NATURE AND THE NATURE RESEARCH JOURNALS PRESS RELEASE
For papers that will be published online on 27 March 2011
This press release is copyrighted to the Nature journals mentioned below.
This press release contains:
· Summaries of newsworthy papers:
Medicine: Reversible axon damage in multiple sclerosis
Genetics: Genetic interactions in HIV-1 drug resistance
Chemical Biology: Harmful protein misfolding in cancer
Cell Biology: A microRNA that regulates insulin resistance
Immunology: The regulatory function of intact tissues
Geoscience: Long-distance earthquake triggering restricted to small events
· 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: Reversible axon damage in multiple sclerosis
DOI: 10.1038/nm.2324
Axon damage might be spontaneously reversible in multiple sclerosis, according to research published online this week in Nature Medicine.
In multiple sclerosis, an inflammatory disease of the central nervous system, immune-mediated axon damage leads to permanent neurological deficits. How axon damage is initiated is not known. A classical view of multiple sclerosis is that loss of myelin—the sheath that insulates axons to speed up the transmission of nerve signals—is a prerequisite for axon damage.
Martin Kerschensteiner and his colleagues used imaging techniques in live mice to identify a new form of axon damage in an experimental model of multiple sclerosis. This process, termed ‘focal axonal degeneration’ (FAD), consists of sequential stages: localized damage to mitochondria within the axons, swellings of the nerve fiber and subsequent axon fragmentation. Notably, most swollen axons in their experiments persisted unchanged for several days, and some recovered spontaneously.
The team also found axonal changes consistent with FAD in lesions from patients with multiple sclerosis, highlighting the potential relevance of this form of axonal damage to the human disease.
Author contact:
Martin Kerschensteiner (Ludwig Maximilians University Munich, Germany)
Tel: +49 8921 8078282; E-mail: Martin.Kerschensteiner(at)med.uni-muenchen.de
[2] Genetics: Genetic interactions in HIV-1 drug resistance
DOI: 10.1038/ng.795
An analysis of the fitness landscape of genetic interactions in HIV-1 drug resistance is reported this week in Nature Genetics. Current drug regimens for treating HIV infection include over 20 different drugs, and over 200 mutations have been associated with drug resistance.
Sebastian Bonhoeffer and colleagues examined 70,081 virus samples from HIV-1 subtype B infected individuals undergoing routine drug resistance testing. They sequenced the protease and reverse transcriptase genes from the population of virus samples, and measured the in vitro fitness of virus samples in the absence of drugs, or in the presence of one of 15 different individual drugs. They find that interactions between variants contribute significantly to the fitness landscape of HIV-1 virus protease and reverse transcriptase.
Author contact:
Sebastian Bonhoeffer (Institute of Integrative Biology, Zurich, Switzerland)
Tel: +41 1 6327106; E-mail: sebastian.bonhoeffer(at)env.ethz.ch
[3] Chemical Biology: Harmful protein misfolding in cancer
DOI: 10.1038/nchembio.546
Protein aggregation – the localized accumulation of misfolded proteins – is believed to contribute to human diseases from neurodegeneration to diabetes. Work published this week in Nature Chemical Biology suggests that cancer unexpectedly may share this underlying pathology.
Proteins often adopt specific three-dimensional structures that are necessary for them to fulfill their cellular function. The tumor suppressor p53, which is mutated in nearly half of all cancers, is no exception. Now Frederic Rousseau, Joost Schymkowitz and colleagues have identified a segment of p53 that is exposed in mutated versions of p53 that are structurally destabilized. This segment can seed protein aggregation and interfere with the function of not only normal p53 but of other related proteins as well. These new data provide insight into how some mutations in p53 can disrupt the activity of other proteins and thereby promote tumor progression.
Author contacts:
Frederic Rousseau (Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium)
Tel: +32 2 629 1425; E-mail: frederic.rousseau(at)vub.ac.be
Joost Schymkowitz (Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium)
E-mail: joost.schymkowitz(at)med.kuleuven.be
[4] Cell Biology: A microRNA that regulates insulin resistance
DOI: 10.1038/ncb2211
MicroRNA (miR)-143 is upregulated in livers of obese mice, and blocking miR-143 expression prevents the development of obesity-associated insulin resistance reports a paper online this week in Nature Cell Biology. Insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes remain major public health obstacles, and identifying the causes of these diseases and new avenues for therapeutic intervention are important goals.
Jens Brüning and colleagues detected high expression of miR-143 in the liver of a mouse model of diabetes, as well as in mice fed a high-fat diet. They showed that enforced expression of miR-143 caused insulin resistance, which led to impaired glucose metabolism. Conversely, depletion of miR-143 improved insulin sensitivity in obese mice.
The authors went on to identify the target of miR-143 and elucidate the signalling pathway through which miR-143 expression induces insulin resistance. These findings uncover an intriguing pathway that regulates glucose homeostasis and uncover potential new targets for the development of therapeutics for obesity-associated insulin resistance.
Author contact:
Jens Brüning (University of Cologne, Germany)
Tel: +49 221 4701501; E-mail: jens.bruening(at)uni-koeln.de
[5] Immunology: The regulatory function of intact tissues
DOI: 10.1038/ni.2017
Cell-cell contact in intact bone marrow tissues plays a regulatory role in controlling the secretion of CXCL12 – a soluble factor required for hematopoietic stem cell homeostasis. This finding, reported online in Nature Immunology, provides additional insight into the mechanisms controlling stem cell mobilization in physiological and clinical situations.
Stromal cells in the bone marrow secrete an array of signaling molecules and create the unique microenvironment required for stem cell maintenance, self-renewal, commitment and differentiation. Tsvee Lapidot and colleagues found that rapid calcium flux between interconnected stromal cells controls CXCL12 secretion. Stress signals, such as mild bleeding or bacterial infection, which might temporarily disturb cell-cell contacts, can block CXCL12 secretion and induce hematopoietic stem cell proliferation and mobilization from their niche.
As part of bone marrow transplantation protocols, the cytokine granulocyte-colony stimulating factor (G-CSF) is repeatedly administrated clinically in order to stimulate stem cell mobilization from the bone marrow to the circulation. G-CSF treatments might act in part by disturbing cell-cell contact between bone marrow stromal cells.
Author contact:
Tsvee Lapidot (Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel)
Tel: +1 972 8 934 2481; E-mail: tsvee.lapidot(at)weizmann.ac.il
[6] Geoscience: Long-distance earthquake triggering restricted to small events
DOI: 10.1038/ngeo1110
After a large earthquake, the regional hazard of yet more large earthquakes is increased but the global hazard is not, suggests a study online this week in Nature Geoscience. In the vicinity of an earthquake, the risk of strong subsequent shaking is raised after the event, but beyond a threshold distance only small follow-up earthquakes seem to be triggered.
Tom Parsons and Aaron Velasco assembled a 30-year catalogue of all earthquakes greater than magnitude 5 that, according to relative timing, could have been triggered by a preceding shock of magnitude 7 or larger. They find that the increase in seismic hazard associated with large earthquakes is confined to a radius around the main quake’s epicenter of about two to three times the length of its rupture.
Author contact:
Tom Parsons (United States Geological Survey, Menlo Park, CA, USA)
Tel: +1 650 329 5074; E-mail: tparsons(at)usgs.gov
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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)
[7] A Raf-induced allosteric transition of KSR stimulates phosphorylation of MEK
DOI: 10.1038/nature09860
[8] Metabolic trade-offs and the maintenance of the fittest and the flattest
DOI: 10.1038/nature09905
[9] A conserved mechanism of DEAD-box ATPase activation by nucleoporins and InsP6 in mRNA export
DOI: 10.1038/nature09862
[10] Digoxin and its derivatives suppress TH17 cell differentiation by antagonizing RORgt activity
DOI: 10.1038/nature09978
NATURE BIOTECHNOLOGY (http://www.nature.com/naturebiotechnology)
[11] Systematic exploration of essential yeast gene function with temperature-sensitive mutants
DOI: 10.1038/nbt.1832
NATURE CELL BIOLOGY (http://www.nature.com/naturecellbiology)
[12] The cilia protein IFT88 is required for spindle orientation in mitosis
DOI: 10.1038/ncb2202
NATURE CHEMICAL BIOLOGY (http://www.nature.com/nchembio)
[13] Actions of a picomolar short-acting S1P1 agonist in S1P1-eGFP knock-in mice
DOI: 10.1038/nchembio.547
[14] Retromer terminates the generation of cAMP by internalized PTH-receptors
DOI: 10.1038/nchembio.545
NATURE CHEMISTRY (http://www.nature.com/nchem)
[15] A robust molecular platform for non-volatile memory devices with optical and magnetic responses
DOI: 10.1038/nchem.1013
NATURE GENETICS (http://www.nature.com/naturegenetics)
[16] Mutant nucleophosmin and cooperating pathways drive leukemia initiation and progression in mice
DOI: 10.1038/ng.796
[17] Glycerol-3-phosphate is a critical mobile inducer of systemic immunity in plants
DOI: 10.1038/ng.798
[18] Common variation in GPC5 is associated with acquired nephrotic syndrome
DOI: 10.1038/ng.792
NATURE GEOSCIENCE (http://www.nature.com/ngeo)
[19] Strong elemental fractionation of Zr–Hf and Nb–Ta across the Pacific Ocean
DOI: 10.1038/ngeo1114
[20] Earliest rock fabric formed in the Solar System preserved in a chondrule rim
DOI: 10.1038/ngeo1120
NATURE IMMUNOLOGY (http://www.nature.com/natureimmunology)
[21] Intracellular MHC class II molecules promote TLR-triggered innate immune responses by maintaining activation of the kinase Btk
DOI: 10.1038/ni.2015
[22] STIM1, PKC-delta and RasGRP set a threshold for proapoptotic Erk signaling during B cell development
DOI: 10.1038/ni.2016
Nature MEDICINE (http://www.nature.com/naturemedicine)
[23] Schizophrenia susceptibility pathway neuregulin 1–ErbB4 suppresses Src upregulation of NMDA receptors
DOI: 10.1038/nm.2318
[24] RGB marking facilitates multicolor clonal cell tracking
DOI: 10.1038/nm.2338
NATURE NANOTECHNOLOGY (http://www.nature.com/nnano)
[25] A stretchable carbon nanotube strain sensor for human-motion detection
DOI: 10.1038/nnano.2011.36
[26] Comparative advantages of mechanical biosensors
DOI: 10.1038/nnano.2011.44
Nature NEUROSCIENCE (http://www.nature.com/natureneuroscience)
[27] Sensory modality-specific homeostatic plasticity in the developing optic tectum
DOI: 10.1038/nn.2772
[28] Causal role of the prefrontal cortex in top-down modulation of visual processing and working memory
DOI: 10.1038/nn.2773
[29] Single neuron dynamics in human focal epilepsy
DOI: 10.1038/nn.2782
[30] Ab1-42 inhibition of LTP is prevented by manipulation of a signalling pathway involving caspase-3, Akt and GSK-3b
DOI: 10.1038/nn.2785
[31] Neuromuscular synaptic patterning requires the function of skeletal muscle dihydropyridine receptors
DOI: 10.1038/nn.2792
[32] Large-scale remapping of visual cortex is absent in adult humans with macular degeneration
DOI: 10.1038/nn.2793
[33] Deletion of a remote enhancer near ATOH7 disrupts retinal neurogenesis, causing NCRNA disease
DOI: 10.1038/nn.2798
Nature PHYSICS (http://www.nature.com/naturephysics)
[34] Direct observation of the full transition from ballistic to diffusive Brownian motion in a liquid
DOI: 10.1038/nphys1953
[35] A simple analytic theory for the statistics of avalanches in sheared granular materials
DOI: 10.1038/nphys1957
[36] General framework for estimating the ultimate precision limit in noisy quantum-enhanced metrology
DOI: 10.1038/nphys1958
Nature STRUCTURAL & MOLECULAR BIOLOGY (http://www.nature.com/natstructmolbiol)
[37] Structural organization of brain-derived mammalian prions probed by hydrogen exchange
DOI: 10.1038/nsmb.2035
[38] Long telomeres are preferentially extended during recombination-mediated telomere maintenance
DOI: 10.1038/nsmb.2034
[39] ABC ATPase signature helices in Rad50 link nucleotide state to Mre11 interface for DNA repair
DOI: 10.1038/nsmb.2038
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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
Perth: 20
BELGIUM
Brussels: 3
Leuven: 3
Tienen: 3
BRAZIL
Rio de Janeiro: 36
CANADA:
Toronto: 11, 23
CHINA
Beijing: 21
Hangzhou: 21
Shanghai: 21
FINLAND
Helsinki: 4
FRANCE
Paris: 10
GERMANY
Bad Nauheim: 4
Cologne: 4
Goettingen: 1
Hamburg: 24
Hannover: 22
Munich: 1
INDONESIA
Bengkulu: 19
IRAN
North Khorasan: 33
Tehran: 33
ISRAEL
Rehovot: 5
Tel Hashomer: 5
ITALY
Bologna: 5
Perugia: 11
JAPAN
Fukushima: 18
Iwate: 17
Kawaguchi: 25
Kyoto: 19
Osaka: 22
Tokyo: 18
Tsukuba: 25
Yokohama: 18, 22
NETHERLANDS
Amsterdam: 16
Groningen: 32
NEW ZEALAND
Otago: 20
NORWAY
Oslo: 22
SPAIN
Barcelona: 15
Bellaterra: 15
Santander: 39
SWEDEN
Gothenburg: 11
SWITZERLAND
Geneva: 1
Lausanne: 34
Zurich: 2
UNITED KINGDOM
Bath: 8
Bristol: 30
Cambridge: 16
Exeter: 8
Liverpool: 20
London: 7, 8, 20, 32
York: 32
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
California
Berkeley: 9, 39
La Habra: 35
La Jolla: 13, 39
Los Angeles: 35
Menlo Park: 6
Pasadena: 26
San Diego: 8, 29
San Francisco: 2, 7, 9, 22, 28, 30
Florida
Orlando: 10
Illinois
Urbana: 35
Indiana
Muncie: 1
Kentucky
Lexington: 17
Louisville: 31
Massachusetts
Boston: 14, 23, 29, 31
Cambridge: 11, 29
Worcester: 12
Michigan
Allendale: 33
Ann Arbor: 33
Grand Rapids: 10
Minnesota
Minneapolis: 11
Montana
Hamilton: 37
New York
New York: 10, 38
Stony Brook: 9
North Carolina
Chapel Hill: 11
Research Triangle: 39
Ohio
Cleveland: 37
Pennsylvania
Pittsburgh: 14
Rhode Island
Providence: 27, 29
Texas
Austin: 34
Dallas: 22, 31
El Paso: 6
Houston: 3
Washington
Prosser: 17
Seattle: 33
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: r.twinn(at)nature.com
Neda Afsarmanesh (Nature New York)
Tel: +1 212 726 9231; E-mail: n.afsarmanesh(at)us.nature.com
Ruth Francis (Head of Press, Nature, London)
Tel: +44 20 7843 4562; E-mail: r.francis(at)nature.com
For media inquiries relating to editorial content/policy for the Nature Research Journals, please contact the journals individually:
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Michael Francisco
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Sowmya Swaminathan
Tel: +44 20 7843 4656; E-mail: cellbio(at)nature.com
Nature Chemical Biology (Boston)
Carrie Meggs
Tel: +1 617 475 9241, E-mail: chembio(at)us.nature.com
Nature Chemistry (London)
Stuart Cantrill
Tel: +44 20 7014 4018; E-mail: s.cantrill(at)nature.com
Nature Climate Change (London)
Olive Heffernan
Tel: +44 20 7014 4009; E-mail: nclimate(at)nature.com
Nature Genetics (New York)
Myles Axton
Tel: +1 212 726 9324; E-mail: natgen(at)us.nature.com
Nature Geoscience (London)
Heike Langenberg
Tel: +44 20 7843 4042; E-mail: h.langenberg(at)nature.com
Nature Immunology (New York)
Laurie Dempsey
Tel: +1 212 726 9372; E-mail: immunology(at)us.nature.com
Nature Materials (London)
Vincent Dusastre
Tel: +44 20 7843 4531; E-mail: materials(at)nature.com
Nature Medicine (New York)
Juan Carlos Lopez
Tel: +1 212 726 9325; E-mail: medicine(at)us.nature.com
Nature Methods (New York)
Hugh Ash
Tel: +1 212 726 9627; E-mail: methods(at)us.nature.com
Nature Nanotechnology (London)
Peter Rodgers
Tel: +44 20 7014 4019; Email: p.rodgers(at)nature.com
Nature Neuroscience (New York)
Kalyani Narasimhan
Tel: +1 212 726 9319; E-mail: neurosci(at)us.nature.com
Nature Photonics (Tokyo)
Oliver Graydon
Tel: +81 3 3267 8776; E-mail: o.graydon(at)natureasia.com
Nature Physics (London)
Alison Wright
Tel: +44 20 7843 4555; E-mail: a.wright(at)nature.com
Nature Structural & Molecular Biology (New York)
Sabbi Lall
Tel: +1 212 726 9326; E-mail: nsmb(at)us.nature.com
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