| | Neuroscience: A mechanism for myelin injury
The cells that insulate neuronal processes with a myelin membrane sheath are damaged during stroke. Data now show that an influx of calcium ions mediated by the TRPA1 protein contributes to myelin injury. | Ecology: Biodiversity and productivity entwined
A systems-level analysis of grasslands across the planet provides stimulating insight into the interlaced pathways that connect species diversity and biological productivity in ecological communities. | Cell biology: Lipid code for membrane recycling
The sequential action of enzymes has been shown to modify members of a class of membrane lipid called phosphoinositides to direct integral membrane proteins for recycling. | Divergent clonal selection dominates medulloblastoma at recurrence
To address the question of whether a recurrent tumour is genetically similar to the tumour at diagnosis, the evolution of medulloblastoma has been studied in both an in vivo mouse model of clinical tumour therapy as well as in humans with recurrent disease; targeted tumour therapies are usually based on targets present in the tumour at diagnosis but the results from this study indicate that post-treatment recurring tumours (compared with the tumour at diagnosis) have undergone substantial clonal divergence of the initial dominant tumour clone. | Codon influence on protein expression in E. coli correlates with mRNA levels
In-depth analyses of protein expression studies are used to derive a new codon-influence metric that correlates with global protein levels, mRNA levels and mRNA lifetimes in vivo, indicating tight coupling between translation efficiency and mRNA stability; genes redesigned based on these analyses consistently yield high protein expression levels both in vivo and in vitro. | Measurement noise 100 times lower than the quantum-projection limit using entangled atoms
Quantum entanglement is thought to offer great promise for improving measurement precision; now a spin-squeezing implementation with cold atoms offers levels of sensitivity unavailable with any competing conventional method, sensing microwave induced rotations a factor of 70 beyond the standard quantum limit. | Exposed water ice on the nucleus of comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko
Using infrared wavelengths, micrometre-sized water-ice grains have been identified on the nucleus (which is mostly coated in a dark material) of comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko. | NANOG alone induces germ cells in primed epiblast in vitro by activation of enhancers
In mouse embryonic stem cells converted to an epiblast fate in vitro—a state in which the cells can also gain germ cell fate if exposed to the signalling molecule BMP4—the sole expression of the transcription factor NANOG is shown to be sufficient to induce germ cell fate, in the absence of BMP4. | A lithium–oxygen battery based on lithium superoxide
Lithium–oxygen batteries allow oxygen to be reduced at the battery’s cathode when a current is drawn; in present-day batteries, this results in formation of Li2O2, but it is now shown that another high energy density material, namely LiO2, with better electronic conduction can be used instead as the discharge product, if the electrode is decorated with iridium nanoparticles. | Super-resolution imaging reveals distinct chromatin folding for different epigenetic states
Using super-resolution imaging to directly observe the three-dimensional organization of Drosophila chromatin at a scale spanning sizes from individual genes to entire gene regulatory domains, the authors find that transcriptionally active, inactive and Polycomb-repressed chromatin states each have a distinct spatial organisation. | Motor neurons control locomotor circuit function retrogradely via gap junctions
Motor neurons in zebrafish are shown to be more than simply output neurons, since they are able to influence, through gap junctions, the strength of the input they receive from V2a interneurons and, thereby, the frequency and duration of locomotor activity. | A phosphoinositide conversion mechanism for exit from endosomes
A mechanism for phosphoinositide conversion at endosomes to enable exit from the endosomal system, suggesting that defective phosphoinositide conversion at endosomes underlies X-linked centronuclear myopathy. | Proton-gated Ca2+-permeable TRP channels damage myelin in conditions mimicking ischaemia
Ischaemia damages nerve myelin by depriving neurons and their myelinating oligodendrocytes of oxygen and glucose; here it is shown that ischaemic damage is caused through the H+-dependent activation of TRPA1 channels, and not via glutamate receptors of the NMDA type, as previously thought, providing a new mechanism and promising therapeutic targets for diseases as diverse and prevalent as cerebral palsy, spinal cord injury, stroke and multiple sclerosis. | Integrative modelling reveals mechanisms linking productivity and plant species richness
Data from grasslands across five continents show clear signals of numerous underlying mechanisms linking ecosystem productivity and species richness. | Earliest hominin occupation of Sulawesi, Indonesia
New excavations in Sulawesi, where in situ stone artefacts associated with fossil remains of megafauna have been recovered from stratified deposits between 200,000 and 100,000 years ago, suggest that Sulawesi was host to a long-established population of archaic hominins. | | Erratum: Phosphorylation and linear ubiquitin direct A20 inhibition of inflammation | | Corrigendum: D14–SCFD3-dependent degradation of D53 regulates strigolactone signalling | | | |
Infectious disease control and elimination
The Diagnostics Modelling Consortium was established in 2013 to facilitate the integration of diagnostic data into models of disease transmission dynamics. In this supplement, the Consortium and its partners report on the latest research outcomes across several major diseases.
Available free online.
Financial support for publication has been provided by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation | | | | | | | | | | | The global spectrum of plant form and function
The authors found that the key elements of plant form and function, analysed at global scale, are largely concentrated into a two-dimensional plane indexed by the size of whole plants and organs on the one hand, and the construction costs for photosynthetic leaf area, on the other.
Sandra Díaz, Jens Kattge, Johannes H. C. Cornelissen et al. | An ID2-dependent mechanism for VHL inactivation in cancer
HIFα transcription factors are highly expressed in cancer stem cells from glioma; DYRK1 kinases inhibit the protein ID2 to modulate the level of HIF2α and the tumorigenic properties of glioblastoma-associated cancer stem cells.
Sang Bae Lee, Veronique Frattini, Mukesh Bansal et al. | | Rapid removal of organic micropollutants from water by a porous β-cyclodextrin polymer
An alternative material to activated carbon for water remediation is reported: a porous material based on crosslinked cyclodextrins that is better than activated carbons at adsorbing a range of pharmaceuticals, pesticides and other anthropogenic pollutants.
Alaaeddin Alsbaiee, Brian J. Smith, Leilei Xiao et al. | Eight per cent leakage of Lyman continuum photons from a compact, star-forming dwarf galaxy
Far-ultraviolet observations of the nearby low-mass star-forming galaxy J0925+1403 show that the galaxy is leaking ionizing radiation with an escape fraction of about 8 per cent, which is sufficient to ionize intergalactic medium material that is about 40 times as massive as the stellar mass of the galaxy.
Y. I. Izotov, I. Orlitová, D. Schaerer et al. | Weakened magnetic braking as the origin of anomalously rapid rotation in old field stars
The age of a young to middle-aged star can be determined from how quickly or slowly it rotates, but the relationship breaks down for old stars; models now show that old stars are rotating much more quickly than expected, perhaps because magnetic winds are weaker and therefore brake the rotation less effectively.
Jennifer L. van Saders, Tugdual Ceillier, Travis S. Metcalfe et al. | Controlling many-body states by the electric-field effect in a two-dimensional material
To be able to control the properties of a system that has strong electron–electron interactions using only an external electric field would be ideal, but the material must be thin enough to avoid shielding of the electric field in the bulk material; here pure electric-field control of the charge-density wave and superconductivity transition temperatures is achieved by electrolyte gating through an electric-field double layer transistor in the two-dimensional material 1T-TiSe2.
L. J. Li, E. C. T. O’Farrell, K. P. Loh et al. | Iron-catalysed tritiation of pharmaceuticals
An iron-catalysed method for the direct 3H labelling of pharmaceuticals by hydrogen isotope exchange using tritium gas is reported; the site selectivity of the iron catalyst is orthogonal to currently used iridium catalysts and allows isotopic labelling of complementary positions in drug molecules.
Renyuan Pony Yu, David Hesk, Nelo Rivera et al. | Critical insolation–CO2 relation for diagnosing past and future glacial inception
A critical functional relationship between boreal summer insolation and global carbon dioxide concentration is proposed and tested with simulations; it accounts for the beginning of the past eight glacial cycles and predicts that the next one is unusually far off, even without the effect of anthropogenic emissions.
A. Ganopolski, R. Winkelmann, H. J. Schellnhuber | Plant functional traits have globally consistent effects on competition
Data from millions of trees in thousands of locations are used to show that certain key traits affect competitive ability in predictable ways, and that there are trade-offs between traits that favour growth with and without competition.
Georges Kunstler, Daniel Falster, David A. Coomes et al. | Earliest hominin occupation of Sulawesi, Indonesia
New excavations in Sulawesi, where in situ stone artefacts associated with fossil remains of megafauna have been recovered from stratified deposits between 200,000 and 100,000 years ago, suggest that Sulawesi was host to a long-established population of archaic hominins.
Gerrit D. van den Bergh, Bo Li, Adam Brumm et al. | Diet-induced extinctions in the gut microbiota compound over generations
In mice on a low microbiota-accessible carbohydrate (MAC) diet, the diversity of the gut microbiota is depleted, and the effect is transferred and compounded over generations; this phenotype is only reversed after supplementation of the missing taxa via faecal microbiota transplantation, suggesting dietary intervention alone may by insufficient at managing diseases characterized by a dysbiotic microbiota.
Erica D. Sonnenburg, Samuel A. Smits, Mikhail Tikhonov et al. | Tuft-cell-derived IL-25 regulates an intestinal ILC2–epithelial response circuit
Epithelial tuft cells are shown to be the source of intestinal interleukin (IL)-25 that is required for activation of type 2 innate lymphoid cells (ILC2s), ILC2-regulated tuft and goblet cell expansion, and control of parasite infection.
Jakob von Moltke, Ming Ji, Hong-Erh Liang et al. | Intestinal epithelial tuft cells initiate type 2 mucosal immunity to helminth parasites
Epithelial tuft cells secretion of IL-25 is shown to regulate type 2 epithelial responses to helminth parasite infection via an IL-13/IL-4Rα-dependent feedback loop.
François Gerbe, Emmanuelle Sidot, Danielle J. Smyth et al. | Crystal structure of a DNA catalyst
Both DNA and RNA molecules have been shown to exhibit catalytic activity, but only the structure of catalytic RNAs has previously been determined; here the structure of an RNA-ligating DNA in the post-catalytic state is solved.
Almudena Ponce-Salvatierra, Katarzyna Wawrzyniak-Turek, Ulrich Steuerwald et al. | FOXO1 couples metabolic activity and growth state in the vascular endothelium
The transcription factor FOXO1 is identified as a crucial checkpoint of vascular growth, coupling the metabolic and proliferative activities of endothelial cells.
Kerstin Wilhelm, Katharina Happel, Guy Eelen et al. | Structures of two distinct conformations of holo-non-ribosomal peptide synthetases
X-ray crystal structures of two distinct steps in the catalytic cycle of non-ribosomal peptide synthetases are described, offering the potential to generate novel products through engineering enzyme activity.
Eric J. Drake, Bradley R. Miller, Ce Shi et al. | Synthetic cycle of the initiation module of a formylating nonribosomal peptide synthetase
X-ray crystal structures are presented of each major step of the assembly-line synthesis by the initiation module of the nonribosomal peptide synthetase (NRPS) LgrA; the structures reveal large conformational changes, demonstrating a requirement for NRPSs to be very dynamic.
Janice M. Reimer, Martin N. Aloise, Paul M. Harrison et al. | | | | |
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