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This press release is copyright Nature. VOL.441 NO.7089 DATED 04 MAY 2006
This press release contains:
· Summaries of newsworthy papers:
- Brain: Parkinson’s gene cripples mitochondria
- Materials science: Plastics can be real metals
- Fishy family ancestor shows skull secrets
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[2] & [3] Brain: Parkinson’s gene cripples mitochondria (AOP)
DOI: 10.1038/nature04779
DOI: 10.1038/nature04788
***These papers will be published electronically on Nature's website on 3 May at 1800 London time / 1300 US Eastern time (which is also when the embargo lifts) as part of our AOP (ahead of print) programme. Although we have included them on this release to avoid multiple mailings they will not appear in print on 4 May, but at a later date.***
Two teams of scientists, publishing online in this week’s Nature, have revealed that a mutant protein implicated in inherited Parkinson’s disease disables the cell’s mitochondria, a finding that underscores the importance of the energy-generating organelles in the neurodegenerative disorder.
Previously, scientists had shown that a familial form of Parkinson’s that strikes early in life is caused by mutations in the PTEN-induced putative kinase 1 (PINK1) gene. Now, teams led by Jongkyeong Chung and Ming Guo have explored what this gene does by studying the equivalent gene in the fruitfly, Drosophila.
The teams show that flies without a functional PINK1 gene suffer defects in mitochondria that appear to trigger muscle problems and, according to Chung’s team, degeneration of dopaminergic neurons. The researchers also show that the PINK1 protein acts upstream of Parkin, another molecule underlying sporadic forms of Parkinson’s, and that the two proteins most likely act in a common pathway involved in maintaining mitochondrial function. The mutant flies could now be used to find other genes in this pathway via genetic screens.
CONTACT
Ming Guo (UCLA, Los Angeles, CA, USA)
Tel: +1 310 206 9406; E-mail: [email protected]
Jongkyeong Chung (Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, Taejon, Republic of Korea)
Tel: +82 42 869 2620; E-mail: [email protected]
[9] Materials science: Plastics can be real metals (pp 65-68; N&V)
Although some plastics may conduct electricity as well as a metal, calling them 'metallic' is not strictly correct, even though some conducting plastics even look like metals. Metals are distinguished from other electrically conducting materials, such as semiconductors, by the fact that they get more conducting as they get colder.
Many plastics are electrically conducting, have often been loosely called 'metallic', and are currently being explored for applications ranging from anti-static coatings to plastic electronics, using circuits that are cheap, tough and flexible.
Now Kwanghee Lee and colleagues in this week's Nature report the first conducting plastic — a substance called polyaniline — that shows the classic signature of a true metal. Conducting polyaniline has been known for decades, but Lee and colleagues have used a new procedure for synthesizing it, which involves making the long-chain polymer molecules within oily droplets suspended in water, rather like salad dressing. The researchers found that polyaniline films prepared this way and made conducting by adding a little acid not only have very good electrical conductivity but also get even more conductive when cooled from room temperature down to within five degrees of absolute zero. This genuine 'plastic metal' could extend the range of applications of conducting polymers.
CONTACT
Kwanghee Lee (Pusan National University, Busan, Republic of Korea)
Tel: +82 51 510 2183; E-mail: [email protected]
Richard Friend (University of Cambridge, UK)
Tel: +44 1223 337218; E-mail: [email protected]
[10] And finally… Fishy family ancestor shows skull secrets (pp 77-80)
A newly discovered fish species that lived more than 400 million years ago may represent a bridge between two vertebrate lineages that ultimately went on to dominate the modern world. The creature — found in Yunnan, China — combines features shown by ray-finned bony fishes, which include the majority of modern fish species, and by lobe-finned bony fishes, the group that spawned the ancestors of today’s land vertebrates.
The ancient fish, represented by chunks from four separate skulls, has a skull roof much like that of actinopterygians, the group that includes most modern fish. But the fine features of its anatomy may also shed light on the evolutionary origin of cosmine — a hard surface-tissue found in many fossil sarcopterygians, the fish that later gave rise to land vertebrates.
Cosmine is characterized by a network of pores and canals in the tissue, overlaid by a single enamel-based layer, explain Min Zhu and colleagues, who unveil the unusual fish in this week’s Nature. The 405-million-year-old fossil possessed several such layers over the pore–canal network, suggesting that the cosmine arose after all but one of these layers disappeared.
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Dr Min Zhu (Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Beijing, China)
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