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.
doi: 10.1038/500253a
Conflicts of interest and gaps in data contaminate US oversight of food additives.
doi: 10.1038/500253b
Unsettling research advances bring neuroethics to the fore.
doi: 10.1038/500261a
But sceptics question prospects for Skolkovo commercial park.
doi: 10.1038/500262a
Three eastern European countries are gearing up to host powerful light sources.
doi: 10.1038/500264a
Nation seeks to cap high cost of drugs to treat non-infectious diseases.
doi: 10.1038/500266a
米国の心理学者が長年続けてきた「目撃者の証言の不確かさ」の研究が、米国の司法システムの関心を集め始めている。
doi: 10.1038/500268a
電気化学的に電圧をかけると可視光や近赤外光を選択的に吸収するようになるガラスが作られた。この結果は、必要に応じて熱を遮断し、光の透過性も変化させる賢い窓、つまり「スマートウィンドウ」への道を開く。
doi: 10.1038/500278a
結合した2個のRNA分子の結晶構造から、調節型のリボスイッチ配列がメッセンジャーRNA発現に影響を与える仕組みの手がかりが得られた。そればかりでなく、RNAの構造と構成についての解明も進んだ。
doi: 10.1038/nature12460
安全性と効果を制御する重要なパラメーターの微調整を行ったことで、遺伝子治療ではついに、臨床上の有効性を示すデータが大量に得られるようになった。ヒトの生命を脅かしかねない2つの疾患の治療からも、これを裏付ける証拠が得られている。
doi: 10.1038/500280a
2つの相補的な実験によって、量子ビットの決定論的な量子テレポーテーションが実証された。この結果は、量子通信や量子計算への応用が考えられる。
doi: 10.1038/500282a
微生物でカタボライト抑制という現象が起こると、エネルギー的に有利である炭素供給源を第一に使えるようになる。新たな研究によって、この過程の重要なエフェクターがα-ケト酸であり、この物質の濃度が遺伝子発現を調節していることが明らかになった。
doi: 10.1038/nature12544
細菌は、競合する微生物の細胞内に鋭い針を使って毒素を送り込んでいて、またこうした仕組みはバクテリオファージの構造とともに進化したことが判明した。こうした知見は、細菌の分泌系についての新しい見方を示している。
doi: 10.1038/nature12545
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.
doi: 10.1038/nature12350
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.
doi: 10.1038/nature12394
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.
doi: 10.1038/nature12446
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.
doi: 10.1038/nature12355
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.
doi: 10.1038/nature12386
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.
doi: 10.1038/nature12366
Superconducting circuits combined with real-time feed-forward electronics are used to teleport a quantum state between two macroscopic solid-state systems.
doi: 10.1038/nature12422
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.
doi: 10.1038/nature12398
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.
doi: 10.1038/nature12310
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.
doi: 10.1038/nature12275
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.
doi: 10.1038/nature12309
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.
doi: 10.1038/nature12356
Maternal genomic imprinting is crucial for the maintenance of adult stem cells, which is accomplished by maintaining long-term haematopoietic stem cell quiescence.
doi: 10.1038/nature12303
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.
doi: 10.1038/nature12453
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.
doi: 10.1038/nature12329
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.
doi: 10.1038/nature12335
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.
doi: 10.1038/nature12440
