This press release contains:
---Summaries of newsworthy papers:
Medicine: The good side of cholesterol
Climate Change: Motivating climate change deniers
Chemical Biology: May contain phenylalanine
Immunology: Membrane fusion has a STING
And finally…Nature: Grasping the circuits for hand dexterity in primates
---Geographical listing of authors
[1] Medicine: The good side of cholesterol
DOI: 10.1038/nm.2833
A cholesterol-enriched diet can ameliorate disease in a mouse model of Pelizaeus-Merzbacher disease (PMD), reports a study published this week in Nature Medicine. The findings suggest a potential dietary treatment for individuals with this neurological disease caused by the loss of the protective myelin sheath around neuronal axons.
PMD occurs due to the duplication of a gene called proteolipid protein gene 1, which leads to overexpression of the myelin protein PLP. This overexpressed protein becomes stuck inside the cells, unable to move to the membrane of oligodendrocyte brain cells where it is needed for the proper myelin ensheathment of axons.
Gesine Saher, Klaus Nave and colleagues added cholesterol to oligodendrocyte cells from mice with overexpressed PLP. They found that this led to an increase in PLP trafficking to the cell membrane. They authors also showed that feeding the mice a high-cholesterol diet increased the amount of myelin in their brains and prevented disease progression in the mice.
Author contact:
Gesine Saher (Max Planck Institute of Experimental Medicine, Göttingen, Germany)
Tel: +49 551 3899 751; E-mail: [email protected]
Klaus Nave (Max Planck Institute of Experimental Medicine, Göttingen, Germany)
Tel: +49 551 3899757; E-mail: [email protected]
---
[2] Climate Change: Motivating climate change deniers
DOI: 10.1038/nclimate1532
Framing climate change mitigation efforts in terms of their positive societal effects can encourage deniers to act pro-environmentally, reports research in Nature Climate Change this week. A growing proportion of the public in Western democracies deny anthropogenic climate change, and experts assume that climate deniers need to be ‘converted’ to get them acting in support of mitigation policy. This study questions such common assumption.
Paul Bain and colleagues conducted two studies, based on data collected in Australia in May–July 2011 and February 2012 respectively. In the first study they measured the relationships between beliefs about the social consequences of climate change action and pro-environmental intentions. They found that 155 climate deniers intended to act more pro-environmentally where they thought climate change action would create a society where people are more considerate and caring (Warmth frame), and where there is greater economic/technological development (Development frame). In the second study they examined whether framing climate change action in terms of increasing interpersonal warmth and societal development may be a more effective approach than focusing on the risks of climate change (Real frame) to motivate deniers’ action. In a nationally representative sample of 347 people, they found that using Warmth and Development frames bridged one-third of the gap in pro-environmental intentions between deniers presented with a Real frame and the average of believers.
Author contact:
Paul Bain (University of Queensland, St Lucia, Australia)
Tel: +61 7 3365 6257; E-mail: [email protected]
Paul Stern (National Academy of Sciences, Washington, DC, USA) N&V author
Tel: +1 202 334 3005; E-mail: [email protected]
---
[3] Chemical Biology: May contain phenylalanine
DOI:10.1038/nchembio.1002
Phenylketonuria (PKU), a metabolic disease marked by the accumulation of the amino acid phenylalanine, has hallmark features of amyloid disease including a buildup of toxic fibrils, reports a study published online this week in Nature Chemical Biology.
In PKU, accumulation of phenylalanine has been thought to be neurotoxic, but the mechanism of toxicity had not been determined. Because of this toxicity, patients with the disease must carefully control phenylalanine intake. In Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and other amyloid diseases marked by formation of protein fibril aggregates, aromatic amino acids such as phenylalanine are known to be important for acceleration of the amyloid assembly process. Specifically, two adjacent phenylalanine residues in the amyloid beta protein seem to mediate the intermolecular interaction between polypeptide chains required for fibril aggregate assembly seen in AD.
Ehud Gazit and colleagues now make a direct connection between the two diseases by demonstrating that phenylalanine alone can form toxic fibrils. Phenylalanine, at concentrations that exist in PKU, self-assembles into amyloid-like fibrils. A mouse model of PKU expressed antibodies against phenylalanine fibrils, presumably as a consequence of the disease, as they were not found in non-diseased mice. The brains of the diseased mice contained plaques, the hallmark of amyloid diseases. These results provide a greater molecular understanding of PKU and suggest that treatments aimed at the classical amyloid diseases might prove useful for PKU as well.
Author contact:
Ehud Gazit (Tel Aviv University, Israel)
Tel: +972 3 640 9030; E-mail: [email protected]
---
[4] Immunology: Membrane fusion has a STING
DOI:10.1038/ni.2350
Clues about how the immune system detects membrane fusion, the earliest event when a virus infects a cell, are reported in a mouse study published in Nature Immunology.
Søren Paludan and colleagues found that cells exposed to virus-like particles (VLPs) or artificially created liposomes lacking any genetic material or known stimulatory molecules could still elicit a robust immune response in mice in vitro and in vivo. Although unable to trigger any conventional pathogen recognition pathways, these agents are able to fuse with cell membranes. Recognition of membrane fusion seemed to be exclusively dependent on STING – an intracellular molecule more commonly associated with responding to pathogen-derived DNA material. Although membrane fusion could elicit an immune response on its own, it could also synergize with other immune-stimulatory signals and may therefore represent a generalized and important first step in pathogen recognition.
Author contact:
Dr Søren Paludan (Aarhus University, Denmark)
Tel: +45 87167 843; E-mail: [email protected]
---
[5] And finally…Nature: Grasping the circuits for hand dexterity in primates
DOI: 10.1038/nature11206
The critical role of a specific neuronal pathway involved in the control of dexterity is revealed in Nature this week. The researchers use a gene transfer technique to reversibly inactivate a targeted population of spinal nerve cells in monkeys, and demonstrate that inactivation of these cells temporarily impairs reach and grasp movements. The approach might represent a powerful tool for dissecting circuit function in primates.
Direct connections between the motor cortex, a region of the brain that controls movement, and neurons in the spine are thought to be the primary basis for dexterous hand movements in primates. Tadashi Isa and colleagues now also establish a role for a conserved, ‘older’ indirect pathway involving cells called propriospinal neurons in hand dexterity in higher primates. They infected macaque monkeys with two viral vectors to transfer genes that could selectively and reversibly deactivate the propriospinal neurons. This treatment disrupted reach and grasp, which suggests that the propriospinal neuron-pathway is required for the control of hand dexterity.
The authors note that their approach may be a useful tool for studying specific pathways and cell populations in primates where techniques for selectively manipulating the activity of certain cell populations and making transgenic animals are difficult, compared to other species such as rats and mice.
Author contact:
Tadashi Isa (National Institute for Physiological Sciences, Okazaki, Japan)
Tel: +81 564 55 7761; E-mail: [email protected]
---
Nature
[6] Rsx is a metatherian RNA with Xist-like properties in X-chromosome inactivation
DOI: 10.1038/nature11171
[7] Heterogeneous pathways and timing of factor departure during translation initiation
DOI: 10.1038/nature11172
NATURE CELL BIOLOGY
[8] USP4 is regulated by Akt phosphorylation and directly deubiquitinates TGF-beta type I receptor
DOI: 10.1038/ncb2522
NATURE CHEMICAL BIOLOGY
[9] Lys34 of translation elongation factor EF-P is hydroxylated by YfcM
DOI: 10.1038/nchembio.1001
NATURE CHEMISTRY
[10] Controlled homocatenation of boron on a transition metal
DOI: 10.1038/nchem.1379
NATURE CLIMATE CHANGE
[11] A potential loss of carbon associated with greater plant growth in the European Arctic
DOI: 10.1038/nclimate1575
[12] Bridging the greenhouse-gas emissions gap
DOI: 10.1038/nclimate1602
[13] Australia’s carbon price
DOI: 10.1038/nclimate1607
[14] Science and the governance of Australia’s climate regime
DOI: 10.1038/nclimate1608
NATURE GENETICS
[15] Genome-wide efficient mixed-model analysis for association studies
DOI: 10.1038/ng.2310
[16] An efficient multi-locus mixed-model approach for genome-wide association studies in structured populations
DOI: 10.1038/ng.2314
NATURE GEOSCIENCE
[17] Hydrologic cycling over Antarctica during the middle Miocene warming
DOI: 10.1038/ngeo1498
NATURE IMMUNOLOGY
[18] The Ets transcription factor Spi-B is essential for the differentiation of intestinal microfold cells
DOI:10.1038/ni.2352
NATURE MATERIALS
[19] Spin-current-driven thermoelectric coating
DOI: 10.1038/nmat3360
Nature MEDICINE
[20] Hepatitis B virus–induced lipid alterations contribute to natural killer T cell–dependent protective immunity
DOI: 10.1038/nm.2811
NATURE METHODS
[21] A protease for ‘middle-down’ proteomics
DOI: 10.1038/nmeth.2074
[22] ViBE-Z: a framework for 3D virtual colocalization analysis in zebrafish larval brains
DOI: 10.1038/nmeth.2076
NATURE NANOTECHNOLOGY
[23] Magnetoferritin nanoparticles for targeting and visualizing tumour tissues
DOI: 10.1038/nnano.2012.90
[24] Dispersion forces between ultracold atoms and a carbon nanotube
DOI: 10.1038/nnano.2012.93
[25] Valley polarization in MoS2 monolayers by optical pumping
DOI: 10.1038/nnano.2012.95
[26] Control of valley polarization in monolayer MoS2 by optical helicity
DOI: 10.1038/nnano.2012.96
Nature NEUROSCIENCE
[27] Distinct molecular pathways mediate glial activation and engulfment of axonal debris after axotomy
DOI: 10.1038/nn.3135
[28] Pattern and not magnitude of neural activity determines dendritic spine stability in awake mice
DOI: 10.1038/nn.3134
[29] Segmentation of spatial experience by hippocampal theta sequences
DOI: 10.1038/nn.3138
[30] Drosha regulates neurogenesis by controlling Neurogenin 2 expression independent of microRNAs
DOI: 10.1038/nn.3139
[31] A mechanism for value-guided choice based on the excitation-inhibition balance in prefrontal cortex
DOI: 10.1038/nn.3140
Nature PHYSICS
[32] Density functional theory for atomic Fermi gases
DOI: 10.1038/nphys2348
Nature STRUCTURAL & MOLECULAR BIOLOGY
[33] Structure of Mre11–Nbs1 complex yields insights into ataxia-telangiectasia–like disease mutations and DNA damage signaling
DOI: 10.1038/nsmb.2323
[34] Large-scale mapping of branchpoints in human pre-mRNA transcripts in vivo
DOI: 10.1038/nsmb.2327
[35] Structural basis of evasion of cellular adaptive immunity by HIV-1 Nef
DOI: 10.1038/nsmb.2328
[36] Structural basis for heteromeric assembly and perinuclear organization of keratin filaments
DOI: 10.1038/nsmb.2330
***************************************************************************************************************
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
Melbourne: 6, 14
Parkville: 30
St Lucia: 2
AUSTRIA
Vienna: 16
CANADA:
Waterloo: 29
CHINA
Beijing: 23, 32
Chongqing: 8
Fujian: 8
Hong Kong: 25
Shenzhen: 25
DENMARK
Aarhus: 4
ESTONIA
Tartu: 9
FRANCE
Orleans: 16
GERMANY
Cologne: 12
Freiburg: 22, 30
Goettingen: 1
Kiel: 20
Munich: 9, 33
Tubingen: 24
Wurzburg: 10
ISRAEL
Tel Aviv: 3
ITALY
Trieste: 32
JAPAN
Chiba: 18
Fukushima: 5
Kanagawa: 5, 7, 18
Kyoto: 5
Okazaki: 5
Osaka: 18
Sendai: 19
Tokai: 19
Tokyo: 5, 19
Tsukuba: 19
NETHERLANDS
Leiden: 8
Utrecht: 12
NEW ZEALAND
Lincoln: 6
SOUTH KOREA
Daegu: 36
SWEDEN
Umea: 5
SWITZERLAND
Basel: 30
Zurich: 3, 32
UNITED KINGDOM
Aberdeen: 11
Cambridge: 20, 33
Edinburgh: 9, 11
Exeter: 11
Glasgow: 4, 11
London: 6, 31
Oxford: 31
Sheffield: 11, 30
Stirling: 11
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
California
Davis: 18
La Jolla: 35
Los Angeles: 16, 17, 28
Menlo Park: 7
Palo Alto: 7
Pasadena: 17
San Diego: 35
San Francisco: 20
Stanford: 7
Connecticut
New Haven: 4, 35
Georgia
Atlanta: 18
Illinois
Chicago: 15
Evanston: 21
Urbana: 21
Louisiana
Baton Rouge: 17
Maryland
Baltimore: 36
Bethesda: 6, 20
Massachusetts
Boston: 20
Cambridge: 8
Worcester: 4, 27
Minnesota
Minneapolis: 29
New York
Bronx: 4
Brooklyn: 20
New York: 26, 30
Ohio
Cleveland: 26
Pennsylvania
Pittsburgh: 29
Rhode Island
Providence: 34
Tennessee
Oak Ridge: 25
Texas
San Antonio: 6
---
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]
Eiji Matsuda (Nature Tokyo)
Tel: +81 3 3267 8751; 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)
Rory Howlett
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)
Ray Parker
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)
Michelle Montoya
Tel: +1 212 726 9331; E-mail: [email protected]
---
About Nature Publishing Group (NPG):
Nature Publishing Group (NPG) is a publisher of high impact scientific and medical information in print and online. NPG publishes journals, online databases and services across the life, physical, chemical and applied sciences and clinical medicine.
Focusing on the needs of scientists, Nature (founded in 1869) is the leading weekly, international scientific journal. In addition, for this audience, NPG publishes a range of Nature research journals and Nature Reviews journals, plus a range of prestigious academic journals including society-owned publications. Online, nature.com provides over 5 million visitors per month with access to NPG publications and online databases and services, including Nature News and NatureJobs plus access to Nature Network and Nature Education’s Scitable.com.
Scientific American is at the heart of NPG’s newly-formed consumer media division, meeting the needs of the general public. Founded in 1845, Scientific American is the oldest continuously published magazine in the US and the leading authoritative publication for science in the general media. Together with scientificamerican.com and 15 local language editions around the world it reaches over 3 million consumers and scientists. Other titles include Scientific American Mind and Spektrum der Wissenschaft in Germany.
Throughout all its businesses NPG is dedicated to serving the scientific and medical communities and the wider scientifically interested general public. Part of Macmillan Publishers Limited, NPG is a global company with principal offices in London, New York and Tokyo, and offices in cities worldwide including Boston, Buenos Aires, Delhi, Hong Kong, Madrid, Barcelona, Munich, Heidelberg, Basingstoke, Melbourne, Paris, San Francisco, Seoul and Washington DC. For more information, please go to www.nature.com.
---
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.
