NATURE AND THE NATURE RESEARCH JOURNALS PRESS RELEASE
For papers that will be published online on 17 September 2006
This press release is copyrighted to the Nature journals mentioned below.
This press release contains:
· Summaries of newsworthy papers:
Microbiology: Gutless worm’s inmates get an identity check – Nature
Quantum teleportation with increased capacity – Nature Physics
Overcoming bacterial virulence – Nature Immunology
· Mention of papers to be published at the same time with the same embargo
· Geographical listing of authors
PDFs of all the papers mentioned on this release can be found in the relevant journal’s section of http://press.nature.com. Press contacts for the Nature journals are listed at the end of this release.
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NOTE: Once a paper is published, the digital object identifier (DOI) number can be used to retrieve the abstract and full text from the journal web site (abstracts are available to everyone, full text is available only to subscribers). To do this, add the DOI to the following URL: http://dx.doi.org/ (For example, http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/ng730). For more information about DOIs and Advance Online Publication, see http://www.nature.com/ng/aop/.
PLEASE CITE THE SPECIFIC NATURE JOURNAL AND WEBSITE AS THE SOURCE OF THE FOLLOWING ITEMS. IF PUBLISHING ONLINE, PLEASE CARRY A HYPERLINK TO THE APPROPRIATE JOURNAL’S WEBSITE.
***************************NATURE***********************************
(http://www.nature.com/nature)
[1] Microbiology: Gutless worm’s inmates get an identity check
DOI: 10.1038/nature05912
Researchers have analysed the genetic makeup of an entire community of bacteria that live inside an unusual marine worm. Their findings, to be published online this week by Nature, illuminate the pros and cons of this symbiotic relationship and provide a basis for understanding the natural bacterial communities that co-occur within other more complex hosts.
Edward M. Rubin and colleagues used shotgun sequencing and metabolic pathway reconstruction to learn more about the symbiotic microbial community that lives under the skin of the marine worm, Olavius algarvensis. They found four different bacteria that not only provide nutrition for their host, but also remove and recycle the worm’s waste products. This helps explain how the worm lives without mouth-, gut- and kidney-like organs.
Author Contact:
Edward M Rubin (Joint Genome Institute, Walnut Creek, CA, USA)
Tel: +1 510 486 5072; E-mail: [email protected]
**********************************NATURE PHYSICS***********************
(http://www.nature.com/naturephysics)
[2] Quantum teleportation with increased capacity
DOI: 10.1038/nphys417
The successful teleportation of the combined quantum state of two photons is reported in the October issue of Nature Physics. This is the first time this has been achieved for a composite system, and the approach could enable new ways to harness quantum effects for communication and computation purposes.
A quantum-mechanical system is characterized by a set of properties that can exist in certain possible states. For example, one property of a photon is polarization, whose state can be horizontal, vertical or a mixture of the two. Quantum teleportation transfers the state — in this case of the polarization — of one object to another, which can be an arbitrary distance away; teleportation does not transfer energy or matter.
Teleportation of quantum states involving more than one particle, as now shown by Qiang Zhang and colleagues, is required for a number of protocols for large-scale quantum communication and computation. These promise secure information exchange and the ability to solve certain tasks faster than any classical computer. The authors’ experiment lasted several days, but with further improvements the scheme might become of more practical value.
Author contact:
Qiang Zhang (Physics Institute, University Heidelberg, Germany)
Tel: +49 6221 549369; E-mail: [email protected]
********************************NATURE IMMUNOLOGY ***********************
(http://www.nature.com/natureimmunology)
[3] Overcoming bacterial virulence
DOI: 10.1038/ni1386
An effective way to vaccinate against infection by the plague bacterium Yersinia pestis in mice is reported in a study to be published in the October issue of Nature Immunology. This organism has been a scourge of humans for hundreds of years.
Egil Lien and colleagues have taken advantage of the fact that bacteria like Y. pestis ‘wear a coat’ of protein and fatty sugars. The ‘coats’ of some bacteria normally stimulate mammalian immune cells well, whereas others, such as those of Y. pestis, do not, allowing them to evade or suppress the innate immune response of the host. Lien and colleagues have engineered a Y. pestis strain with a coat that stimulates immune cells in mice, and show that mice can survive infection with this engineered strain. The surviving mice also appear to be protected from subsequent infection with normal, otherwise deadly, Y. pestis. The results suggest that ‘immune stealth’ may be critical for normal Y. pestis to cause serious infection.
The authors propose that their work, which demonstrates that sufficient stimulation of innate immune responses can control infection by a highly virulent pathogen, has broad implications for understanding bacterial virulence in Y. pestis, and also for potential strategies for vaccine production.
Author contact:
Egil Lien (University of Massachusetts Medical School, Worcester, MA, USA)
Tel: +1 508 856 5825; E-mail: [email protected]
Other papers from Nature Immunology to be published online at the same time and with the same embargo:
[4] B lymphocytes from early vertebrates have potent phagocytic and microbicidal abilities
DOI: 10.1038/ni1389
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Items from other Nature journals to be published online at the same time and with the same embargo:
NATURE CHEMICAL BIOLOGY (http://www.nature.com/nchembio)
[5] An oxidation-sensing mechanism is used by the global regulator MgrA in Staphylococcus aureus
DOI: 10.1038/nchembio820
NATURE MATERIALS (http://www.nature.com/naturematerials)
[6] Shock deformation of face-centred-cubic metals on sub-nanosecond timescales
DOI: 10.1038/nmat1735
[7] Tunable spin-tunnel contacts to silicon using low-work-function ferromagnets
DOI: 10.1038/nmat1736
Nature MEDICINE (http://www.nature.com/naturemedicine)
[8] Functional and morphological recovery of dystrophic muscles in mice treated with deacetylase inhibitors
DOI: 10.1038/nm1479
[9] Chondromodulin-I maintains cardiac valvular function by preventing angiogenesis
DOI: 10.1038/nm1476
[10] G-CSF induces E-selectin ligand expression on human myeloid cells
DOI: 10.1038/nm1470
Nature BIOTECHNOLOGY (http://www.nature.com/naturebiotechnolgy)
[11] Efficient enucleation of erythroblasts differentiated in vitro from hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells
DOI: 10.1038/nbt1245
[12] Human C5aR knock-in mice facilitate the production and assessment of anti-inflammatory monoclonal antibodies
DOI: 10.1038/nbt1248
NATURE GENETICS (http://www.nature.com/naturegenetics)
[13] Cranio-lenticulo-sutural dysplasia is caused by a SEC23A mutation leading to abnormal endoplasmic reticulum-to-Golgi trafficking
DOI: 10.1038/ng1876
[14] Secretory COPII coat component Sec23a is essential for craniofacial chondrocyte maturation
DOI: 10:1038/ng1880
[15] Quantitative and predictive model of transcriptional control of the Drosophila melanogaster even skipped gene
DOI: 10.1038/ng1886
[16] Delineation of a Fat tumor suppressor pathway
DOI: 10.1038/ng1887
Nature NEUROSCIENCE (http://www.nature.com/natureneuroscience)
[17] NGL family PSD-95-interacting adhesion molecules regulate excitatory synapse formation
DOI: 10.1038/nn1763
[18] Local caspase activity directs engulfment of dendrites during pruning
DOI: 10.1038/nn1774
[19] Functional alignment of feedback effects from visual cortex to thalamus
DOI: 10.1038/nn1768
[20] An essential role for beta-actin mRNA localization and translation in Ca2+-dependent growth cone guidance
DOI: 10.1038/nn1773
[21] Asymmetrical beta-actin mRNA translation in growth cones mediates attractive turning to netrin-1
DOI: 10.1038/nn1775
[22] Kinase activity of mutant LRRK2 mediates neuronal toxicity
DOI: 10.1038/nn1776
NATURE CELL BIOLOGY (http://www.nature.com/naturecellbiology)
[23] Sall4 modulates embryonic stem cell pluripotency and early embryonic development by the transcriptional regulation of Pou5f1
DOI: 10.1038/ncb1481
[24] The chaperonin TRiC controls polyglutamine aggregation and toxicity through subunit-specific interactions
DOI: 10.1038/ncb1477
[25] Cytosolic chaperonin prevents polyglutamine toxicity with altering the aggregation state
DOI: 10.1038/ncb1478
[26] The Plk1 target Kizuna stabilizes mitotic centrosomes to ensure spindle bipolarity
DOI: 10.1038/ncb1474
Nature STRUCTURAL & MOLECULAR BIOLOGY (http://www.nature.com/natstructmolbiol)
[27] Slow translocon gating causes cytosolic exposure of transmembrane and lumenal domains during membrane protein integration
DOI: 10.1038/nsmb1146
[28] Structure of a human ASF1a-HIRA complex and insights into specificity of histone chaperone complex assembly
DOI: 10.1038/nsmb1147
[29] Mms2-Ubc13 covalently bound to ubiquitin reveals the structural basis of linkage-specific polyubiquitin chain formation
DOI: 10.1038/nsmb1148
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GEOGRAPHICAL LISTING OF AUTHORS
The following list of places refers to the whereabouts of authors on the papers numbered in this release. 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.
AUSTRALIA
Darlinghurst: 12
AUSTRIA
Vienna: 2
CHINA
Hefei: 2
DENMARK
Malov: 12
GERMANY
Bremen: 1
Freiburg: 14
Gottingen: 12
Heidelberg: 2
ITALY
Milan: 8
Pavia: 8
Rome: 8
JAPAN
Kyoto: 9
Mishima: 18
Osaka: 3
Tagajo-shi: 7
Tokyo: 3, 9, 18, 26
Tsukuba: 11
KOREA
Daejeon: 17
Seoul: 17
RUSSIA
Moscow: 28
St Petersburg: 15
SAUDI ARABIA
Riyadh: 13
SINGAPORE
Kent Ridge: 13
SPAIN
Barcelona: 4
SWITZERLAND
Geneva: 13
THE NETHERLANDS
Enschede: 7
UNITED KINGDOM
Cambridge: 21
London: 18, 19
Oxford: 6
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
California
Berkeley: 1, 13
La Jolla: 8
Livermore: 6
Sacramento: 13
San Francisco:
Walnut Creek: 1
Georgia
Atlanta: 20
Illinois
Chicago: 5, 16
Indiana
Gary: 5
Maryland
Baltimore: 3, 13, 22, 29
Bethesda: 8
Massachusetts
Boston: 10
Worcester: 3, 27
Missouri
St Louis: 4
New Jersey
Piscataway: 16, 20
New Mexico
Los Alamos: 15
New York
Stony Brook: 15
North Carolina
Chapel Hill: 17
Pennsylvania
Philadelphia: 4, 28
South Carolina
Orangeburg: 29
Tennessee
Nashville: 14
Washington
Seattle: 14, 18
PRESS CONTACTS…
For media inquiries relating to embargo policy for all the Nature Research Journals:
Helen Jamison (Nature London)
Tel: +44 20 7843 4658; E-mail: [email protected]
Ruth Francis (Senior Press Officer, Nature, London)
Tel: +44 20 7843 4562; E-mail: [email protected]
For media inquiries relating to editorial content/policy for the Nature Research Journals, please contact the journals individually:
Nature Biotechnology (New York)
Peter Hare
Tel: +1 212 726 9284; E-mail: [email protected]
Nature Cell Biology (London)
Bernd Pulverer
Tel: +44 20 7843 4892; E-mail: [email protected]
Nature Chemical Biology (Boston)
Andrea Garvey
Tel: +1 617 475 9241, E-mail: [email protected]
Nature Genetics (New York)
Alan Packer
Tel: +1 212 726 9277; E-mail: [email protected]
Nature Immunology (New York)
Laurie Dempsey
Tel: +1 212 726 9372; E-mail: [email protected]
Nature Materials (London)
Maria Bellantone
Tel: +44 20 7843 4556; E-mail: [email protected]
Nature Medicine (New York)
Juan Carlos Lopez
Tel: +1 212 726 9325; E-mail: [email protected]
Nature Neuroscience (New York)
Sandra Aamodt (based in California)
Tel: +1 530 795 3256; E-mail: [email protected]
Nature Physics (London)
Alison Wright
Tel: +44 20 7843 4555; E-mail: [email protected]
Nature Structural & Molecular Biology (New York)
Michelle Montoya
Tel: +1 212 726 9326; E-mail: [email protected]
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