Vol 508, No. 7497, April 2014, Reasons for Y

    Medical genomics: Gather and use genetic data in health care

    Research into how genetic variants can guide successful treatments must become part of routine medical practice and records, says Geoffrey Ginsburg.

Books and Arts
Top

    Natural history: A scientist's eye

    Beatrix Potter's meticulous artistry served mycology and entomology as well as children's fiction, reveals Linda Lear.
    Medicine: The commodified body

    Scott Carney assesses a study of banked human blood, sperm and milk.
        Review of Banking on the Body: The Market in Blood, Milk, and Sperm in Modern America
        Kara W. Swanson
    Climate science: Stratospheric folly

    Tim Kruger examines an argument against injecting aerosols into the atmosphere to counter climate change.
        Review of Can Science Fix Climate Change? A Case Against Climate Engineering
        Mike Hulme

    Electrochemistry: Catalysis at the boundaries
        Aaron M. Appel

    See also
            Letter by Li et al.

    Sensory systems: Do you hear what I see?
        Ione Fine
    Infection biology: Nibbled to death
        Nancy Guillén

    See also
            Letter by Ralston et al.

    Genetics: The vital Y chromosome
        Andrew G. Clark

    See also
            Article by Cortez et al.

    See also
            Article by Bellott et al.

    50 & 100 Years Ago
    Climate science: Sea levels from ancient seashells
        Ralph Schneider

    See also
            Article by Rohling et al.

    Reproductive biology: Sperm protein finds its mate
        Paul M. Wassarman

    See also
            Article by Bianchi et al.
Letters
Top

    Superconducting quantum circuits at the surface code threshold for fault tolerance
        R. Barends,
        J. Kelly,
        A. Megrant,
        A. Veitia,
        D. Sank
        + et al.

    A universal set of logic gates in a superconducting quantum circuit is shown to have gate fidelities at the threshold for fault-tolerant quantum computing by the surface code approach, in which the quantum bits are distributed in an array of planar topology and have only nearest-neighbour couplings.
    Electroreduction of carbon monoxide to liquid fuel on oxide-derived nanocrystalline copper
        Christina W. Li,
        Jim Ciston &
        Matthew W. Kanan

    The electrochemical conversion of CO and H2O into liquid fuel is made feasible at modest potentials with the use of oxide-derived nanocystalline Cu as the catalyst.

    See also
            News & Views by Appel

    Hybrid shallow on-axis and deep off-axis hydrothermal circulation at fast-spreading ridges
        Jörg Hasenclever,
        Sonja Theissen-Krah,
        Lars H. Rüpke,
        Jason P. Morgan,
        Karthik Iyer
        + et al.

    High-resolution three-dimensional simulations of hydrothermal flow beneath fast-spreading ridges predict two interacting flow components — shallow on-axis flow and deeper off-axis flow — that merge to feed axial vent sites, reconciling previously incompatible models favouring only one flow component.
    Plate tectonics, damage and inheritance
        David Bercovici &
        Yanick Ricard

    Lithospheric damage, combined with transient mantle flow and migrating proto-subduction, is proposed to explain the apparent emergence of plate tectonics three billion years ago; modelling confirms that tectonic plate boundaries and fully formed tectonic plates can arise under conditions characteristic of Earth but not of Venus.
    Herbivores and nutrients control grassland plant diversity via light limitation
        Elizabeth T. Borer,
        Eric W. Seabloom,
        Daniel S. Gruner,
        W. Stanley Harpole,
        Helmut Hillebrand
        + et al.

    Experimental data collected from 40 grasslands on 6 continents show that nutrients and herbivores can serve as counteracting forces to control local plant diversity; nutrient addition reduces local diversity through light limitation, and herbivory rescues diversity at sites where it alleviates light limitation.
    Eutrophication weakens stabilizing effects of diversity in natural grasslands
        Yann Hautier,
        Eric W. Seabloom,
        Elizabeth T. Borer,
        Peter B. Adler,
        W. Stanley Harpole
        + et al.

    Experimental eutrophication weakens the stabilizing effects of plant diversity on the productivity of natural grasslands.
    Trogocytosis by Entamoeba histolytica contributes to cell killing and tissue invasion
        Katherine S. Ralston,
        Michael D. Solga,
        Nicole M. Mackey-Lawrence,
        Somlata,
        Alok Bhattacharya
        + et al.

    Entamoeba histolytica, the causative agent of fatal diarrhoeal disease in children in the developing world, is shown here to kill human cells by biting off and ingesting pieces of cells, in a process reminiscent of the trogocytosis seen between immune cells; ingestion of bites is required for killing and this mechanism is used both in tissue culture and during invasion of intestinal explants.

    See also
            News & Views by Guillén

    Inhibition of miR-25 improves cardiac contractility in the failing heart
        Christine Wahlquist,
        Dongtak Jeong,
        Agustin Rojas-Muñoz,
        Changwon Kho,
        Ahyoung Lee
        + et al.

    Reduced activity of the calcium-transporting ATPase SERCA2a is a hallmark of heart failure; here, microRNAs that downregulate SERCA2a function are identified, and antagonism of one, miR-25, is shown to halt heart failure in mice.
    Foxc1 is a critical regulator of haematopoietic stem/progenitor cell niche formation
        Yoshiki Omatsu,
        Masanari Seike,
        Tatsuki Sugiyama,
        Tsutomu Kume &
        Takashi Nagasawa

    Transcription factor Foxc1 is a key regulator of haematopoietic stem/progenitor cell niche formation.
    Cell-cycle-regulated activation of Akt kinase by phosphorylation at its carboxyl terminus
        Pengda Liu,
        Michael Begley,
        Wojciech Michowski,
        Hiroyuki Inuzuka,
        Miriam Ginzberg
        + et al.

    Phosphorylation of Akt at its carboxy-terminal tail is an essential layer of Akt activation to regulate its physiological functions.
    Nectar secretion requires sucrose phosphate synthases and the sugar transporter SWEET9
        I Winnie Lin,
        Davide Sosso,
        Li-Qing Chen,
        Klaus Gase,
        Sang-Gyu Kim
        + et al.

    Although nectar is known to be important, for example in plant–insect interactions, little has been known about the mechanism of its secretion; sucrose phosphate synthases are now reported to be essential for the synthesis of the sucrose component of nectar and the transporter protein SWEET9 is shown to mediate sucrose export into the extracellular space of the nectary.
    Structure of a type IV secretion system
        Harry H. Low,
        Francesca Gubellini,
        Angel Rivera-Calzada,
        Nathalie Braun,
        Sarah Connery
        + et al.

    The three-dimensional structure of the type IV secretion system encoded by the Escherichia coli R388 conjugative plasmid.

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