Laboratory-based experiments are sorely needed to complement the rapidly proliferating spectral data originating from observations by the latest space telescopes.
doi: 10.1038/503437a
Misconceptions about do-it-yourself biology mean that opportunities are being missed.
doi: 10.1038/503437b
Universities need to counter pressures that undermine support for younger researchers.
doi: 10.1038/503438a
Planned launch of lunar rover follows a string of triumphs for the country’s space programme.
doi: 10.1038/503445a
Researchers share results to keep them accessible.
doi: 10.1038/503447a
Drugable.com predicts mechanisms through computation.
doi: 10.1038/503449a
Raft of control measures slows the march of alien species.
doi: 10.1038/503450a
Politicians take action on poaching in Africa as tusk seizures approach record numbers.
doi: 10.1038/503452a
科学的不正行為を告発するのは容易ではないが、疑いを抱いたときにどうするのが効果的か、経験者が語る。
doi: 10.1038/503454a
ある種の精神状態が体の健康に影響するのは、どのような仕組みによるのだろうか。
doi: 10.1038/503458a
外来種のイネ科草本の侵入を受けている森林地域では、正および負のフィードバックの性質が変動することが分かった。これは、自然系の管理の複雑性を明らかにしている。
doi: 10.1038/nature12838
北西アフリカで見つかり、NWA 7533という平凡な名前が付けられた隕石について解析が行われ、これが火星のレゴリス、つまり土壌の初めて得られた試料であることが示された。この隕石は、これまで見つかった中で最古の火成岩地殻に由来するものだ。
doi: 10.1038/nature12836
がんを引き起こすRasタンパク質を中和する小分子の開発は、30年間にわたって失敗が続いてきたが、抗がん剤研究への新しい道を開く手法が今回見つかった。
doi: 10.1038/nature12835
ある種の細菌集団では、一部の細胞は単独で存在して運動性を持ち続けるが、他の細胞はどこかに落ち着いて連鎖状の形態をとる。細胞がどちらの状態をとるかを決定する機序が今回調べられた。
doi: 10.1038/nature12837
間欠的に非常に明るくなるX線源の詳しい観測から、その放射が、以前に考えられていたように中間質量ブラックホールへの質量降着からエネルギーを得ているのではないらしいことが示された。
doi: 10.1038/503477a
ケトライド系の抗生物質は、細菌でリボソームのフレームシフト、つまりRNA翻訳の変更を引き起こすことが分かった。これによって抗生物質耐性に関わる遺伝子の発現が促進されるので、この現象は広い範囲に関わってくると考えられる。
doi: 10.1038/503478a
This study shows that Bacillus subtilis switches from a solitary, motile lifestyle to a multicellular, sessile state in a random, memoryless fashion, but that the underlying gene network is buffered against its own stochastic variation to tightly time the reverse transition; thus bacteria keep track of time to force their progeny to cooperate during the earliest stage of multicellular growth.
doi: 10.1038/nature12804
Naturally occurring genetic variation between inbred mouse strains is used as a mutagenesis strategy to investigate mechanisms responsible for the selection and function of cis-regulatory elements in macrophages; lineage-determining transcription factors are proposed to select enhancer-like regions in the genome in a collaborative fashion and facilitate the binding of signal-dependent factors.
doi: 10.1038/nature12615
An orally active small molecule, AdipRon, that binds to and activates both adiponectin receptors (AdipoR1 and AdipoR2) is identified; it ameliorates diabetes in mice on a high-fat diet and in genetically obese db/db mice, and if this can be extrapolated to humans, orally active agonists such as AdipoRon are a promising new approach to treat obesity-related diseases such as type 2 diabetes.
doi: 10.1038/nature12656
The ultraluminous X-ray source M 101 ULX-1 consists of a black hole orbiting a Wolf-Rayet star; optical spectroscopy now shows that the orbital period is 8.2 days, suggesting that the black hole has a mass in the range 5 to 30 solar masses, though the X-ray spectra are unlike what is expected from accretion onto a stellar-mass black hole—accretion must occur from captured stellar wind, which has hitherto been thought to be so inefficient that it could not power an ultraluminous source.
doi: 10.1038/nature12762
The characteristic relaxation and dephasing times of the electronic spins in thin-film copper phthalocyanine are long enough that this common, low-cost organic semiconductor has potential for both quantum and classical information processing.
doi: 10.1038/nature12597
Most known ferroelectric photovoltaic materials have very wide electronic bandgaps (that is, they absorb only high-energy photons) but here a family of perovskite oxides is described that have tunable bandgaps, allowing their use across the whole visible-light spectrum.
doi: 10.1038/nature12622
Chemical analysis of the meteorite NWA 7533 indicates that it may be a Martian regolith breccia and, if so, that the crust of Mars may have formed in the first 100 million years of the planet’s history.
doi: 10.1038/nature12764
Plant invasions are thought to alter the ecosystem in a way that disadvantages the native species, making re-establishment after eradication difficult; here, on returning to a site at which an invasive plant altered nitrogen-mineralization levels several decades ago, mineralization is found to have returned to pre-invasion levels, although these new conditions favour new invaders over the natives.
doi: 10.1038/nature12798
Cortical inhibitory interneurons expressing vasoactive intestinal polypeptide (VIP) are shown to specialize in suppressing the activity of other inhibitory interneurons and are activated by reinforcement signals, thus increasing the activity of excitatory neurons by releasing them from inhibition; these results reveal a cell-type-specific microcircuit that tunes cortical activity under certain behavioural conditions.
doi: 10.1038/nature12676
Induced pluripotent stem-cell characterization reveals phenotypical differences between humans and non-human primates (NHPs): gene expression analysis shows differences in the regulation of long interspersed element-1 (L1) transposons, and in the expression of L1-restricting genes APOBEC3B and PIWIL2, correlating with higher L1 mobility in NHPs; this indicates that L1 mobility differences may have differentially shaped the human and NHP genomes.
doi: 10.1038/nature12686
The cytoplasmic DNA receptor cGAS catalyses the synthesis of the second messenger cGAMP, which in turn activates type I interferon via STING; this study shows that cGAMP is transmitted to neighbouring cells via gap junction channels and activates STING, thus inducing an antiviral state in these bystander cells independent of paracrine interferon signalling.
doi: 10.1038/nature12640
Whole-genome sequences of two novel SARS-CoV-related bat coronaviruses, in addition to a live isolate of a bat SARS-like coronavirus, are reported; the live isolate can infect human cells using ACE2, providing the strongest evidence to date that Chinese horseshoe bats are natural reservoirs of SARS-CoV.
doi: 10.1038/nature12711
A sub-nanometre reconstruction of a 40S complex containing eIF3 and a hepatitis C virus (HCV)-like internal ribosome entry site (IRES) shows that the IRES displaces eIF3 from the 40S and sequesters it to gain access to the 40S subunit.
doi: 10.1038/nature12658
When all origins of replication are deleted from the archaeon Haloferax volcanii, homologous recombination is used to initiate DNA replication and the growth rate is accelerated.
doi: 10.1038/nature12650
Small molecules are developed that irreversibly bind to the common G12C mutant of K-Ras but not the wild-type protein; crystallographic studies reveal the formation of an allosteric pocket that is not apparent in previous Ras studies, and the small molecules shift the affinity of K-Ras to favour GDP over GTP.
doi: 10.1038/nature12796
Structural and functional studies reveal how the bacterial flavoenzyme EncM catalyses the oxygenation–dehydrogenation dual oxidation of a highly reactive substrate, and show that EncM maintains a stable flavin oxygenating species that promotes substrate oxidation and triggers a rarely seen Favorskii-type rearrangement.
doi: 10.1038/nature12643
