NATURE AND THE NATURE RESEARCH JOURNALS PRESS RELEASE
For papers that will be published online on 16 November 2008
This press release is copyrighted to the Nature journals mentioned below.
This press release contains:
· Summaries of newsworthy papers:
Cell Biology: Spreading brain cancer
Geoscience: Black carbon in soils affects terrestrial carbon dioxide release
Nature: Fruitfly Y chromosome well endowed
Nature: New chiral catalyst
Geoscience: Fast flow in Antarctic outlet glacier during drainage of subglacial lakes (N&V)
Chemical Biology: Peptide recycling
And finally…Nature: ‘Killer’ cells recruit ‘foot soldiers’
· 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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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.
[1] Cell Biology: Spreading brain cancer
DOI: 10.1038/ncb1800
A simple blood test could be used to diagnose brain cancer, suggests a study published online this week in Nature Cell Biology. This easy procedure could be used as an alternative to the invasive methods currently used to diagnose one of the most aggressive cancers known.
Glioblastomas are highly malignant brain tumours with poor prognosis. Tumour cells release small membrane sacs called microvesicles or exosomes that contain substances capable of altering surrounding tissue. These vesicles can fuse with neighbouring cells and transfer their content leading to the progression of the tumour.
Xandra Breakefield and colleagues report that primary glioblastoma cells release microvesicles containing genetic material and proteins that are involved in cancer-promoting functions. These include growth of blood vessels, cell growth and migration, and evasion of the immune system. The team noted that two specific molecules associated with gliomas, EGFRvIII and miRNA-21, were present in the microvesicles and could be detected in the blood of patients with brain tumours.
This suggests that a simple blood test could be used to identify the presence of these molecules and may be useful as a non-invasive cancer diagnostic.
Author contact:
Xandra Breakefield (Massachusetts General Hospital, Charlestown, MA, USA)
Tel: +1 617 726 5728; E-mail: [email protected]
Johan Skog (Massachusetts General Hospital, Charlestown, MA, USA)
Tel: +1 617 726 5730; E-mail: [email protected]
[2] Geoscience: Black carbon in soils affects terrestrial carbon dioxide release
DOI: 10.1038/ngeo358
The amount of carbon dioxide released from Australian savannah and grassland soils as temperatures rise may be lower than previously predicted, according to a study online in Nature Geoscience. Annual emissions of carbon dioxide from soil organic carbon are an order of magnitude greater than all human-made carbon dioxide emissions taken together, and are expected to increase as the Earth warms.
Johannes Lehmann and colleagues analysed soil samples stored in archives from hundreds of sites across Australia. According to their analyses, black carbon, which forms in wildfires, comprises a significant proportion of the total soil carbon. When these observation-based estimates of black carbon in soil were used in regional scale soil models, the amount of carbon dioxide predicted to be released from two Australian savannah regions under a 3ºC warming scenario was 18.3% and 24.4% lower than previously calculated.
However, the team cautions that other responses to climate change, such as changing soil moisture and wildfire frequency, could affect the production and storage of black carbon in the soil.
Author contact:
Johannes Lehmann (Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA)
Tel: +1 607 254 1236; E-mail: [email protected]
[3] Nature: Fruitfly Y chromosome well endowed
DOI: 10.1038/nature07463
The much maligned Y chromosome gets a boost with the discovery, published online in Nature this week, that in fruitflies at least, the stumpy sex-determining structure is getting bigger, not smaller.
Antonio Bernardo Carvalho and colleagues analysed the Y chromosomes of the 12 sequenced Drosophila species and found that gene gains outnumber gene losses by a factor of 11-fold. Most genes on the Y chromosome were acquired recently, less than 63 million years ago, whereas the gene content of other chromosomes can be traced back to over 260 million years ago.
The findings challenge the dogma that the diminutive male Y chromosome evolved from the much larger X chromosome, and is wasting away as genes are lost. Although this may be true for some species, it seems that not all Y chromosomes evolved in the same way.
Author contact:
Antonio Bernardo Carvalho (Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Brazil)
Tel: +55 21 22 60 88 20; E-mail: [email protected]
[4] Nature: New chiral catalyst
DOI: 10.1038/nature07594
A new molybdenum catalyst can drive a powerful chemical reaction to produce complex ‘handed’ organic molecules, a Nature paper reveals.
The reaction, called alkene metathesis, is widely used in industrial processes and academic research to make products including medicines, polymers and fuels. The broad utility of this reaction was acknowledged in 2005, when it was the subject of the Nobel Prize in chemistry. The new catalyst has the metal molybdenum at its centre, and Amir Hoveyda and colleagues demonstrate that it is able to catalyze a key step in the synthesis of quebrachamine, a complex alkaloid. Previously described alkene metathesis catalysts are not able to do this efficiently, and the authors propose that ‘structural fluxionality’ — the fact that this new catalyst is able to undergo intramolecular rearrangements rapidly — may explain why the new catalyst is so effective.
Author contact:
Amir Hoveyda (Boston College, Chestnut Hill, MA, USA)
Tel: +1 617 552 3618; E-mail: [email protected]
[5] Geoscience: Fast flow in Antarctic outlet glacier during drainage of subglacial lakes (N&V)
DOI: 10.1038/ngeo356
The flow rate of a large outlet glacier in East Antarctica increased by about 10% in response to the flooding of two subglacial lakes, reports a paper online in Nature Geoscience. This acceleration is associated with an increase in ice loss from the continent into the ocean over the 14 months between December 2005 and February 2007.
Leigh Stearns and colleagues combined a 48-year record of ice velocities along Byrd Glacier, East Antarctica with satellite observations of ice surface elevation and found a marked increase in ice flow speed between December 2005 and February 2007. This coincides with rapid changes in ice surface elevation about 200 km upstream, which they interpret as the filling and draining of two subglacial lakes.
In an accompanying News & Views article, Helen Amanda Fricker writes that, “Their pivotal paper provides the piece in the water–iceflow puzzle that had been missing so far: direct evidence for glacier acceleration as a result of subglacial floods.”
Author contact:
Leigh Stearns (University of Maine, Orono, ME, USA)
Tel: +1 207 581 1491 E-mail: [email protected]
News & Views author:
Helen Amanda Fricker (Scripps Institution of Oceanography, La Jolla, CA, USA)
Tel: +1 858 534 6145; E-mail: [email protected]
[6] Chemical Biology: Peptide recycling
DOI: 10.1038/nchembio.126
Scientists have discovered new targets for a biomedically important enzyme, according to a report online this week in Nature Chemical Biology. The research provides insight into a pathway to salvage amino acids in the kidney.
Dipeptidyl peptidase 4 (DPP4) is an abundant enzyme that cuts proteins containing specific amino acids near the end of a protein. The identification of one known DPP4 physiological target has recently led to antidiabetic drug therapy that targets this enzyme. While experiments with DPP4 have identified several substrates for this important enzyme, few studies have confirmed these results in a physiological system. To fully understand the risks and benefits of DPP4 based therapies, it is important to identify other pathways that might be affected.
Alan Saghatelian and colleagues performed protein profiling on the kidneys of mice with variable DPP4 activity and identified several new substrates for the enzyme. In addition, the authors provide evidence that DPP4 works together with another class of enzymes called aminopeptidases to process proteins in the kidney. It remains unclear whether the resulting peptides have a specific physiological function in the kidney or whether they are simply produced and reabsorbed for reuse within the body.
Author contact:
Alan Saghatelian, (Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA)
Tel: +1 617 384 8251; Email: [email protected]
[7] And finally… Nature: ‘Killer’ cells recruit ‘foot soldiers’
DOI: 10.1038/nature07591
The prime suspects behind the deadly damage reeked in acute viral meningitis may not be acting alone. Instead they may enlist other cells to do their dirty work, a study published online this week in Nature suggests. The finding may aid therapeutic development.
CD8 T cells are a particular type of white blood cell involved in immunity. It is known that they are involved in acute viral meningitis, but the mechanism is unclear. Dorian McGavern and colleagues now show that as well as killing specific target cells themselves, CD8 T cells recruit monocytes and neutrophils to the blood–brain barrier. Once in place, these inflammation-responsive white blood cells get to work making blood vessels leaky and causing fatal seizures.
Author contact:
Dorian McGavern (The Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, CA, USA)
Tel: +1 858 784 9603; E-mail: [email protected]
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Items from other Nature journals to be published online at the same time and with the same embargo:
Nature (http://www.nature.com/nature)
[8] Suppression of Myc oncogenic activity by ribosomal protein haploinsufficiency
DOI: 10.1038/nature07449
[9] Structural recognition and functional activation of FccR by innate pentraxins
DOI: 10.1038/nature07468
NATURE BIOTECHNOLOGY (http://www.nature.com/naturebiotechnology)
[10] Integrated barcode chips for rapid, multiplexed analysis of proteins in microliter quantities of blood
DOI: 10.1038/nbt.1507
[11] Design and analysis of ChIP-seq experiments for DNA-binding proteins
DOI: 10.1038/nbt.1508
NATURE CELL BIOLOGY (http://www.nature.com/naturecellbiology)
[12] Fluctuations of intracellular forces during cell protrusion
DOI: 10.1038/ncb1797
[13] Arginine methylation regulates the p53 response
DOI: 10.1038/ncb1802
[14] Regulation of the Drosophila apoptosome through feedback inhibition
DOI: 10.1038/ncb1803
[15] X-linked and cellular IAPs modulate the stability of C-RAF kinase and cell motility
DOI: 10.1038/ncb1804
NATURE CHEMICAL BIOLOGY (http://www.nature.com/nchembio)
[16] Chemo-enzymatic fluorination of unactivated organic compounds
DOI: 10.1038/nchembio.128
NATURE GENETICS (http://www.nature.com/naturegenetics)
[17] Epithelial PTEN is dispensable for intestinal homeostasis but suppresses adenoma development and progression after Apc mutation
DOI: 10.1038/ng.256
[18] Meta-analysis of genome-wide association data identifies four new susceptibility for colorectal cancer
DOI: 10.1038/ng.262
[19] Foxj1 transcription factors are master regulators of the motile ciliogenic program
DOI: 10.1038/ng.263
[20] The forkhead protein Foxj1 specifies node-like cilia in Xenopus and zebrafish embryos
DOI: 101.038/ng.267
NATURE GEOSCIENCE (http://www.nature.com/ngeo)
[21] Recent intensification of tropical climate variability in the Indian Ocean
DOI: 10.1038/ngeo357
NATURE IMMUNOLOGY (http://www.nature.com/natureimmunology)
[22] The histone deacetylase HDAC11 regulates the expression of interleukin 10 and immune tolerance
DOI:10.1038/ni.1673
[23] The surface protein TIGIT suppresses T cell activation by promoting the generation of mature immunoregulatory dendritic cells
DOI:10.1038/ni.1674
NATURE MATERIALS (http://www.nature.com/naturematerials)
[24] A map for phase-change materials
DOI: 10.1038/nmat2330
[25] Electronic two-terminal bistable graphitic memories
DOI: 10.1038/nmat2331
[26] Highly conductive ~40-nm-long molecular wires assembled by stepwise incorporation
of metal centres
DOI: 10.1038/nmat2332
Nature MEDICINE (http://www.nature.com/naturemedicine)
[27] Treatment of inflammatory and neuropathic pain by uncoupling Src from the NMDA receptor complex
DOI: 10.1038/nm.1883
NATURE METHODS (http://www.nature.com/nmeth)
[28] Nanoscale imaging of molecular positions and anisotropies
DOI: 10.1038/nmeth.1271
Nature NEUROSCIENCE (http://www.nature.com/natureneuroscience)
[29] Motor modulation of afferent somatosensory circuits
DOI: 10.1038/nn2227
[30] Estimating the sources of motor errors for adaptation and generalization
DOI: 10.1038/nn.2229
Nature PHYSICS (http://www.nature.com/naturephysics)
[31] Tomography of quantum detectors
DOI: 10.1038/nphys1133
[32] Atomic and molecular signatures for charged-particle ionization
DOI: 10.1038/nphys1135
[33] Navigability of complex networks
DOI: 10.1038/nphys1130
[34] Mechanics of individual isolated vortices in a cuprate superconductor
DOI: 10.1038/nphys1127
Nature STRUCTURAL & MOLECULAR BIOLOGY (http://www.nature.com/natstructmolbiol)
[35] Single-RNA counting reveals alternative modes of gene expression in yeast
DOI: 10.1038/nsmb.1514
[36] Defining the TRiC/CCT interactome links chaperonin function to stabilization of newly made proteins with complex topologies
DOI: 10.1038/nsmb.1515
[37] Bach1 inhibits oxidative stress–induced cellular senescence by impeding p53 function on chromatin
DOI: 10.1038/nsmb.1516
[38] Cooperative three-step motions in catalytic subunits of F1-ATPase correlate with 801 and 401 substep rotations
DOI: 10.1038/nsmb.1510
***************************************************************************************************************
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
Brisbane: 31
Canberra: 2, 21
Glen Osmond: 2
Indooroopilly: 2
BRAZIL
Rio de Janeiro: 3
Sao Paulo: 8
CANADA:
Montreal: 18
Ottawa: 18
Toronto: 17, 27
Vancouver: 34
FINLAND
Helsinki: 18
GERMANY
Aachen: 24
Düsseldorf: 24
Erlangen: 31
Frankfurt: 15
Greifswald: 18
Hannover: 21
Heidelberg: 17, 18
Kiel: 18
Wurzburg: 15
INDONESIA
Bandung: 21
ISRAEL
Rehovot: 34
ITALY
Catania: 26
Ferrara: 26
Milan: 26
JAPAN
Hiroshima: 37
Kobe: 38
Saitama: 37
Sendai: 37
Tokyo: 37, 38
Yokohama: 38
NETHERLANDS
Amsterdam: 1
SINGAPORE
Proteos: 19
Singapore: 19
SPAIN
Barcelona: 20, 33
SWITZERLAND
Epalinges: 17
UNITED KINGDOM
Cambridge: 17, 18, 21
Cardiff: 17
Edinburgh: 18
Exeter: 2
Glasgow: 17
Harpenden: 2
London: 31
Manchester: 32
Oxford: 13, 18, 31
Sutton: 18
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
Arizona
Tucson: 21
California
Emeryville: 36
La Jolla: 7, 12, 33
Pasadena: 10, 16
San Diego: 20
San Francisco: 8, 23, 36
Stanford: 34, 36
Connecticut
New Haven: 36
Florida
Tampa: 22
Georgia
Augusta: 22
Illinois
Chicago: 30
Maine
Orono: 5, 28
Maryland
Bethesda: 28
Rockville: 9
Massachusetts
Boston: 1, 11, 36
Cambridge: 4, 6, 22, 34
Charlestown: 1
Chestnut Hill: 4
Missouri
Rolla: 23
New Mexico
Albuquerque: 9
New York
Bronx: 28, 35
Ithaca: 2, 3
New York: 7, 14, 29
Rochester: 16
Pennsylvania
Philadelphia: 15
Pittsburgh: 29
Texas
Houston: 6, 8, 25
Washington
Seattle: 5, 10
PRESS CONTACTS…
For media inquiries relating to embargo policy for all the Nature Research Journals:
Rachel Twinn (Nature London)
Tel: +44 20 7843 4658; E-mail: [email protected]
Katherine Anderson (Nature New York)
Tel: +1 212 726 9231; E-mail: [email protected]
Ruth Francis (Head of Press, 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)
Orli Bahcall
Tel: +1 212 726 9311; E-mail: [email protected]
Nature Geoscience (London)
Heike Langenberg
Tel: +44 20 7843 4042; E-mail: [email protected]
Nature Immunology (New York)
Laurie Dempsey
Tel: +1 212 726 9372; E-mail: [email protected]
Nature Materials (London)
Alison Stoddart
Tel: +44 20 7843 4593; E-mail: [email protected]
Nature Medicine (New York)
Juan Carlos Lopez
Tel: +1 212 726 9325; E-mail: [email protected]
Nature Methods (New York)
Hugh Ash
Tel: +1 212 726 9627; E-mail: [email protected]
Nature Neuroscience (New York)
Kalyani Narasimhan
Tel: +1 212 726 9319; 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]
About Nature Publishing Group
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