| Can't view this email? Click here to view in your browser. | | | | Volume 505 Number 7481 | | | nature | | The science that matters. Every week. | | | | | | | | | | | Jump to the content that matters to you | | | | | | | | | | Spread in model climate sensitivity traced to atmospheric convective mixing | Uncertainties in predicted climate sensitivity — the magnitude of global warming due to an external influence — range from between 1.5 and 5ºC for a doubling of atmospheric CO2. Steven Sherwood and colleagues find that half of the uncertainty in climate sensitivity is down to convective mixing in the troposphere, which influences cloud cover. Models suggest that climate sensitivity will exceed 3º C rather than the currently estimated lower limit of 1.5º C, thereby constraining model projections towards more severe future warming. | | | | | | | | | The complete genome sequence of a Neanderthal from the Altai Mountains | Recent excavations in the Altai Mountains of southern Siberia have yielded a wealth of hominin fossils from a site that has been occupied for perhaps 250,000 years. Now a high-quality genome sequence has been determined from a 50,000-year-old toe bone — a proximal toe phalanx — excavated from the east gallery of Denisova Cave in 2010. The analysis reveals that the woman’s parents were closely related — possibly half-siblings or an uncle and niece — and that such mating among close relatives was not uncommon among her recent ancestors. | | | | | | | | | DNA-mediated nanoparticle crystallization into Wulff polyhedra | The crystallization processes of nanoparticles are far more complicated — and less well understood — than those of atoms. Chad Mirkin and colleagues now show that despite the presence of charged biomolecules and huge interparticle distances, DNA-mediated assembly of nanoparticles can follow a pathway that mimics atomic crystallization: very slow cooling, over several days, of solutions of DNA-modified nanoparticles below the melting temperature of the system produces single crystals with the expected equilibrium structure. This approach has the potential to create single microcrystals with useful properties with practical applications in photonics and catalysis. | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | The greater good ▶ | | | Governments, funding agencies and universities must all do their bit to ensure that research is appropriately assessed and rewarded. | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Seven days: 2 January 2014 ▶ | | | This week in science: Europe launches star-mapping mission, GSK to phase out physician fees, and geneticist Janet Rowley dies. | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Culture: Top tickets for 2014 ▶ | | | It promises to be a heady year for science in culture: fans can steep in the sumptuous world of colour, unpeel the upside of failure, explore neural pathways, revisit the First World War, mend a rip in space-time, go pterosaur-spotting and traverse a mammoth-ridden nation. Daniel Cressey investigates. | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Royal Society Medals and Awards. Call for nominations open! The 2014 Royal Society's medals, awards and prize lectureships provide an opportunity for you to celebrate excellence in science among the scientific community. We urge you to nominate scientists who have made outstanding achievements in all scientific areas. Full details of all awards can be found here. | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | CNVs conferring risk of autism or schizophrenia affect cognition in controls ▶ | | | Hreinn Stefansson, Andreas Meyer-Lindenberg, Stacy Steinberg et al. | | | Rare copy-number variants (CNVs) conferring risk of schizophrenia or autism affect fecundity of carriers in Iceland, and carriers of these CNVs who do not suffer disease or have not been diagnosed with intellectual disability show phenotypes in brain structure and cognitive abilities between those of non-carrier controls and patients with schizophrenia. | | | | | | | | Patterning and growth control by membrane-tethered Wingless ▶ | | | Cyrille Alexandre, Alberto Baena-Lopez, Jean-Paul Vincent | | | Replacement of the wingless (wg) gene in Drosophila with one that expresses a membrane-tethered form of Wg results in viable flies with normally patterned appendages of nearly the right size; early wg transcription and memory of signalling ensure continued target-gene expression in the absence of Wg release, even though the spread of Wg could boost cell proliferation. | | | | | | | | Architecture of the large subunit of the mammalian mitochondrial ribosome ▶ | | | Basil J. Greber, Daniel Boehringer, Alexander Leitner et al. | | | Cryo-electron microscopy combined with chemical crosslinking and mass spectrometry is used to determine the structure of the large subunit of the mammalian mitoribosome; this structure provides detailed structural insight, particularly of the molecular architecture of the polypeptide exit site, which has been structurally remodelled during evolution, presumably to help facilitate the membrane insertion of the highly hydrophobic proteins encoded by the mitochondrial genome. | | | | | | | | | | | Cell death by pyroptosis drives CD4 T-cell depletion in HIV-1 infection ▶ | | | Gilad Doitsh, Nicole L. K. Galloway, Xin Geng et al. | | | Quiescent CD4 T cells in lymphoid tissues are shown to die after HIV-1 infection by caspase-1-mediated pyroptosis, a highly inflammatory form of programmed cell death; caspase 1 inhibitors, which are safe for human use, can rescue the cell death in vitro raising the possibility of new therapeutics targeting the host instead of the virus. | | | | | | | | Trapping the dynamic acyl carrier protein in fatty acid biosynthesis ▶ | | | Chi Nguyen, Robert W. Haushalter, D. John Lee et al. | | | A highly specific chemical crosslinking method is used to trap a complex between an acyl carrier protein and a fatty acid dehydratase during fatty acid biosynthesis; subsequent X-ray crystallography, NMR spectroscopy and molecular dynamics simulations techniques enable the detailed study of this complex. | | | | | | | | The genome of the recently domesticated crop plant sugar beet (Beta vulgaris) OPEN ▶ | | | Juliane C. Dohm, André E. Minoche, Daniela Holtgräwe et al. | | | A full genome sequence is presented of sugar beet Beta vulgaris, the first plant belonging to Caryophyllales to have its genome sequenced; spinach was sequenced to enable inter-clade comparisons, and intraspecific variation was analysed by comparative genomics of a progenitor of all beet crops and additional sugar beet accessions. | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | RNA viruses can hijack vertebrate microRNAs to suppress innate immunity ▶ | | | Derek W. Trobaugh, Christina L. Gardner, Chengqun Sun et al. | | | Here it is proposed that RNA viruses can adapt to use the antiviral properties of microRNAs to limit viral replication and suppress innate immunity in particular cell types, and this restriction can lead to exacerbation of disease severity. | | | | | | | | Three keys to the radiation of angiosperms into freezing environments ▶ | | | Amy E. Zanne, David C. Tank, William K. Cornwell et al. | | | This large comparative phylogenetic study across angiosperms shows that species that are herbaceous or have small conduits evolved these traits before colonizing environments with freezing conditions, whereas deciduous species changed their climate niche before becoming deciduous. | | | | | | | | Genetics of rheumatoid arthritis contributes to biology and drug discovery ▶ | | | Yukinori Okada, Di Wu, Gosia Trynka et al. | | | A genome-wide association study meta-analysis of more than 100,000 subjects of European and Asian ancestries reveals 42 new risk loci for rheumatoid arthritis, with follow-up studies identifying 98 biological candidate genes that are either already being targeted by drugs or could be in the future. | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Intranasal epidermal growth factor treatment rescues neonatal brain injury ▶ | | | Joseph Scafidi, Timothy R. Hammond, Susanna Scafidi et al. | | | Diffuse white matter injury is common in very preterm infants; here, enhanced epidermal growth factor receptor signalling in oligodendrocyte precursor cells in a mouse model of such injury is shown to increase cellular and functional recovery. | | | | | | | | Landscape of genomic alterations in cervical carcinomas ▶ | | | Akinyemi I. Ojesina, Lee Lichtenstein, Samuel S. Freeman et al. | | | Whole-exome sequencing and analysis of 115 cervical carcinoma–normal paired samples, in addition to transcriptome and whole-genome sequencing for a subset of these tumours, reveal novel genes mutated at significant levels within this cohort and provide evidence that HPV integration is a common mechanism for target gene overexpression; results also compare mutational landscapes between squamous cell carcinomas and adenocarcinomas. | | | | | | | | Structure of a Naegleria Tet-like dioxygenase in complex with 5-methylcytosine DNA ▶ | | | Hideharu Hashimoto, June E. Pais, Xing Zhang et al. | | | The Tet family of dioxygenase enzymes convert 5-methylcytosine to 5-hydroxymethylcytosine, 5-formylcytosine and 5-carboxylcytosine, which has an effect on gene expression; here the structure of NgTet1, a Tet-like protein with the same activity as mammalian Tet1, is determined, showing that NgTet1 uses a base-flipping mechanism to access 5-methylcytosine. | | | | | | | | | | | The complete genome sequence of a Neanderthal from the Altai Mountains ▶ | | | Kay Prüfer, Fernando Racimo, Nick Patterson et al. | | | A complete genome sequence is presented of a female Neanderthal from Siberia, providing information about interbreeding between close relatives and uncovering gene flow events among Neanderthals, Denisovans and early modern humans, as well as establishing substitutions that became fixed in modern humans after their separation from the ancestors of Neanderthals and Denisovans. | | | | | | | | A molecular marker of artemisinin-resistant Plasmodium falciparum malaria ▶ | | | Frédéric Ariey, Benoit Witkowski, Chanaki Amaratunga et al. | | | A molecular marker is required to monitor artemisinin-resistant Plasmodium falciparum parasites in southeast Asia; here mutations in K13-propeller are associated with artemisinin resistance in vitro and in vivo and also cluster in Cambodian provinces where resistance is prevalent. | | | | | | | | | | | Low investment in sexual reproduction threatens plants adapted to phosphorus limitation ▶ | | | Yuki Fujita, Harry Olde Venterink, Peter M. van Bodegom et al. | | | Plant life-history traits, notably plant investments in growth versus reproduction, can explain the impact of nitrogen:phosphorus stoichiometry on plant species richness; compared with plants in nitrogen-limited communities, plants in phosphorus-limited communities (in which endangered plant species are more common) invest little in phosphorus-intense activity such as sexual reproduction and have conservative leaf traits. | | | | | | | | Upper Palaeolithic Siberian genome reveals dual ancestry of Native Americans ▶ | | | Maanasa Raghavan, Pontus Skoglund, Kelly E. Graf et al. | | | Draft genomes of two south-central Siberian individuals dating to 24,000 and 17,000 years ago show that they are genetically closely related to modern-day western Eurasians and Native Americans but not to east Asians; the results have implications for our understanding of the origins of Native Americans. | | | | | | | | Prefrontal parvalbumin interneurons shape neuronal activity to drive fear expression ▶ | | | Julien Courtin, Fabrice Chaudun, Robert R. Rozeske et al. | | | Single-unit recordings and optogenetic manipulations in mice undergoing auditory fear conditioning show that fear expression is related to the phasic inhibition of prefrontal cortex (PFC) parvalbumin interneurons; inhibition disinhibits PFC projection neurons and synchronizes their firing, leading to fear expression. | | | | | | | | | | | Antibacterial membrane attack by a pore-forming intestinal C-type lectin ▶ | | | Sohini Mukherjee, Hui Zheng, Mehabaw G. Derebe et al. | | | Secreted C-type lectins protect the intestinal epithelium from Gram-positive bacteria; this study shows that for the C-type lectin RegIIIα, bacterial killing occurs in a two-step process whereby the lectin first binds to bacterial peptidoglycans then oligomerizes on the bacterial membrane to form a permeabilizing pore. | | | | | | | | Structural basis for recognition of synaptic vesicle protein 2C by botulinum neurotoxin A ▶ | | | Roger M. Benoit, Daniel Frey, Manuel Hilbert et al. | | | Botulinum neurotoxin A (BoNT/A) is considered the most toxic substance known but is also used as a therapeutic drug for a growing number of diseases and conditions; researchers have now obtained a high-resolution crystal structure of the receptor-binding domain of the BoNT/A in complex with the luminal domain of synaptic vesicle protein 2C (SV2C), one of its receptors, allowing the identification of a peptide that can inhibit complex formation. | | | | | | | | Coupled GTPase and remodelling ATPase activities form a checkpoint for ribosome export ▶ | | | Yoshitaka Matsuo, Sander Granneman, Matthias Thoms et al. | | | Two proteins are identified in yeast that regulate the timing of pre-ribosome export from the nucleus; Nug2 binds pre-60S particles until they are ready for export, at which time Nug2 is replaced by the export adaptor Nmd3, enabling the export machinery to recognise the pre-ribosome that is ready to be transferred to the cytoplasm. | | | | | | | | N6-methyladenosine-dependent regulation of messenger RNA stability ▶ | | | Xiao Wang, Zhike Lu, Adrian Gomez et al. | | | The mRNAs of higher eukaryotes are extensively modified internally with N6-methyladenosine, but the specific functional role of this modification has been unclear; here this modification on mRNA is shown to be recognized by several proteins, the modification and its recognition serve to regulate the RNA’s lifetime. | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | 8th annual Salk Institute, Fondation IPSEN, and Nature Symposium on Biological Complexity: Genes and Physiology January 29-31, 2014 Salk Institute for Biological Studies La Jolla, CA, USA Click here for more information or to register for this conference today! | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Asymmetric synthesis from terminal alkenes by cascades of diboration and cross-coupling ▶ | | | Scott N. Mlynarski, Christopher H. Schuster, James P. Morken | | | A single-flask, catalytic enantioselective conversion of terminal alkenes into a number of chiral products is described: this tandem diboration/cross-coupling reaction works on a broad range of substrates, requires small amounts of commercially available catalysts, and provides products in high yield and high selectivity. | | | | | | | | | | | DNA-mediated nanoparticle crystallization into Wulff polyhedra ▶ | | | Evelyn Auyeung, Ting I. N. G. Li, Andrew J. Senesi et al. | | | Very slow cooling, over several days, of solutions of complementary-DNA-modified nanoparticles through the melting temperature of the system produces nanoparticle assemblies with the Wulff equilibrium crystal structure, thus showing that DNA hybridization can direct nanoparticle assembly along a pathway that mimics atomic crystallization. | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Dislocations in bilayer graphene ▶ | | | Benjamin Butz, Christian Dolle, Florian Niekiel et al. | | | Basal-plane dislocations, identified as fundamental defects in bilayer graphene by transmission electron microscopy and atomistic simulations, reveal striking size effects, most notably a pronounced buckling of the graphene membrane, which drastically alters the strain state and is of key importance for the material’s mechanical and electronic properties. | | | | | | | | Asymmetric synthesis from terminal alkenes by cascades of diboration and cross-coupling ▶ | | | Scott N. Mlynarski, Christopher H. Schuster, James P. Morken | | | A single-flask, catalytic enantioselective conversion of terminal alkenes into a number of chiral products is described: this tandem diboration/cross-coupling reaction works on a broad range of substrates, requires small amounts of commercially available catalysts, and provides products in high yield and high selectivity. | | | | | | | | | | | Resonant Auger decay driving intermolecular Coulombic decay in molecular dimers ▶ | | | F. Trinter, M. S. Schöffler, H.-K. Kim et al. | | | Intermolecular Coulombic decay transfers excess energy to neighbouring molecules, which then lose a low-energy (and, hence, genotoxic) electron; here the process is experimentally confirmed to be site-selective and highly efficient, possibly enabling more targeted radiation therapy. | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Strong neutrino cooling by cycles of electron capture and β− decay in neutron star crusts ▶ | | | H. Schatz, S. Gupta, P. Möller et al. | | | Cycles of electron capture and β− decay involving neutron-rich nuclei at a typical depth of about 150 metres are found to cool the outer crust of a neutron star by emitting neutrinos while also thermally decoupling the surface layers from the deeper crust; this mechanism has been studied in other astrophysical environments, but has not hitherto been considered in neutron stars. | | | | | | | | | | | Clouds in the atmosphere of the super-Earth exoplanet GJ 1214b ▶ | | | Laura Kreidberg, Jacob L. Bean, Jean-Michel Désert et al. | | | The transmission spectrum of the super-Earth exoplanet GJ 1214b is observed to be featureless at near-infrared wavelengths and its atmosphere must contain clouds to be consistent with the data. | | | | | | | | DNA-mediated nanoparticle crystallization into Wulff polyhedra ▶ | | | Evelyn Auyeung, Ting I. N. G. Li, Andrew J. Senesi et al. | | | Very slow cooling, over several days, of solutions of complementary-DNA-modified nanoparticles through the melting temperature of the system produces nanoparticle assemblies with the Wulff equilibrium crystal structure, thus showing that DNA hybridization can direct nanoparticle assembly along a pathway that mimics atomic crystallization. | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Spread in model climate sensitivity traced to atmospheric convective mixing ▶ | | | Steven C. Sherwood, Sandrine Bony, Jean-Louis Dufresne | | | The change in global mean temperature in response to a change in external forcing is highly uncertain; here differences in the simulated strength of convective mixing between the lower and middle tropical troposphere are shown to explain about half of the variance in climate sensitivity, constraining the predicted equilibrium climate sensitivity to an increase of 3 to 5 degrees Celsius. | | | | | | | | Increasing subtropical North Pacific Ocean nitrogen fixation since the Little Ice Age ▶ | | | Owen A. Sherwood, Thomas P. Guilderson, Fabian C. Batista et al. | | | Despite a reduction in nutrient supply to the North Pacific subtropical gyre, it has undergone a recent increase in nitrogen fixation, and here records of nitrogen isotopes preserved in Hawaiian corals show that this is a trend that could be linked to climate change since the end of the Little Ice Age. | | | | | | | | Low investment in sexual reproduction threatens plants adapted to phosphorus limitation ▶ | | | Yuki Fujita, Harry Olde Venterink, Peter M. van Bodegom et al. | | | Plant life-history traits, notably plant investments in growth versus reproduction, can explain the impact of nitrogen:phosphorus stoichiometry on plant species richness; compared with plants in nitrogen-limited communities, plants in phosphorus-limited communities (in which endangered plant species are more common) invest little in phosphorus-intense activity such as sexual reproduction and have conservative leaf traits. | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | NatureJournals app for iPad The NatureJournals app for iPad now boasts over 25 Nature-branded titles. Subscribe to any journal in the app for $35.99* and gain access to world class research on the move. *Apple exchange rates apply. Limited time offer available on all journals except Scientific Reports. iPad is a trademark of Apple Inc. | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Physician–scientists ▶ | | | MD-PhD holders focus on research less than they used to, according to analysis. | | | | | | | | | | | NIH seeks models ▶ | | | NIH aims to use modelling to address trends that threaten size and diversity of biomedical research community. | | | | | | | | Careers related news & comment | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | naturejobs.com Science jobs of the week | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | 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. Keep up-to-date with the latest sector trends, vote in our reader poll and sign-up to receive the monthly Naturejobs newsletter. | | | | | | | • Natureevents Directory featured events | | | | | | natureevents directory featured events | | | | | | | Natureevents Directory is the premier resource for scientists looking for the latest scientific conferences, courses, meetings and symposia. Featured across Nature Publishing Group journals and centrally at natureevents.com it is an essential reference guide to scientific events worldwide. | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Your email address is in the Nature mailing list. You have been sent this Table of Contents Alert because you have opted in to receive it. You can change or discontinue your e-mail alerts at any time, by modifying your preferences on your nature.com account at: www.nature.com/nams/svc/myaccount (You will need to log in to be recognised as a nature.com registrant). For further technical assistance, please contact subscriptions@nature.com For other enquiries, please contact feedback@nature.com | Nature Publishing Group | 75 Varick Street, 9th floor | New York | NY 10013-1917 | USA
Nature Publishing Group's offices: Principal offices: London - New York - Tokyo Worldwide offices: Basingstoke - Boston - Buenos Aires - Delhi - Hong Kong - Madrid - Melbourne - Munich - Paris - San Francisco - Seoul - Washington DC
Macmillan Publishers Limited is a company incorporated in England and Wales under company number 785998 and whose registered office is located at Brunel Road, Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS. © 2013 Nature Publishing Group, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited. All Rights Reserved. | | | |
No comments:
Post a Comment
Keep a civil tongue.