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Non-communicable diseases: Healthy living needs global governance
Lawrence O. Gostin calls for action on nutrition, pollution and the built environment to curb non-communicable diseases such as diabetes and cancer.
History: Fifty years of EMBO
Georgina Ferry reflects on the evolution of the European Molecular Biology Organization, founded to help Europe to compete with the United States.
Summer books
As the wild blue yonder beckons and labs and classrooms empty, Nature's regular reviewers share their holiday reads.
Summer books
Review
Top
Metabolism of stromal and immune cells in health and disease
Bart Ghesquière,
Brian W. Wong,
Anna Kuchnio &
Peter Carmeliet
This Review discusses stromal and immune cell metabolism and its implications for health and disease.
Articles
Top
Abnormalities in human pluripotent cells due to reprogramming mechanisms
Hong Ma,
Robert Morey,
Ryan C. O'Neil,
Yupeng He,
Brittany Daughtry
+ et al.
Genome-wide analysis of matched human IVF embryonic stem cells (IVF ES cells), induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS cells) and nuclear transfer ES cells (NT ES cells) derived by somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) reveals that human somatic cells can be faithfully reprogrammed to pluripotency by SCNT; NT ES cells and iPS cells derived from the same somatic cells contain comparable numbers of de novo copy number variations, but whereas DNA methylation and transcriptome profiles of NT ES cells and IVF ES cells are similar, iPS cells have residual patterns typical of parental somatic cells.
Aryl hydrocarbon receptor control of a disease tolerance defence pathway
Alban Bessede,
Marco Gargaro,
Maria T. Pallotta,
Davide Matino,
Giuseppe Servillo
+ et al.
Initial exposure to lipopolysaccharide (LPS) induces endotoxin tolerance, which reduces immunological reactions to LPS; here it is shown that primary LPS challenge is controlled by AhR, TDO2 and IL-10, whereas sustained effects require AhR, IDO1 and TGF-β, allowing for disease tolerance with reduced immunopathology in infections.
NMDA receptor structures reveal subunit arrangement and pore architecture
Chia-Hsueh Lee,
Wei Lü,
Jennifer Carlisle Michel,
April Goehring,
Juan Du
+ et al.
X-ray crystal structures are presented of the N-methyl-d-aspartate (NMDA) receptor, a calcium-permeable ion channel that opens upon binding of glutamate and glycine; glutamate is a key excitatory neurotransmitter and enhanced structural insight of this receptor may aid development of therapeutic small molecules.
See also
News & Views by Stroebel & Paoletti
Letters
Top
Non-local propagation of correlations in quantum systems with long-range interactions
Philip Richerme,
Zhe-Xuan Gong,
Aaron Lee,
Crystal Senko,
Jacob Smith
+ et al.
Trapped ions are used to determine the speed of propagation of correlations and the causal region to which they are confined in quantum many-body systems with medium- and long-range spin interactions.
Quasiparticle engineering and entanglement propagation in a quantum many-body system
P. Jurcevic,
B. P. Lanyon,
P. Hauke,
C. Hempel,
P. Zoller
+ et al.
The fine control afforded by trapped atomic ions is used to explore experimentally how the range of interactions between the ions influences the spreading of information in quantum many-body systems.
An optoelectronic framework enabled by low-dimensional phase-change films
Peiman Hosseini,
C. David Wright &
Harish Bhaskaran
Here stable colour changes induced by solid-state electrical switching of ultrathin films of a germanium–antimony–telluride alloy are demonstrated, adding to its established uses in data storage; possible applications include flexible and transparent displays.
Quantification of dissolved iron sources to the North Atlantic Ocean
Tim M. Conway &
Seth G. John
A high-resolution oceanic section of dissolved iron stable isotope ratios reveals that the primary source of dissolved iron to the North Atlantic is atmospheric dust, while seafloor sediments and submarine volcanic vents also contribute significantly.
Strong contributions of local background climate to urban heat islands
Lei Zhao,
Xuhui Lee,
Ronald B. Smith &
Keith Oleson
Climate modelling is used to show that for cities across North America, geographic variations in daytime urban heat islands—that is, the temperature differences between urban and adjacent rural areas—are largely explained by variations in the efficiency with which those areas convect heat to the lower atmosphere.
Cooperating with the future
Oliver P. Hauser,
David G. Rand,
Alexander Peysakhovich &
Martin A. Nowak
An intergenerational cooperation game has been developed to study decision-making regarding resource use: when decisions about resource extraction were made individually the resource was rapidly depleted by a minority of defectors; the resource was sustainably maintained across generations, however, when decisions were made democratically by voting.
Amphibians acquire resistance to live and dead fungus overcoming fungal immunosuppression
Taegan A. McMahon,
Brittany F. Sears,
Matthew D. Venesky,
Scott M. Bessler,
Jenise M. Brown
+ et al.
The fungal pathogen Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis has been implicated in the decline of a large number of amphibian species; here it is shown that frogs can learn to avoid the pathogen, acquire resistance to it and be immunized against it using dead pathogen, findings that potentially offer a way in which resistant populations could be reintroduced into areas that have seen catastrophic declines.
A dynamic model of bovine tuberculosis spread and control in Great Britain
Ellen Brooks-Pollock,
Gareth O. Roberts &
Matt J. Keeling
Bovine tuberculosis is a major economic burden on the cattle industry, and attempts to control it have been politically controversial; here farm movement and bovine tuberculosis incidence data are used to construct a mechanistic model and tease apart the factors contributing to epidemic bovine tuberculosis spread.
Horizontal genome transfer as an asexual path to the formation of new species
Ignacia Fuentes,
Sandra Stegemann,
Hieronim Golczyk,
Daniel Karcher &
Ralph Bock
The formation of a new species can occur by an asexual mechanism by transfer of entire nuclear genomes between plant cells as shown by the creation of a new allopolyploid plant from parental herbaceous and woody plant species, this mechanism is a potential new tool for crop improvement.
Cntnap4 differentially contributes to GABAergic and dopaminergic synaptic transmission
T. Karayannis,
E. Au,
J. C. Patel,
I. Kruglikov,
S. Markx
+ et al.
The molecular relationship between synaptic dysfunction and psychiatric disorders was investigated using a mouse model system; presynaptically localized Cntnap4 is required for the output of two disease-relevant neuronal subpopulations (cortical parvalbumin-positive GABAergic cells and midbrain dopaminergic neurons) and Cntnap4 mutants show behavioural abnormalities which can be pharmacologically reversed.
Novel somatic and germline mutations in intracranial germ cell tumours
Linghua Wang,
Shigeru Yamaguchi,
Matthew D. Burstein,
Keita Terashima,
Kyle Chang
+ et al.
Intracranial germ cell tumours are rare tumours affecting mainly male adolescents, mainly in Asia; here the authors identify frequent mutations in the KIT/RAS and AKT/mTOR signalling pathways as well as rare germline variants in JMJD1C, suggesting potential therapeutic strategies focusing on the inhibition of KIT/RAS activation and the AKT1/mTOR pathway.
SOX2 controls tumour initiation and cancer stem-cell functions in squamous-cell carcinoma
Soufiane Boumahdi,
Gregory Driessens,
Gaelle Lapouge,
Sandrine Rorive,
Dany Nassar
+ et al.
Here, in a mouse model of skin squamous cell carcinoma, a key role is demonstrated for the transcription factor SOX2 in the initiation and progression of skin tumours.
Avoidance of ribonucleotide-induced mutations by RNase H2 and Srs2-Exo1 mechanisms
Catherine J. Potenski,
Hengyao Niu,
Patrick Sung &
Hannah L. Klein
Srs2 helicase facilitates the removal of ribonucleoside monophosphates that are incorrectly incorporated into DNA during replication.
