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This press release is copyright Nature. VOL.441 NO.7092 DATED 25 MAY 2006
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This press release contains:
* Summaries of newsworthy papers:
- Genetics: Mice flout Mendel’s laws with RNA inheritance
- HIV: Virus entry proteins visualized
- Evolution: Sea spiders aren't a step ahead after all
- Genetics: ‘Yellow card for RNA interference’
- Marine geology: Fire and brimstone in the deep
- Physics: Electrons probe magnetic properties with a twist
- Materials: Switching to nanowire transistors
- Neurodegeneration: Mechanism links protein misfolding to brain disease
- And finally… Lobsters keep sickness at bay
* Mention of papers to be published at the same time with the same embargo
* Geographical listing of authors
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[1] Genetics: Mice flout Mendel’s laws with RNA inheritance (pp 469-474; N&V)
A surprising study in this week’s Nature shows that RNA - rather than DNA - can ferry genetic information from one generation of mice to the next.
Minoo Rassoulzadegan and his colleagues show that the mouse Kit gene seems to defy Mendel’s laws of inheritance, in which offspring receive the exact gene combinations of their parents. Mice with a mutant version of Kit have white spots on their tails and feet. But when the team crossed together heterozygous mice - each possessing one normal and one mutant version of Kit - most of the offspring mice with two normal versions of the gene still had spotty tails.
The researchers show that the mutant Kit gene produces a large number of aberrantly sized messenger RNA molecules, and that the sperm of mutant mice unexpectedly accumulate RNA. Injecting RNA from mutant cells into normal embryos produced spotted tails - as did injections of Kit-specific microRNAs.
This evidence suggests that RNA molecules are carried in sperm and passed into the egg at fertilization, where they silence normal Kit gene activity in the offspring and subsequent generations. “A particularly intriguing possibility is that such RNAs regulate other non-genetic modes of inheritance,” writes Paul Soloway in an accompanying News & Views article.
CONTACT
Minoo Rassoulzadegan (University of Nice Sophia Antipolis, Nice, France)
Tel: +33 492 07 64 12; E-mail: [email protected]
Paul Soloway (Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA)
Tel: +1 607 254 6444; E-mail: [email protected]
[2] HIV: Virus entry proteins visualized (AOP)
DOI: 10.1038/nature04817
***This paper will be published electronically on Nature's website on 24 May at 1800 London time / 1300 US Eastern time (which is also when the embargo lifts) as part of our AOP (ahead of print) programme. Although we have included it on this release to avoid multiple mailings it will not appear in print on 25 May, but at a later date.***
Kenneth Roux and his colleagues reveal a fresh three-dimensional look at the spike proteins on HIV’s coating that allow it to bind and fuse with human cells. The study, published online by Nature, may help design better vaccines that prompt the body to cripple the spike protein.
Researchers have glimpsed partial structures of spike proteins before, using crystallography. This team used cryoelectron microscopy tomography to scrutinize spikes intact on the virus without fixing or staining. They find that HIV and its monkey equivalent SIV have around 14 and 73 spikes respectively, with some clustering. They show that the three gp120 proteins in each spike consist of a lobed head and a three-legged stalk - and use comparisons with atomic structures to gain insight into the mechanism of fusion.
CONTACT
Kenneth H Roux (Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL, USA)
Tel: +1 850 644 5037; E-mail: [email protected]
[3] Evolution: Sea spiders aren't a step ahead after all (pp 506-508)
Sea spiders have had an evolutionary claim to fame snatched from under their noses - almost literally. A new genetic analysis of arthropods, the huge animal group to which sea spiders belong, shows that all have essentially the same type of head segment, quashing earlier suggestions that sea spiders had retained an evolutionarily ancient extra appendage that would have given them the status of a missing link to more primitive animals.
All arthropod bodies, from ladybirds to lobsters, are composed of a series of segments, which can be adorned with appendages such as wings, legs, claws or antennae. Many fossil arthropods show curious appendages on their front-most head segments that seem to be absent from all modern arthropods, whose head appendages generally emerge from the second segment.
The problem is that head segments can be difficult to tell apart, leading to the suggestion, made recently in Nature (A. Maxmen et al., Nature 437, 1144-1148, 2005), that sea spiders might have retained their front-most head appendages, given their unusual appearance. But, as researchers led by Michaël Manuel report in this week's Nature, an analysis of the expression patterns of the genes that govern head development show that sea spiders' unusual head appendages contain nerves from the second head segment - making them just like all the rest.
CONTACT
Michael Manuel (Université Pierre et Marie Curie, Paris, France)
Tel: +33 1 44 27 34 69; E-mail: [email protected]
[4] Genetics: ‘Yellow card for RNA interference’ (pp 537-541)
A study in this week’s Nature shows the yellow card to the use of RNA interference in medicine. Mark Kay and his colleagues show that the long-term expression of RNA fragments in mice can end up killing the animals.
In RNA interference, a tiny piece of RNA is added to cells and used to switch off a particular gene; there is great hope that this strategy could be used to treat human disease. The researchers show that a virus can deliver so-called ‘short hairpin RNAs’ (shRNAs) to mouse liver cells. But of the 49 shRNAs they delivered, 36 of them caused liver injury - with 23 ultimately causing death.
The researchers found that the shRNAs interfered with the function of endogenous liver microRNAs, probably by competing for a limited supply of certain cellular proteins required for processing small RNAs. On the positive side, the group also show that delivering weak doses of one shRNA molecule can combat hepatitis B virus, suggesting that the technique could still work if the RNA dose is carefully controlled.
CONTACT
Mark M A Kay (Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA)
Tel: +1 650 498 6531; E-mail: [email protected]
[5] Marine geology: Fire and brimstone in the deep (pp 494-497)
Most volcanic activity on Earth happens under the sea - and so has rarely been seen directly. But now Robert Embley and his colleagues have caught a submarine volcanic eruption on camera - twice.
In March 2004 and October 2005, a submarine volcano called NW Rota-1, 60 km northwest of the island of Rota in the Northern Mariana Islands of the Pacific Ocean, burst into eruptive activity. The researchers sent two remotely operated research submarines called ROPOS and Hyper-Dolphin to watch the fireworks.
They saw plumes of ash, containing droplets of molten sulphur, billowing out close to the volcano's summit, 555 m below the sea surface. Thousands of small sulphur globules fell on ROPOS, spattering the vehicle's surface. The high concentrations of sulphur around the volcano's crater, even during quiescent spells, makes the water there as acidic as lemon juice. This and the recurrent rain of molten sulphur and ash mean that the flanks of the volcano are rather inhospitable - only a few specialized organisms can exist there, including some species of shrimp and some mat-like communities of microbes.
CONTACT
Robert W Embley (NOAA, Newport, OR, USA)
Tel: +1 541 867 0275; E-mail: [email protected]
[6] Physics: Electrons probe magnetic properties with a twist (pp 486-488)
A relatively simple technique to measure the magnetic properties of materials at scales of less than a billionth of a metre is unveiled in this week's Nature.
Peter Schattschneider and colleagues used a transmission electron microscope (TEM), which tracks the trajectories of a stream of electrons after they scatter through a material. This can reveal structural details too small to be seen by conventional optical microscopes, or even X-ray methods.
Their experiment relies on the fact that electromagnetic waves, such as visible light, are made up of electric and magnetic components, which can sometimes appear to rotate around the light's direction of travel, like an arrow spinning in flight. This is called circular polarization, and some materials react differently when light hits them depending on whether the polarization is clockwise or anticlockwise - an effect called circular dichroism.
They found that certain magnetic properties of the material could be revealed by a dichroism effect that was triggered by the TEM's electrons, rather than by light waves. The scientists say that electron energy-loss magnetic chiral dichroism (EMCD) is a useful tool for investigating new materials that could be used to make miniaturized recording devices, computers that store data using the spins of electrons, or even to probe bacteria that can sense magnetic fields.
CONTACT
Peter P S Schattschneider (Vienna University of Technology, Austria)
Tel: +43 588 011 3722; E-mail: [email protected]
[7] Materials: Switching to nanowire transistors (pp 489-493)
Semiconductor wires just billionths of a metre across could help to replace the bulkier flat transistors used in conventional computer chips, and now scientists have found that they can also have superior electronic properties.
Transistors act like switches in electronic circuits, using a voltage to control the flow of current between two terminals. In this week's Nature, Charles Lieber and colleagues report that nanowires made from a germanium core surrounded by a silicon shell are up to four times better than the equivalent conventional transistors at switching. Transistors act like switches in electronic circuits, using a voltage to control the flow of current between two terminals. The semiconductor wires can also be manufactured more efficiently than similar nanotubes made from carbon atoms, they add.
CONTACT
Charles C M Lieber (Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA)
Tel: +1 617 496 3169/4237; E-mail: [email protected]
[8] Neurodegeneration: Mechanism links protein misfolding to brain disease (pp 513-517)
Chemical stresses that build up in elderly brains can lead to dementias such as Parkinson's and Alzheimer's disease. Researchers have now identified a chemical reaction that may lead to the formation of damaging protein clumps that underpin these conditions, potentially paving the way for new methods to combat their progression.
Protein-disulphide isomerase (PDI), helps proteins to fold properly and prevents the formation of damaging clumps of tangled protein in the brain. Stuart Lipton and colleagues show in this week’s Nature that PDI’s task can be hampered by the build-up of nitric oxide, which reacts with PDI and stops it working.
Lipton and his team further showed that in patients with neurodegeneration, PDI was 'nitrosylated', rendering it ineffective. Stopping this chemical reaction could stave off the effects of dementia, the authors suggest.
CONTACT
Stuart S A Lipton (Burnham Institute for Medical Research, La Jolla, California, USA)
Tel: +1 858 713 6261; E-mail: [email protected]
[9] And finally… Lobsters keep sickness at bay (pp 421)
Social lobsters are able to detect sickness in their buddies, and employ avoidance tactics in order to keep the general population healthy, according to a Brief Communication in this week’s Nature. The underwater study shows that the normally gregarious Caribbean spiny lobster Panulirus argus avoids contact with sickly companions, even before they become infectious.
Mark Butler and colleagues studied the behaviour of juvenile lobsters, some of which had been infected with a lethal virus - known as Panulirus argus virus 1 - that is transmitted by physical contact and, among the smallest juveniles, through sea water. They report that, given a choice between an empty den and one containing either a healthy or a diseased individual, healthy lobsters avoided moving in with the sick animals.
The researchers also show that many of the healthy lobsters steered clear of infected individuals even before they started to show any disease symptoms or became infectious. The signals provoking this early detection and avoidance of infected individuals have not been identified, but are likely to be chemically mediated.
Butler and colleagues point out that this avoidance tactic may be responsible for the much more limited transmission of the disease among natural populations in the wild compared with that under laboratory conditions.
CONTACT
Mark J. Butler IV (Old Dominion University, Norfolk, VA, USA)
Tel: +1 757 683 3609; E-mail: [email protected]
Please note the author is travelling and it may be easier to reach him on his mobile number:
+1 757 469 0343.
ALSO IN THIS ISSUE…
[10] Chondrule formation in particle-rich nebular regions at least hundreds of kilometres across (pp 483-485; N&V)
[11] Resource competition and social conflict in experimental populations of yeast (pp 498-501)
[12] A simple rule for the evolution of cooperation on graphs and social networks (pp 502-505)
[13] Somatic stem cell niche tropism in Wolbachia (pp 509-512)
GEOGRAPHICAL LISTING OF AUTHORS…
The following list of places refers to the whereabouts of authors on the papers numbered in this release. For example, London: 4 - this means that on paper number four, there will be at least one author affiliated to an institute or company in London. The listing may be for an author's main affiliation, or for a place where they are working temporarily. Please see the PDF of the paper for full details.
AUSTRIA
Vienna: 6
CANADA
Montreal: 6
Victoria: 5
CZECH REPUBLIC
Praha: 6
FRANCE
Nice: 1
Paris: 1, 3
GERMANY
Aachen: 4
ITALY
Modena: 6
Trieste: 6
JAPAN
Fukuoka: 12
Sapporo: 8
Tsukuba: 5
Yokosuka: 5
NEW ZEALAND
Lower Hutt: 5
UNITED KINGDOM
Ascot: 11
Bath: 11
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
California
La Jolla: 8
Menlo Park: 5
Moffett Field: 10
Mountain View: 4
Stanford: 4
District of Columbia
Washington: 10
Florida
Tallahassee: 2
Hawaii
Honolulu: 5
Massachusetts
Cambridge: 7, 12
Missouri
St Louis: 5
New Jersey
Princeton: 13
Oregon
Newport: 5
Texas
Richardson: 5
Virginia
Gloucester Point: 9
Norfolk: 9
Washington
Seattle: 5
PRESS CONTACTS…
For North America and Canada
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Tel: +1 202 737 2355; E-mail: [email protected]
For Japan, Korea, China, Singapore and Taiwan
Rinoko Asami, Nature Tokyo
Tel: +81 3 3267 8751; E-mail: [email protected]
For the UK/Europe/other countries not listed above
Helen Jamison, Nature London
Tel: +44 20 7843 4658; E-mail [email protected]
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