| | Regeneration: Limb regrowth takes two
Salamanders can regenerate several of their organs, including amputated limbs. Analysis of a Mexican salamander shows that crosstalk between two signalling molecules regulates limb regeneration. | Bioengineering: Evolved to overcome Bt-toxin resistance
Insects readily evolve resistance to insecticidal proteins that are introduced into genetically modified crop plants. Continuous directed evolution has now been used to engineer a toxin that overcomes insect resistance. | Immunology: Mum's microbes boost baby's immunity
The microorganisms that colonize pregnant mice have been shown to prime the innate immune system in newborn offspring, preparing them for life in association with microbes. | Principles underlying sensory map topography in primary visual cortex
Recordings from cat visual cortex show that the cortical maps for stimulus orientation, direction and retinal disparity depend on an organization in which thalamic axons with similar retinotopy and light/dark responses are clustered together in the cortex. | Continuous evolution of Bacillus thuringiensis toxins overcomes insect resistance
Phage-assisted continuous evolution (PACE) rapidly evolves Bacillus thuringiensis toxins through more than 500 generations of mutation, selection, and replication to bind a receptor expressed on the surface of insect-pest midgut cells. | The genetic program for cartilage development has deep homology within Bilateria
Vertebrate and invertebrate cartilage share structural and biochemical properties, and their development is controlled by a highly conserved genetic circuit, suggesting that a deeply homologous mechanism underlies the parallel evolution of cartilage in Bilateria. | Extra-helical binding site of a glucagon receptor antagonist
The X-ray crystal structure of the transmembrane portion of the human glucagon receptor, a class B G-protein-coupled receptor (GPCR), is solved in the presence of the antagonist MK-0893, with potential implications for the development of therapeutics that target other class B GPCRs. | Resolved atomic lines reveal outflows in two ultraluminous X-ray sources
Ultraluminous X-ray sources are thought to be powered by accretion onto a compact object; now the discovery of X-ray emission lines and blueshifted absorption lines in the high-resolution spectra of ultraluminous X-ray sources NGC 1313 X-1 and NGC 5408 X-1 shows that in each case the compact object is surrounded by powerful winds with an outflow velocity of about 0.2 times that of light. | Changing atmospheric CO2 concentration was the primary driver of early Cenozoic climate
A reconstruction of atmospheric CO2 concentration from boron isotopes recorded in planktonic foraminifera examines climate–carbon interactions over the past tens of millions of years and confirms a strong linkage between climate and atmospheric CO2. | Iron(III)-catalysed carbonyl–olefin metathesis
The olefin metathesis reaction of two unsaturated substrates is one of the most powerful carbon–carbon-bond-forming reactions in organic chemistry; here, a catalytic carbonyl–olefin ring-closing metathesis reaction is demonstrated that uses iron, an abundant and environmentally benign metal, as a catalyst. | Chondritic xenon in the Earth’s mantle
High-precision analysis of magmatic gas from the Eifel volcanic area in Germany suggests that the light xenon isotopes reflect a chondritic primordial component that differs from the precursor of atmospheric xenon, consistent with an asteroidal origin for the volatile elements in the Earth’s mantle. | The evolution of cooperation within the gut microbiota
Little is known about cooperative behaviour among the gut microbiota; here, limited cooperation is demonstrated for Bacteroides thetaiotaomicron, but Bacteroides ovatus is found to extracellularly digest a polysaccharide not for its own use, but to cooperatively feed other species such as Bacteroides vulgatus from which it receives return benefits. | Efficient introduction of specific homozygous and heterozygous mutations using CRISPR/Cas9
A CRISPR/Cas9 genome editing framework has been developed that allows controlled introduction of mono- and bi-allelic sequence changes, and is used to generate induced human pluripotent stem cells with heterozygous and homozygous dominant mutations in amyloid precursor protein and presenilin 1 that have been associated with early onset Alzheimer’s disease. | A single injection of anti-HIV-1 antibodies protects against repeated SHIV challenges
A single injection of four anti-HIV-1-neutralizing monoclonal antibodies blocks repeated weekly low-dose virus challenges of simian/human immunodeficiency virus. | Topology of ON and OFF inputs in visual cortex enables an invariant columnar architecture
Two-photon imaging of calcium signals in the tree shrew visual cortex shows that light-responsive and dark-responsive inputs have distinct arrangements that allow the cortex to map the orientation, visual location and spatial phase of visual stimuli. | FGF8 and SHH substitute for anterior–posterior tissue interactions to induce limb regeneration
The long-standing puzzle of why salamander limb regeneration requires anterior and posterior tissue interaction has been solved by the demonstration that fibroblast growth factor 8 and sonic hedgehog are key anterior and posterior cross-inductive signals that drive regeneration. | Molecular mechanism of APC/C activation by mitotic phosphorylation
Phosphorylation of the anaphase-promoting complex (APC/C) allows for its control by the co-activator Cdc20; a mechanism that has relevance to understanding the control of other large multimeric complexes by phosphorylation. | | Corrigendum: Kidney organoids from human iPS cells contain multiple lineages and model human nephrogenesis | | | | 
npj Clean Water: open for submissions
An open access, online-only journal, dedicated to publishing high-quality papers that describe the significant and cutting-edge research that continues to ensure the supply of clean water to populations. | | | | | | | | | | | Natural speech reveals the semantic maps that tile human cerebral cortex
It has been proposed that language meaning is represented throughout the cerebral cortex in a distributed ‘semantic system’, but little is known about the details of this network; here, voxel-wise modelling of functional MRI data collected while subjects listened to natural stories is used to create a detailed atlas that maps representations of word meaning in the human brain.
Alexander G. Huth, Wendy A. de Heer, Thomas L. Griffiths et al. | Robust neuronal dynamics in premotor cortex during motor planning
In mouse cortex, ‘preparatory’ activity that encodes future movements is remarkably robust against large-scale perturbations; this robustness is achieved by corrective signals from unperturbed parts of the network.
Nuo Li, Kayvon Daie, Karel Svoboda et al. | Plankton networks driving carbon export in the oligotrophic ocean
Plankton communities in the top 150 m of the nutrient-depleted, oligotrophic global ocean that are most associated with carbon export include unexpected taxa, such as Radiolaria, alveolate parasites, and Synechococcus and their phages, and point towards potential functional markers predicting a significant fraction of the variability in carbon export in these regions.
Lionel Guidi, Samuel Chaffron, Lucie Bittner et al. | | Dynamics from noisy data with extreme timing uncertainty
A data-analytical approach that can extract the history and dynamics of complex systems from noisy snapshots on timescales much shorter than the uncertainty with which the data were recorded is described; the approach is demonstrated by extracting the dynamics on the few-femtosecond timescale from experimental data recorded with 300-femtosecond timing uncertainty.
R. Fung, A. Ourmazd, A. M. Hanna et al. | Quantum phases from competing short- and long-range interactions in an optical lattice
The simplest form of the Hubbard model includes only on-site interactions, but by placing an optical lattice filled with ultracold rubidium atoms into an optical cavity the Hubbard model is implemented with competing long- and short-range interactions; four phases emerge, namely, a superfluid phase, a Mott insulating phase, a supersolid phase and a charge density wave phase.
Renate Landig, Lorenz Hruby, Nishant Dogra et al. | Nanocrack-regulated self-humidifying membranes
Nanometre-scale cracks in a hydrophobic surface coating applied to hydrocarbon proton-exchange fuel-cell membranes work as tiny valves, delaying water desorption and maintaining ion conductivity in the membrane on dehumidification.
Chi Hoon Park, So Young Lee, Doo Sung Hwang et al. | The pentadehydro-Diels–Alder reaction
A modification to the classic Diels–Alder [4 + 2] cycloaddition reaction, termed the pentadehydro-Diels–Alder reaction, is reported; this reaction generates a highly reactive intermediate, an α,3-dehydrotoluene, that can be captured using various trapping agents to produce structurally diverse products.
Teng Wang, Rajasekhar Reddy Naredla, Severin K. Thompson et al. | Rapid cycling of reactive nitrogen in the marine boundary layer
Aircraft measurements, laboratory photolysis experiments and modelling calculations reveal a mechanism for the recycling of nitric acid into nitrogen oxides; this enables observations to be reconciled with model studies, and suggests that particulate nitrate photolysis could be a substantial tropospheric nitrogen oxide source.
Chunxiang Ye, Xianliang Zhou, Dennis Pu et al. | Bubble accumulation and its role in the evolution of magma reservoirs in the upper crust
Here, the authors model the fluid dynamics that controls the transport of the magmatic volatile phase (MVP) in crystal-rich and crystal-poor magmas; they find that the MVP tends to migrate efficiently in crystal-rich parts of a magma reservoir but to accumulate in crystal-poor parts—possibly explaining why crystal-poor silicic magmas are particularly prone to erupting.
A. Parmigiani, S. Faroughi, C. Huber et al. | The ‘Tully monster’ is a vertebrate
The Tully monster (Tullimonstrum), a problematic fossil from the 309–307-million-year-old Mazon Creek biota of Illinois, is shown to be not only a vertebrate but also akin to lampreys, increasing the morphological disparity of that group.
Victoria E. McCoy, Erin E. Saupe, James C. Lamsdell et al. | The eyes of Tullimonstrum reveal a vertebrate affinity
The eyes of the Tully monster (Tullimonstrum) possess ultrastructural details indicating homology with vertebrate eyes.
Thomas Clements, Andrei Dolocan, Peter Martin et al. | In situ imaging reveals the biomass of giant protists in the global ocean
An in situ imaging technique has been used to show that large rhizarian plankton represent a much larger biomass than previously thought, meaning that they are likely to make an important contribution to ocean ecosystems.
Tristan Biard, Lars Stemmann, Marc Picheral et al. | Musashi-2 attenuates AHR signalling to expand human haematopoietic stem cells
The RNA-binding protein Musashi-2 increases the self-renewing abilities of human haematopoietic stem cells, which have the potential to be used for regenerative therapies.
Stefan Rentas, Nicholas T. Holzapfel, Muluken S. Belew et al. | Normalizing the environment recapitulates adult human immune traits in laboratory mice
The immune system of laboratory mice raised in an ultra-hygienic environment resembles that of newborn humans, but can be induced to resemble the immune system of adult humans or 'dirty' mice by co-housing with pet store-bought mice.
Lalit K. Beura, Sara E. Hamilton, Kevin Bi et al. | The CRISPR-associated DNA-cleaving enzyme Cpf1 also processes precursor CRISPR RNA
The CRISPR-associated protein Cpf1 from Francisella novicida is a novel enzyme with specific, dual-endoribonuclease–endonuclease activities in precursor crRNA processing and crRNA-programmable cleavage of target DNA.
Ines Fonfara, Hagen Richter, Majda Bratovič et al. | The crystal structure of Cpf1 in complex with CRISPR RNA
The crystal structure of monomeric Lachnospiraceae bacterium Cpf1 protein bound to CRISPR RNA is presented, establishing a framework for engineering LbCpf1 to improve its efficiency and specificity for genome editing.
De Dong, Kuan Ren, Xiaolin Qiu et al. | Crystal structure of the human σ1 receptor
The X-ray crystal structures of the human σ1 receptor bound to two different ligands are reported, revealing the overall architecture, oligomerization state, and molecular basis for ligand recognition by this protein.
Hayden R. Schmidt, Sanduo Zheng, Esin Gurpinar et al. | | | | |
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