| | Rarity in mass extinctions and the future of ecosystems
The fossil record provides a nuanced view of ecosystem collapse over intervals of mass extinction, with abundant, biomineralizing and widespread species preferentially preserved; here the authors collate evidence for 'mass rarity' during these intervals, and suggest that the increasing rarity of modern species, rather than their outright extinction, may be a better metric for comparing the current biodiversity crisis to the 'Big Five' mass extinctions in the Earth's history.
Pincelli M. Hull, Simon A. F. Darroch, Douglas H. Erwin | | Growth and splitting of neural sequences in songbird vocal development
Neural sequences recorded from the vocal premotor area HVC in juvenile birds learning song 'syllables' show 'prototype' syllables forming early, with multiple new highly divergent neural sequences emerging from this precursor syllable as learning progresses.
Tatsuo S. Okubo, Emily L. Mackevicius, Hannah L. Payne et al. | Acute off-target effects of neural circuit manipulations
Transient manipulation of neural activity is widely used to probe the function of specific circuits, yet such targeted perturbations could also have indirect effects on downstream circuits that implement separate and independent functions; a study to test this reveals that transient perturbations of specific circuits in mammals and songbirds severely impair learned skills that recover spontaneously after permanent lesions of the same brain areas.
Timothy M. Otchy, Steffen B. E. Wolff, Juliana Y. Rhee et al. | Functional overlap of the Arabidopsis leaf and root microbiota
The microbiota of the rhizosphere (roots) and phyllosphere (leaves) of healthy plants consist of taxonomically structured bacterial communities; here the majority of species representing the main bacterial phyla from these two organs were isolated and genomes of about 400 representative bacteria were sequenced; the resources of cultured bacteria, corresponding genomes and a gnotobiotic plant system enabled an examination of the taxonomic overlap and functional specialization between the rhizosphere and phyllosphere bacterial microbiota.
Yang Bai, Daniel B. Müller, Girish Srinivas et al. | Phosphorylation and linear ubiquitin direct A20 inhibition of inflammation
The authors define molecular mechanisms by which distinct domains of the ubiquitin editing enzyme A20 contribute to the regulation of inflammation and cell death.
Ingrid E. Wertz, Kim Newton, Dhaya Seshasayee et al. | | Multi-element logic gates for trapped-ion qubits
Harnessing the entanglement of different ionic species could bring new flexibility in quantum computing, and now two groups independently demonstrate entanglement between different atomic species; Tan et al. achieve entanglement between different elements, whereas the related paper by Ballance et al. shows entanglement between different atomic isotopes, together demonstrating a first step towards mixed-species quantum logic.
T. R. Tan, J. P. Gaebler, Y. Lin et al. | Self-shaping of oil droplets via the formation of intermediate rotator phases upon cooling
A mechanism for the repression of homologous recombination in G1, the stage of the cell cycle preceding replication, is determined; the critical aspects are the interaction between BRCA1 and PALB2–BRCA2, and suppression of DNA-end resection.
Nikolai Denkov, Slavka Tcholakova, Ivan Lesov et al. | A large-scale dynamo and magnetoturbulence in rapidly rotating core-collapse supernovae
Global, three-dimensional simulations of rapidly rotating massive stars show that turbulence driven by magnetohydrodynamic instability is a promising mechanism for the formation of pulsars and magnetars, the latter potentially powering hyperenergetic and superluminous supernovae.
Philipp Mösta, Christian D. Ott, David Radice et al. | Hybrid quantum logic and a test of Bell's inequality using two different atomic isotopes
Harnessing the entanglement of different ionic species could bring new flexibility in quantum computing, and now two groups independently demonstrate entanglement between different atomic species; Ballance et al. achieve entanglement between different atomic isotopes, whereas the related paper by Tan et al. shows entanglement between different elements, together demonstrating a first step towards mixed-species quantum logic.
C. J. Ballance, V. M. Schäfer, J. P. Home et al. | Radiative heat transfer in the extreme near field
Nanoscale radiative heat transfer between both dielectric and metal surfaces separated by gaps as small as two nanometres is characterized by large gap-dependent heat transfer enhancements that are accurately modelled by the theoretical framework of fluctuational electrodynamics and has important implications for technological design.
Kyeongtae Kim, Bai Song, Víctor Fernández-Hurtado et al. | Spatial and temporal distribution of mass loss from the Greenland Ice Sheet since AD 1900
Aerial imagery from the 1980s is used to calculate ice mass loss around the entire Greenland Ice Sheet from 1900 to the present; during the twentieth century the Greenland Ice Sheet contributed at least 25.0 ± 9.4 millimetres of global-mean sea level rise.
Kristian K. Kjeldsen, Niels J. Korsgaard, Anders A. Bjørk et al. | Grassland biodiversity bounces back from long-term nitrogen addition
Data from the long-running Park Grass Experiment is used to show that grassland biodiversity is recovering since UK atmospheric nitrogen levels started to decline 25 years ago in all but the most acidic soils.
J. Storkey, A. J. Macdonald, P. R. Poulton et al. | Sex-dependent dominance at a single locus maintains variation in age at maturity in salmon
Age at maturity in Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) is governed to a substantial extent by a locus showing dominance reversal, providing a resolution for sexual conflict in this trait, for which selection favours different ages in the two sexes.
Nicola J. Barson, Tutku Aykanat, Kjetil Hindar et al. | Repairing oxidized proteins in the bacterial envelope using respiratory chain electrons
The identification of an enzymatic system repairing proteins containing oxidized methionine in the bacterial cell envelope, a compartment particularly susceptible to oxidative damage by host defence mechanisms.
Alexandra Gennaris, Benjamin Ezraty, Camille Henry et al. | Neutrophils support lung colonization of metastasis-initiating breast cancer cells
Neutrophils are shown to have a role in driving the metastasis of breast cancer cells to the lung, with neutrophil-derived leukotrienes promoting metastatic initiation in the lung by expanding the sub-pool of cancer cells with high tumorigenic potential.
Stefanie K. Wculek, Ilaria Malanchi | Genetic predisposition to neuroblastoma mediated by a LMO1 super-enhancer polymorphism
A causal variant is identified at the LMO1 oncogene locus that drives the genetic association of LMO1 with neuroblastoma susceptibility; the causal SNP disrupts a GATA transcription factor binding site within a tissue-specific super-enhancer element in the first intron of LMO1, thereby affecting LMO1 expression.
Derek A. Oldridge, Andrew C. Wood, Nina Weichert-Leahey et al. | A mechanism for the suppression of homologous recombination in G1 cells
A mechanism for the repression of homologous recombination in G1, the stage of the cell cycle preceding replication, is determined; the critical aspects are the interaction between BRCA1 and PALB2–BRCA2, and suppression of DNA-end resection.
Alexandre Orthwein, Sylvie M. Noordermeer, Marcus D. Wilson et al. | | | | |
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