This press release contains:
Summaries of newsworthy papers:
Nature: Learning and memory
Materials: Energy conversion with polymers
Nature: Quantum memory with a single atom
Medicine: A Rosi-colored view of food intake
And finally…Nature: Obesity-induced endoplasmic reticulum stress
•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 Naturen journals are listed at the end of this release.
Warning:This document, and the /Nature/ journal papers to which it
refers, may contain information that is price sensitive (as legally
defined, for example, in the UK Criminal Justice Act 1993 Part V) with
respect to publicly quoted companies. Anyone dealing in securities using
information contained in this document, or in advance copies of a
Nature journal’s content, may be guilty of insider trading under the
US Securities Exchange Act of 1934.
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obtain permission from the copyright holder (if named) or author of the
research paper in question (if not).
NOTE: Once a paper is published, the digital object identifier (DOI)
number can be used to retrieve the abstract and full text from the
journal web site (abstracts are available to everyone, full text is
available only to subscribers). To do this, add the DOI to the following
URL: http://dx.doi.org/
For more information about DOIs and Advance Online Publication, see
http://www.nature.com/ng/aop/.
HYPE:We take great care not to hype the papers mentioned on our press
releases, but are sometimes accused of doing so. If you ever consider
that a story has been hyped, please do not hesitate to contact us at
[email protected], citing the specific example.
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] Nature: Learning and memory
DOI: 10.1038/nature09946
Scientists have uncovered the role of new synapse formation in the
storage and retrieval of memories in mice. A study published online this
week in /Nature/ establishes a link between a learning-related increase
in the number of specific synapses and the precision and expression of a
specific memory.
The placement and purpose of new synapses in the context of learning is
poorly understood. Pico Caroni and colleagues explore the rearrangement
of circuits within the hippocampus and cerebellum in response to
learning in mice. They observe an increase of synaptic structures that
mediate activity flow within the functional microcircuit where the
learning occurs.
The increased synapse formation is reversible, but the extra synapses
can be re-established upon memory recall, thus restoring memory
precision. In the absence of the additional synapses learning still
occurs, but the memory is imprecise.
Author contact:
Pico Caroni (Friedrich Miescher Institute, Basel, Switzerland)
Tel: + 41 61 697 3727; E-mail: [email protected]
[2] Materials: Energy conversion with polymers
DOI: 10.1038/nmat3012
After slight chemical de-doping, a conducting polymer can efficiently
convert heat into electricity, reports a paper online this week in
Nature Materials. The thermoelectric efficiency of the material
approaches the values required for cooling and waste-heat-recovery
applications.
Thermoelectric elements generate electrical power when
their ends are held at different temperatures. The efficiency of this
process depends on the ability of the base material to maintain an
internal temperature gradient, determined by its thermal conductivity
and its electrical conductivity. In many materials, such as most
inorganic semiconductors, these properties cannot be changed independently.
Through careful chemical modification, Xavier Crispin and
colleagues were able to optimize the electrical conductivity of a
conducting polymer known as PEDOT without affecting its low thermal
conductivity. The thermoelectric efficiency of their material approaches
the values required for practical operation in cooling elements and
power generators.
Author contact:
Xavier Crispin (Linköping University, Sweden)
Tel: +46 11363485, E-mail: [email protected]
[3] Nature: Quantum memory with a single atom
DOI: 10.1038/nature09997
The reversible transfer of quantum information between photons and a
single atom held in an optical cavity is reported in a paper published
online in /Nature/ this week. This single-atom quantum memory has high
fidelity and efficiency, holding promise for applications in optical
quantum gates and quantum repeaters.
Efficient, high-fidelity storage and exchange of quantum information
between light and an optical quantum memory is essential for
long-distance quantum communication, quantum networking and distributed
quantum computing. Stephan Ritter and colleagues demonstrate the most
fundamental implementation of such a quantum memory, mapping arbitrary
polarization states of light into and out of single atoms localized in
space.
This single-particle approach is advantageous for realistic applications
because the state of the atom can be probed with lasers to determine if
the information transfer was successful. Moreover, the present system
achieves longer quantum bit (qubit) coherence times than all previous
demonstrations of optical quantum memories.
Author contact:
Stephan Ritter (Max-Planck-Institut für Quantenoptik, Garching, Germany)
Tel: +49 8932 905 728; E-mail: [email protected]
[4] & [5]Medicine: A Rosi-colored view of food intake
DOI: 10.1038/nm.2332
DOI: 10.1038/nm.2349
Rosiglitazone, a type 2 diabetes drug, increases food intake and
improves liver metabolism through its actions in the brain, according to
two reports published this week in Nature Medicine. These results
suggest that while some of the negative effects of rosiglitazone are due
to its action in the brain, so are some of its positive effects. These
are important insights if this class of drug is to be reformulated to
avoid the cardiovascular side-effects that recently resulted in
rosiglitazone’s restricted use in the clinic.
Randy Seeley and his colleagues show that in mice the drug rosiglitazone
activates a transcription factor, PPAR-gamma, in the brain to increase
food intake and fat mass.
In the second report, Jerrold Olefsky and his colleagues find that
genetically knocking out PPAR-gamma in mice results in reduced food
intake and fat mass, compared to normal mice when both are fed a
high-fat diet. Surprisingly, however, even though the knockout mice gain
less weight on a high fat diet, their insulin sensitivity in the liver
is worse than wild-type controls. Likewise, the authors also find that
the increase in body fat that is often seen in people taking
rosiglitazone is blunted in the knockout mice, but so are the
insulin-sensitizing effects of the drug.
Author contacts:
Randy Seeley (University of Cincinnati, OH, USA) Author paper [4]
Tel: +1 513 558 6664; E-mail: [email protected]
Jerrold Olefsky (University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA)
Author paper [5]
Tel: +1 858 534 6651; E-mail: [email protected]
[6] Nature: Obesity-induced endoplasmic reticulum stress
DOI: 10.1038/nature09968
Increased levels of fat cause intracellular stress in obese mice,
reports a paper published online this week in /Nature/. The findings may
have therapeutic implications for conditions such as obesity, insulin
resistance and type 2 diabetes.
Chronic endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress is associated with insulin
resistance and diabetes in obesity, but the causative mechanisms are
poorly understood. Gökhan Hotamisligil and colleagues observe that
changes in lipid metabolism in the liver of obese mice cause calcium
transport dysfunction in the ER. Changing the lipid composition or
increasing the amount of SERCA (the main calcium importer in the ER) can
relieve the stress and improve glucose homeostasis in live mice.
These results may provide a framework to understand the pathogenesis of
lipid metabolism in the liver and chronic ER stress in obesity.
Author contact:
Gökhan Hotamisligil (Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA)
Tel: +1 617 432 1950; E-mail: [email protected]
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] UBCH7 reactivity profile reveals parkin and HHARI to be RING/HECT
hybrids
DOI: 10.1038/nature09966
[8] Improved molecular replacement by density- and energy-guided protein
structure optimization
DOI: 10.1038/nature09964
[9] Sequential interactions with Sec23 control the direction of vesicle
traffic
DOI: 10.1038/nature09969
NATURE CELL BIOLOGY (http://www.nature.com/naturecellbiology)
[10] PKA-dependent regulation of the histone lysine demethylase complex
PHF2-ARID5B
DOI: 10.1038ncb2228
[11] WWP2 is an E3 ubiquitin ligase for PTEN
DOI: 10.1038ncb2240
NATURE CHEMICAL BIOLOGY (_http://www.nature.com/nchembio_)
[12] Molecular insights into the ligand-controlled organization of the
SAM-I riboswitch
DOI: 10.1038/nchembio.563
[13] Conformational capture of the SAM-II riboswitch
DOI: 10.1038/nchembio.562
NATURE CHEMISTRY (http://www.nature.com/nchem)
[14] Visible-light-enhanced catalytic oxidation reactions on plasmonic
silver nanostructures
DOI: 10.1038/nchem.1032
NATURE CLIMATE CHANGE (http://www.nature.com/nclimate)
[15] Methane emissions from permafrost thaw lakes limited by lake drainage
DOI: 10.1038/nclimate1101
NATURE GENETICS (http://www.nature.com/naturegenetics)
[16] Alteration of the serine protease PRSS56 causes angle-closure
glaucoma in mice and posterior microphthalamia in humans and mice
DOI: 10.1038/ng.813
[17] Genome-wide association study identifies susceptibility loci for
open angle glaucoma at TMCO1 and CDKN2B-AS1
DOI: 10.1038/ng.824
[18] Mutations in DNMT1 cause hereditary sensory neuropathy with
dementia and hearing loss
DOI: 10.1038/ng.830
[19] Sox2 cooperates with Chd7 to regulate genes that are mutated in
human syndromes
DOI: 10.1038/ng.825
[20] General properties of transcriptional time series in Escherichia coli
DOI: 10.1038/ng.821
NATURE IMMUNOLOGY (http://www.nature.com/natureimmunology)
[21] Transcription factor Foxp1 exerts essential cell-intrinsic
regulation of the quiescence of naive T cells
/DOI: 10.1038/ni.2034/
NATURE MATERIALS (http://www.nature.com/naturematerials)
[22] High-performance flat-panel solar thermoelectric generators with
high thermal concentration
DOI: 10.1038/nmat3013
Nature MEDICINE (http://www.nature.com/naturemedicine)
[23] A role for interleukin-2 trans-presentation in dendritic
cell–mediated T cell activation in humans, as revealed by daclizumab therapy
DOI: 10.1038/nm.2365
NATURE METHODS (http://www.nature.com/nmeth)
[24] Analysis of repetitive DNA in chromosomes by flow cytometry
DOI: 10.1038/nmeth.1601
[25] BrainAligner: 3D registration atlases of Drosophila brains
DOI: 10.1038/nmeth.1602
Nature NEUROSCIENCE (http://www.nature.com/natureneuroscience)
[26] Neuronal activity regulates the regional vulnerability to
amyloid-beta deposition
DOI: 10.1038/nn.2801
[27] NMDA receptor activity downregulates KCC2 resulting in depolarizing
GABA_A receptor-mediated currents
DOI: 10.1038/nn.2806
[28] NMDA-dependent metaplasticity at hippocampal mossy fiber synapses
DOI: 10.1038/nn.2809
[29] Neuronal activity drives matching of pre- and post-synaptic
function during synapse maturation
DOI: 10.1038/nn.2826
[30] Functional dependence of neuroligin on a novel, non-PDZ
intracellular domain
DOI: 10.1038/nn.2825
Nature PHYSICS (http://www.nature.com/naturephysics)
[31] Parahydrogen-enhanced zero-field nuclear magnetic resonance
DOI: 10.1038/nphys1986
[32] Twin-atom beams
DOI: 10.1038/nphys1992
Nature STRUCTURAL & MOLECULAR BIOLOGY
(http://www.nature.com/natstructmolbiol)
[33] Tuning protein autoinhibition by domain destabilization
DOI: 10.1038/nsmb.2039
[34] Structural adaptation of the plant protease Deg1 to repair
photosystem II during light exposure
DOI: 10.1038/nsmb.2055
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
Adelaide: 17
Brisbane: 17
Herston: 18
Hobart: 17
Melbourne: 17
Perth: 17
Sydney: 17
AUSTRIA
Graz: 8, 32
Innsbruck: 13
Vienna: 32, 34
CANADA:
Sherbrooke: 12
Vancouver: 24
FINLAND
Helsinki: 8
FRANCE
Bordeaux: 28
Paris: 32
Strasbourg: 12
GERMANY
Essen: 34
Garching: 3
Heidelberg: 32
Regensburg: 3
INDIA
Hyderabad: 11
ISRAEL
Beer-Sheva: 20
Rehovot: 8, 34
ITALY
Torino: 1
JAPAN
Hyogo: 18
Saitama: 10
Tokyo: 10
KOREA
Yangsan: 23
NETHERLANDS
Amsterdam: 15
Groningen: 24
Rotterdam: 19
NORWAY
Bergen: 19
RUSSIA
Yakutsk: 15
SWEDEN
Linkoping: 2, 16
Lund: 15
Norrkoping: 2
SWITZERLAND
Basel: 1
TUNISIA
Sfax: 16
UNITED ARAB EMIRATES
Abu Dhabi: 22
UNITED KINGDOM
Cambridge: 8
London: 17, 27, 29
Oxford: 19
St Andrews: 12
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
California
Berkeley: 31
Irvine: 18
La Jolla: 9
Los Angeles: 21
Menlo Park: 8
Sacramento: 6
San Diego: 4
San Francisco: 30
Colorado
Boulder: 31
Georgia
Augusta: 30
Illinois
Argonne: 8
Urbana: 20
Indiana
Indianapolis: 18
Maine
Bar Harbor: 16
Maryland
Bethesda: 23, 30
Frederick: 8
Massachusetts
Boston: 6, 10, 16, 27
Cambridge: 6, 22
Chestnut Hill: 22
Michigan
Ann Arbor: 14
Minnesota
Rochester: 11, 18
Missouri
St Louis: 26, 33
Montana
Missoula: 9
New Mexico
Los Alamos: 8
New York
Buffalo: 18
New York: 8, 13, 33
Stony Brook: 33
North Carolina
Chapel Hill: 19
Ohio
Cincinnati: 5
Oregon
Portland: 30
Pennsylvania
Philadelphia: 21
Texas
Houston: 11, 20
Virginia
Ashburn: 25
Washington
Seattle: 4, 7, 8
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 Climate Change (London)
Olive Heffernan
Tel: +44 20 7014 4009; 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 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]
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