NATURE AND THE NATURE RESEARCH JOURNALS PRESS RELEASE
For papers that will be published online on 06 April 2009
This press release is copyrighted to the Nature journals mentioned below.
This press release contains:
· Summaries of newsworthy papers:
Nature: Genetic regulators of radiation response identified
Geoscience: Lightning as a harbinger of hurricane winds
Immunology: Controversial Crohn’s disease risk factor clarified
Methods: Sequencing a single cell
Genetics: Risk for hepatitis B in Asians
Chemistry: Pores for complexity
Nature: Neuronal cue to never dining alone
Chemistry: Catalysts use the force
Nature: Yeast are stuck in a snowdrift
And finally… Neuroscience: How scratching relieves itch
· 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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[1] Nature: Genetic regulators of radiation response identified
DOI: 10.1038/nature07940
Researchers have identified a set of genes and proteins that influence ionizing-radiation-induced changes in gene expression. The findings, reported online in this week’s Nature, significantly add to what little we know about the physiological responses triggered by radiation, and might have medical implications.
Vivian Cheung and colleagues used genetic linkage and association studies to identify over 1,200 DNA variants that influence the expression level of genes in irradiated cells. Many of these regulators, implicated in radiation response for the first time, are transcription factors — proteins that bind to DNA and influence gene expression.
Humans are exposed to radiation from environmental and medical sources, but we differ in our sensitivity. It is hoped that the regulatory variants identified in this study will aid the genetic prediction of individual sensitivity to radiation, as well as the development of radiosensitizers that increase the sensitivity of tumours to radiation.
Author contact:
Vivian Cheung (University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA)
Tel: +1 215 590 4950; E-mail: [email protected]
[2] Geoscience: Lightning as a harbinger of hurricane winds
DOI: 10.1038/ngeo477
Peak winds in hurricanes are preceded by an increase in lightning activity by about one day, according to a study published online in Nature Geoscience. The evolution of hurricane intensity is extremely important for accurate early warning systems but has been difficult to predict. Lightning activity is easily monitored globally and could provide a powerful tool for hurricane forecasters.
Colin Price and colleagues tracked the wind speeds of all the severe hurricanes (category 4 and 5) around the globe from 2005 to 2007, and compared them with global lightning data. For 70% of the storms, lightning activity in the region of a hurricane peaked in advance of the highest wind speeds, and 55% showed a positive correlation between lightning activity and hurricane wind speeds at a fixed lead time of 30 hours.
The authors suggest that studying lightning data may help understand the processes that lead to hurricane intensification.
Author contact:
Colin Price (Tel Aviv University, Israel)
Tel: +972 3 640 5689; E-mail: [email protected]
[3] Immunology: Controversial Crohn’s disease risk factor clarified
DOI:10.1038/ni.1722
Scientists may have discovered why a particular genetic mutation is associated with increased risk of Crohn’s disease, a chronic inflammatory bowel disorder, as reported in a published study online in Nature Immunology this week.
Earlier studies showed that human cells bearing this mutation—which interrupts the sequence of the gene encoding the pathogen detector NOD2—release lower amounts of the anti-inflammatory protein interleukin 10. However, mouse cells engineered to express a similar mutation produced normal amounts of interleukin 10.
A team led by Xiaojing Ma and colleagues now show that the human NOD2 mutant prevents activation of hnRNPA1, a protein required for expression of the human interleukin 10 gene. Notably, the human NOD2 mutant did not affect expression of the mouse interleukin 10 gene.
The findings provide insight into cellular events associated with Crohn’s disease, and caution against relying solely on mouse models to investigate human immune disorders.
Author contact:
Xiaojing Ma (Weill Medical College of Cornell University, New York, NY, USA)
Tel: +1 212 746 4404; E-mail: [email protected]
[4] Methods: Sequencing a single cell
DOI: 10.1038/nmeth.1315
The entire RNA pool, the transcriptome, of an individual cell can be read by next-generation sequencing, reports a study published online in Nature Methods this week.
The transcriptome provides information about the function, regulation and interdependence of active genes. Recently scientists have applied high-throughput sequencing to transcriptome analysis, a method called RNA-Seq, which has led to new insights – for instance how much of the genome is transcribed and how many RNA variants of each gene are produced. A limitation of this RNA-Seq approach is that it requires hundreds of thousands of cells.
Azim Surani and colleagues adapted RNA-Seq to the analysis of a single cell and analyzed the transcriptome of an individual mouse cell from a four-cell embryo and of an oocyte in unprecedented detail.
Not only will this technique be important for developmental biology, as it allows the in-depth study of all genes expressed in a single cells during early embryonic development; it will also permit the study of cell heterogeneity in complex tissues and enable analysis of disease development at the single-cell level.
Author contacts:
M Azim Surani (University of Cambridge, UK)
Tel: +44 12 2333 4136; E-mail: [email protected]
Kaiqin Lao (Applied Biosystems, Foster City, CA, USA), Co-author
Tel: +1 650 554 2923; E-mail: [email protected]
[5] Genetics: Risk for hepatitis B in Asians
DOI: 10.1038/ng.348
Scientists have identified genetic variations associated with the risk of persistent infection of hepatitis B virus in Asian populations, according to a study online this week in Nature Genetics. Chronic hepatitis B is one of the most common infectious liver diseases caused by hepatitis B virus (HBV).
Yasuke Nakamura and colleagues carried out an association study in Asian populations, and identified a significant association between chronic hepatitis B infection and 11 genetic variations in a region of the genome that includes the HLA-DPA1 and HLA-DPB1 genes. These genes are structurally similar to genes that encode proteins critical for launching an effective immune response against HBV.
There are an estimated 400 million people chronically infected with HBV worldwide, and nearly 60% of liver cancers are related to chronic hepatitis B and liver cirrhosis. Since the clinical outcomes after the exposure to HBV are highly variable, identification of genetic and environmental factors that are related to progression of HBV-induced liver diseases is critically important.
Author contact:
Yusuke Nakamura (University of Tokyo, Japan)
Tel: +81 3 5449 5372; E-mail: [email protected]
[6] Chemistry: Pores for complexity
DOI: 10.1038/nchem.166
A material with the most complicated pore structure ever made is reported online this week in Nature Chemistry. The mesoporous silica has three interwoven but disconnected pore systems — previous examples have been limited to two such pore systems, and are widely used as ‘molecular sieves’ thanks to their huge internal surface area of around a thousand square metres per gram.
Mesoporous materials – containing pores just nanometres across – are useful for a wide variety of applications, such as catalyst support, optics, and to separate petroleum fractions – every molecule of petrol has passed through the pores of such materials.
Jackie Ying, Xiaodong Zou and colleagues designed a new templating agent around which the complex structure formed. The template molecules they used have large head-groups and long tails. The key to generating the three interwoven pore systems was finding the right ratio between the size of the head-group and how hydrophobic the tail is. The researchers suggest that the presence of both long and short channels in fibres of the material could lead to separation or controlled-release applications that offer different diffusion rates in different directions.
Author contact:
Jackie Ying (Institute of Bioengineering and Nanotechnology, Singapore)
Tel: +65 6824 7100; E-mail: [email protected]
[7] Nature: Neuronal cue to never dining alone
DOI: 10.1038/nature07886
A neuronal hub that guides social behaviour and pheromone attraction in nematode worms is revealed online in this week’s Nature.
The more ‘social’ strains of Caenorhabditis elegans like to socialize while they dine, a behaviour that depends on the sophisticated integration of multiple sensory cues by a subset of the animal’s 302 neurons. The RMG neurons are the control centre, Cornelia Bargmann and colleagues report. Direct intercellular links called gap junctions link each RMG neuron to many different sensory neurons known to promote aggregation, and to ASK neurons, which they show respond directly to pheromones.
Author contact:
Cornelia Bargmann (Rockefeller University, New York, NY, USA)
Tel: +1 212 327 7242; E-mail: [email protected]
[8] Chemistry: Catalysts use the force [N&V]
DOI: 10.1038/nchem.167
Catalysts that can be activated using mechanical force are reported in a study online in Nature Chemistry this week. The ability to initiate catalytic activity in this fashion could lead to new self-healing materials that respond to ultrasound rather than heat or light.
Rint Sijbesma and co-workers made compounds in which either a silver or a ruthenium metal ion is sandwiched between two ligands that each contain a long polymer chain. When these compounds are dissolved in solution and exposed to ultrasound, collapsing bubbles cause the polymer chains to stretch. The mechanical force generated by this movement splits each molecule into two separate fragments — one that remains bound to the metal ion and one that is not — by breaking one of the weak metal–ligand bonds.
Importantly, neither of the parent compounds is catalytically active until it has been torn into two by ultrasound. In the case of the silver compounds, the metal-free fragment can catalyse transesterification reactions, a type of reaction used to synthesize biofuels. For the ruthenium-based compounds, it is the metal-containing ligand that is catalytically active, and this can mediate olefin metathesis reactions to make both small molecules and polymers, which are used in making various products such add-ins to enhance fuels.
In an accompanying News & Views article, Jitendra Rathore and Alshakim Nelson say that the work by Sijbesma and co-workers "offers a new method for catalyst activation and is likely to stimulate the creation of other new catalysts that provide catalytic activity on demand."
Author contact:
Rint Sijbesma (Eindhoven University of Technology, Netherlands)
Tel: +31 40 247 3111; E-mail: [email protected]
Alshakim Nelson (IBM Almaden Research Center, San Jose, CA, USA) N&V author
Tel: +1 408 927 2449; E-mail: [email protected]
[9] Nature: Yeast are stuck in a snowdrift
DOI: 10.1038/nature07921
The cheating and cooperative behaviours of yeast provide an excellent model of the ‘snowdrift game’, a theoretical problem used to shed light on the evolution of human cooperation.
The budding yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae secretes an enzyme that breaks sucrose down into more digestible monosaccharides. Online in this week’s Nature, Alexander van Oudenaarden and colleagues show that around 99% of these monosaccharides diffuse away where they can be used by other yeast cells. This provides an opportunity for ‘cheating’ yeast that do not secrete the enzyme to invade ‘cooperating’ populations. But, the ‘cooperators’ derive an advantage from the tiny amount of monosaccharide retained, making them able to invade populations of cheaters. The end result is a situation in which both strains can coexist.
The system models the snowdrift game, where two drivers stuck on either side of a snowdrift must decide whether to clear a path by shovelling. The best option is to ‘cheat’ and sit tight while the other driver clears the snow. But, unlike the prisoner’s dilemma game, the worst option is if both sides cheat and no one gets home. The best strategy is therefore to do the opposite of what the other side does. In the same way, the coexistence of cheating and cooperating yeast strains results from the fact that rare strategies can sometimes outperform common ones. The team also show that they can alter the outcome of competition by varying either the cost of cooperation or the glucose concentration.
Author contact:
Alexander van Oudenaarden (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA)
Tel: +1 617 253 4446; E-mail: [email protected]
[10] And finally… Neuroscience: How scratching relieves itch
DOI: 10.1038/nn.2292
Scratching decreases activity in some spinal cord neurons only during itchiness, according to research published in Nature Neuroscience this week. The work suggests that itchiness itself may induce a specific state in the spinal cord that allows scratching to decrease the activity of the neurons transmitting the itch sensation to the brain.
Everyone knows that scratching relieves itch, but the physiological mechanisms for how this works are poorly understood. Work with both humans and primates has suggested that a specific part of the spinal chord—the spinothalamic tract—is important for the sensation, and that neurons here are more active when itchy substances are applied to the skin.
Glenn J. Giesler, Jr. and colleagues now show that scratching the skin of primates blocks the activity of spinothalamic neurons during itchiness. Interestingly, the activity of these neurons was not stopped by scratching under conditions when the primate was not itchy.
Author contact:
Glenn J. Giesler, Jr. (University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, USA)
Tel: +1 612 624 3984; 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 BIOTECHNOLOGY (http://www.nature.com/naturebiotechnology)
[11] Mass-spectrometric identification and relative quantification of N-linked cell surface glycoproteins
DOI: 10.1038/nbt.1532
[12] A molecular barcoded yeast ORF library enables mode-of-action analysis of bioactive compounds
DOI: 10.1038/nbt.1534
NATURE CELL BIOLOGY (http://www.nature.com/naturecellbiology)
[13] SCAI acts as a suppressor of cancer cell invasion through the transcriptional control of beta1-integrin
DOI: 10.1038/ncb1862
[14] Border-cell migration requires integration of spatial and temporal signals by the BTB protein Abrupt
DOI: 10.1038/ncb1863
NATURE CHEMICAL BIOLOGY (http://www.nature.com/nchembio)
[15] (+)-7-iso-Jasmonoyl-L-isoleucine is the endogenous bioactive jasmonate
DOI: 10.1038/nchembio.161
NATURE GENETICS (http://www.nature.com/naturegenetics)
[16] The rise and fall of a human recombination hot spot
DOI: 10.1038/ng.346
[17] A common variant on chromosome 11q13 is associated with atopic dermatitis
DOI: 10.1038/ng.347
[18] A homozygous frameshift mutation in the mouse Flg gene facilitates enhanced percutaneous allergen priming
DOI: 10.1038/ng.358
NATURE GEOSCIENCE (http://www.nature.com/ngeo)
[19] Phasing and amplitude of sea-level and climate change during the penultimate interglacial
DOI: 10.1038/ngeo470
[20] Metabolic variability in seafloor brines revealed by carbon and sulphur dynamics
DOI: 10.1038/ngeo475
NATURE IMMUNOLOGY (http://www.nature.com/natureimmunology)
[21] T cell antigen receptor signaling and immunological synapse stability require myosin IIA
DOI:10.1038/ni.1723
[22] Cross-presentation of viral and self antigens by skin-derived CD103+ dendritic cells
DOI:10.1038/ni.1724
NATURE MATERIALS (http://www.nature.com/naturematerials)
[23] The preparation and structure of salty ice VII under pressure
DOI: 10.1038/nmat2422
[24] Ultralong spin coherence time in isotopically engineered diamond
DOI: 10.1038/nmat2420
[25] Synergetic combination of different types of defect to optimize pinning landscape using
BaZrO3-doped YBa2Cu3O7
DOI: 10.1038/nmat2408
NATURE METHODS (http://www.nature.com/nmeth)
[26] Single molecule–sensitive probes for imaging native RNA in live cells
DOI: 10.1038/nmeth.1316
[27] An ultramarine fluorescent protein with increased photostability and pH insensitivity
DOI: 10.1038/nmeth.1317
NATURE NANOTECHNOLOGY (http://www.nature.com/nnano)
[28] Three-dimensional imaging of short-range chemical forces with picometre resolution
DOI: 10.1038/nnano.2009.57
[29] Tunable few-electron double quantum dots and Klein tunnelling in ultraclean carbon nanotubes
DOI: 10.1038/nnano.2009.71
[30] A DNA nanomachine that maps spatial and temporal pH changes inside living cells
DOI: 10.1038/nnano.2009.83
Nature NEUROSCIENCE (http://www.nature.com/natureneuroscience)
[31] The endogenous inhibitor of Akt, CTMP, is critical to ischemia-induced neuronal death
DOI: 10.1038/nn.2299
[32] Stability of surface NMDA receptors control synaptic and behavioral adaptations to amphetamine
DOI: 10.1038/nn.2300
[33] Small voltage changes at nerve terminals travel up axons to affect action potential initiation
DOI: 10.1038/nn.2301
Nature PHYSICS (http://www.nature.com/naturephysics)
[34] Control of a magnetic Feshbach resonance with laser light
DOI: 10.1038/nphys1232
[35] Memory-encoding vibrations in a disconnecting air bubble
DOI: 10.1038/nphys1233
[36] Franck–Condon blockade in suspended carbon nanotube quantum dots
DOI: 10.1038/nphys1234
[37] Electron–nuclear interaction in 13C nanotube double quantum dots
DOI: 10.1038/nphys1247
[38] Acetylation by GCN5 regulates CDC6 phosphorylation in the S phase of the cell cycle
DOI: 10.1038/nsmb.1583
[39] S16 throws a conformational switch during assembly of 30S 5’ domain
DOI: 10.1038/nsmb.1585
***************************************************************************************************************
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
Canberra: 19
Menai: 19
Victoria: 22
CANADA:
Toronto: 12
Vancouver: 12
CHINA
Changchun: 6
Wuhan: 32
CZECH REPUBLIC
Prague: 17
FINLAND
Turku: 13
FRANCE
Aix-en-Provence: 19
Evry: 17
Paris: 23
Villeneuve d'Ascq Cedex: 36
GERMANY
Aachen: 28
Berlin: 17, 36
Bonn: 17
Bremen: 20
Dresden: 17
Garching: 34
Hamburg: 13
Halle: 15
Heidelberg: 13
Kiel: 17
Munich: 13, 17
Neuherberg: 17
Stuttgart: 24
INDIA
Bangalore: 30
IRELAND
Dublin: 18
ISRAEL
Raanana: 2
Tel Aviv: 2
ITALY
Milan: 38
Novara: 31
Pisa: 38
Rome: 19
Trieste: 38
JAPAN
Hiroshima: 5
Hokkaido: 27
Ibaraki: 18, 24
Kanagawa: 5
Kyoto: 12
Okazaki: 27
Saitama: 12
Tochigi-ken: 31
Tokyo: 3, 5, 18
NETHERLANDS
Delft: 29
Eindhoven: 8
Nijmegen: 3
POLAND
Szczecin: 17
SAUDI ARABIA
Jeddah: 6
SINGAPORE
Nanos: 6
SPAIN
Madrid: 15, 37
SWEDEN
Stockholm: 6, 15
SWITZERLAND
Basel: 11, 31
Villigen: 23
Zurich: 11, 36
THAILAND
Bangkok: 5
Nonthaburi: 5
UNITED KINGDOM
Cambridge: 4
Dundee: 18
Leicester: 16
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
California
Foster City: 4
Los Angeles: 20
San Francisco: 39
Connecticut
New Haven: 28
Georgia
Athens: 20
Atlanta: 20, 26
Illinois
Chicago: 35
Kansas
Kansas City: 32
Maine
Bar Harbor: 18
Maryland
Baltimore: 14, 39
Bethesda: 33
Massachusetts
Boston: 7, 14
Cambridge: 9, 37
Minnesota
Minneapolis: 10, 25
Missouri
Kansas City: 32
New Jersey
Princeton: 12
New Mexico
Los Alamos: 25
New York
Bronx: 31
Ithaca: 21
New York: 3, 7, 21
North Carolina
Chapel Hill: 20
Pennsylvania
Philadelphia: 1
Tennessee
Nashville: 12, 26
Texas
College Station: 24
Corpus Christi: 20
Vermont
Middlebury: 37
Washington
Seattle: 11, 18
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]
Neda Afsarmanesh (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 Chemistry (London)
Stuart Cantrill
Tel: +44 20 7014 4018; E-mail: [email protected]
Nature Genetics (New York)
Lily Khidr
Tel: +1 212 726 9324; 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)
Vincent Dusastre
Tel: +44 20 7843 4531; 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 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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