野生の集団を大きく改変する技術である遺伝子ドライブの研究者が、自身の研究計画を公開して広く議論を求めるのは賢明な姿勢である。
Defensive drives p.275
Researchers exploring ways to genetically alter wild populations are wise to air their plans.
doi: 10.1038/527275b
Researchers exploring ways to genetically alter wild populations are wise to air their plans.
doi: 10.1038/527275b
Numbers on racial bias in research grants awarded by the US National Institutes of Health show that science has more to learn about inclusiveness.
doi: 10.1038/527275a
Science is beside the point when an entrenched culture in a sport supports scoundrels.
doi: 10.1038/527276a
Protein complex offers explanation for how animals sense Earth's magnetic pull.
doi: 10.1038/527283a
Europe’s long-awaited LISA Pathfinder spacecraft has two metal cubes at its heart, which it will attempt to isolate from every force except for gravity.
doi: 10.1038/527284a
Minorities still less likely to win biomedical funding.
doi: 10.1038/527286a
Scientists will use wonky orbit to test Einstein’s theories.
doi: 10.1038/nature.2015.18780
What we know about alien worlds — and what’s coming next.
doi: 10.1038/527288a
「量子の奇妙さ」の根底にあると信じられている量子エンタングルメントが、「時空概念」の根底にもあると考える物理学者がいる。
doi: 10.1038/527290a
コンピュータートモグラフィー法とX線小角散乱法という2つの手法を併用し、これにさらに非常に高度な計算能力を組み合わせて使うことで、骨と歯の組織のマルチスケールでの三次元解析が今回、可能になった。
doi: 10.1038/527308a
黄色ブドウ球菌の一部は、宿主細胞中に「隠れ潜む」ことで標準的な抗生物質治療を行った後にも生き残ると考えられている。だが、マウスモデルでこのような細菌を標的とする、武装抗体とも呼ばれる抗体–抗生物質抱合体が、今回開発された。
doi: 10.1038/nature15647
太陽系外惑星は数千個が見つかっているが、非常に若い惑星はまだ1つも見つかっていなかった。今回、誕生した場所で形成の途上にある若い惑星が観測によってついに見つかり、さらに多くのこうした発見への糸口が開かれた。
doi: 10.1038/527310a
脊椎動物の神経堤細胞といくつかの性質が共通する細胞が、無脊椎動物で今回見つかった。この発見は、神経堤細胞という脊椎動物の重要な細胞集団の進化過程についての手掛かりを与えてくれそうだ。
doi: 10.1038/nature15645
がん細胞は、標的臓器を探し出す細胞外小胞を送り出して遠く離れた転移部位を準備しておき、がんを臓器特異的に拡大していくことが、新たな解析によって明らかになった。
doi: 10.1038/nature15642
脊椎損傷を受けたラットの運動ニューロンを、それらのニューロンが随意運動指令を受ける時に合わせて電気バーストで刺激してやると、機能の回復が改善されることが示された。
doi: 10.1038/527314a
極端な干ばつ、あるいは極端な多雨は生態系の植生成長に強い影響を与えることが今回明らかになった。半乾燥地域が最も大きな影響を受けるため、将来起こると考えられる、長期にわたる干ばつに対するこうした地域の生態系の脆弱性が懸念されている。
doi: 10.1038/527315a
The morphogen Decapentaplegic (Dpp) has been implicated in both wing patterning and growth in fruitflies; here, a nanobody-based morphotrap approach has been developed that rules out a role for the Dpp gradient in regulating lateral wing growth.
doi: 10.1038/nature15712
Antibiotic-resistant strains of Staphylococcus aureus, such as MRSA, are proving increasingly difficult to treat; here, one reason for this is confirmed to be the fact that S. aureus bacteria can reside in intracellular reservoirs where they are protected from antibiotics, but a new strategy—based on an antibody–antibiotic conjugate—can specifically target these reservoirs.
doi: 10.1038/nature16057
Exosomes originating from lung-, liver- and brain-tropic tumour cells are preferentially incorporated by specific resident cells of the target organs, thus preparing the site for metastasis; the expression of distinct combinations of exosomal integrin proteins determines the exosomal targeting to each of the three organs, and blocking these integrins reduces organotropic exosome uptake by the target organs, thereby reducing the likelihood of organotropic metastasis.
doi: 10.1038/nature15756
This study has determined the electron cryomicroscopy structure of the mammalian type 1 InsP3 receptor in a ligand-free state at 4.7 Å resolution; although the central Ca2+-conduction pathway is similar to other ion channels, the unique architecture of the C-terminal domains of the tetrameric channel suggests that a distinctive allosteric mechanism underlies the activation of InsP3 gating.
doi: 10.1038/nature15249
Transition disks are natural laboratories for the study of planet formation, with inner clearings explained by the influence of accreting planets, but attempts to observe directly accretion onto protoplanets have proven unsuccessful so far; here the authors detect infrared emission from multiple companions of the LkCa 15 system and Ha emission from the innermost (LkCa 15 b), showing hot (~10,000 K) gas falling deep into the potential well of an accreting protoplanet.
doi: 10.1038/nature15761
The interaction between antiprotons, produced by colliding high-energy gold ions, is shown to be attractive, and two important parameters of this interaction are measured, namely the scattering length and the effective range.
doi: 10.1038/nature15724
An imaging method that combines small-angle X-ray scattering with tensor tomography to probe nanoscale structures in macroscopic samples is introduced and demonstrated by measuring the main orientation and the degree of orientation of nanoscale mineralized collagen fibrils in a human trabecula bone sample.
doi: 10.1038/nature16056
A small-angle X-ray scattering computed tomography method that reduces the amount of data that needs to be collected and analysed to reconstruct the three-dimensional scattering distribution in reciprocal space of a three-dimensional sample in real space is demonstrated by measuring the orientation of collagen fibres within a human tooth.
doi: 10.1038/nature16060
Two flexible metal-organic frameworks are presented as solid adsorbents for methane that undergo reversible phase transitions at specific methane pressures, enabling greater storage capacities of usable methane than have been achieved previously, while also providing internal heat management of the system.
doi: 10.1038/nature15732
The processes responsible for driving the expansion of the ocean's oxygen minimum zones remain uncertain; here sediment core data from the Gulf of Alaska suggest that reduced oxygen solubility was a result of ocean warming initiating the expansion of the North Pacific oxygen minimum zone, leading to increased marine productivity and carbon export and, in turn, further reductions in dissolved oxygen levels.
doi: 10.1038/nature15753
By quantifying the colouration of all approximately 6,000 species of passerine birds, certain life-history traits such as large body size and tropical distribution are found to increase ornamentation in both male and female birds, whereas cooperative breeding increases it in females only, and sexual selection diminishes it in females more than it increases it in males.
doi: 10.1038/nature15509
Neuronal precursor cells in the tunicate Ciona intestinalis are shown to delaminate and undergo directed cell migration along either side of the neural tube before differentiating into bipolar neurons, suggesting that vertebrate neural-crest-derived sensory neurons have much deeper evolutionary roots.
doi: 10.1038/nature15758
The morphogen Decapentaplegic (Dpp) has been implicated in both wing patterning and growth in fruitflies; here, a CRISPR–Cas9 approach is used to rule out the Dpp gradient driving wing growth.
doi: 10.1038/nature15730
ASS1, a urea cycle enzyme, promotes cancer cell proliferation by facilitating pyrimidine synthesis via CAD (carbamoyl-phosphate synthase 2, aspartate transcarbamylase, and dihydroorotase complex) activation.
doi: 10.1038/nature15529
A high-throughput analysis of DNA binding in over 9,000 interacting transcription factor pairs reveals that the interactions are often actively mediated by the DNA itself and the composite DNA sites recognized are different from the individual motifs of each transcription factor.
doi: 10.1038/nature15518
At the initiation of DNA double-strand break repair, a number of ubiquitylation events occur; here, the RNF8 ubiquitin E3 ligase and the ubiquitin-conjugating E2 enzyme, UBC13, are shown to primarily modify H1-type linker histones, via a K63 linkage.
doi: 10.1038/nature15401
Hydrazine is an intermediate in the process of anaerobic ammonium oxidation which has a major role in the Earth’s nitrogen cycle; the crystal structure of a hydrazine synthase enzyme provides insights into the mechanism of hydrazine synthesis.
doi: 10.1038/nature15517