Nature

Syndicate content Nature
Nature is the international weekly journal of science: a magazine style journal that publishes full-length research papers in all disciplines of science, as well as News and Views, reviews, news, features, commentaries, web focuses and more, covering all branches of science and how science impacts upon all aspects of society and life.
Updated: 8 years 17 weeks ago

Projections from neocortex mediate top-down control of memory retrieval

Sun, 10/04/2015 - 23:00

Projections from neocortex mediate top-down control of memory retrieval

Nature 526, 7575 (2015). doi:10.1038/nature15389

Authors: Priyamvada Rajasethupathy, Sethuraman Sankaran, James H. Marshel, Christina K. Kim, Emily Ferenczi, Soo Yeun Lee, Andre Berndt, Charu Ramakrishnan, Anna Jaffe, Maisie Lo, Conor Liston & Karl Deisseroth

Top-down prefrontal cortex inputs to the hippocampus have been hypothesized to be important in memory consolidation, retrieval, and the pathophysiology of major psychiatric diseases; however, no such direct projections have been identified and functionally described. Here we report the discovery of a monosynaptic prefrontal cortex

Categories: Journal Articles

Hedgehog actively maintains adult lung quiescence and regulates repair and regeneration

Sun, 10/04/2015 - 23:00

Hedgehog actively maintains adult lung quiescence and regulates repair and regeneration

Nature 526, 7574 (2015). doi:10.1038/nature14984

Authors: Tien Peng, David B. Frank, Rachel S. Kadzik, Michael P. Morley, Komal S. Rathi, Tao Wang, Su Zhou, Lan Cheng, Min Min Lu & Edward E. Morrisey

Postnatal tissue quiescence is thought to be a default state in the absence of a proliferative stimulus such as injury. Although previous studies have demonstrated that certain embryonic developmental programs are reactivated aberrantly in adult organs to drive repair and regeneration, it is not well understood how quiescence is maintained in organs such as the lung, which displays a remarkably low level of cellular turnover. Here we demonstrate that quiescence in the adult lung is an actively maintained state and is regulated by hedgehog signalling. Epithelial-specific deletion of sonic hedgehog (Shh) during postnatal homeostasis in the murine lung results in a proliferative expansion of the adjacent lung mesenchyme. Hedgehog signalling is initially downregulated during the acute phase of epithelial injury as the mesenchyme proliferates in response, but returns to baseline during injury resolution as quiescence is restored. Activation of hedgehog during acute epithelial injury attenuates the proliferative expansion of the lung mesenchyme, whereas inactivation of hedgehog signalling prevents the restoration of quiescence during injury resolution. Finally, we show that hedgehog also regulates epithelial quiescence and regeneration in response to injury via a mesenchymal feedback mechanism. These results demonstrate that epithelial–mesenchymal interactions coordinated by hedgehog actively maintain postnatal tissue homeostasis, and deregulation of hedgehog during injury leads to aberrant repair and regeneration in the lung.

Categories: Journal Articles

Non-coding RNA: Antibiotic tricks a switch

Tue, 09/29/2015 - 23:00

Non-coding RNA: Antibiotic tricks a switch

Nature 526, 7575 (2015). doi:10.1038/nature15635

Authors: Thomas Hermann

A screen for compounds that block a bacterial biosynthetic pathway has uncovered an antibiotic lead that shuts off pathogen growth by targeting a molecular switch in a regulatory RNA structure. See Article p.672

Categories: Journal Articles

Selective small-molecule inhibition of an RNA structural element

Tue, 09/29/2015 - 23:00

Selective small-molecule inhibition of an RNA structural element

Nature 526, 7575 (2015). doi:10.1038/nature15542

Authors: John A. Howe, Hao Wang, Thierry O. Fischmann, Carl J. Balibar, Li Xiao, Andrew M. Galgoci, Juliana C. Malinverni, Todd Mayhood, Artjohn Villafania, Ali Nahvi, Nicholas Murgolo, Christopher M. Barbieri, Paul A. Mann, Donna Carr, Ellen Xia, Paul Zuck, Dan Riley, Ronald E. Painter, Scott S. Walker, Brad Sherborne, Reynalda de Jesus, Weidong Pan, Michael A. Plotkin, Jin Wu, Diane Rindgen, John Cummings, Charles G. Garlisi, Rumin Zhang, Payal R. Sheth, Charles J. Gill, Haifeng Tang & Terry Roemer

Riboswitches are non-coding RNA structures located in messenger RNAs that bind endogenous ligands, such as a specific metabolite or ion, to regulate gene expression. As such, riboswitches serve as a novel, yet largely unexploited, class of emerging drug targets. Demonstrating this potential, however, has proven

Categories: Journal Articles

Structural basis for gene regulation by a B12-dependent photoreceptor

Sun, 09/27/2015 - 23:00

Structural basis for gene regulation by a B12-dependent photoreceptor

Nature 526, 7574 (2015). doi:10.1038/nature14950

Authors: Marco Jost, Jésus Fernández-Zapata, María Carmen Polanco, Juan Manuel Ortiz-Guerrero, Percival Yang-Ting Chen, Gyunghoon Kang, S. Padmanabhan, Montserrat Elías-Arnanz & Catherine L. Drennan

Photoreceptor proteins enable organisms to sense and respond to light. The newly discovered CarH-type photoreceptors use a vitamin B12 derivative, adenosylcobalamin, as the light-sensing chromophore to mediate light-dependent gene regulation. Here we present crystal structures of Thermus thermophilus CarH in all three

Categories: Journal Articles

50 & 100 Years Ago

Fri, 09/25/2015 - 23:00

50 & 100 Years Ago

Nature 525, 7570 (2015). doi:10.1038/525463a

50 Years AgoA Biological Retrospect. By Sir Peter Medawar — The title of my presidential address, as you will have discerned, is “A Biological Retrospect”, and on the whole it has not been well received. 'Why a biological retrospect?', I have been

Categories: Journal Articles

STAP cells are derived from ES cells

Wed, 09/23/2015 - 23:00

STAP cells are derived from ES cells

Nature 525, 7570 (2015). doi:10.1038/nature15366

Authors: Daijiro Konno, Takeya Kasukawa, Kosuke Hashimoto, Takehiko Itoh, Taeko Suetsugu, Ikuo Miura, Shigeharu Wakana, Piero Carninci & Fumio Matsuzaki

arising fromH. Obokata et al.Nature505, 641–647 (2014) doi:10.1038/nature12968; retraction 511, 112 (2014) doi:10.1038/nature13598; and H. Obokata et al.Nature505, 676–680 (2014)

Categories: Journal Articles

Failure to replicate the STAP cell phenomenon

Wed, 09/23/2015 - 23:00

Failure to replicate the STAP cell phenomenon

Nature 525, 7570 (2015). doi:10.1038/nature15513

Authors: Alejandro De Los Angeles, Francesco Ferrari, Yuko Fujiwara, Ronald Mathieu, Soohyun Lee, Semin Lee, Ho-Chou Tu, Samantha Ross, Stephanie Chou, Minh Nguyen, Zhaoting Wu, Thorold W. Theunissen, Benjamin E. Powell, Sumeth Imsoonthornruksa, Jiekai Chen, Marti Borkent, Vladislav Krupalnik, Ernesto Lujan, Marius Wernig, Jacob H. Hanna, Konrad Hochedlinger, Duanqing Pei, Rudolf Jaenisch, Hongkui Deng, Stuart H. Orkin, Peter J. Park & George Q. Daley

arising from H. Obokata et al.Nature505, 641–647 (2014) doi:10.1038/nature12968; retraction 511, 112 (2014) doi:10.1038/nature13598; and H. Obokata et al.Nature505, 676–680 (2014

Categories: Journal Articles

The diurnal cycle of water ice on comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko

Wed, 09/23/2015 - 23:00

The diurnal cycle of water ice on comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko

Nature 525, 7570 (2015). doi:10.1038/nature14869

Authors: M. C. De Sanctis, F. Capaccioni, M. Ciarniello, G. Filacchione, M. Formisano, S. Mottola, A. Raponi, F. Tosi, D. Bockelée-Morvan, S. Erard, C. Leyrat, B. Schmitt, E. Ammannito, G. Arnold, M. A. Barucci, M. Combi, M. T. Capria, P. Cerroni, W.-H. Ip, E. Kuehrt, T. B. McCord, E. Palomba, P. Beck & E. Quirico

Observations of cometary nuclei have revealed a very limited amount of surface water ice, which is insufficient to explain the observed water outgassing. This was clearly demonstrated on comet 9P/Tempel 1, where the dust jets (driven by volatiles) were only partially correlated with the exposed ice regions. The observations of 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko have revealed that activity has a diurnal variation in intensity arising from changing insolation conditions. It was previously concluded that water vapour was generated in ice-rich subsurface layers with a transport mechanism linked to solar illumination, but that has not hitherto been observed. Periodic condensations of water vapour very close to, or on, the surface were suggested to explain short-lived outbursts seen near sunrise on comet 9P/Tempel 1. Here we report observations of water ice on the surface of comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko, appearing and disappearing in a cyclic pattern that follows local illumination conditions, providing a source of localized activity. This water cycle appears to be an important process in the evolution of the comet, leading to cyclical modification of the relative abundance of water ice on its surface.

Categories: Journal Articles

Erratum: Mechanism of phospho-ubiquitin-induced PARKIN activation

Tue, 09/22/2015 - 23:00

Erratum: Mechanism of phospho-ubiquitin-induced PARKIN activation

Nature 526, 7575 (2015). doi:10.1038/nature15531

Authors: Tobias Wauer, Michal Simicek, Alexander Schubert & David Komander

Nature524, 370–374 (2015); doi:10.1038/nature14879The print and PDF versions of this Letter are correct, but the wrong HTML versions of Figs 1–4 and ED Figs 1–10 were used initially, owing to an in-house error; these have been

Categories: Journal Articles

Corrigendum: Cleavage of CAD inhibitor in CAD activation and DNA degradation during apoptosis

Tue, 09/22/2015 - 23:00

Corrigendum: Cleavage of CAD inhibitor in CAD activation and DNA degradation during apoptosis

Nature 526, 7575 (2015). doi:10.1038/nature15532

Authors: Hideki Sakahira, Masato Enari & Shigekazu Nagata

Nature391, 96–99 (1998); doi:10.1038/34214Recently, it has come to our attention that in Fig. 1a of this Letter, lanes 1 and 5 appear to be duplicated and lanes 6 and 10 appear to be duplicated. It is

Categories: Journal Articles

Erratum: IgG1 protects against renal disease in a mouse model of cryoglobulinaemia

Tue, 09/22/2015 - 23:00

Erratum: IgG1 protects against renal disease in a mouse model of cryoglobulinaemia

Nature 526, 7575 (2015). doi:10.1038/nature15534

Authors: Richard T. Strait, Monica T. Posgai, Ashley Mahler, Nathaniel Barasa, Chaim O. Jacob, Jörg Köhl, Marc Ehlers, Keith Stringer, Shiva Kumar Shanmukhappa, David Witte, Md Monir Hossain, Marat Khodoun, Andrew B. Herr & Fred D. Finkelman

Nature517, 501–504 (2015); doi:10.1038/nature13868Owing to a production error, in Fig. 1b of this Letter, the key should have shown that the black bars corresponded to ‘WT’ and the red bars to ‘γ1−’, instead of

Categories: Journal Articles

Power play

Tue, 09/22/2015 - 23:00

Power play

Nature 525, 7570 (2015). doi:10.1038/525425b

The replacement of mitochondria does not signal ethical problems.

Categories: Journal Articles

STAP revisited

Tue, 09/22/2015 - 23:00

STAP revisited

Nature 525, 7570 (2015). doi:10.1038/525426a

Reanalysis of the controversy provides a strong example of the self-correcting nature of science.

Categories: Journal Articles

Make academic job advertisements fair to all

Tue, 09/22/2015 - 23:00

Make academic job advertisements fair to all

Nature 525, 7570 (2015). http://www.nature.com/doifinder/10.1038/525427a

Author: Mathias Wullum Nielsen

Too many university posts are given to men without proper competition, says Mathias Wullum Nielsen.

Categories: Journal Articles

Planetary science: Global ocean on Enceladus

Tue, 09/22/2015 - 23:00

Planetary science: Global ocean on Enceladus

Nature 525, 7570 (2015). doi:10.1038/525428a

Beneath an icy crust, Saturn's moon Enceladus (pictured) has an ocean that covers its entire globe.NASA's Cassini spacecraft measured wobbles in Enceladus's rotation over more than seven years. The data confirm that the crust is moving separately from the rocky core, meaning that there

Categories: Journal Articles

Zoology: How the sponge got its skeleton

Tue, 09/22/2015 - 23:00

Zoology: How the sponge got its skeleton

Nature 525, 7570 (2015). doi:10.1038/525428b

Sponges build their skeletons using specialized cells that transport and assemble structural beams like construction workers — a novel way of producing a skeleton compared to other animals.Sponge skeletons are made of rod-like silica structures called spicules that are cemented to rocks and to

Categories: Journal Articles

Neuroscience: Sound switches on worm cells

Tue, 09/22/2015 - 23:00

Neuroscience: Sound switches on worm cells

Nature 525, 7570 (2015). doi:10.1038/525428c

Ultrasound has been used to stimulate individual brain cells in a worm. If the technique works in mice, it could be a less invasive way of studying specific neurons.Neuroscientists currently implant probes into animal brains to stimulate cells that have been engineered to become

Categories: Journal Articles

Neuroscience: Electric zaps help spinal-cord rehab

Tue, 09/22/2015 - 23:00

Neuroscience: Electric zaps help spinal-cord rehab

Nature 525, 7570 (2015). doi:10.1038/525428d

Electrically stimulating a damaged spinal cord as part of rehabilitation therapy may enhance improvements in movement.Steve Perlmutter at the University of Washington in Seattle and his team bruised the spinal cords of rats to partially paralyse the animals' forelimbs. They then used a neural–computer

Categories: Journal Articles

Evolution: Ancient lung parts found in fish

Tue, 09/22/2015 - 23:00

Evolution: Ancient lung parts found in fish

Nature 525, 7570 (2015). doi:10.1038/525428e

A fish species found in the Indian Ocean has a vestigial lung, suggesting that its ancestors had working lungs before they shifted to life in deep waters.The coelacanth fish Latimeria chalumnae is descended from ancient coelacanths that lived in shallow waters. Paulo Brito

Categories: Journal Articles