| | Structural biology: A photo shoot of plant photosystem II
In photosynthesis, the plant photosystem II uses the energy in sunlight to oxidize water. The high-resolution structure of this crucial supercomplex has now been obtained using cryo-electron microscopy. | Cell biology: Killer enzymes tethered
Caspase enzymes promote cell death, but are also involved in sperm development in fruit flies. The discovery that, in sperm, caspase activation is restricted to the surface of organelles called mitochondria sheds light on this unusual role. | TRPV1 structures in nanodiscs reveal mechanisms of ligand and lipid action
Cryo-electron microscopy has undergone a resolution revolution—here, this method has been combined with lipid nanodisc technology to solve structures of TRPV1, the receptor for capsaicin, in a membrane bilayer, revealing mechanisms of lipid and ligand regulation. | Tracing haematopoietic stem cell formation at single-cell resolution
Successful identification of mouse embryonic pre-haematopoietic stem cells at single-cell resolution. | Structure of spinach photosystem II–LHCII supercomplex at 3.2 Å resolution
A high-resolution structural study sheds light on processes of energy transfer within the photosynthetic water-splitting machinery of plants. | Carcinoma–astrocyte gap junctions promote brain metastasis by cGAMP transfer
A heterotypic cell interaction between astrocytes and tumour cells colonizing the brain is discovered; by establishing gap junctions, tumour cells trigger the activation of innate immune response signalling in astrocytes, which results in the secretion of factors that support growth and chemoresistance in brain metastatic cells. | Strongly correlated perovskite fuel cells
A fundamentally different approach to designing solid oxide electrolytes is presented, using a phase transition to suppress electronic conduction in a correlated perovskite nickelate; this yields ionic conductivity comparable to the best-performing solid electrolytes in the same temperature range. | Concerted nucleophilic aromatic substitution with 19F− and 18F−
Nucleophilic aromatic substitution (SNAr) is the most commonly used method to generate arenes that contain 18F for use in PET imaging; here, an unusual concerted SNAr reaction is presented that is not limited to electron-poor arenes. | Overcoming mTOR resistance mutations with a new-generation mTOR inhibitor
Inhibitors of the mTOR kinase are in clinical trials for the treatment of cancer; here, mutations in mTOR that can lead to drug resistance are investigated and the results are used to design a new class of mTOR inhibitors that can overcome this resistance. | Access of protective antiviral antibody to neuronal tissues requires CD4 T-cell help
Interferon-γ-secreting CD4+ helper T cells are required for antibody access to neuronal tissues in response to neurotropic virus infections. | Metastable high-entropy dual-phase alloys overcome the strength–ductility trade-off
An alloy design strategy that aims for phase metastability, rather than phase stability, is described that will lead to the development of transformation-induced plasticity-assisted, dual-phase high-entropy alloys, which exhibit a rare combined increase in strength and ductility. | Charge-density analysis of an iron–sulfur protein at an ultra-high resolution of 0.48 Å
The ultra-high-resolution structure of the high-potential iron–sulfur protein at 0.48 Å, the highest-resolution X-ray crystal structure of a protein reported so far. | | Corrigendum: Convergence of terrestrial plant production across global climate gradients | | Corrigendum: Mitochondrial ROS regulate thermogenic energy expenditure and sulfenylation of UCP1 | | | | Japan is among the top producers of high quality research in the world, but new analysis using the Nature Index reveals this position is being challenged.
See the efforts being made to reverse this decline and how international collaborations are playing a role in the strategies of Japan's institutions. | | | | | | | | | | | A platform for the discovery of new macrolide antibiotics
A practical, fully synthetic route to macrolide antibiotics via the convergent assembly of simple chemical building blocks is described; more than 300 new macrolide antibiotic candidates have been synthesized using this approach, a number of which are active against bacterial strains that are resistant to currently used antibiotics.
Ian B. Seiple, Ziyang Zhang, Pavol Jakubec et al. | Structure of the T4 baseplate and its function in triggering sheath contraction
A tour-de-force of structural biology solves the structure of the macromolecular injection machinery used to deliver a phage genome into a bacterium.
Nicholas M. I. Taylor, Nikolai S. Prokhorov, Ricardo C. Guerrero-Ferreira et al. | Transcription initiation complex structures elucidate DNA opening
The cryo-electron microscopy structures of yeast initiation complexes containing the transcription factors TBP, TFIIA, TFIIB, TFIIE, and TFIIF and containing either closed or open promoter DNA are reported, providing mechanistic insights into DNA opening and template-strand loading.
C. Plaschka, M. Hantsche, C. Dienemann et al. | Near-atomic resolution visualization of human transcription promoter opening
Cryo-electron microscopy structural models of the human pre-initiation complex at all major steps of transcription initiation at near atomic-level resolution are presented, providing new mechanistic insights into the processes of promoter melting and transcription-bubble formation, as well as an almost complete proposed structural model of all of the pre-initiation complex components and their interactions with DNA.
Yuan He, Chunli Yan, Jie Fang et al. | | An irradiated brown-dwarf companion to an accreting white dwarf
Spectroscopic detection and characterization of an irradiated substellar donor planet in an accreting white-dwarf binary system reveals a donor mass of 0.055 ± 0.008 solar masses, an average spectral type of L1 ± 1 and an average irradiation-induced temperature difference between the dayside and nightside of 57 kelvin.
Juan V. Hernández Santisteban, Christian Knigge, Stuart P. Littlefair et al. | Self-assembly of coherently dynamic, auxetic, two-dimensional protein crystals
Mutants of the C4-symmetric protein RhuA were designed to self-assemble into two-dimensional crystalline lattices with precise spatial arrangements and patterns; the lattices of one of the variants are auxetic and deform perpendicularly to an applied force in a way that is contrary to what is generally expected in typical materials.
Yuta Suzuki, Giovanni Cardone, David Restrepo et al. | Repeated large-scale retreat and advance of Totten Glacier indicated by inland bed erosion
The stability of the East Antarctic Ice Sheet and its contribution to past sea-level rise are not well defined; in this paper, airborne geophysical data and ice-sheet models are used to show that the Totten Glacier has undergone large-scale retreats and advances, and that it could contribute several metres of sea-level rise in a fully retreated scenario.
A. R. A. Aitken, J. L. Roberts, T. D. van Ommen et al. | Metabolic acceleration and the evolution of human brain size and life history
Compared to other apes, humans live longer, reproduce faster and have larger brains; here, total energy expenditure is studied in humans and all species of great ape, and is shown to be significantly higher in humans, demonstrating that the human lineage has experienced an energy-boosting acceleration in metabolic rate.
Herman Pontzer, Mary H. Brown, David A. Raichlen et al. | Local fitness landscape of the green fluorescent protein
Comprehensive genotype–phenotype mapping of the green fluorescent protein shows that the local fitness peak is narrow, shaped by a high prevalence of epistatic interactions, providing for the loss of fluorescence when the joint effect of mutations exceeds a threshold.
Karen S. Sarkisyan, Dmitry A. Bolotin, Margarita V. Meer et al. | An obligatory role for neurotensin in high-fat-diet-induced obesity
Neurotensin, a peptide expressed in the enteroendocrine cells of the small intestine that is released upon fat ingestion, is shown to increase fatty acid absorption, with neurotensin-deficient mice being protected from obesity induced by a high-fat diet.
Jing Li, Jun Song, Yekaterina Y. Zaytseva et al. | Maintenance and propagation of a deleterious mitochondrial genome by the mitochondrial unfolded protein response
In the context of mitochondrial genome heteroplasmy that causes defective oxidative phosphorylation in C. elegans, the ATFS-1-mediated mitochondrial unfolded protein response maintains the deleterious mitochondrial DNA in an attempt to recover oxidative phosphorylation activity and avoid cellular dysfunction.
Yi-Fan Lin, Anna M. Schulz, Mark W. Pellegrino et al. | Structure of the thermally stable Zika virus
The 3.7 Å cryo-electron microscopy structure of Zika virus is presented, revealing a typical flavivirus architecture; in contrast to the related flavivirus dengue virus, Zika virus is thermally stable at 40 °C, and this structural stability may be a feature that helps it to survive in semen, saliva and urine.
Victor A. Kostyuchenko, Elisa X. Y. Lim, Shuijun Zhang et al. | 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.
Jacob R. Ludwig, Paul M. Zimmerman, Joseph B. Gianino et al. | 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.
Eleni Anagnostou, Eleanor H. John, Kirsty M. Edgar et al. | Deep-sea diversity patterns are shaped by energy availability
Depth-dependent patterns in ocean species diversity can be explained by latitudinal variations in energy availability, with shelf and upper-slope diversity increasing with thermal energy availability, and deep-sea diversity increasing with chemical energy availability; the discovery of these distinct patterns could help to guide the conservation and management of these remote ecosystems.
Skipton N. C. Woolley, Derek P. Tittensor, Piers K. Dunstan et al. | Opponent and bidirectional control of movement velocity in the basal ganglia
Activity in the direct and indirect basal ganglia pathways can bidirectionally control the speed of movements that underlie reward-seeking actions in mice without affecting motivation.
Eric A. Yttri, Joshua T. Dudman | 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.
Eugeniu Nacu, Elena Gromberg, Catarina R. Oliveira et al. | Programmable editing of a target base in genomic DNA without double-stranded DNA cleavage
CRISPR/Cas9 DNA editing creates a double-stranded break in the target DNA, which can frequently generate random insertion or deletion of bases (indels); a new genome editing approach combining Cas9 with a cytidine deaminase is described here, which corrects point mutations more efficiently than canonical Cas9, while avoiding double-stranded breaks and indel formation.
Alexis C. Komor, Yongjoo B. Kim, Michael S. Packer et al. | | | | |
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