This press release contains:
· Summaries of newsworthy papers:
Neuroscience: An insight into blindsight
Molecular biology: Structural basis for skin cancer suppression
Astronomy: Portrait of an exoplanet
Quantum physics: Coherent control comes to silicon
Oceanography: Nutrient supply and demand
Physics: A solid-state quantum memory for light
And finally… From fins came limbs
· Mention of papers to be published at the same time with the same embargo
· Geographical listing of authors
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[1] Neuroscience: An insight into blindsight (AOP)
DOI: 10.1038/nature09179
***This paper will be published electronically on Nature's website on 23 June at 1800 London time / 1300 US Eastern Time (which is also when the embargo lifts) as part of our AOP (ahead of print) programme. Although we have included it on this release to avoid multiple mailings it will not appear in print on 24 June, but at a later date. ***
The area of the brain which has a major role in the phenomenon known as blindsight is reported in Nature this week. The work not only highlights a neural basis for the occurrence but could also help us to understand features of normal sight.
Blindsight is the ability of patients with injury to the primary visual cortex to respond to visual stimuli in their damaged visual field despite a lack of conscious awareness that it’s there. Until now neural circuits that are for critical for this phenomenon have remained uncertain. Michael Schmid and colleagues show that the thalamic lateral geniculate nucleus (LGN) has a major role. By temporarily inactivating LGN in macaque monkeys, the team assessed how much LGN contributed to visual perception and associated brain activity when there were lesions to the primary visual cortex (V1). fMRI results showed that, when this brain area was active, images could be processed independently of V1. Inactivation, however, meant this ability diminished.
This work could have implications in our understanding of normal sight — bypassing this V1 area could also be a viable pathway for the fast detection of objects during normal vision.
Author contact:
Michael Schmid (National Institute of Mental Health, Bethesda, MD, USA)
Tel: +1 301 728 8326
E-mail: [email protected]
[2] & [3] Molecular biology: Structural basis for skin cancer suppression (pp 1039-1048; N&V)
The structure of an enzyme that repairs UV-induced DNA damage is revealed in two papers in this week’s Nature, boosting our understanding of how the human body copes with the harmful effects of the sun.
Satya Prakash and colleagues, and Wei Yang and team reveal the crystal structure of DNA polymerase eta. Inactivation of the enzyme causes a type of xeroderma pigmentosum, a condition characterised by the inability to repair UV-induced DNA damage, resulting in a high incidence of skin cancers. The teams show how the enzyme’s DNA-repairing ability derives from a simple, yet elegant mechanism whereby damaged nucleotides are accommodated in an unusually large active site, and stabilized by interactions not found in other polymerases. The mutations in xeroderma pigmentosum patients disrupt the polymerase’s ability to maintain the damaged DNA in its normal structural form.
Author contact:
Satya Prakash (University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, TX, USA) – Author paper [2]
Tel: +1 409 747 8602
E-mail: [email protected]
Wei Yang (National Institute of Diabetes & Digestive & Kidney Diseases, Bethesda, MD, USA) – Author paper [3]
Tel: +1 301 402 4645
E-mail: [email protected]
Dinshaw Patel (Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY, USA) N&V author
Tel: +1 212 639 7207
E-mail: [email protected]
[4] Astronomy: Portrait of an exoplanet (pp 1049-1051; N&V)
The mass of an extrasolar planet (exoplanet) has been determined directly for the first time, from sensitive spectroscopic measurements of the planet’s host star. The observations, reported in this week’s Nature, also point to the presence of a strong, high-altitude planetary wind, driven by stellar irradiation.
Most of the known exoplanets have been discovered by observing the wobble induced in the host stars by their orbiting companions. For a planetary orbit viewed edge-on, the amplitude and period of the star’s wobble can be used to calculate the planet’s mass, as a proportion of the stellar mass — which itself must be estimated from the star’s spectral characteristics and distance.
Now Ignas Snellen and colleagues report a new method of obtaining an exoplanet’s mass, by measuring its orbital velocity. As the planet HD 209458b passed between its host star and the Earth, the authors measured the absorption of the star’s light by the planet’s atmosphere. Using a high-resolution spectrograph, the authors measured the changing Doppler shift of molecular absorption lines of carbon monoxide, caused by the planet’s orbital motion. From the orbital velocities of both star and planet, the authors derived their masses directly, by applying Newton’s law of gravity.
In addition to the orbital motion, the observations revealed a constant-frequency shift in the carbon monoxide spectrum, corresponding to a velocity of about two kilometres per second away from the star. This suggests the presence of a strong wind, flowing from the hot, irradiated dayside of the planet towards its cooler nightside.
Author contact:
Ignas Snellen (Leiden University, Netherlands)
Tel: +31 71 527 5838
E-mail: [email protected]
Mercedes López-Morales (Carnegie Institution of Washington, DC, USA) N&V author
Tel: +1 202 478 8480
E-mail: [email protected]
[5] Quantum physics: Coherent control comes to silicon (pp 1057-1061)
A quantum manipulation previously performed using laser-cooled trapped atoms has now been performed in the solid state, on phosphorus impurity atoms in silicon. The results, published in this week’s Nature, constitute a first step towards the use of this familiar semiconductor system for quantum computing and communications.
Techniques for processing quantum information rely on the ability to measure and control the quantum states of atoms and electrons in a coherent manner — that is, while preserving all of the information contained in the quantum state. A popular approach to solid-state quantum computing has involved the use of ‘quantum dots’, fabricated from compound semiconductors such as indium gallium arsenide.
Now Thornton Greenland and colleagues show that coherent control is also achievable in a simpler and more widely used semiconductor, phosphorus-doped silicon. Taking their cue from previous experiments with trapped atoms, the authors use laser light to excite the phosphorus impurity atoms into ‘Rydberg states’, in which each atom’s wavefunction extends to several nanometres from the atomic nucleus. In this way, coherent interactions can be induced — and controlled — among atoms that would normally be too far apart to interact.
The technique demonstrated the authors could also be used to control small numbers of independently addressable impurity atoms at known locations, as would be needed to implement quantum logic gates. The ease of processing of doped silicon, as compared with the more exotic compound semiconductors, makes this a goal worth pursuing.
Author contact:
Thornton Greenland (University College London, UK)
Tel: +44 207 679 9942
E-mail: [email protected]
[6] Oceanography: Nutrient supply and demand (pp 1062-1065)
Nutrient supply and plant growth in the North Pacific Ocean is supported by monthly episodes of vertical nutrient transport from deep to near-surface waters, suggests a paper in this week’s Nature.
Dissolved inorganic carbon concentrations are known to decrease in the surface layers during spring and summer in some areas of the ocean that are generally poor in plant nutrients such as nitrate and phosphate. The missing carbon is converted to particulate carbon by photosynthesis, but it is unclear how sufficient nutrients are supplied to support the required amount of plant growth.
Kenneth Johnson and colleagues used high-resolution nitrate and oxygen concentration measurements from a profiling float in the North Pacific near Hawaii to investigate nutrient transport. They found that short-lived transport events connect deep-water nitrate stocks with nutrient-poor surface waters. When the water column from the surface to 250 metres depth is considered as a whole, there is near equivalence in nutrient supply and demand.
Author contact:
Kenneth Johnson (Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute, Moss Landing, CA, USA)
Please contact via:
Kim Fulton-Bennett (Communications Associate, Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute)
Tel: +1 831 775 1835
E-mail: [email protected]
[7] Physics: A solid-state quantum memory for light (pp 1052-1056)
A solid-state device that can store the quantum information contained in a light field, and recall it on demand, is described in Nature this week. At low light intensities, this ‘quantum memory’ performs better than any classical device, and with realistic material improvements, such memories could be used in practical quantum information applications.
The ability to store and recall quantum information transmitted by light pulses is essential for the development of quantum communication networks. Previously demonstrated quantum memories, using atomic vapours as the storage medium, had recall efficiencies of less than 17%. For practical applications such as long-distance communication, quantum memories with substantially higher efficiencies will be required.
Morgan Hedges and colleagues now report a solid-state quantum memory with a recall efficiency of up to 69% and, for light pulses containing up to 500 photons, greater fidelity than would be possible using a classical memory. In this device, the quantum information is stored in an optical transition of praseodymium ions in an yttrium orthosilicate single crystal. The authors describe how, by using different atomic transitions and materials, the performance of such devices could be improved still further, to the levels needed for use in practical applications.
Author contact:
Morgan Hedges (Australian National University, Canberra, Australia)
Tel: +61 261 259275
E-mail: [email protected]
[8] And finally… From fins came limbs (AOP)
DOI: 10.1038/nature09137
***This paper will be published electronically on Nature's website on 23 June at 1800 London time / 1300 US Eastern Time (which is also when the embargo lifts) as part of our AOP (ahead of print) programme. Although we have included it on this release to avoid multiple mailings it will not appear in print on 24 June, but at a later date. ***
A key question for evolutionary biologists is how the limbs of land-dwelling vertebrates evolved from the fins of fish.
The development of fish fins and the limbs of mammals, birds, amphibians and other tetrapods show similarities, but an important difference is the formation of rigid fibrils called actinotrichia during fin development.
In this week’s Nature, Marie-Andrée Akimenko and colleagues find that a family of genes coding for components of the actinotrichia in zebrafish, or related genes that code for homologous structures, are found in other teleost fish but not in tetrapods. They also show that when these genes are knocked out in developing zebrafish embryos, the formation of fin rays and fin folds is disrupted, and the fin buds take on characteristics of a tetrapod limb bud.
The loss of these genes during evolution may have been one step in the transition of fins into limbs, suggest the authors.
Author contact:
Marie-Andrée Akimenko (University of Ottawa, Canada)
Tel: +1 613 562 5800 x7399
E-mail: [email protected]
ALSO IN THIS ISSUE…
[9] A coding-independent function of gene and pseudogene mRNAs regulates tumour biology (pp 1033-1038; N&V)
[10] Umpolung reactivity in amide and peptide synthesis (pp 1027-1032; N&V)
[11 Hormonal control of the shoot stem-cell niche (pp 1089-1092)
[12] Subcapsular sinusmacrophages prevent CNS invasion on peripheral infection with a neurotropic virus (pp 1079-1083)
[13] Sphingosine-1-phosphate is amissing cofactor for the E3 ubiquitin ligase TRAF2 (pp 1084-1088)
[14] Activation of autophagy during cell death requires the engulfment receptor Draper (pp 1093-1096)
ADVANCE ONLINE PUBLICATION
***This paper will be published electronically on Nature's website on 23 June at 1800 London time / 1300 US Eastern Time (which is also when the embargo lifts) as part of our AOP (ahead of print) programme. Although we have included it on this release to avoid multiple mailings it will not appear in print on 24 June, but at a later date. ***
[15] Structure of the gating ring from the human large-conductance Ca2+-gated K+ channel
DOI: 10.1038/nature09252
GEOGRAPHICAL LISTING OF AUTHORS…
The following list of places refers to the whereabouts of authors on the papers numbered in this release. For example, London: 4 - this means that on paper number four, there will be at least one author affiliated to an institute or company in London. 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.
ARGENTINA
San Luis: 13
AUSTRALIA
Canberra: 7
CANADA
Ottawa: 8
CHINA
Hangzhou: 3, 15
Shanghai: 13
Taiyuan: 7
CZECH REPUBLIC
Olomouc-Holice: 11
DENMARK
Aarhus: 11
GERMANY
Berlin: 8
Heidelberg: 11
Tübingen: 11
ITALY
Milan: 12
JAPAN
Osaka: 3
Tokyo: 3
KOREA
Seoul: 3
NETHERLANDS
Leiden: 4
Nieuwegein: 5
Utrecht: 4
NEW ZEALAND
Dunedin: 7
SINGAPORE
Singapore: 8
SPAIN
Madrid: 3
SWEDEN
Umea: 11
SWITZERLAND
Basel: 12
UNITED KINGDOM
Brighton: 3
Edinbrugh: 5
Guildford: 5
London: 5
Oxford: 8
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
California
Moss Landing: 6
Santa Barbara: 5
Hawaii
Honolulu: 6
Maryland
Bethesda: 1, 3
College Park: 14
Massachusetts
Boston: 10, 12
Cambridge: 4, 10
Worcester: 14
New York
New York: 2, 9
Tennessee
Nashville: 10
Texas
Dallas: 15
Galveston: 2
Virginia
Richmond: 13
Washington
Seattle: 6
PRESS CONTACTS…
From North America and Canada
Neda Afsarmanesh, Nature New York
Tel: +1 212 726 9231
E-mail: [email protected]
From Japan, Korea, China, Singapore and Taiwan
Mika Nakano, Nature Tokyo
Tel: +81 3 3267 8751
E-mail: [email protected]
From the UK
Rebecca Walton, Nature, London
Tel: +44 20 7843 4502
E-mail: [email protected]
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