薬物依存は病気ではなく社会問題だという、動物実験反対運動家の不当な主張を鵜呑みにすべきではない。
Animal farm p.5
Misrepresentation of addiction by animal-rights activists should not be allowed to derail research.
doi: 10.1038/506005a
Misrepresentation of addiction by animal-rights activists should not be allowed to derail research.
doi: 10.1038/506005a
UK immigration rules are perceived as being tougher than they really are.
doi: 10.1038/506006a
The Amazon doesn’t absorb extra carbon in the dry season after all. It can become a carbon source.
doi: 10.1038/506006b
US panels aim to set standards for crime labs.
doi: 10.1038/506013a
Immigration policies scare off foreign talent, warn critics.
doi: 10.1038/506014a
Competition and education needed to keep people engaged.
doi: 10.1038/506016a
Researchers welcome easier access for harvesting content, but some spurn tight controls.
doi: 10.1038/506017a
Scientists raise concerns about relocation of premier French research vineyard dubbed the ‘Louvre of vines’.
doi: 10.1038/506018a
Physicists look past graphene for atom-thick layers that could be switches in circuits.
doi: 10.1038/506019a
気候変動が、冬季スポーツの未来を脅かしている。
doi: 10.1038/506020a
ヨーロッパで、苦労の末に認められた霊長類の研究利用が、新たな危機に見舞われている。
doi: 10.1038/506024a
近年報告されて暫定的にEntotheonellaと名付けられた属の細菌が、海生海綿であるTheonella swinhoeiで見いだされる多様な天然物の供給源であることが分かった。2人の専門家が、この発見について微生物生態学と創薬の視点から論じている。
doi: 10.1038/nature13049
黒色腫を持つマウスで免疫細胞の抗腫瘍活性に特定の遺伝子の阻害が及ぼす影響について、大規模なin vivoスクリーニングが行われ、がん治療のための標的候補が突き止められた。
doi: 10.1038/nature13050
アマゾン森林が吐く「息」、つまりアマゾン盆地全体での炭素放出量が航空機を使って測定された。この知見は、将来の干ばつがもたらす影響を懸念させ、この地域での火の使われ方についての再評価を求めるものだ。
doi: 10.1038/506041a
皮膚に含まれる脂肪性の物質が、皮膚にホーミングする自己反応性T細胞集団を活性化するような構造を持っていることが分かった。これらの免疫細胞の応答は局所的な防御を助けるが、自己免疫疾患にも関わっている。
doi: 10.1038/506042a
重水素標的中のクォークから右回りの電子と左回りの電子を別々に散乱させることで、鏡像対称性の破れに関する35年前の古典的測定結果がほぼ5倍改善された。
doi: 10.1038/506043a
熱帯雨林では多くの種類の植物が限られた広さの中に共在できる。その仕組みについては、生態学でずっと以前から考察されてきたが、病原性真菌が重要な役割を持っていることが今回明らかにされた。その地域に多く存在する種にはこうした菌の存在が不利に働くのである。
doi: 10.1038/nature12851
By analysing plant and nematode DNA from sites all around the Arctic, it is shown that vegetation before about 10,000 years ago contained more forbs (non-graminoid herbaceous vascular plants) than previously believed, which changes our understanding about the functioning of the diverse northern ecosystem that existed at this time.
doi: 10.1038/nature12921
A short hairpin RNA screen to identify genes that modify the action of tumour-infiltrating CD8 T cells in tumour-bearing mice pinpointed the phosphatase subunit Ppp2r2d as a new target for tumour therapy; knockdown of Ppp2r2d in T cells enabled their accumulation in tumours and significantly delayed tumour growth.
doi: 10.1038/nature12988
Single-cell- and metagenomics-based study reveals two members of the candidate genus ‘Entotheonella’, symbionts of the marine sponge Theonella swinhoei; distinct biosynthetic gene clusters that account for most of the bioactive polyketides and peptides known from T. swinhoei are shown to be attributable to a single member of the T. swinhoei Y microbiome.
doi: 10.1038/nature12959
Observations of a cosmic web filament have been made in Lyman-α emission; the filament has a projected size of approximately 460 physical kiloparsecs, and its estimated cold gas mass is more than ten times larger than what is typically found in cosmological simulations.
doi: 10.1038/nature12898
A high-precision parity-violating electron–quark scattering experiment provides measurements of a combination of electron–quark weak couplings with a precision five times higher than the single previous direct study, confirming the predictions of the electroweak particle-physics theory and providing constraints on parity-violating interactions beyond the standard model.
doi: 10.1038/nature12964
In the search for stable and accurate atomic clocks, many-atom lattice clocks have shown higher precision than clocks based on single trapped ions, but have been less accurate; here, a stable many-atom clock is demonstrated that has accuracy better than single-ion clocks.
doi: 10.1038/nature12941
Carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide measurements across the Amazon basin for 2010 and 2011 reveal that drought rather than temperature caused the observed halt in forest productivity during the anomalously dry year of 2010.
doi: 10.1038/nature12957
Sea-ice leads (open water channels), which increase with an ongoing shift from perennial to seasonal sea ice, are shown to initiate convection in the Arctic boundary layer, thus supplying ozone and gaseous mercury to the surface and possibly leading to additional pollution effects.
doi: 10.1038/nature12924
Suppressing fungi in a tropical forest plant community lowers diversity by reducing the negative effects of density on seedling recruitment, and removing insects increases seedling survival and alters plant community composition; this demonstrates the crucial role of pathogens and insects in maintaining and structuring tropical forest plant diversity.
doi: 10.1038/nature12911
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.
doi: 10.1038/nature12872
A mathematical modelling study assesses the role of peer behaviour and ‘herding’ behaviour in aggregating information through the peer-review process; peer review works best when reviewers exercise intermediate levels of subjectivity.
doi: 10.1038/nature12786
A risk haplotype for type 2 diabetes is identified with four amino acid substitutions in SLC16A11, which is present at ~50% frequency in Native American samples and ~10% in east Asian samples, but is rare in European and African samples; SLC16A11 may alter hepatic lipid metabolism, causing an increase in triacylglycerol levels.
doi: 10.1038/nature12828
Newly synthesized proteins are targeted to the SecY protein-conducting channel for translocation across the membrane; here, cryo-electron microscopy structures of inactive and active ribosome–channel complexes are presented, revealing that ribosome binding does not result in major structural changes to transmembrane regions of the channel, and that stable channel opening requires loop insertion of the translocating nascent chain.
doi: 10.1038/nature12720
Nascent secretory and membrane proteins are targeted to the Sec61 protein-conducting channel for translocation across or insertion into the endoplasmic reticulum membrane; here cryo-electron microscopy structures of eukaryotic ribosome–channel complexes show how this channel opens vertically during translocation of a secretory protein into the lumen of the endoplasmic reticulum and how it opens laterally during insertion of a transmembrane domain into the lipid bilayer.
doi: 10.1038/nature12950
This study shows that aprataxin, encoded by a gene mutated in the neurodegenerative disorder AOA1, can remove the 5′ AMP from RNA–DNA junctions; this RNA–DNA damage response promotes cell survival.
doi: 10.1038/nature12824
The crystal structure of the Lsm protein ring of the U6 small nuclear ribonucleoprotein (snRNP), with and without an RNA comprising the 3′ end of the U6 small nuclear RNA, is solved here; this structure provides insight into the function of U6 snRNP in precursor messenger RNA splicing.
doi: 10.1038/nature12803