This press release contains:
• Summaries of newsworthy papers:
Immunology: Controlling West Nile Virus
Photonics: Optical ‘black box’ regeneration
Geoscience: Cool forests in long-term heatwaves
Chemical Biology: Perturbing parasitic plants
• Mention of papers to be published at the same time with the same embargo
• Geographical listing of authors
PDFs of all the papersmentioned 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] Immunology: Controlling West Nile Virus
DOI: 10.1038/ni.1933
An enzyme that is important in fighting West Nile Virus (WNV) is reported in this week’s Nature Immunology. Understanding the molecular basis for the response against WNV may hold clues to controlling both this and other potentially dangerous viral infections. WNV can cause a potentially fatal disease of the central nervous system and is becoming increasingly common in the developed world. Erol Fikrig and colleagues identify the enzyme caspase-12 as being critical for the immune system to fight WNV infection.
Caspase-12 normally dampens immune responses to bacterial infection but the researchers instead found that it was critical for stimulating an effective WNV response in mice. The primary targets for WNV are neurons and it is here that caspase-12 is most highly concentrated, helping to escalate the immune response towards WNV.
If caspase-12 is also found to be critical for fighting WNV in humans, the current study could have potential therapeutic implications.
Author contact:
Erol Fikrig (Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA)
Tel: +1 203 785 2453
E-mail: [email protected]
[2] Photonics: Optical ‘black box’ regeneration
DOI: 10.1038/nphoton.2010.203
The first practical all-optical device that can remove both phase and amplitude noise from an optical data signal during the signal regeneration process is reported this week in Nature Photonics. The research will advance the performance of next-generation telecommunications systems.
Most optical networks encode data through the on–off switching of light. To cope with growing bandwidth demands, advanced modulation formats that can also encode data in the phase and amplitude of light are now being investigated. However, the performance of these systems is severely compromised by phase noise.
The phase-sensitive amplification scheme of David Richardson and colleagues suppresses the phase and amplitude noise during signal regeneration. The scheme takes an incoming noisy data signal and restores its fidelity, therefore acting as a true ‘b ack box’ signal regenerator.
Author contact:
David Richardson (University of Southampton, UK)
Tel: +44 23 8059 4524
E-mail: [email protected]
[3] Geoscience: Cool forests in long-term heatwaves
DOI: 10.1038/ngeo950
European grasslands initially keep cool during heatwaves through enhanced evaporation, but heat up much more rapidly once soil moisture has been exhausted, reports a study published online this week in Nature Geoscience. By contrast, soil moisture is evaporated more slowly in forests, which leads to more initial heating but cooler temperatures in the long term.
Adriaan Teuling and colleagues analysed energy flux measurements from a network of observation towers across European grasslands and forests. They found that the land surface heats twice as fast over forests as over grasslands at the beginning of a heatwave. However, in the absence of rain, grasslands surpass forests as the main source of heating for the atmosphere once they have dried out.
This process may explain the extreme temperatures in France during the later stages of the summer 2003 heatwave.
Author contact:
Adriaan Teuling (Wageningen University, The Netherlands)
Tel: +31 317 481212
E-mail: [email protected]
[4] Chemical Biology: Perturbing parasitic plants
DOI: 10.1038/nchembio.435
A screen in a small flowering plant identifies compounds that alter the levels of the plant hormone strigolactone and highlights its role in light signalling pathways. The research, published in Nature Chemical Biology, could be a first step towards disrupting the invasion of parasitic plants that present a major threat to agriculture in sub-Saharan Africa.
In addition to being an important ‘branching hormone’ in plants, strigolactone released by plant roots serves as an invasion cue for parasitic plants from the genera Striga and Orobanche, which present a major threat to agriculture in sub-Saharan Africa.
To identify small molecule compounds that could potentially block parasitic plant infestations, Peter McCourt and colleagues used chemical genetic screening to discover cotylimides, small molecules that perturb strigolactone levels in Arabidopsis thaliana. These compounds led them to identify a link between light-signaling genes and pathways that control the levels of strigolactones in plants. Taken together, these studies identified a new role for the plant hormone strigolactone and may lead to the development of compounds that could control the growth of the parasitic plant.
Author contact:
Peter McCourt (University of Toronto, Ontario, Canada)
Tel: +1 416 978 0523
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
[5] Phosphorylation of MLL by ATR is required for execution of mammalian S-phase checkpoint
DOI: 10.1038/nature09350
[6] Oligomeric organization of the B-cell antigen receptor on resting cells
DOI: 10.1038/nature09357
NATURE CELL BIOLOGY
[7] Bmi1 is essential in Twist1-induced epithelial–mesenchymal transition
DOI: 10.1038/ncb2099
[8] Puma is required for p53-induced depletion of adult stem cells
DOI: 10.1038/ncb2100
[9] A Pumilio-induced RNA structure switch in p27-3’UTR controls miR-221 and miR-222 accessibility
DOI: 10.1038/ncb2105
NATURE CHEMISTRY
[10] Photoelectrochemical complexes for solar energy conversion that chemically and autonomously regenerate
DOI: 10.1038/nchem.822
[11] Spectroscopic visualization of sound-induced liquid vibrations using a supramolecular nanofibre
DOI: 10.1038/nchem.825
NATURE GENETICS
[12] PRDM9 variation strongly influences recombination hot-spot activity and meiotic instability in humans
DOI: 10.1038/ng.658
[13] High-throughput, pooled sequencing identifies mutations in NUBPL and FOXRED1 in human complex I deficiency
DOI: 10.1038/ng.659
[14] A genome-wide association study in the Japanese population identifies susceptibility loci for type 2 diabetes at UBE2E2 and C2CD4A-C2CD4B
DOI: 10.1038/ng.660
NATURE IMMUNOLOGY
[15] Shared dependence on the DNA-binding factor TOX for the development of lymphoid tissue–inducer cell and NK cell lineages
DOI: 10.1038/ni.1930
[16] SLAM is a microbial sensor that regulates bacterial phagosome functions in
macrophages DOI: 10.1038/ni.1931
NATURE MEDICINE
[17] Allosteric inhibition of lysyl oxidase–like-2 impedes the development of a pathologic microenvironment
DOI: 10.1038/nm.2208
[18] CXCR2 mediates NADPH oxidase–independent neutrophil extracellular trap formation in cystic fibrosis airway inflammation
DOI: 10.1038/nm.2209
NATURE METHODS
[19] Microbial community resemblance methods differ in their ability to detect biologically relevant patterns
DOI: 10.1038/nmeth.1499
[20] Near infrared fluorescent proteins
DOI: 10.1038/nmeth.1501
[21] Monitoring multiple distances within a single molecule using switchable FRET
DOI: 10.1038/nmeth.1502
NATURE NEUROSCIENCE
[22] The effects of electrical microstimulation on cortical signal propagation
DOI: 10.1038/nn.2631
[23] Stress induced priming of glutamate synapses unmasks associative short-term plasticity
DOI: 10.1038/nn.2629
[24] Pet-1 is required across different stages of life to regulate serotonergic function
DOI: 10.1038/nn.2623
NATURE PHOTONICS
[25] On-chip slow light through atomic quantum state control
DOI: 10.1038/nphoton.2010.211
NATURE PHYSICS
[26] Self-organized criticality occurs in non-conservative neuronal networks during Up states
DOI: nphys10.1038/nphys1757
NATURE STRUCTURAL & MOLECULAR BIOLOGY
[27] Cooperative interaction of transcription termination factors with the RNA polymerase II C-terminal domain
DOI: 10.1038/nsmb.1893
[28] A metazoan ortholog of SpoT hydrolyzes ppGpp and functions in starvation responses
DOI: 10.1038/nsmb.1906
[29] The exon junction complex differentially marks spliced junctions
DOI: 10.1038/nsmb.1890
[30] Uniform transitions of the general RNA polymerase II transcription complex
DOI: 10.1038/nsmb.1903
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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
Victoria: 13
AUSTRIA
Innsbruck: 3
Salzburg: 18
BELGIUM
Gembloux: 3
Wilrijk: 3
CANADA:
Calgary: 23
Quebec: 1
Toronto: 4
DENMARK
Aarhus: 14
Brondgy: 2
Copenhagen: 14
Gentofte: 14
Odense: 14
Roskilde: 3
FRANCE
Clermont-Ferrand: 3
Gif-sur-Yvette: 3
Lille: 14
Paris: 29
GERMANY
Bielefeld: 21
Bochum: 24
Dresden: 3
Freiburg: 6
Heidelberg: 18, 27
Homburg: 18
Jena: 3
Munich: 18, 30
Tuebingen: 18, 22
HONG KONG
Hong Kong: 14
IRELAND
Cork: 2
Dublin: 2
ISRAEL
Haifa: 17
ITALY
Bolzano: 3
Trento: 3
JAPAN
Hiroshima: 14
Ibaraki: 11
Kanagawa: 14
Kobe: 11
Okayama: 14
Shiga: 14
Tokyo: 11, 14
Yokohama: 4
KOREA
Chungbuk: 28
Daejeon: 28
Kwangju: 28
Pohang: 28
Seoul: 14, 27, 28
NETHERLANDS
Amsterdam: 9, 18
De Bilt: 3
Utrecht: 9
Wageningen: 3
NEW ZEALAND
Auckland: 13
Wellington: 13
RUSSIA
Moscow: 20
SINGAPORE
Singapore: 14
SPAIN
Madrid: 16
SWEDEN
Goeteborg: 2
SWITZERLAND
Zurich: 3
TAIWAN
Taipei: 7
UNITED KINGDOM
Leicester: 12
London: 14
Manchester: 22
Oxford: 21
Southampton: 2
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
California
La Jolla: 8
Los Angeles: 15, 23
Palo Alto: 17
Santa Cruz: 25
Colorado
Boulder: 19
Connecticut
New Haven: 1, 19
Georgia
Athens: 2
Illinois
Urbana: 10
Indiana
West Lafayette: 10
Kansas
Kansas City: 29
Maryland
Baltimore: 26
Bethesda: 22
Chevy Chase: 1
Gaithersburg: 10
Massachusetts
Boston: 13, 16, 27
Cambridge: 10, 13
Watertown: 16
Michigan
Ann Arbor: 20
Minnesota
Rochester: 16
Missouri
Kansas City: 29
St Louis: 5
Ohio
Cleveland: 24
Pennsylvania
Philadelphia: 5
Tennessee
Memphis: 8
Texas
Dallas: 5
Utah
Provo: 25
Washington
Seattle: 27
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)
Michael Francisco
Tel: +1 212 726 9288
E-mail: [email protected]
Nature Cell Biology (London)
Sowmya Swaminathan
Tel: +44 20 7843 4656
E-mail: [email protected]
Nature Chemical Biology (Boston)
Sarah Daniels
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 453
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 Photonics (Tokyo)
Oliver Graydon
Tel: +81 3 3267 8776
E-mail: [email protected]
Nature Structural & Molecular Biology (New York)
Sabbi Lall
Tel: +1 212 726 9326
E-mail: [email protected]
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