NATURE AND THE NATURE RESEARCH JOURNALS PRESS RELEASE
For papers that will be published online on 15 February 2009
This press release is copyrighted to the Nature journals mentioned below.
This press release contains:
· Summaries of newsworthy papers:
Medicine: Gene therapy for AIDS
Neuroscience: Erasing fearful memories
Methods: Lighting up brain maps
Geoscience: Relicts of martian ice?
Genetics: Common variants that regulate blood pressure
Geoscience: Nitrous oxide hot spots
And finally…Once a boggy plant, always a boggy plant?
· Mention of papers to be published at the same time with the same embargo
· Geographical listing of authors
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[1] Medicine: Gene therapy for AIDS
DOI: 10.1038/nm.1932
The results from the first clinical trial of gene therapy in patients infected with HIV are reported online in Nature Medicine this week.
Gene therapy is an appealing option to treat AIDS, as it has the potential to be a once-only treatment that reduces viral load, preserves the immune system and avoids lifetime antiretroviral therapy. Ronald Mitsuyasu and colleagues have now completed the first randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, gene transfer clinical trial in 74 HIV-infected adults.
The patients received either placebo or blood stem cells carrying a molecule called OZ1, which prevented viral replication by targeting two key HIV proteins. OZ1 was safe, causing no adverse effects over the course of the trial. Although there was no statistical difference in viral load between the OZ1 and placebo group at weeks 47 and 48 of the trial, counts of CD4+ lymphocytes—the cell population that is depleted by HIV—were higher in the OZ1 group at 100 weeks.
This study indicates that gene therapy is safe and active in people with HIV and can be developed as a conventional therapy against AIDS.
Author contact:
Ronald Mitsuyasu (University of California, Los Angeles, CA, USA)
Tel: +1 310 557 1891; E-mail: [email protected]
[2] Neuroscience: Erasing fearful memories
DOI: 10.1038/nn.2271
Scientists have discovered a way of preventing reactivation of fear memories in humans, reports a paper online this week in Nature Neuroscience. The method, using beta-adrenergic receptor blockers, could be useful for weakening or erasing emotional memory of patients with post-traumatic stress disorder.
Studies in animal models have shown that fear memories can change when recalled, a process known as reconsolidation, and that this reconsolidation stage is vulnerable to beta-adrenergic receptor blockers. Merel Kindt and colleagues did a double-blind study in humans, where subjects learned to associate pictures of spiders with a mild shock, creating a fearful memory. Later, they were given a beta-blocker, propranolol, or a placebo. Merel Kindt and colleagues found that the group given propranolol had a greatly decreased fear response to the spider pictures 24 hours later. Strikingly, the propranolol-treated subjects showed no reinstatement of the fear response, suggesting that their fear memory was completely erased.
Author contact:
Merel Kindt (University of Amsterdam, Netherlands)
Tel: +31 205 256 044; E-mail: [email protected]
[3] Methods: Lighting up brain maps
DOI: 10.1038/nmeth.1303
A paper describing a fast and precise light-based method for making functional maps of the mouse brain is published online this week in Nature Methods. The method is orders of magnitude faster than mapping using electrodes, and, as it is less invasive, is likely to be more suitable for long-term studies. It will find application in studies of brain reorganization after skilled learning or after damage to the nervous system resulting from injury or disease.
Motor mapping involves identifying which parts of the motor cortex control the activity of particular body muscles. Traditional experimental approaches to mapping involve stimulation of the brain with surface or embedded electrodes, and monitoring the muscle response in parallel. However, these approaches have disadvantages. They are likely to cause some damage, they are laborious, and they cannot target precise neuronal subtypes.
Timothy Murphy and colleagues use a light-activated ion channel to conduct light-based mapping of the mouse motor cortex. The neurons of mice engineered to express the channel are illuminated with laser light, resulting in neuronal activation without the use of electrodes. To do this, the anaesthetized mice are placed directly on a microscope stage, which can be quickly and precisely moved such that the laser will stimulate hundreds or even thousands of predefined locations in the mouse brain. Simultaneous recording of muscle activity or movement yields reproducible maps of brain regions that control particular muscles.
Author contact:
Timothy Murphy (University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada)
Tel: +1 604 822 0705; E-mail: [email protected]
[4] Geoscience: Relicts of martian ice?
DOI: 10.1038/ngeo438
The enigmatic ‘Meridiani Planum’ deposits on Mars — found by the Opportunity rover — could be remnants of a massive ancient ice-field, according to a study online in Nature Geoscience. Small pockets within the ice, where a thin film of water reacted with atmospheric dust, could have sustained an acidic environment capable of producing the unique chemical composition found in these deposits.
Paul Niles and Joseph Michalski analysed the chemistry, sedimentology and geology of the Meridiani Planum deposits using information obtained by the Mars rover Opportunity. They suggest that sulphate formation and chemical weathering occurring within an ancient ice-field — similar in size to the present polar ice caps on Mars — is the best explanation for the observations. Once the ice sublimed away in a warmer climate, the remaining sediments kept their chemical signature.
The region of Meridiani Planum is near the equator and at present cannot sustain large ice-fields. The authors propose that the ice could have formed in ancient times, when the poles were in a different place or when the martian axis of rotation was at a different angle to its present-day orbit around the Sun.
Author contact:
Paul Niles (NASA Johnson Space Center, Houston, TX, USA)
Tel: +1 281 961 2127; E-mail: [email protected]
[5] Genetics: Common variants that regulate blood pressure
DOI: 10.1038/ng.328
The first common genetic variants for blood pressure and hypertension in the general population have been identified, according to a study published online this week in Nature Genetics. High blood pressure is a major risk factor for cardiovascular disease and renal failure, and is a modifiable non-infective cause of morbidity and mortality.
Christopher Newton-Cheh and colleagues carried out a genome wide association of European individuals and found two common variants that affect blood pressure. These variants are located in genes that encode proteins produced by the heart and blood vessels, called natriuretic peptides, because they are known to regulate the process of salt excretion through the urine. Since the discovery that the heart secretes a family of hormones that relaxes blood vessels and promotes the removal of excess salt through the urine in response to increased wall stress, it has been speculated that natriuretic peptides might be involved in blood pressure regulation in humans.
The effect these genetic variants have on blood pressure is significant, comparable to changes that have been suggested previously to be associated with an approximately 8% lower risk of heart disease. Potentially lifelong exposure to changes in blood pressure, as can occur due to differences in genotype, could in turn magnify these effects. Therapeutic agents that chronically activate the natriuretic peptide system are now under development as a useful treatment of hypertension.
Author contact:
Christopher Newton-Cheh (Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, USA)
Tel: +1 617 643 3615; E-mail: [email protected]
[6] Geoscience: Nitrous oxide hot spots
DOI: 10.1038/ngeo434
Subarctic tundra soils, one of the largest land cover types in the world, can release significant quantities of the potent greenhouse gas nitrous oxide, according to a study published online in Nature Geoscience. Until now, these treeless soils were considered a negligible source of nitrous oxide.
Pertti Martikainen and colleagues measured nitrous oxide emissions in semi-frozen Eastern European peatlands located below the Arctic Circle. Vegetation-free patches of peat were found to emit quantities of nitrous oxide equivalent to emissions from agricultural and tropical soils, which are considered to be the largest terrestrial sources of nitrous oxide. Extrapolation of their field data to the whole of the Arctic suggests that the global warming potential of these bare peat-patches could amount to 4% of the global warming potential of Arctic methane emissions.
These findings suggest that it will be important to consider the amount of nitrogen stored in subarctic tundra soils when assessing their climatic impact.
Author contact:
Pertti Martikainen (University of Kuopio, Finland)
Tel: +358 40 355 3586; E-mail: [email protected]
[7] And finally…Once a boggy plant, always a boggy plant?
DOI: 10.1038/nature07764
Millions of years of evolution can’t change a simple fact — once a boggy plant, almost always a boggy plant! A paper in this week’s Nature suggests that plants rarely adapt to new habitats. The results have implications for understanding biological invasions and species survival under global climate change.
Michael Crisp and colleagues analysed the ancestral distribution of more than 11,000 Southern Hemisphere plants constituting 15% of the region’s total flora. Plants were assigned to one or more of seven environments or ‘biomes’, such as bog, alpine and savannah. Over tens of millions of years, only 3.6% of these plants shifted between biomes.
The finding applies across the board, from more ‘modern’ groups like grasses and legumes, to ‘ancient’ Gondwanan plants such as cycads. And while plants diversified rapidly, forming tens of thousands of new species over the last 50 million years, they rarely changed habitat. This suggests that their evolutionary success resulted from habitat expansion as climate changed.
Author contact:
Michael Crisp (The Australian National University, Canberra, ACT, Australia)
Tel: +61 2 6125 2882; 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] Identification of a dendritic cell receptor that couples sensing of necrosis to immunity
DOI: 10.1038/nature07750
[9] c-Myc suppression of miR-23a/b enhances mitochondrial glutaminase expression and glutamine metabolism
DOI: 10.1038/nature07823
NATURE BIOTECHNOLOGY (http://www.nature.com/naturebiotechnology)
[10] Gene silencing by synthetic U1 Adaptors
DOI: 10.1038/nbt.1525
NATURE CELL BIOLOGY (http://www.nature.com/naturecellbiology)
[11] NuMA-related LIN-5, ASPM-1, calmodulin and dynein promote meiotic spindle rotation independently of cortical LIN-5/GPR/Galpha
DOI: 10.1038/ncb1834
[12] Oct1 loss of function induces a coordinate metabolic shift that opposes tumorigenicity
DOI: 10.1038/ncb1840
[13] The yeast global transcriptional co-repressor protein Cyc8 can propagate as a prion
DOI: 10.1038/ncb1843
NATURE CHEMICAL BIOLOGY (http://www.nature.com/nchembio)
[14] Analysis of the eukaryotic prenylome by isoprenoid affinity tagging
DOI: 10.1038/nchembio.149
NATURE GENETICS (http://www.nature.com/naturegenetics)
[15] FGF9 monomer–dimer equilibrium regulates extracellular matrix affinity and tissue diffusion
DOI: 10.1038/ng. 316
[16] A TARBP2 mutation in human cancer impairs microRNA processing and DICER1 function
DOI: 10.1038/ng.317
[17] Genome-wide association study identifies a novel breast cancer susceptibility locus at 6q25.1
DOI: 10.1038/ng.318
NATURE GEOSCIENCE (http://www.nature.com/ngeo)
[18] Rapid oceanic and atmospheric changes during the Younger Dryas cold period
DOI: 10.1038/ngeo439
NATURE MATERIALS (http://www.nature.com/naturematerials)
[19] Giant superconductivity-induced modulation of the ferromagnetic magnetization in a cuprate–manganite superlattice
DOI: 10.1038/nmat2383
[20] Mesoporous germanium-rich chalcogenido frameworks with highly polarizable surfaces and relevance to gas separation
DOI: 10.1038/nmat2381
[21] Room-temperature defect-engineered spin filter based on a non-magnetic semiconductor
DOI: 10.1038/nmat2385
[22] The influence of edge structure on the electronic properties of graphene quantum dots and nanoribbons
DOI: 10.1038/nmat2378
Nature MEDICINE (http://www.nature.com/naturemedicine)
[23] Effector memory T cell responses are associated with protection of rhesus monkeys from mucosal simian immunodeficiency virus challenge
DOI: 10.1038/nm.1935
[24] Sensitive in vivo imaging of T cells using a membrane-bound Gaussia princeps luciferase
DOI: 10.1038/nm.1930
NATURE NANOTECHNOLOGY (http://www.nature.com/nnano)
[25] Dynamic patterning programmed by DNA tiles captured on a DNA origami substrate
DOI: 10.1038/nnano.2009.005
Nature NEUROSCIENCE (http://www.nature.com/natureneuroscience)
[26] Reinforcement learning in populations of spiking neurons
DOI: 10.1038/nn.2264
[27] Role of the synaptic ribbon in transmitting the cone light response
DOI: 10.1038/nn.2267
[28] An anatomic gene expression atlas of the adult mouse brain
DOI: 10.1038/nn.2281
NATURE PHOTONICS (http://www.nature.com/nphoton)
[29] Photonic-chip-based radio-frequency spectrum analyser with terahertz bandwidth
DOI: 10.1038/nphoton.2009.001
Nature STRUCTURAL & MOLECULAR BIOLOGY (http://www.nature.com/natstructmolbiol)
[30] Cyanobacterial photosystem II at 2.9-Å resolution and the role of quinones, lipids, channels and chloride
DOI: 10.1038/nsmb.1559
[31] Structural basis for G9a-like protein lysine methyltransferase inhibition by BIX-01294
DOI: 10.1038/nsmb.1560
[32] The mRNA export protein DBP5 binds RNA and the cytoplasmic nucleoporin NUP214 in a mutually exclusive manner
DOI: 10.1038/nsmb.1561
[33] A Mek1–Mek2 heterodimer determines the strength and duration of the Erk signal
DOI: 10.1038/nsmb.1564
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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
Brisbane: 7, 14
Camperdown: 1
Canberra: 7, 29
Darlinghurst: 1
Hobart: 7
Randwick: 1
Sydney: 1, 7, 29
AUSTRIA
Vienna: 33
CANADA:
Sherbrooke: 11
Vancouver: 3
CHILE
Santiago: 7
CHINA
Nanjing: 25
Shanghai: 17
FINLAND
Helsinki: 5, 6, 16
Kuopio: 6
FRANCE
Amiens: 19
Marcoussis: 21
Orsay: 4
Talence: 19
Toulouse: 21
GERMANY
Berlin: 30
Bochum: 14
Dortmund: 14
Heidelberg: 1, 32
Hennigsdorf: 5
Mainz: 5
Martinsried: 32
Potsdam: 18
Stuttgart: 19
GREECE
Crete: 20
JAPAN
Chiba: 15
Kanagawa: 9, 15
Nagoya: 15
Sapporo: 16
Tokyo: 15
NETHERLANDS
Amsterdam: 2
Utrecht: 11
NEW ZEALAND
Lincoln: 7
NORWAY
Bergen: 18
PORTUGAL
Porto: 16
RUSSIA
Syktyvkar: 6
SPAIN
Barcelona: 16
Madrid: 16
Murcia: 28
SWEDEN
Linkoping: 21
Malmo: 5
SWITZERLAND
Bern: 26
Fribourg: 19
Lausanne: 11
Villigen: 19
Zurich: 7, 18
UNITED KINGDOM
Cambridge: 5
Belfast: 5
London: 8, 19
Potters Bar: 8
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
California
Berkeley: 27, 30
La Jolla: 21
Los Angeles: 1, 28, 33
Pasadena: 28
San Francisco: 1, 27
Stanford: 1
Georgia
Atlanta: 31
Illinois
Chicago: 13, 20
Evanston: 20
Urbana: 22
Iowa
Coralville: 10
Maryland
Baltimore: 9
Bethesda: 5
Frederick: 23
Massachusetts
Boston: 5, 11, 12
Framingham: 5
Missouri
St Louis: 15
Nebraska
Omaha: 27
New York
Cold Spring Harbor: 28
Ithaca: 7
New York: 24, 25
Ohio
Cincinnati: 1
Oregon
Beaverton: 23
Pennsylvania
University Park: 7
Tennessee
Nashville: 17
Texas
Houston: 4, 16
Smithville: 31
Utah
Salt Lake City: 12
Washington
Seattle: 28
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 Nanotechnology (London)
Peter Rodgers
Tel: +44 20 7014 4019; Email: [email protected]
Nature Neuroscience (New York)
Kalyani Narasimhan
Tel: +1 212 726 9319; E-mail: [email protected]
Nature Photonics (Tokyo)
Oliver Graydon
Tel: +81 3 3267 8776; 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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