controversial; now, expression of the receptor molecule MET in neutrophils is shown to be required for their ability to restrict tumour growth in several mouse cancer models, with potential implications for human cancer therapy.
Veronica Finisguerra, Giusy Di Conza, Mario Di Matteo et al. | The mass of the Mars-sized exoplanet Kepler-138 b from transit timing
Transit timing reveals the masses for the three small planets orbiting the star Kepler-138.
Daniel Jontof-Hutter, Jason F. Rowe, Jack J. Lissauer et al. | Regulation of endoplasmic reticulum turnover by selective autophagy
The protein FAM134B is an endoplasmic reticulum (ER)-resident receptor that facilitates ER autophagy, and downregulation of this protein (mutations of which are also known to cause sensory neuropathy in humans) results in expanded ER structures and degeneration of mouse sensory neurons.
Aliaksandr Khaminets, Theresa Heinrich, Muriel Mari et al. | Alternative 3′ UTRs act as scaffolds to regulate membrane protein localization
Many human genes undergo alternative cleavage and polyadenylation to generate messenger RNA transcripts with different lengths at the 3' untranslated regions (3' UTRs) but that encode the same protein; now it is shown that these alternative 3' UTRs regulate protein localization.
Binyamin D. Berkovits, Christine Mayr | Synthesis and applications of RNAs with position-selective labelling and mosaic composition
A hybrid solid–liquid phase transcription method and automated robotic platform synthesizes position-specific, fluorescence- or isotope-labelled RNA.
Yu Liu, Erik Holmstrom, Jinwei Zhang et al. | IL-17-producing γδ T cells and neutrophils conspire to promote breast cancer metastasis
Tumours maximize their chance of metastasizing by evoking a systemic inflammatory cascade in mouse models of spontaneous breast cancer metastasis.
Seth B. Coffelt, Kelly Kersten, Chris W. Doornebal et al. | Receptor-mediated selective autophagy degrades the endoplasmic reticulum and the nucleus
In yeast, the novel protein Atg40 is enriched in the cortical and cytoplasmic endoplasmic reticulum (ER), and loads these ER subdomains into autophagosomes to facilitate ER autophagy; Atg39 localizes to the perinuclear ER and induces autophagic sequestration of part of the nucleus, thus ensuring cell survival under nitrogen-deprived conditions.
Keisuke Mochida, Yu Oikawa, Yayoi Kimura et al. | | | | |
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