NATURE AND THE NATURE RESEARCH JOURNALS PRESS RELEASE
For papers that will be published online on 13 November 2005
This press release is copyrighted to the Nature journals mentioned below.
This press release contains:
* Summaries of newsworthy papers:
* Skeletons in cancer's closet - Nature Chemical Biology
* Small-molecule suppressor - Nature Chemical Biology
* You must remember this - Nature Neuroscience
* 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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*******************NATURE CHEMICAL BIOLOGY********************
(http://www.nature.com/nchembio)
[1] Skeletons in cancer's closet
DOI: 10.1038/nchembio748
Scientists have found the mechanism of action of a natural product known to
be toxic to cancer cells. The research, reported in the December issue of
Nature Chemical Biology, shows that a toxin called bistramide A prevents
cells from dividing properly by targeting their actin cytoskeleton.
Sea squirts (Lissoclinum bistratum) are invertebrate marine animals that
produce bistramides as a by-product of metabolism. Bistramide A has various
toxic effects on the cells of mammals ranging from frogs to humans. To
determine the mechanism of this toxicity, Sergey Kozmin and colleagues
looked at the contractile ring of cells, a bundle of actin polymers that
provide the mechanical force to pinch cells apart during cell division. They
found that by binding to actin, bistramide A prevented cells from splitting
apart during division. By blocking cell division, bistramide A blocks the
multiplication of cells.
Besides increasing our knowledge of the toxic metabolite, this research
suggests a way to block cell division in rapidly multiplying cancer cells.
Author contact:
Sergey Kozmin (University of Chicago, IL, USA)
Tel: +1 773 702 6886, E-mail: [email protected]
[2] Small-molecule suppressor
DOI: 10.1038/nchembio749
A paper in the December issue of Nature Chemical Biology reports a small
molecule that suppresses the phenotype of a zebrafish mutation. Zebrafish
are an increasingly popular model organism because they can be readily
manipulated genetically and grow very quickly, allowing rapid in vivo
analysis of mutation phenotypes.
Zebrafish have proven amenable to whole-organism chemical screening. Genes
involved in the cell-cycle are very similar in zebrafish and humans, making
zebrafish an easy system for studying genes affecting cell division, a
process which is often compromised in cancer. Leonard Zon and colleagues
have combined the power of genetics and chemical screening to identify a
chemical suppressor of a specific cell-cycle mutation.
In a previous publication, the authors identified a zebrafish
mutation called crash&burn (crb) that results in decreased expression of the
key cell-cycle regulator cyclin B1 and causes mitotic arrest and genome
instability. The team have now conducted a large-scale chemical screen and
identified a compound, persynthamide, which suppresses the crb phenotype.
The small molecule was shown to act by delaying progression through S phase
of the cell cycle, the time when DNA is replicated before cell division.
However, the precise molecular target of the small molecule remains to be
identified.
In addition to providing a valuable new lead for a mitotic
modulator, the use of zebrafish to identify a cell-cycle regulator raises
the possibility of using transgenic zebrafish to screen directly for
chemical suppressors of cancers that arise from cell-cycle defects.
Author contact:
Leonard I. Zon (HHMI and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA)
Tel: +1 617 355 7707, E-mail: [email protected]
************************NATURE NEUROSCIENCE**********************
(<http://www.nature.com/natureneuroscience>)
[3] You must remember this
DOI: 10.1038/nn1595
We don't always remember as much as we believe we should be able to
remember. Activity in a brain region called the ventromedial prefrontal
cortex increases when subjects think that they will remember an item, even
when it will actually be forgotten later, reports a functional imaging study
in the December issue of Nature Neuroscience.
Subjects were scanned while they predicted whether they would later
remember scenes presented to them. Outside the scanner, they saw these same
scenes again, this time intermixed with new ones, and had to indicate which
scenes they had seen before. The authors found that activity in the
ventromedial prefrontal cortex was greater for the scenes that subjects
predicted they would later remember, but these scenes were not necessarily
the ones that the subjects later correctly identified as having seen before.
Instead, in keeping with previous research, activity in a brain region
called the medial temporal lobe when first viewing a scene predicted whether
it would later be remembered or not. As such, there are separate brain
systems mediating actual memory and whether people believe they will
remember something.
Author contact:
Yun-Ching Kao (Stanford University, CA, USA)
Tel: +1 650 725 8374, E-mail: [email protected]
Other papers from Nature Neuroscience to be published online at the same
time and with the same embargo:
[4] FARP2 triggers signals for Sema3A -mediated axonal repulsion
DOI: 10.1038/nn1596
[5] Independence of luminance and contrast in natural images and in the
early visual system
DOI: 10.1038/nn1556
[6] NMDA receptor-independent long-term depression correlates with
successful aging in rats
DOI: 10.1038/nn1586
***************************************************************
Items from other Nature journals to be published online at the same time and
with the same embargo:
Nature (<http://www.nature.com/nature>)
[7] Direct observation of base-pair stepping by RNA polymerase
DOI: 10.1038/nature04268
Nature PHYSICS (http://www.nature.com/naturephysics)
[8] High-efficiency carrier multiplication through direct photogeneration of
multi-excitons via virtual single-exciton states
DOI: 10.1038/nphys151
NATURE MATERIALS (<http://www.nature.com/naturematerials>)
[9] Spontaneous formation of nanoparticle stripe patterns through dewetting
DOI: 10.1038/nmat1517
[10] Morphology-tuned wurtzite-type ZnS nanobelts
DOI: 10.1038/nmat1522
Nature MEDICINE (<http://www.nature.com/naturemedicine>)
[11] R-Ras is a global regulator of vascular regeneration that suppresses
intimal hyperplasia and tumor angiogenesis
DOI: 10.1038/nm1324
[12] The antioxidant function of the p53 tumor suppressor
DOI: 10.1038/nm1320
[13] IKK mediates ischemia-induced neuronal death
DOI: 10.1038/nm1323
[14] Transgenic labeling of the corticospinal tract for monitoring axonal
responses to spinal cord injury
DOI: 10.1038/nm1331
NATURE GENETICS (<http://www.nature.com/naturegenetics>)
[15] The gene disrupted in Marinesco-Sjogren syndrome encodes SIL1, an HSPA5
cochaperone
DOI: 10.1038/ng1677
[16] Mutations in SIL1 cause Marinesco-Sjogren syndrome, a cerebellar ataxia
with cataract and myopathy
DOI: 10.1038/ng1678
[17] Myosin IXB variant increases the risk of celiac disease and points
toward a primary intestinal barrier defect
DOI: 10.1038/ng1680
[18] Robust signals of coevolution of interacting residues in mammalian
proteomes identified by phylogeny-aided structural analysis
DOI: 10.1038/ng1685
Nature IMMUNOLOGY (<http://www.nature.com/natureimmunology>)
[19] Single-strand recombination signal sequence nicks in vivo: evidence for
a capture model of synapsis
DOI: 10.1038/ni1270
[20] The Tim-3 ligand galectin-9 negatively regulates T helper type 1
immunity
DOI: 10.1038/ni1271
[21] A Toll-like receptor-independent antiviral response induced by
double-stranded B-form DNA
DOI: 10.1038/ni1282
NATURE CELL BIOLOGY (<http://www.nature.com/naturecellbiology>)
[22] A role for the P-body component GW182 in microRNA function
DOI: 10.1038/ncb1333
[23] Disruption of GW bodies impairs mammalian RNA interference
DOI: 10.1038/ncb1334
[24] Evidence for a protein transported through the secretory pathway en
route to the higher plant chloroplast
DOI: 10.1038/ncb1330
[25] Regulation of Notch signalling by non-visual beta-arrestin
DOI: 10.1038/ncb1327
Nature STRUCTURAL & MOLECULAR BIOLOGY
(<http://www.nature.com/natstructmolbiol>)
[26] Conformational transition of initiation factor 2 from the GTP- to
GDP-bound state visualized on the ribosome
DOI: 10.1038/nsmb1012
[27] Concerted action of poly(A) nucleases and decapping enzyme in mammalian
mRNA turnover
DOI: 10.1038/nsmb1016
*************************************************************
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
Sydney: 16
CHINA
Beijing: 4
Wuhan: 13
DENMARK
Copenhagen: 15
FINLAND
Helsinki: 15
Oulu: 15
Tampere: 15
FRANCE
Olivet: 24
Grenoble: 24
Mont Saint Aignan: 24
Illkirch: 15, 26
Strasbourg: 15, 26
Paris: 16, 25
GERMANY
Aachen: 13, 16
Essen: 16
Esslingen: 16
Heidelberg: 13, 16, 25
Langen: 21
Martinsried near Munich: 16
Munich: 16
Ulm: 13
HUNGARY
Szged: 24
ITALY
Camerino: 26
Monterondo: 13
JAPAN
Kawagushi: 4
Osaka: 21
Suita: 4
Tokyo: 21
Yokohama City: 21
THE NETHERLANDS
Amsterdam: 17
Leiden: 17
Utrecht: 17
NORWAY
Tromsoe: 15
RUSSIA
Moscow: 12
Troitsk: 8
SWEDEN
Stockholm: 24
Umea: 24
Uppsala: 15
TURKEY
Ankara: 16
UNITED KINGDOM
London: 16
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
Alabama
Birmingham: 11
Arizona
Tucson: 10, 22
California
Berkeley: 7, 9, 19
La Jolla: 11, 12, 22
San Francisco: 5
Stanford: 1, 3, 7
District of Columbia
Washington: 10
Florida
Gainesville: 23
Georgia
Atlanta: 10
Illinois
Chicago: 1, 18
Maryland
Baltimore: 6
College Park: 6
Frederick: 1
Massachusetts
Boston: 2, 12, 17
Cambridge: 3, 14, 17
Charlestown: 25
New Jersey
Princeton: 13
New Mexico
Los Alamos: 8, 10
New York
Cold Spring Harbor: 22
Ithaca: 10
New York: 20
Ohio
Cleveland: 12
Tennessee
Memphis: 16
Texas
Austin: 5
Houston: 27
Richardson: 8
Wisconsin
Madison: 7
PRESS CONTACTS...
For media inquiries relating to embargo policy for all the Nature Research
Journals:
Katharine Mansell (Nature London)
Tel: +44 20 7843 4658; 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)
Kathy Aschheim
Tel: +1 212 726 9346; E-mail: [email protected]
Nature Cell Biology (London)
Bernd Pulverer
Tel: +44 20 7843 4892; E-mail: [email protected]
Nature Chemical Biology (Boston)
Beatrice Chrystall
Tel: +1 617 475 9241, E-mail: [email protected]
Nature Genetics (New York)
Orli Bahcall
Tel: +1 212 726 9311; 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 Structural & Molecular Biology (New York)
Ed Feng
Tel: +1 212 726 9351; E-mail: [email protected]
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