This press release contains:
• Summaries of newsworthy papers:
Biotechnology: Insight into human development
Methods: Optogenetics gets to the heart
Nature: Cooperative genes trigger cancer
Genetics: Mutations in WDR62 result in small brains
Nanotechnology: Folding and cutting DNA into nanoscale shapes
Neuroscience: Categorizing speech
Nature: Inflammatory remarks
And finally… Genetics: Exome sequencing of 200 individuals
• 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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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] Biotechnology: Insight into human development
DOI: 10.1038/nbt.1686
Analysis of human embryos by time-lapse microscopy has shed new light on human embryonic development. The results, reported in this week’s Nature Biotechnology, may help assisted reproduction clinics increase the success rates of in vitro fertilization (IVF) by improving
their methods for selecting embryos to be transferred to women.
Renee Reijo Pera and colleagues filmed IVF embryos for several days after fertilization to search for visual cues that would allow them to predict whether a 2-day-old embryo would develop properly to day 5 or 6—to a structure known as a blastocyst. They found that embryos with a high likelihood of reaching the blastocyst stage meet three criteria: a first cytokinesis—a stage during cell division— lasting 0–33 minutes, an interval of 7.8–14.3 hours between the first and second mitoses and an interval of 0–5.8 hours between the second and third mitoses. They also discovered that individual cells in a single embryo have different patterns of gene expression, with some cells retaining more transcripts inherited from the mother—via the egg—and other cells having activated embryonic gene expression.
If implemented in clinical IVF programs, the authors’ non-invasive imaging approach could increase the chances of transferring embryos that will lead to successful pregnancies.
Author contact:
Renee Reijo Pera (Stanford University, CA, USA)
Tel: +1 650 725 3803
E-mail: [email protected]
[2] Methods: Optogenetics gets to the heart
DOI: 10.1038/nmeth.1512
Genetically engineered heart cells can be stimulated using light, reports a study online this week in Nature Methods. These cells allow the heart to be stimulated in ways that will be helpful to explore normal heart function and opens the possibility of using light as a pacemaker in research studies involving rodents.
This well established approach, referred to as optogenetics, uses genetically encoded photosensitive proteins from microorganisms to control cell behavior with light. The cation channel
Channelrhodopsin-2 (ChR2) is opened by pulses of blue light and triggers the transmission of electrical signals when expressed on the surface of excitable cells. Neuronal cells overexpressing ChR2 are common tools in neurobiology because they can be selectively activated. Philipp Sasse and colleagues have extended the use of ChR2 to another type of excitable cell in the body, namely heart cells.
The researchers expressed ChR2 in mouse cardiomyocytes and used light to precisely stimulate the cells growing in a dish and in the heart of transgenic mice. Light pulses provoked localized and prolonged electrical currents in heart cells.
Author contact:
Philipp Sasse (University of Bonn, Germany)
Tel: +49 228 6885 200
E-mail: [email protected]
[3] Nature: Cooperative genes trigger cancer
DOI: 10.1038/nature09409
Gastrointestinal stromal tumours (GISTs) may arise when a normal developmental gene is converted into a tumour-promoting factor by a cooperating oncogene, a Nature paper suggests. The finding has implications for diagnostics and therapeutic development.
GISTs are presumed to arise in interstitial cells of Cajal (ICCs), which are located in the
gastrointestinal tract. Charles Sawyers and colleagues now show that the transcription factor ETV1 promotes GIST development, and is also needed for ICC development.
GISTs are known to carry mutated versions of the cancer-promoting gene KIT, and the team suggest that ETV1 cooperates with this oncogene to drive the cancer.
The fact that ETV1 seems to be present in high levels in all GISTs makes it immediately useful as a
candidate diagnostic biomarker. And molecules that block ETV1 may prove useful against drug-resistant GIST.
Author contact:
Charles Sawyers (Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY, USA)
Tel: +1 646 888 2138
E-mail: [email protected]
[4] & [5] Genetics: Mutations in WDR62 result in small brains
DOI: 10.1038/ng.682
DOI: 10.1038/ng.683
Mutations in the gene WDR62 are a cause of microcephaly—a neurodevelopment disorder that leads to a small brain size—according to two reports published online this week in Nature Genetics.
Human microcephaly is a condition that is characterized by an abnormally small head circumference because of problems during brain development. Microcephaly may be obvious at birth or may develop in early childhood. There is no treatment for microcephaly and prognosis is variable. Some individuals may be severely disabled and others will only have mild disability.
In two independent studies, C. Geoffrey Woods, Christopher Walsh and their respective colleagues report that mutations in the gene WDR62 cause inherited microcephaly. The research suggests that WDR62 is important for the growth of neuronal cells in the developing human brain.
Author contacts:
C. Geoffrey Woods (University of Cambridge, UK)
Author paper [4]
Tel: +44 1223 331154
E-mail: [email protected]
Christopher Walsh (Children’s Hospital Boston, MA, USA) Author paper [5]
Tel: +1 617 919 2923
E-mail: [email protected]
[6] Nanotechnology: Folding and cutting DNA into nanoscale shapes
DOI: 10.1038/nnano.2010.193
The creation of a nanoscale Möbius strip — a ribbon-like structure with only one side — is reported online in Nature Nanotechnology this week. The structure, which could be used to make novel molecular devices, is self-assembled from folded strands of DNA and can be turned into various shapes by cutting along the length of the strip.
A Möbius strip can be made by taking a strip of paper, giving it a half twist and then joining the ends
together to form a loop. Hao Yan, Yan Liu and colleagues created a nanoscale version with a previously developed technique known as ‘DNA origami’ — long single strands of DNA are folded into predetermined shapes with the help of shorter ‘stapling’ strands. This revised approach to DNA origami is termed ‘DNA kirigami’ by the authors because of its similarity to the Japanese art of folding and cutting paper. It could be used to assemble unique nanoscale shapes that have different
functional materials, such as metal nanoparticles, attached at specific points on the structure.
Author contacts:
Hao Yan (Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, USA)
Tel: +1 480 727 8570
E-mail: [email protected]
Yan Liu (Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, USA)
Tel: +1 480 727 0397
E-mail: [email protected]
[7] Neuroscience: Categorizing speech
DOI: 10.1038/nn.2641
Categorical perception is a phenomenon in which we perceive sounds as belonging to specific categories even when they actually form a continuum. A paper published online in Nature
Neuroscience this week shows that activity in a specific region of the brain correlates with this perception, rather than the physical characteristics of the sounds heard.
The posterior superior temporal gyrus in the human brain was previously known to be important for processing speech sounds. Edward Chang and his colleagues were able to get direct access to this
region, by recording electrical activity in the area from awake patients undergoing brain surgery to treat epilepsy or brain tumours. The patients heard artificially synthesized speech sounds which varied by equal steps along a continuum. However, they heard these sounds perceptually as belonging to either /ba/, /da/ or /ga/ categories. Electrical activity in the superior temporal gyrus showed the same kind of clustering as their perception suggesting that the brain responses were less influenced by the physical characteristics of the speech sounds, but instead reflected how people heard these sounds. These results therefore provide an insight into how the brain transforms incoming stimuli into more abstract representations.
Author contact:
Edward Chang (University of California, San Francisco, CA, USA)
Tel: +1 415 353 3904
E-mail: [email protected]
[8] Nature: Inflammatory remarks
DOI: 10.1038/nature09421
Inflammation can trigger blood vessel formation via a previously unknown mechanism, suggests a Nature paper that provides a key link between inflammation, oxidative stress and angiogenesis.
It is known thatinflammation can cause oxidative stress and the growth of new blood vessels,
but a molecular mechanism linking these processes has proved hard to find. Tatiana Byzova and colleagues now show that oxidized products formed during inflammation can bind to a particular receptor, Toll-like receptor 2 (TLR2), which stimulates blood vessel growth.
The process occurs independently of the pro-angiogenic protein vascular endothelial growth factor
(VEGF).
Author contact:
Tatiana Byzova (Cleveland Clinic Foundation, OH, USA)
Tel: +1 216 445 4312
E-mail: [email protected]
[9] And finally… Genetics: Exome sequencing of 200 individuals
DOI: 10.1038/ng.680
The sequencing of the exome—protein-coding regions of DNA—from 200 individuals is reported this week in Nature Genetics. This large scale sequencing study brings insights into patterns of genetic variation in a European population.
Jun Wang and colleagues used the first exome sequencing of this large number of individuals to characterize patterns of population genetic variation, including low frequency genetic variants. They find that protein-coding regions of the genome harbor more low-frequency deleterious mutations than expected from previous studies, and suggest that this is due to strong purifying selection.
Author contact:
Jun Wang (Beijing Genomics Institute, Shenzhen, China)
Tel: +86 755 2527 3796
E-mail: [email protected]
**********************************************************************************
Items from other Nature journals to be published online at the same time and with the same embargo:
NATURE
[10] An unprecedented nucleic acid capture mechanism for excision of DNA damage
DOI: 10.1038/nature09428
[11] Seismic evidence of negligible water carried below 400-km depth in subducting lithosphere
DOI: 10.1038/nature09401
NATURE BIOTECHNOLOGY
[12] Substrate elasticity provides mechanical signals for the expansion of hemopoietic stem and progenitor cells
DOI: 10.1038/nbt.1687
NATURE CELL BIOLOGY
[13] A molecular network for de novo generation of the apical surface and lumen
DOI: 10.1038/ncb2106
NATURE CHEMICAL BIOLOGY
[14] Small molecule inhibition of Wnt signaling through activation of Casein kinase 1 alpha
DOI: 10.1038/nchembio.453
[15] Dynamics connect substrate recognition to catalysis in protein kinase A
DOI: 10.1038/nchembio.452
NATURE CHEMISTRY
[16] N-silyl oxyketene imines are underused yet highly versatile reagents for catalytic asymmetric synthesis
DOI: 10.1038/nchem.857
[17] Recognition-mediated activation of therapeutic gold nanoparticles inside living cells
DOI: 10.1038/nchem.858
[18] A bioinspired approach for controlling accessibility in calix[4]arene-bound metal
cluster catalysts
DOI: 10.1038/nchem.860
[19] An efficient organocatalytic method for constructing biaryls through aromatic
C–H activation
DOI: 10.1038/nchem.862
NATURE GENETICS
[20] Mutations in GRIN2A and GRIN2B encoding regulatory subunits of NMDA
receptors cause variable neurodevelopmental phenotypes
DOI: 10.1038/ng.677
NATURE IMMUNOLOGY
[21] Invariant NKT cells modulate the suppressive activity of IL-10-secreting neutrophils differentiated with serum amyloid A
DOI: 10.1038/ni.1942
[22] The structural basis for intramembrane assembly of an activating immunoreceptor complex
DOI: 10.1038/ni.1943
[23] IFI16 is an innate immune sensor for intracellular DNA
DOI: 10.1038/ni.1932
NATURE MATERIALS
[24] Fast domain wall motion in magnetic comb structures
DOI: 10.1038/nmat2857
[25] DNA-nanoparticle superlattices formed from anisotropic building blocks
DOI: 10.1038/nmat2870
NATURE MEDICINE
[26] Integrative genomic analysis of HIV-specific CD8+ T cells reveals that PD-1 inhibits T cell function by upregulating BATF
DOI: 10.1038/nm.2232
[27] Passive neutralizing antibody controls SHIV viremia and enhances B cell responses in infant macaques
DOI: 10.1038/nm.2233
NATURE NANOTECHNOLOGY
[28] Scalable templated growth of graphene nanoribbons on SiC
DOI: 10.1038/nnano.2010.192
NATURE NEUROSCIENCE
[29] APC/CFzr/Cdh1-dependent regulation of cell adhesion controls glial
migration in the Drosophila PNS
DOI: 10.1038/nn.2656
[30] Functional imaging of hippocampal place cells at cellular resolution during virtual navigation
DOI: 10.1038/nn.2648
[31] Resilience to social stress coincides with functional DNA methylation of the Crf gene in adult mice
DOI: 10.1038/nn.2642
NATURE PHOTONICS
[32] Quantum transduction of telecommunications-band single photons from a quantum dot by frequency upconversion
DOI: 10.1038/nphoton.2010.221
NATURE PHYSICS
[33] Electric field induced coherent coupling of the exciton states in a single quantum dot
DOI: 10.1038/nphys1780
[34] Hysteretic magnetoresistance and thermal bistability in a magnetic two-dimensional hole system
DOI: 10.1038/nphys1782
[35] Suppression of the critical temperature for superfluidity near the Mott transition
DOI: 10.1038/nphys1799
NATURE STRUCTURAL & MOLECULAR BIOLOGY
[36] Structure of the Dom34–Hbs1 complex and implications for no-go decay
DOI: 10.1038/nsmb.1922
[37] Reduced histone biosynthesis and chromatin changes arising from a damage signal
at telomeres
DOI: 10.1038/nsmb.1897
**********************************************************************************
***The following paper was published electronically on Nature’s website on 24 September
and is therefore no longer under embargo. The rest of the above articles on this release remain under embargo until 03 October at 1800 London time / 1300 US Eastern Time ***
[38] Selective inhibition of BET bromodomains
DOI: 10.1038/nature09504
**********************************************************************************
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
Camperdown: 12
Parkville: 22
Sydney: 12
AUSTRIA
Innsbruck: 5
Vienna: 9, 37
BELGIUM
Brussels: 4
Liège: 4, 20
CANADA
Calgary: 5
Edmonton: 5
CHINA
Beijing: 19
Guangzhou: 9
Shenzhen: 9
Sichuan: 19
DENMARK
Aarhus: 9, 23
Glostrup: 9
Odense: 9
ESTONIA
Tartu: 36
FINLAND
Helsinki: 13
FRANCE
Grenoble: 28
Marseille: 20
Paris: 4, 35
GERMANY
Berlin: 20
Bonn: 2, 23
Darmstadt: 20
Erlangen: 20
Essen: 20
Freiburg: 20
Garching: 35
Hamburg: 20, 34
Heidelberg: 20
Kiel: 20
Lubeck: 20
Magdeburg: 7, 20
Mainz: 35
Munster: 29
Regensburg: 34
INDIA
New Delhi: 5
IRELAND
Dublin: 23
ISRAEL
Rehovot: 31
KOREA
Seoul: 18
PAKISTAN
Islamabad: 4
POLAND
Warsaw: 34
RUSSIA
Moscow: 35
SPAIN
Madrid: 13
SWITZERLAND
Zurich: 20, 34, 35
TURKEY
Ankara: 5
UNITED KINGDOM
Cambridge: 4, 33
Leeds: 4
London: 24
Newcastle: 4
Oxford: 21, 38
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
Arizona
Tempe: 6
Tucson: 14, 36
California
Berkeley: 7, 9, 18
Irvine: 27
La Jolla: 27, 37
Menlo Park: 1
Richmond: 18
Riverside: 11
San Diego: 15
San Francisco: 5, 7, 13
Stanford: 1, 29
Delaware
Wilmington: 18
Florida
Lauderdale: 14
Georgia
Atlanta: 28
Illinois
Argonne: 25
Evanston: 25
Chicago: 4
Urbana: 11, 16
Indiana
Notre Dame: 38
Maryland
Bethesda: 23
Chevy Chase: 3
College Park: 17
Gaithersburg: 32
Massachusetts
Amherst: 17, 35
Boston: 3, 5, 14, 22, 26, 27, 38
Cambridge: 5, 26, 37
Charlestown: 26
Worcester: 23
Minnesota
Minneapolis: 1, 15
New Hampshire
Durham: 5
New Jersey
Princeton: 30
New York
Bronx: 3
New York: 3, 34
Ohio
Cleveland: 8
Oxford: 11
Oregon
Beaverton: 27
Pennsylvania
Hershey: 10
Philadelphia: 14, 26
Pittsburgh: 10
Tennessee
Nashville: 10, 14
Texas
Galveston: 12
Virginia
Ashburn: 30
Washington
Seattle: 5, 27
Wisconsin
Madison: 15
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)
Carrie Meggs
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 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 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)
Sabbi Lall
Tel: +1 212 726 9326
E-mail: [email protected]
