This press release contains:
--Summaries of newsworthy papers:
Medicine: Imaging tumours at the operating table
Climate Change: Optimizing biodiversity conservation under climate change
Genetics: Variants associated with schizophrenia
Genetics: Variant associated with bipolar disorder
Physics: Laser-driven gamma-rays
Geoscience: Early recovery of sponges after the end-Permian mass extinction
And finally…Structural & Molecular Biology: Crowd-sourcing protein structure using an online game
--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: Imaging tumours at the operating table
DOI: 10.1038/nm.2472
By labeling a receptor highly expressed by cancer cells with a fluorescent marker, ovarian tumors can be directly visualized during surgery. These results, published online this week in Nature Medicine, could allow physicians to track the spread of cancer cells with remarkable detail.
During cancer surgery, it is not always easy for doctors to determine the borders of the tumour, a limitation that can often result in relapse from the regrowth of cancer cells that were not removed during the operation. As ovarian cancer cells highly express the folate receptor, Gooitzen van Dam and his colleagues coupled folate to a fluorescent label and administered it to a small group of women during ovarian-cancer surgery trying to visualize the tumours in real time during the operation.
The team found that the compound was safe to patients and enabled surgeons to visualize the cancer cells, and precisely determine tumour stage and extent of spread/dispersion. Future studies with larger patient cohorts will help determine in greater detail the diagnostic value of this approach in terms of its accuracy and sensitivity.
Author contact:
Gooitzen van Dam (University of Groningen, Netherlands)
Tel: +31 50 361 2283; E-mail: [email protected]
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[2] Climate Change: Optimizing biodiversity conservation under climate change
DOI: 10.1038/nclimate1227
The most effective conservation measures for minimizing extinction risk under climate change for one of the world’s most threatened ecosystems are investigated in a paper published online this week in Nature Climate Change.
Brendan Wintle and co-workers combined ecological predictions with an economic decision framework to prioritize conservation activities between fire-risk management and habitat loss minimization in the endangered South African fynbos. This analysis revealed a counterintuitive optimal investment strategy that switched twice between different options as the available budget increased. They argue that these findings show that the choice of how much to invest is as important as determining where to invest and what actions to take.
It is well established that climate change poses significant risks to biodiversity, yet little information exists to help conservation planners account for these risks within realistic budgets. Prioritization methods such as the one reported in this study can be applied at any scale to minimize species loss and evaluate the robustness of decisions.
Author contacts:
Brendan Wintle (University of Melbourne, Australia)
Tel: +61 3 8344 3306; E-mail: [email protected]
Joshua Lawler (University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA) N&V author
Tel: +1 206 685 4367; E-mail: [email protected]
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[3] Genetics: Variants associated with schizophrenia
DOI: 10.1038/ng.940
Genetic variants associated with schizophrenia are reported this week in Nature Genetics. The findings suggest that one genetic influence in the development of schizophrenia is the dysregulation of neuronal development.
Pablo Gejman and colleagues from The Schizophrenia Psychiatric Genome-Wide Association Study (GWAS) Consortium report meta-analyses of seventeen population-based genome-wide association studies, including 21,856 individuals, for schizophrenia. They replicate their findings in an additional 29,839 individuals. They identify five genomic loci newly associated with schizophrenia.
Author contact:
Pablo Gejman (Northshore University Health System & University of Chicago, IL, USA)
Tel: +1 847 716 0085; E-mail: [email protected]
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[4] Genetics: Variant associated with bipolar disorder
DOI: 10.1038/ng.943
A genetic variant associated with bipolar disorder is reported this week in Nature Genetics. Bipolar disorder is a severe psychiatric disorder affecting more than 1% of the population.
Pamela Sklar and colleagues from The Psychiatric GWAS Consortium Bipolar Disorder Working Group report an association study of bipolar disorder from 16,731 individuals and a replication sample of 46,918 individuals. They identify a genetic variant in the ODZ4 gene that is associated with bipolar disorder. The authors suggest a pathway comprised of subunits of calcium channels as influencing risk of bipolar disorder.
Author contact:
Pamela Sklar (Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York, NY, USA)
Tel: +1 212 659 1726; E-mail: [email protected]
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[5] Physics: Laser-driven gamma-rays
DOI: 10.1038/nphys2090
A way to produce bursts of gamma-rays on demand that are brighter than the rays produced by radioisotopes, in a device that is smaller and cheaper than conventional sources is reported in Nature Physics this week. The device could improve the use of gamma-ray radiographic screening of shipping containers and enable the greater use of gamma-rays for studying nuclear reactions.
Gamma-rays are a type of electromagnetic radiation that are shorter in wavelength and more deeply penetrating than the X-rays used in medical imaging. Common uses of gamma-rays include cancer therapy, extending food lifetime by killing bacteria, and screening cargo for nuclear materials, arms and explosives. These applications currently rely on gamma-rays emitted from the nuclear decay of radioisotopes such as cobalt-60 and caesium-137.
The device now demonstrated by Dino Jaroszynski and colleagues uses an intense laser to drive a beam of electrons through a plasma and simultaneously excite resonant oscillations of the electrons to produce an intense beam of gamma-rays — much more intense than the radiation produced by radioisotopes. The source is also smaller and cheaper than conventional accelerator-based radiation sources, which could enable the wider use of gamma-rays in scientific research.
Author contact:
Dino Jaroszynski (University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, UK)
Tel: +44 141 548 3057; E-mail: [email protected]
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[6] Geoscience: Early recovery of sponges after the end-Permian mass extinction
DOI: 10.1038/ngeo1264
Reefs composed of sponges and microbial mats appeared 1.5 million years after the end-Permian mass extinction, reports a paper published online in Nature Geoscience. Previously, it was thought that reefs constructed by animals were absent for the first 5 million years after the extinction event.
Arnaud Brayard and colleagues report fossils from Utah and Nevada that they interpret as reefs built by sponges and microbial communities. Various molluscs, ammonoids and urchin spines were also found in the reef deposits. They report that the deposits were formed only 1.5 million years after the extinction, and contain a record of abundant animal life on the sea floor during a period previously thought to be largely devoid of bottom-dwelling animals.
Author contact:
Arnaud Brayard (Université de Bourgogne, Dijon, France)
Tel: +33 3 80 39 36 95 ; E-mail: [email protected]
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[7] And finally…Structural & Molecular Biology: Crowd-sourcing protein structure using an online game
DOI: 10.1038/nsmb.2119
Online players used the protein folding game Foldit to produce the first accurate model of the crystal structure of M-PMV retroviral protease. The findings, reported this week in Nature Structural & Molecular Biology, further shows how human three-dimensional problem-solving skills can be an asset in solving real world biological problems, and specifically provides insights for the design of anti-retroviral drugs.
The Critical Assessment of Techniques for Protein Structure Prediction (CASP) allows players to predict the native structure of proteins where the amino acid sequences are close to being experimentally determined using the competitive multiplayer online game Foldit. Players are not usually biologists and instead rely on spatial reasoning to predict three-dimensional protein structures.
In a recent challenge, one Foldit group successfully used real data to predict how the protein M-PMV PR looks. David Baker and colleagues report that the predictions by the Foldit group were accurate enough that researchers were able to use the game prediction to determine the real structure of M-PMV PR.
Author contact:
David Baker (University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA)
Tel +1 206 543 1295; E-mail: [email protected]
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Nature (http://www.nature.com/nature)
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[8] A reserve stem cell population in small intestine renders Lgr5-positive cells dispensable
DOI: 10.1038/nature10408
[9] Crystal structure of nucleotide-free Dynamin
DOI: 10.1038/nature10369
[10] Mechanical strain in actin networks regulates FilGAP and integrin binding to filamin A
DOI: 10.1038/nature10430
[11] The crystal structure of dynamin
DOI: 10.1038/nature10441
[12] ATP-induced helicase slippage reveals highly coordinated subunits
DOI: 10.1038/nature10409
NATURE BIOTECHNOLOGY (http://www.nature.com/naturebiotechnology)
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[13] Efficient de novo assembly of single-cell bacterial genomes from short-read data sets
DOI: 10.1038/nbt.1966
NATURE CELL BIOLOGY (http://www.nature.com/naturecellbiology)
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[14] Apicobasal domain identities of expanding tubular membranes depend on glycosphingolipid biosynthesis
DOI: 10.1038/ncb2328
[15] Bcl-xL regulates metabolic efficiency of neurons through interaction with the mitochondrial F1FO ATP synthase
DOI: 10.1038/ncb2330
[16] APC15 drives the turnover of MCC-CDC20 to make the spindle assembly checkpoint responsive to kinetochore attachment
DOI: 10.1038/ncb2347
NATURE CHEMICAL BIOLOGY (http://www.nature.com/nchembio)
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[17] Metabolomics annotates ABHD3 as a physiologic regulator of medium-chain phospholipids
DOI: 10.1038/nchembio.659
[18] Ligand discovery from a dopamine D3 receptor homology model and crystal structure
DOI: 10.1038/nchembio.662
[19] RF1 knockout allows ribosomal incorporation of unnatural amino acids at multiple sites
DOI: 10.1038/nchembio.657
[20] A natural prodrug activation mechanism in non-ribosomal peptide synthesis
DOI: 10.1038/nchembio.688
NATURE CHEMISTRY (http://www.nature.com/nchem)
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[21] Chiral information harvesting in dendritic metallopeptides
DOI: 10.1038/nchem.1146
[22] Molecular heterometallic hydride clusters composed of rare-earth and d-transition metals
DOI: 10.1038/nchem.1147
[23] Catalytic activity in individual cracking catalyst particles imaged throughout different life stages by selective staining
DOI: 10.1038/nchem.1148
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PICTURES: To obtain artwork from any of the journals, you must first 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 example, http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/ng730). 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.
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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
Brisbane: 3, 4
Melbourne: 2, 3, 24
Mt Claremont: 3
New South Wales: 2, 3, 22
Perth: 3
Queensland: 2, 3
Sydney: 2, 3, 4
Victoria: 2
Wacol: 3
BELGIUM
Kortenberg: 3
BERMUDA
St. George’s: 27
BULGARIA
Sofia: 3
CANADA:
Montreal: 15
Toronto: 4, 29
Vancouver: 4
CHINA
Beijing: 35
Dalian: 22
Wuhan: 29
CZECH REPUBLIC
Poznan: 7
DENMARK
Aalborg: 3
Aarhus: 3
Ballerup: 3
Copenhagen: 3
Glostrup: 3
Risskov: 3
Roskilde: 3
Skejby: 3
FINLAND
Helsinki: 2, 3
FRANCE
Creteil: 4
Dijon: 6
Evry: 4
Grenoble: 22
Lyon: 6
Marcoussis: 44
Orsay: 44
Paris: 3, 37
Toulouse: 47
Villeurbanne: 6
GERMANY
Berlin: 9
Bochum: 46
Bonn: 3, 4
Dresden: 4
Goettingen: 3, 4
Haar: 3
Juelich: 3, 4
Mannheim: 3, 4
Marburg: 45
Munich: 1, 3, 4
Muncheberg: 2
Potsdam: 2
Stuttgart: 31
Tuebingen: 4
Wiesloch: 4
Wurzburg: 4
GREECE
Athens: 3
HUNGARY
Budapest: 3
ICELAND
Reykjavik: 3, 4
IRELAND
Belfast: 3
Dublin: 3, 4
ISRAEL
Jerusalem: 3
Rehovot: 46
ITALY
Catanzaro: 41
Chieti: 15
Genova: 41
Milano: 43
Padova: 43
Rome: 2
Verona: 3, 4
JAPAN
Nagoya: 21
Saitama: 22
Tokyo: 47
NETHERLANDS
Amsterdam: 3, 23, 38
Groningen: 1, 3
Maastricht: 3
Utrecht: 3, 23
NORWAY
Kristiansand: 3, 4
Oslo: 3, 4
Trondheim: 4
POLAND
Poznan: 7
PORTUGAL
Lisbon: 5
Vairao: 2
RUSSIA
Moscow: 3
SAUDI ARABIA
Thuwal: 29
SOUTH AFRICA
Johannesburg: 2
SWEDEN
Gothenburg: 4
Stockholm: 3, 4
SWITZERLAND
Duebendorf: 31
Lausanne: 2
Zurich: 6
UNITED KINGDOM
Aberdeen: 3, 4
Birmingham: 4
Cardiff: 3, 4, 32
Cambridge: 3, 16
Didcot: 5
Dundee: 4
Edinburgh: 3, 4
Essex: 13
Glasgow: 3, 5
London: 3, 4, 37
Newcastle: 4, 37
Oxford: 3
Reading: 3
Southampton: 15
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
Alabama
Huntsville: 4
Arizona
Phoenix: 4
California
Davis: 4, 11
Irvine: 4
La Jolla: 3, 4, 17, 19, 40
Los Angeles: 3, 22
Palo Alto: 4
San Diego: 4, 13, 19
San Francisco: 3, 4, 8, 18
Stanford: 3
Colorado
Aurora: 3
Boulder: 3, 24, 45
Connecticut
New Haven: 15
District of Columbia
Washington: 3, 4
Florida
Port St. Lucie: 46
Georgia
Atlanta: 3
Hawaii
Honolulu: 27, 34
Illinois
Evanston: 3
Chicago: 3, 4, 33
Indiana
Bloomington: 39
Indianapolis: 4
West Lafayette: 1
Iowa
Iowa City: 3, 4
Louisiana
New Orleans: 3
Maryland
Baltimore: 3, 4, 15
Bethesda: 3, 4, 32, 34
College Park: 42
Rockville: 13
Massachusetts
Boston: 3, 4, 10, 11, 14, 26, 28
Cambridge: 3, 4, 10, 26, 28
Woods Hole: 15
Michigan
Ann Arbor: 4, 34, 42
Missouri
St Louis: 3, 4
New Jersey
Piscataway: 12, 30
Princeton: 27
New York
Albany: 15
Bronx: 14
Glen Oaks: 3
Ithaca: 12, 25
Manhasset: 3
New York: 3, 4, 12
Stony Brook: 30
North Carolina
Chapel Hill: 3, 4, 18
Oregon
Portland: 4, 36
Pennsylvania
Philadelphia: 4, 32
Pittsburgh: 4
University Park: 29
Rhode Island
Providence: 35
Texas
Pasadena: 23
San Antonio: 46
Utah
Orem: 6
Spanish fork: 6
West Jordan: 6
Virginia
Richmond: 3
Washington
Seattle: 7, 40
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)
Elissa Bolt
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]