Nature contents: 15 August 2013

Can't view this email? Click here to view in your browser.     Volume 500 Number 7462      nature •Visit Nature homepage •Subscribe to Nature •View Table of Contents The science that matters. Every week.               Brazilian researchers simulate formation of carbon nanotube serpentines  Study will allow scientists to control the properties of materials used to produce electronic nanocircuits.   Doctors request revision of criteria for liver transplant Sign up for FAPESP's free weekly newsletter with the latest developments of Brazilian science       Jump to the content that matters to you View Table of Contents ▶ ▼ News & Comment   ▼ Biological Sciences   ▼ Chemical Sciences   ▼ Physical Sciences   ▼ Earth & Environmental Sciences   ▼ Careers & Jobs       This week's highlights     Earth & Environmental Sciences More Earth & Environmental sciences ▼   Climate extremes and the carbon cycle   Recent studies indicate that the extreme climate events — such as heatwaves, droughts and storms — can partially offset carbon sinks or even cause net losses in carbon stocks. This Perspective article investigates the effect of climate extremes on the carbon cycle of terrestrial ecosystems on a global scale and concludes that they have the potential to override the sink effects of gradual warming, contributing to rapid carbon loss from accumulated stocks and increasing atmospheric CO2 concentrations in the near future.       Physical Sciences More Physical sciences ▼   Tunable near-infrared and visible-light transmittance in nanocrystal-in-glass composites   Glass windows let in light and keep out extreme heat and cold but with the advance of the field of electrochromism — the reversible change of optical transmittance in response to electrochemical charge and discharge — they could do much more. Delia Milliron and co-workers have made a step towards 'smart' windows that can cut lighting and heating costs with the demonstration of a composite film composed of tin-doped indium oxide nanocrystals embedded in a niobium oxide glass matrix. By varying an applied voltage the charged nanocrystals selectively block NIR light, while the glass strongly modulates visible light owing to its reconstructed bonding near the nanocrystal-glass interface.       Biological Sciences More Biological sciences ▼   The role of behaviour in adaptive morphological evolution of African proboscideans   The interpretation of fossil morphology is tricky. We usually make an easy equation between morphology and life habits. For example, the low-crowned teeth of archaic elephants, or mastodons, seem to be adapted for eating woody twigs and leaves — behaviour called browsing. The high-crowned teeth of modern elephants are more suited to grazing on grass and similar herbaceous plants. But did the dietary switch occur before their new teeth evolved?. Using proxies from stable isotopes in fossil soils — a marker of whether graze or browse vegetation was consumed — this study shows that browsers were moving into open grassland millions of years before their teeth had evolved graze anatomy.           CAS9-based genome editing service:  Blue Heron offers complete service for CAS9-based genome editing, including donor construction and guide RNA targeting vector (design and build). Free gRNA design tool available. Donor constructs are compatible for ZFN and TAL platform. Get a quote now.           Podcast & Video     In this week's podcast: smart windows beat the heat, remembering things that didn't happen, and the magnetic field around our pet black hole.         News & Comment Read daily news coverage▶ ▲top               THIS WEEK           Editorials                   Beyond headscarf symbolism ▶     Turkey's scientists show they no longer want to expend their energy on political confrontation, but political volatility is threatening their efforts to work in peace.             In addition ▶     Conflicts of interest and gaps in data contaminate US oversight of food additives.             World View                   Halt the avalanche of performance metrics ▶     The increasing dominance of quantitative research assessment threatens the subjective values that really matter in academia, says Colin Macilwain.             Seven Days                   Seven days: 9–15 August 2013 ▶     The week in science: Protestors vandalize Philippine GM rice trial, US sets biofuel requirements, and scientists find clues to animal hosts for MERS coronavirus.             NEWS IN FOCUS           US brain project puts focus on ethics ▶     Unsettling research advances bring neuroethics to the fore.             Russia pins hopes on science city ▶     But sceptics question prospects for Skolkovo commercial park.             Europe sets sights on lasers ▶     Three eastern European countries are gearing up to host powerful light sources.             India spurns cancer patents ▶     Nation seeks to cap high cost of drugs to treat non-infectious diseases.             Feature                   Evidence-based justice: Corrupted memory ▶     Elizabeth Loftus has spent decades exposing flaws in eyewitness testimony. Her ideas are gaining fresh traction in the US legal system.             COMMENT           Ecosystems: Climate change must not blow conservation off course ▶     Reconfiguring protection priorities around global warming could be of limited use or even harmful, say Morgan W. Tingley, Lyndon D. Estes and David S. Wilcove.             Books and Arts                   Environmental policy: The biggest wager ▶     Jon Christensen unpacks the fraught story of a biologist, an economist, and the polarization of US environmental policy.             Q&A: Life-cycle imager ▶     Medic-turned-artist Mark Kessell creates prints evoking evolution and human development using the early photographic form of the daguerreotype. As his latest show opens in New York, he talks about shooting portraits of primates, forceps, the nearly dead and the newly born.             Books in brief ▶             Correspondence                   Reproductive therapy: HFEA responds on germline therapy Peter Thompson | Careers: Ireland's research output set to slide Mark Jessopp, Ruairi O'Reilly, Gordon Dalton | Technology: New electricity grids must develop in sync Ettore Bompard, Marcelo Masera, William J. Nuttall | Environment: Curb clearance for oil-palm plantations Finn Danielsen, Faizal Parish | Wildlife protection: Seize diplomats smuggling ivory Kelvin S.-H. Peh               Biological Sciences ▲top             RESEARCH           Latest Online                   Biological techniques: An embryonic view of tumour development ▶     Pawel J. Schweiger, Kim B. Jensen             Gene regulation: Long RNAs wire up cancer growth ▶     Adam M. Schmitt, Howard Y. Chang             Metabolism: Sweet enticements to move ▶     Cholsoon Jang, Zoltan Arany             RNAi screens in mice identify physiological regulators of oncogenic growth ▶     Slobodan Beronja, Peter Janki, Evan Heller et al.     Here, the first genome-wide in vivo RNA interference screens in a mammalian animal model are reported: genes involved in normal and abnormal epithelial cell growth are studied in developing skin tissue in mouse embryos, and among the findings, β-catenin is shown to act as an antagonist to normal epithelial cell growth as well as promoting oncogene-driven growth.             Signatures of mutational processes in human cancer ▶     Ludmil B. Alexandrov, Serena Nik-Zainal, David C. Wedge et al.     An analysis of mutations from over 7,000 cancers of diverse origins reveals the diversity of mutational processes underlying the development of cancer; more than 20 distinct mutational signatures are described, some of which are present in many cancer types, notably a signature attributed to the APOBEC family of cytidine deaminases, whereas others are specific to individual tumour types.             Interactome map uncovers phosphatidylserine transport by oxysterol-binding proteins ▶     Kenji Maeda, Kanchan Anand, Antonella Chiapparino et al.     The lipid-binding profiles of all lipid-transfer proteins in Saccharomyces cerevisiae are determined and a new subfamily of oxysterol-binding proteins that function in phosphatidylserine homeostasis and transport is identified.             Synthetic lethal metabolic targeting of cellular senescence in cancer therapy ▶     Jan R. Dörr, Yong Yu, Maja Milanovic et al.     In mice with Eµ-myc transgenic lymphomas in which therapy-induced senescence (TIS) depends on the H3K9 histone methyltransferase Suv39h1, TIS-competent lymphomas but not TIS-incompetent Suv39h1– lymphomas show increased glucose utilization and ATP production after senescence-inducing chemotherapy to cope with proteotoxic stress elicited by factors of the senescence-associated secretory phenotype (SASP); senescent cancers are selectively vulnerable to drugs that block glucose utilization or autophagy.             De novo mutations in epileptic encephalopathies ▶     Epi4K Consortium & Epilepsy Phenome/Genome Project     Exome sequencing has found an excess of de novo mutations in the ∼4,000 most intolerant genes in patients with two classical epileptic encephalopathies (infantile spasms and Lennox–Gastaut syndrome); among them are multiple de novo mutations in GABRB3 and ALG13.             Mechanism of MEK inhibition determines efficacy in mutant KRAS- versus BRAF-driven cancers ▶     Georgia Hatzivassiliou, Jacob R. Haling, Huifen Chen et al.     The mechanism of action of three different allosteric MEK inhibitors that target the MAP kinase pathway is investigated, and their efficacy is shown to be explained by the distinct mechanisms regulating MEK activation in KRAS- versus BRAF-driven tumours; this work provides a rationale for designing more effective cancer therapies for these common genetic subtypes of cancer.             lncRNA-dependent mechanisms of androgen-receptor-regulated gene activation programs ▶     Liuqing Yang, Chunru Lin, Chunyu Jin et al.     A study of prostate cancer cells reveals a transcriptional activation role for long non-coding RNAs (PRNCR1 and PCGEM1) that bind to the androgen receptor, and is also observed for the truncated androgen receptor characteristic of many aggressive prostate cancers.             Evolutionary implications of a third lymphocyte lineage in lampreys ▶     Masayuki Hirano, Peng Guo, Nathanael McCurley et al.     Cells expressing variable lymphocyte receptor C (VLRC) genes that encode VLRC receptors, which are used by jawless vertebrates to react with antigens, are defined as a second T-cell-like lymphocyte subset (the first being VLRA-bearing cells); distinct properties of these two T-cell-like subsets are reminiscent of the distinction between αβ and γδ T cells in jawed vertebrates.             Platelet-biased stem cells reside at the apex of the haematopoietic stem-cell hierarchy ▶     Alejandra Sanjuan-Pla, Iain C. Macaulay, Christina T. Jensen et al.     The identification of a functionally distinct subset of haematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) that is primed for platelet-specific gene expression is described; the cells frequently have long-term myeloid lineage bias, can self-renew and give rise to lymphoid-biased HSCs, and may enable the design of therapies for enhancing platelet reconstitution.             Articles and Letters                   Translating dosage compensation to trisomy 21 ▶     Jun Jiang, Yuanchun Jing, Gregory J. Cost et al.     This study uses zinc-finger nucleases to target an inducible XIST transgene into chromosome 21 from trisomic Down's syndrome pluripotent stem cells; the XIST RNA coats one copy of chromosome 21 and triggers whole chromosome silencing, suggesting the potential of this approach for studying chromosomal disorders such as Down's syndrome and for research into gene therapies.             Coordination of bacterial proteome with metabolism by cyclic AMP signalling ▶     Conghui You, Hiroyuki Okano, Sheng Hui et al.     Cyclic AMP, one of the earliest discovered and most intensely studied signalling molecules in molecular biology, is widely believed to signal the carbon status in mediating catabolite repression in bacteria; here a quantitative approach reveals a much broader physiological role for cAMP signalling, whereby it coordinates the allocation of proteomic resources with the global metabolic needs of the cell, including, for example, nitrogen or sulphur.             The initiation of mammalian protein synthesis and mRNA scanning mechanism ▶     Ivan B. Lomakin, Thomas A. Steitz     Three structures of the eukaryotic small ribosomal subunit in complex with initiator tRNA, mRNA and the initiation factors eIF1 and eIF1A have been solved; these structures offer insight into the contributions of the initiation factors, the mechanism by which mRNA is scanned, and the interactions that occur in the ribosome's P site.             The role of behaviour in adaptive morphological evolution of African proboscideans ▶     Adrian M. Lister     To test whether a behavioural change can lead to morphological evolution, stable isotopes in tooth enamel are used to show that archaic elephants were feeding on grassland millions of years before their teeth adapted by becoming high-crowned.             Oil palm genome sequence reveals divergence of interfertile species in Old and New worlds OPEN ▶     Rajinder Singh, Meilina Ong-Abdullah, Eng-Ti Leslie Low et al.     The genome sequence of the African oil palm, the main source of oil production, is used to predict at least 34,802 genes, including oil biosynthesis genes; comparison with the draft sequence of the South American oil palm reveals that the two species may have diverged in the New World and that segmental duplications of chromosome arms define the palaeotetraploid origin of palm trees.             The oil palm SHELL gene controls oil yield and encodes a homologue of SEEDSTICK ▶     Rajinder Singh, Eng-Ti Leslie Low, Leslie Cheng-Li Ooi et al.     Genetic mapping and whole-genome sequencing studies identify the SHELL gene (a homologue of Arabidopsis SEEDSTICK) as responsible for the three different fruit forms in oil palm (Elaeis guineesis); this has important economic implications for modulating SHELL activity to breed desired fruit forms and enhance oil yields.             Maternal imprinting at the H19–Igf2 locus maintains adult haematopoietic stem cell quiescence ▶     Aparna Venkatraman, Xi C. He, Joanne L. Thorvaldsen et al.     Maternal genomic imprinting is crucial for the maintenance of adult stem cells, which is accomplished by maintaining long-term haematopoietic stem cell quiescence.             PAAR-repeat proteins sharpen and diversify the type VI secretion system spike ▶     Mikhail M. Shneider, Sergey A. Buth, Brian T. Ho et al.     An X-ray structure of bacterial type VI secretion system components reveals that PAAR family proteins bind at the tip of the VgrG spike, providing new insights into the mechanisms of type VI secretion; experiments using bacteria confirmed the importance of PAAR proteins.             An Sp1 transcription factor coordinates caspase-dependent and -independent apoptotic pathways ▶     Takashi Hirose, H. Robert Horvitz     Removal of cells during development in Caenorhabditis elegans requires the precise execution of cell-death programs, which can include both caspase-dependent and -independent pathways; here it is shown that a single upstream transcription factor can drive both, in parallel, to destroy a single cell.             Epithelial junctions maintain tissue architecture by directing planar spindle orientation ▶     Yu-ichiro Nakajima, Emily J. Meyer, Amanda Kroesen et al.     The Drosophila tumour suppressors Scribbled and Discs large 1 are found to be essential regulators of planar spindle alignment during epithelial cell division; aberrant effects of spindle alignment are shown to be corrected through apoptosis, and the suppression of this mechanism can result in epithelial dysplasia and tumorigenesis.             Co-crystal structure of a T-box riboswitch stem I domain in complex with its cognate tRNA ▶     Jinwei Zhang, Adrian R. Ferré-D'Amaré     The co-crystal structure of the T-box tRNA-binding region, stem I, bound to tRNA is solved, showing that this region not only binds the anticodon, but also cradles the entire tRNA, forming an extended interface; the two T-loop motifs of stem I mediate interactions similar to those of RNase P and the large ribosomal subunit, even though the three species do not share a common evolutionary ancestor.             News & Views                   Structural biology: RNA exerts self-control ▶     Bhaskar Chetnani & Alfonso Mondragón             Gene therapy: Primed for take-off ▶     Philippe Leboulch             Systems biology: Metabolite turns master regulator ▶     Joshua D. Rabinowitz & Thomas J. Silhavy             Microbiology: A weapon for bacterial warfare ▶     Alain Filloux             Biological techniques: An embryonic view of tumour development ▶     Pawel J. Schweiger, Kim B. Jensen             Gene regulation: Long RNAs wire up cancer growth ▶     Adam M. Schmitt, Howard Y. Chang             Metabolism: Sweet enticements to move ▶     Cholsoon Jang, Zoltan Arany             Research Highlights                   Biomechanics: Spider silk stallsa somersault | Physiology: Why sunburn stings | Tropical disease: Malaria vaccine protective at last | Palaeontology: Toothy patch in fossil fish | Cancer biology: Genome mix-ups monitored | Reproduction: Sneaky breeders make sons | Animal behaviour: Young female birds get the worm         NEWS & COMMENT           US brain project puts focus on ethics | Books in brief | India spurns cancer patents             More Biological Sciences ▶                 2013 Nature Awards for Mentoring in Science   Nominations are now open. This year Nature invites nominations of outstanding scientific mentors in Italy. Two prizes of €10,000 will be awarded, one for mid-career and one for lifetime achievement. Nominations close on Tuesday 20 August 2013. Nominate your mentor!          Chemical Sciences ▲top             RESEARCH           Articles and Letters                   Tunable near-infrared and visible-light transmittance in nanocrystal-in-glass composites ▶     Anna Llordés, Guillermo Garcia, Jaume Gazquez et al.     By introducing tin-doped indium oxide nanocrystals into niobium oxide glass, a new transparent material is produced with tunable and spectrally selective optical switching properties.             News & Views                   Materials science: Composite for smarter windows ▶     Brian A. Korgel             Structural biology: RNA exerts self-control ▶     Bhaskar Chetnani & Alfonso Mondragón             Systems biology: Metabolite turns master regulator ▶     Joshua D. Rabinowitz & Thomas J. Silhavy             Microbiology: A weapon for bacterial warfare ▶     Alain Filloux             More Chemical Sciences ▶               Physical Sciences ▲top             RESEARCH           Latest Online                   A strong magnetic field around the supermassive black hole at the centre of the Galaxy ▶     R. P. Eatough, H. Falcke, R. Karuppusamy et al.     The unusually large Faraday rotation of a newly discovered pulsar indicates that there is a dynamically important magnetic field near the supermassive black hole believed to lie at the centre of the Milky Way.             Articles and Letters                   A variable absorption feature in the X-ray spectrum of a magnetar ▶     Andrea Tiengo, Paolo Esposito, Sandro Mereghetti et al.     The X-ray spectrum of the soft-γ-ray repeater SGR 0418+5729 is found to exhibit an absorption line, the properties of which depend strongly on the star's rotational phase; this line is interpreted as a proton cyclotron feature and its energy implies a magnetic field ranging from 2 × 1014 gauss to more than 1015 gauss.             Deterministic quantum teleportation of photonic quantum bits by a hybrid technique ▶     Shuntaro Takeda, Takahiro Mizuta, Maria Fuwa et al.     The continuous-variable teleportation of a discrete-variable, photonic qubit is deterministic and allows for faithful qubit transfer even with imperfect continuous-variable entangled states: for four qubits, the overall transfer fidelities all exceed the classical limit of teleportation.             Deterministic quantum teleportation with feed-forward in a solid state system ▶     L. Steffen, Y. Salathe, M. Oppliger et al.     Superconducting circuits combined with real-time feed-forward electronics are used to teleport a quantum state between two macroscopic solid-state systems.             Tunable near-infrared and visible-light transmittance in nanocrystal-in-glass composites ▶     Anna Llordés, Guillermo Garcia, Jaume Gazquez et al.     By introducing tin-doped indium oxide nanocrystals into niobium oxide glass, a new transparent material is produced with tunable and spectrally selective optical switching properties.             News & Views                   Materials science: Composite for smarter windows ▶     Brian A. Korgel             Quantum communication: Reliable teleportation ▶     Timothy C. Ralph             Research Highlights                   Geophysics: Sand collisions kick up storms         NEWS & COMMENT           Europe sets sights on lasers             More Physical Sciences ▶               Earth & Environmental Sciences ▲top             RESEARCH           Latest Online                   Onset of deglacial warming in West Antarctica driven by local orbital forcing ▶     WAIS Divide Project Members     An annually resolved ice-core record from West Antarctica indicates that warming driven by local insolation resulting from sea-ice decline began in that region about 2,000 years before warming in East Antarctica, reconciling two alternative explanations for deglacial warming in the Southern Hemisphere.             Articles and Letters                   No increase in global temperature variability despite changing regional patterns ▶     Chris Huntingford, Philip D. Jones, Valerie N. Livina, Timothy M. Lenton & Peter M. Cox     Although fluctuations in annual temperature have shown substantial geographical variation over the past few decades, which may be more difficult for society to adapt to than altered mean conditions, the time-evolving standard deviation of globally averaged temperature anomalies reveals that there has been little change.             The role of behaviour in adaptive morphological evolution of African proboscideans ▶     Adrian M. Lister     To test whether a behavioural change can lead to morphological evolution, stable isotopes in tooth enamel are used to show that archaic elephants were feeding on grassland millions of years before their teeth adapted by becoming high-crowned.             Reviews and Perspectives                   Climate extremes and the carbon cycle ▶     Markus Reichstein, Michael Bahn, Philippe Ciais, Dorothea Frank, Miguel D. Mahecha et al.     The effects of climate extremes such as droughts or storms on the carbon cycle of ecosystems are investigated; such extremes can decrease regional carbon stocks.             Research Highlights                   Geophysics: Sand collisions kick up storms | Environmental sciences: Sinking ground poisons wells | Climate science: Climate tracking by smartphone | Palaeontology: Toothy patch in fossil fish         NEWS & COMMENT           Ecosystems: Climate change must not blow conservation off course | Environmental policy: The biggest wager | Books in brief | Environment: Curb clearance for oil-palm plantations Finn Danielsen & Faizal Parish             More Earth & Environmental Sciences ▶                 nature.com webcasts Macmillan Science Communication, presents a custom webcast on: Using microfluidics for real-time imaging of in vitro cell models  Register for free and listen on demand  Sponsored by:         Careers & Jobs ▲top               Life sciences: Industrial immunology ▶     In a tough job market, immunologists are in demand. To move from academia to a biotechnology or drug company, researchers must explore the options and stay flexible.                   Still a scientist ▶     It is not easy to let go of a scientific identity after leaving the lab — nor is it necessary, says Chandrika Nair.                   US job ads increase ▶     Science recruiting ramps up slightly in 2013.                   Private beats public ▶     Researchers tend to share data on request rather than through repositories.                   US health premiums rise ▶     Faculty members are paying more for health-care coverage in 2013.                   Correction ▶               naturejobs.com Science jobs of the week       Postdoctoral Fellow     University of Michigan - Ann Arbor            PhD studentship     Karlsruhe Institute of Kechnology (Campus North)            Postdoctoral Research Assistant     University of Oxford (Department of Pharmacology)            Project Manager     Imperial College London          No matter what your career stage, student, postdoc or senior scientist, you will find articles on naturejobs.com to help guide you in your science career. 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