NATURE AND THE NATURE RESEARCH JOURNALS PRESS RELEASE
For papers that will be published online on 27 September 2009
This press release is copyrighted to the Nature journals mentioned below.
This press release contains:
· Summaries of newsworthy papers:
Medicine: Preserving fertility during cancer treatment
Photonics: Time-domain telescope
Immunology: Driving autoreactive cells to distraction
Physics: X-rays produced by laser-driven particle accelerator
Nature: Sex chromosome’s role in species diversification
Geoscience: Big breaks during Wenchuan earthquake
And finally... Neuroscience: Attracted to punishment
· 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] Medicine: Preserving fertility during cancer treatment
DOI: 10.1038/nm.2033
A mechanism that accounts for the negative effects of chemotherapy on female fertility, and a potential way to prevent it with a well known drug, is reported online this week in Nature Medicine.
Infertility is a major side effect in young patients undergoing cancer treatment, owing to the sensitivity of germ cells to chemotherapy. Stefania Gonfloni and her colleagues report that cisplatin, a commonly used chemotherapeutic drug, activates a pro-cell death signaling pathway in female mouse germ cells. Cisplatin treatment ultimately induces germ-cell death by activating an enzyme known as c-Abl. When c-Abl is mutated, it causes chronic myeloid leukemia, which can be therapeutically targeted with imatinib, better known as Gleevec.
Crucially, the scientists also show that treatment with imatinib counteracts the cisplatin-induced cell death of the female germ cells. This raises the possibility of using imatinib to preserve germ cells and thus fertility during chemotherapy.
Author contact:
Stefania Gonfloni (University of Rome, Italy)
Tel: +39 067 259 4319; E-mail: [email protected]
[2] Photonics: Time-domain telescope
DOI: 10.1038/nphoton.2009.169
Electronic data can be moved 27 times faster than in present state-of-the-art systems by using a photonic device - a time-domain telescope - that ‘magnifies’ the speed. The work, published online this week in Nature Photonics, may prove useful for on-chip photonic integrated circuits and high-speed optical communication.
As the demand for faster data rates continues to grow, the electronics industry is struggling to keep up and faces problems both with increasing power consumption and concerns over the feasibility of data rates of 100 gigabits per second or more. Alexander Gaeta and colleagues demonstrate a photonic scheme that gets around this problem by compressing packets of data that are formed by simple and cheap electronics so that they can be transported at ultrafast rates that would otherwise not be possible. They call it a time-domain telescope, because its principle of operation is similar to how a conventional telescope magnifies images, but it magnifies time instead. The device uses two silicon structures that guide the light and act as lenses, magnifying or increasing the speed of the data packets from 10 gigabits per second to 270 gigabits per second.
Author contact:
Alexander Gaeta (Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA)
Tel: +1 607 255 9983; E-mail: [email protected]
[3] Immunology: Driving autoreactive cells to distraction
DOI: 10.1038/ni.1790
How potentially autoreactive T cells are prevented from being ‘switched on’ is reported in a paper published online this week in Nature Immunology. Explaining how these potentially harmful cells are activated could lead to new therapies for the prevention of autoimmune diseases, such as diabetes.
Previous work showed that PD-1, a protein expressed on autoreactive T lymphocytes, is essential to prevent autoimmunity and maintain immune cell tolerance for self proteins in mice.
Using a mouse model of type 1 diabetes, Brian Fife and co-workers found that blockade of PD-1 caused a slowdown in the movement of autoreactive T cells. This decreased spontaneous movement allowed autoreactive T cells the opportunity to recognize pancreatic islet cell components. The subsequent release of proinflammatory mediators caused islet cell destruction and clinical diabetes.
Whether these findings are relevant to other T cell-driven autoimmune diseases remains to be seen.
Author contact:
Brian Fife (University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, USA)
Tel: +1 612 624 2417; E-mail: [email protected]
[4] Physics: X-rays produced by laser-driven particle accelerator
DOI: 10.1038/nphys1404
A tunable X-ray source hundreds of times smaller than a conventional synchrotron is reported online this week in Nature Physics. The demonstration is an important step towards reducing the cost and increasing the availability of coherent, ultrafast, pulsed sources of X-rays, which are increasingly important tools in drug discovery, materials science, biology, nanotechnology and fundamental physics research.
High-intensity X-ray sources such as synchrotrons and free-electron lasers require large particle accelerators to produce bursts of electrons travelling at close to the speed of light. The electrons are then fed into a structure known as an undulator, which causes them to emit an intense burst of coherent radiation. Owing to the size and cost of the accelerator component of these X-ray sources - typically hundreds of metres in diameter and up to $1 billion - only a few dozen devices have ever been built.
Matthias Fuchs and colleagues replace these conventional accelerators with a so-called laser-plasma wakefield accelerator. This uses a high-intensity laser to generate a beam of high-energy electrons over a distance of just a few centimetres. Being much smaller and cheaper, laser-driven X-ray sources should be considerably easier for individual universities to build and maintain.
Author contact:
Matthias Fuchs (Max-Planck-Institut für Quantenoptik, Garching, Germany)
Tel: +49 89 32905 555; E-mail: [email protected]
[5] Nature: Sex chromosome’s role in species diversification
DOI: 10.1038/nature08441
A newly evolved sex chromosome in a fish contains genes that contribute to its diversification from other closely related species. These findings, published this week in the journal Nature, suggest that sex-chromosome changes may have a far greater role in speciation than was previously anticipated.
Sexually antagonistic evolution - when a gene is reproductively helpful to one sex while harmful to the other - has been proposed as a major contributor to sex-chromosome evolution and species diversification. However, it was unknown whether sex-chromosome changes had a significant role in the evolution of reproductive isolation between similar species.
Catherine Peichel and colleagues identified a new sex-chromosome system that is found in only one of two species that exist in the same habitat in the Sea of Japan. Using genetic mapping the scientists showed that the newly evolved X chromosome contains genes for male courtship behaviour, whereas the ancestral X chromosome contains genes for both behavioural isolation and hybrid male sterility. These traits contribute to the reproductive barrier between this species and the ancestral form found in the Pacific Ocean.
Author contact:
Catherine Peichel (Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle, WA, USA)
Tel: +1 206 667 1628; E-mail: [email protected]
[6] Geoscience: Big breaks during Wenchuan earthquake
DOI: 10.1038/ngeo636
The unusually high magnitude of the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake was caused by the unexpected failure of solid rock separating different fault segments, suggests a study published online in Nature Geoscience. The magnitude 7.9 quake struck along a number of smaller faults that are separated by solid rock; these solid-rock barriers generally prevent multiple faults from rupturing.
Zheng-Kang Shen and colleagues used Global Positioning System and satellite radar data to show that the quake motion was focused at the barriers. Three prominent barriers failed one after the other during this quake, which allowed widespread motion throughout the fault zone. The researchers point out that the highest number of fatalities occurred in towns near the barriers, which they suggest is due to particularly strong quake motion in these regions.
The team estimates that similar magnitude earthquakes are uncommon along this fault zone, occurring once in about 4,000 years.
Author contact:
Zheng-Kang Shen (State Key Laboratory of Earthquake Dynamics, China Earthquake Administration, Beijing, China)
Tel: +86 10 62009006; E-mail: [email protected]
[7] And finally... Neuroscience: Attracted to punishment
DOI: 10.1038/nn.2403
Rats usually learn quickly to fear and avoid an odor that predicts a painful electrical shock. But rat pups learn to prefer an odor that is associated with electrical shock when their mother is present during the experiment. A study published this week in Nature Neuroscience shows that this may be due to the low activity of the neurotransmitter dopamine within the amygdala of rat pups.
The amygdala, a small region of the brain, is required for normal fear learning. In infant rats the amygdala might be too immature to function properly, which could explain why the pups do not learn to fear the shock-associated odor.
Gordon Barr, Regina Sullivan, and colleagues compared the biochemical responses in the amygdala of both 8 and 12 day rat pups to paired odor-shock stimuli while their mother was present. In the older pups, which had learned to avoid the odor, the scientists found elevated levels of dopamine. In the younger pups, which did not learn to avoid the odor, no such increase of dopamine was seen. When amygdala dopamine levels were artificially elevated, the young pups also learned to avoid the odor.
The infants of many mammalian species develop a strong attachment to their mother, or other primary caregiver, during the initial helpless postnatal phase of their lives. This attachment, regardless of the quality of care given, is thought to be an innate mechanism for survival. The infant rats’ paradoxical odor-shock preference is therefore considered to be an animal model of abusive human caregiver-child relationships. As such, the work by Barr and colleagues suggests one mechanism that may foster infant attachment even to inadequate primary caregivers.
Author contacts:
Gordon Barr (Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, PA, USA)
Tel: +1 267 426 9722; E-mail: [email protected]
Regina Sullivan (New York University Langone Medical Center & Nathan S. Kline Institute for Psychiatric Research, New York, NY, USA)
Tel: +1 845 398 5511; 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] JAK2 phosphorylates histone H3Y41 and excludes HP1a from chromatin
DOI: 10.1038/nature08448
NATURE CELL BIOLOGY (http://www.nature.com/naturecellbiology)
[9] Histone H3 methylation links DNA damage detection to activation of the tumour suppressor Tip60
DOI: 10.1038/ncb1982
NATURE CHEMICAL BIOLOGY (http://www.nature.com/nchembio)
[10] Chemical genomics in Escherichia coli identifies an inhibitor of bacterial lipoprotein targeting
DOI: 10.1038/nchembio.221
NATURE GENETICS (http://www.nature.com/naturegenetics)
[11] In vivo RNAi screening identifies regulators of actin dynamics as key determinants of lymphoma progression
DOI: 10.1038/ng.451
NATURE GEOSCIENCE (http://www.nature.com/ngeo)
[12] Rock pulverization at high strain rate near the San Andreas fault
DOI: 10.1038/ngeo640
NATURE IMMUNOLOGY (http://www.nature.com/natureimmunology)
[13] Chemokine CXCL13 is essential for lymph node initiation and is induced by retinoic acid and neuronal stimulation
DOI: 10.1038/ni.1789
[14] Interleukin 10 acts on regulatory T cells to maintain expression of the transcription factor Foxp3 and suppressive function in mice with colitis
DOI: 10.1038/ni.1791
NATURE MATERIALS (http://www.nature.com/naturematerials)
[15] MgZnCa glasses without clinically observable hydrogen evolution for biodegradable implants
DOI: 10.1038/nmat2542
Nature MEDICINE (http://www.nature.com/naturemedicine)
[16] Dual roles for hepatic lectin receptors in the clearance of chilled platelets
DOI: 10.1038/nm.2030
NATURE NANOTECHNOLOGY (http://www.nature.com/nnano)
[17] Promises, facts and challenges for carbon nanotubes in imaging and therapeutics
DOI: 10.1038/nnano.2009.241
[18] Translocation of double-stranded DNA through membrane-adapted phi29 motor protein nanopores
DOI: 10.1038/nnano.2009.259
[19] Atomic-scale mapping of quantum dots formed by droplet epitaxy
DOI: 10.1038/nnano.2009.271
[20] Programming the detection limits of biosensors through controlled nanostructuring
DOI: 10.1038/nnano.2009.276
Nature NEUROSCIENCE (http://www.nature.com/natureneuroscience)
[21] Unmasking the tonic aversive state in neuropathic pain
DOI: 10.1038/nn.2407
[22] CREB regulates excitability and the allocation of memory to subsets of neurons in the amygdala
DOI: 10.1038/nn.2405
NATURE PHOTONICS (http://www.nature.com/nphoton)
[23] Excitonic switches operating at around 100 K
DOI: 10.1038/nphoton.2009.166
[24] Electrically tunable liquid crystal optical microresonators
DOI: 10.1038/nphoton.2009.170
[25] Low-divergence single-mode terahertz quantum cascade laser
DOI: 10.1038/nphoton.2009.168
Nature PHYSICS (http://www.nature.com/naturephysics)
[26] Single-shot qubit readout in circuit quantum electrodynamics
DOI: 10.1038/nphys1400
[27] Energy gaps and a zero-field quantum Hall effect in graphene by strain engineering
DOI: 10.1038/nphys1420
[28] Broken-symmetry states and divergent resistance in suspended bilayer graphene
DOI: 10.1038/nphys1406
Nature STRUCTURAL & MOLECULAR BIOLOGY (http://www.nature.com/natstructmolbiol)
[29] The execution of the transcriptional axis mutant p53, E2F1 and ID4 promotes tumor neo-angionesis
DOI: 10.1038/nsmb.1669
[30] High-resolution structure of the rotor ring of a proton-dependent ATP synthase
DOI: 10.1038/nsmb.1678
[31] Interactions between lipids and voltage sensor paddles detected with tarantula toxins
DOI: 10.1038/nsmb.1679
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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
Parkville: 16
BELGIUM
Leuven: 31
CANADA:
Hamilton: 10
Toronto: 20
CHINA
Beijing: 6
Chengdu: 6
Hebei: 6
Qingdao: 22
Xi’an: 6
DENMARK
Copenhagen: 16
FRANCE
Gif-sur-Yvette: 26
Grenoble: 12
Palaiseau: 12
Strasbourg: 17
GERMANY
Berlin: 13
Dresden: 4
Frankfurt: 30
Garching: 4
GREECE
Crete: 22
INDIA
Roorkee Uttaranchal: 10
ISRAEL
Jerusalem: 19
Rehovot: 29
Yavne: 19
ITALY
Perugia: 29
Rome: 1, 29
Trieste: 17
JAPAN
Gifu: 5
Miyago: 5
Tokyo: 3
KOREA
Gwangju: 31
NETHERLANDS
Amsterdam: 13
Nijmegen: 27
NORWAY
Oslo: 13
SLOVENIA
Ljubljana: 24
SPAIN
Madrid: 27
SWEDEN
Gothenburg: 16
Lund: 13
SWITZERLAND
Zurich: 15, 25
UNITED KINGDOM
Cambridge: 8
Leicester: 1
London: 17
Manchester: 27
Oxford: 4
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
Alabama
Huntsville: 5
Arizona
Tucson: 21
California
Berkeley: 6
La Jolla: 14, 16
Los Angeles: 6, 22, 23
San Francisco: 3, 21
Santa Barbara: 23
Stanford: 5, 31
Iowa
Iowa City: 18
Maryland
Bethesda: 31
College Park: 5
Massachusetts
Boston: 9, 16
Cambridge: 11, 22, 28
Charlestown: 9
Michigan
Ann Arbor: 19
Minnesota
Minneapolis: 3
New York
Ithaca: 2
New York: 7
Orangeburg: 7
Rochester: 13
Ohio
Cincinnati: 14, 18
Oklahoma
Norman: 7
Pennsylvania
Philadelphia: 7
Texas
Dallas: 3
Houston: 13
Washington
Seattle: 5
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 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)
Myles Axton
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 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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