| | Coral reefs: Turning back time
An in situ experiment finds that reducing the acidity of the seawater surrounding a natural coral reef significantly increases reef calcification, suggesting that ocean acidification may already be slowing coral growth. | Molecular evolution: Sex accelerates adaptation
An analysis confirms the long-standing theory that sex increases the rate of adaptive evolution by accelerating the speed at which beneficial mutations sweep through sexual, as opposed to asexual, populations. | Gravitational waves: Dawn of a new astronomy
The discovery of gravitational waves from a merging black-hole system opens a window on the Universe that promises to test gravity at its strongest, and to reveal many surprises about black holes and other astrophysical systems. | Genomic analyses identify molecular subtypes of pancreatic cancer
An integrated genomic analysis of 456 human pancreatic ductal adenocarcinomas identifies four subtypes defined by transcriptional expression profiles and show that these are associated with distinct histopathological characteristics and differential prognosis. | Priming and polymerization of a bacterial contractile tail structure
A combination of X-ray crystallography, electron microscopy, functional assays and time-lapse fluorescence microscopy shows that a protein of previously unknown function, TssA, forms a dodecameric complex that interacts with components of the tube and sheath of the type VI secretion system of bacteria, and that it primes and coordinates biogenesis of both the tail tube and the sheath. | Structural basis of outer membrane protein insertion by the BAM complex
Two crystal structures of the Escherichia coli β-barrel assembly machinery (BAM complex) are presented, one of which includes all five subunits (BamA-BamE), in two distinct conformational states; together with functional assays and molecular dynamics stimulations, these structures help to generate a model for outer membrane protein insertion. | Condensation on slippery asymmetric bumps
A surface engineering approach is described that is inspired by the water-condensation capability of the bumps on desert beetles, the droplet transportation facilitated by cactus spines and the slippery coating of the pitcher plant, to produce a structure with many water-harvesting applications. | Mutant Kras copy number defines metabolic reprogramming and therapeutic susceptibilities
Mutant Kras lung tumours are not a single disease but comprise two classes of tumours with distinct metabolic profiles, prognosis and therapeutic susceptibility, which can be discriminated by their relative mutant Kras allelic content. | Structural basis of lenalidomide-induced CK1α degradation by the CRL4CRBN ubiquitin ligase
Thalidomide and its derivative lenalidomide bind the CRL4CRBN E3 ubiquitin ligase and target protein substrates for degradation; structural and functional data determined here show that casein kinase 1α and the lymphoid transcription factor Ikaros, the efficacy targets of lenalidomide in two different blood cancers, interact with the CRBN-lenalidomide interface through a β-hairpin destruction motif. | Change of carrier density at the pseudogap critical point of a cuprate superconductor
Low-temperature measurements of the Hall effect in cuprate materials in which superconductivity is suppressed by high magnetic fields show that the pseudogap is not related to the charge ordering that has been seen at intermediate doping levels, but is instead linked to the antiferromagnetic Mott insulator at low doping. | Crystal structure of eukaryotic translation initiation factor 2B
The crystal structure of Schizosaccharomyces pombe guanine nucleotide exchange factor eIF2B, providing a structural framework for the eIF2B-mediated mechanism of stress-induced translational control. | Sex speeds adaptation by altering the dynamics of molecular evolution
In a comparison between replicate sexual and asexual populations of Saccharomyces cerevisiae, sexual reproduction increases fitness by reducing clonal interference and alters the type of mutations that get fixed by natural selection. | Reversal of ocean acidification enhances net coral reef calcification
A manipulative experiment in which a reef is alkalinized in situ shows that calcification rates are likely to be lower already than they were in pre-industrial times because of acidification. | | Corrigendum: Structural and functional features of central nervous system lymphatic vessels | | Ancient gene flow from early modern humans into Eastern Neanderthals
It is known that there was gene flow from Neanderthals to modern humans around 50,000 years ago; now, analysis of a Neanderthal genome from the Altai Mountains in Siberia reveals evidence of gene flow 100,000 years ago in the other direction-from early modern humans to Neanderthals.
Martin Kuhlwilm, Ilan Gronau, Melissa J. Hubisz et al. | The dynamic N1-methyladenosine methylome in eukaryotic messenger RNA
Here the m1A modification is discovered in messenger RNA and mapped at the transcriptome-wide level; the modification is conserved, dynamic, accumulates in structured regions around translation initiation sites upstream of the first splice site, and correlates with higher protein expression.
Dan Dominissini, Sigrid Nachtergaele, Sharon Moshitch-Moshkovitz et al. | Structural basis for activity regulation of MLL family methyltransferases
Crystal structures of the SET domains of MLL3 and a mutant MLL1 either unbound or complexed with domains from RBBP5 and ASH2L are determined; a combination of structural, biochemical and computational analyses reveals a two-step activation mechanism of MLL family proteins, which may be relevant for other histone methyltransferases.
Yanjing Li, Jianming Han, Yuebin Zhang et al. | Expanding antigen-specific regulatory networks to treat autoimmunity
Nanoparticles coated with autoantigenic peptides bound to MHC class II molecules suppress established autoimmune disease by inducing antigen-specific TR1-like regulatory T cells in mouse and humanized mouse models.
Xavier Clemente-Casares, Jesus Blanco, Poornima Ambalavanan et al. | | Non-destructive state detection for quantum logic spectroscopy of molecular ions
Detecting the quantum states of molecules is harder than detecting those of atoms; here, a way around this problem is found by co-trapping a molecular and an atomic ion, using the state of the atomic ion to non-destructively determine that of the molecular ion.
Fabian Wolf, Yong Wan, Jan C. Heip et al. | Possible light-induced superconductivity in K3C60 at high temperature
By exciting high-temperature K3C60 with mid-infrared pulses, a large increase in carrier mobility is obtained, accompanied by the opening of a gap in the optical conductivity; these same signatures are observed at equilibrium when cooling K3C60 below the superconducting transition temperature of 20 kelvin, which could be an indication of light-induced high-temperature superconductivity.
M. Mitrano, A. Cantaluppi, D. Nicoletti et al. | The host galaxy of a fast radio burst
Observations of a six-day-long radio transient following a fast radio burst have yielded the host galaxy's redshift, which, combined with the dispersion measure, provides a direct measurement of the cosmic density of ionized baryons in the intergalactic medium including all of the so-called 'missing baryons'.
E. F. Keane, S. Johnston, S. Bhandari et al. | A pentanuclear iron catalyst designed for water oxidation
A complex containing five atoms of iron is shown to be a highly efficient and robust water oxidation catalyst owing to the presence of redox flexibility, which enables charge accumulation and electron transfer, and the presence of adjacent active sites that enables intramolecular O-O bond formation.
Masaya Okamura, Mio Kondo, Reiko Kuga et al. | Timescales for detection of trends in the ocean carbon sink
A climate modelling experiment is used to identify where ocean carbon uptake should change as a result of anthropogenic climate change and to distinguish these changes from internal climate variability; we may be able to detect changing uptake in some oceanic regions between 2020 and 2050, but until then, internal climate variability will preclude such detection.
Galen A. McKinley, Darren J. Pilcher, Amanda R. Fay et al. | Third-party punishment as a costly signal of trustworthiness
In human societies, individuals who violate social norms may be punished by third-party observers who have not been harmed by the violator; this study suggests that a reason why the observers are willing to punish is to be seen as more trustworthy by the community.
Jillian J. Jordan, Moshe Hoffman, Paul Bloom et al. | A simple rule governs the evolution and development of hominin tooth size
The inhibitory cascade, an activator-inhibitor mechanism that affects relative tooth size in mammals, produces the default pattern of tooth sizes for all lower primary postcanine teeth in hominins.
Alistair R. Evans, E. Susanne Daly, Kierstin K. Catlett et al. | Adult restoration of Shank3 expression rescues selective autistic-like phenotypes
Re-expression of the Shank3 gene in adult mice results in improvements in synaptic protein composition and spine density in the striatum; Shank3 also rescues autism-like features such as social interaction and grooming behaviour, and the results suggest that aspects of autism spectrum disorders may be reversible in adulthood.
Yuan Mei, Patricia Monteiro, Yang Zhou et al. | Tumour-specific proline vulnerability uncovered by differential ribosome codon reading
Tumours can require certain amino acids for their proliferation, and the diricore method described here helps to identify such restrictive amino acids; using this method in kidney cancer tissue and breast carcinoma cells, the authors observe an association between proline deficiency and upregulation of PYCR1, an enzyme required for proline synthesis.
Fabricio Loayza-Puch, Koos Rooijers, Levi C. M. Buil et al. | Structural basis for promiscuous PAM recognition in type I-E Cascade from E. coli
The structure of E. coli Cascade bound to foreign target DNA is presented, revealing the basis of the relaxed Cascade PAM recognition specificity, which results from its interaction with the minor groove, and demonstrating how a wedge in Cascade forces the directional pairing of the target strand with CRISPR RNA while stabilizing the non-target displaced strand.
Robert P. Hayes, Yibei Xiao, Fran Ding et al. | Inhibiting fungal multidrug resistance by disrupting an activator-Mediator interaction
A small molecule, inhibitor of a protein-protein interaction between the transcription factor Pdr1 and the Med15 subunit of Mediator in the fungal pathogen Candida glabrata, is identified and characterized here; the compound iKIX1 inhibits Pdr1-mediated gene activation and resensitizes drug-resistant C. glabrata to azole antifungals in vitro and in animal models of disseminated and urinary tract infection.
Joy L. Nishikawa, Andras Boeszoermenyi, Luis A. Vale-Silva et al. | Epithelial tricellular junctions act as interphase cell shape sensors to orient mitosis
As fruitfly epithelial cells round up during mitosis, tricellular junctions serve as spatial landmarks, encoding information about interphase cell shape directionality to orient mitosis, and promoting geometric and mechanical sensing in epithelial tissues.
Floris Bosveld, Olga Markova, Boris Guirao et al. | | | | |
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