NATURE AND THE NATURE RESEARCH JOURNALS PRESS RELEASE
For papers that will be published online on 06 August 2006
This press release is copyrighted to the Nature journals mentioned below.
This press release contains:
* Summaries of newsworthy papers:
Genetics: Memory of stress spans the generations - Nature
Feeding immunity - Nature Immunology
* 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.
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.
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/>.
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.
*************************NATURE************************************
(<http://www.nature.com/nature>)
[1] Genetics: Memory of stress spans the generations
DOI: 10.1038/nature05022
A paper published online this week by Nature shows that plants pass down 'memories' of stressful events from parent to progeny, which might help them adapt to difficult conditions.
Heat, pathogens or other stresses may trigger an increase in the frequency of genetic mutations and rearrangements, but it was largely unknown whether the increased rate was inherited by subsequent generations.
Barbara Hohn and her colleagues show that one such response is passed on. They found that exposing the thale cress plant - Arabidopsis thaliana - to ultraviolet radiation or a bacterial protein boosts the process of homologous recombination (in which two similar DNA segments are exchanged) and that this characteristic persists in at least four subsequent generations, regardless of whether the offspring are subjected to the stress.
The authors propose that the elevated frequency of recombination is not caused by an actual change in DNA sequence, and so the trait is inherited 'epigenetically' by some unknown mechanism.
Author contact:
Barbara Hohn (Friedrich Miescher-Institut for Biomedical Research, Basel, Switzerland)
Tel: +41 61 697 6682; E-mail: [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>
******************************NATURE IMMUNOLOGY ************************
(<http://www.nature.com/natureimmunology>)
[2] Feeding immunity
DOI: 10.1038/ni1373
A link between zinc and a critical aspect of normal immune cell function is identified by a study to be published in the September issue of Nature Immunology.
Invading pathogens can trigger sensors on immune cells, leading to the expression of proteins important for host defense. Toshio Hirano and colleagues demonstrate that pathogen detection induces changes in the expression of proteins responsible for importing and exporting zinc in immune cells, causing a net depletion of zinc inside cells. Pathogen-triggered zinc depletion inside cells is essential for the upregulation of expression of host defense proteins; immune cells artificially flooded with zinc show blunted pathogen responsiveness. These results suggest that immune cell function hinges on a delicate balance of zinc influx and efflux, and emphasize one specific link between nutrition and immunity.
Author contact:
Toshio Hirano (Osaka University, Japan)
Tel: +81 6 6879 3880; E-mail: [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>
Other papers from Nature Immunology to be published online at the same time and with the same embargo:
[3] Spatiotemporal regulation of the kinase Mst1 by binding protein RAPL is critical for lymphocyte polarity and adhesion
DOI: 10.1038/ni1374
[4] Inhibition of transcription factor NF-kappaB in the central nervous system ameliorates autoimmune encephalomyelitis in mice
DOI: 10.1038/ni1372
***************************************************************************************************************
Items from other Nature journals to be published online at the same time and with the same embargo:
NATURE CHEMICAL BIOLOGY (http://www.nature.com/nchembio <http://www.nature.com/natureneuroscience>)
[5] Allosteric inhibition of kinesin-5 modulates its processive directional motility
DOI: 10.1038/nchembio812
NATURE MATERIALS (<http://www.nature.com/naturematerials>)
[6] Amphiphilic organosilane-directed synthesis of crystalline zeolite with tunable mesoporosity
DOI: 10.1038/nmat1705
[7] Nano-alpha-Al2O3 by liquid-feed flame spray pyrolysis
DOI: 10.1038/nmat1711
Nature MEDICINE (<http://www.nature.com/naturemedicine>)
[8] Apoptosis of vascular smooth muscle cells induces features of plaque vulnerability in atherosclerosis
DOI: 10.1038/nm1459
[9] Exogenous control of mammalian gene expression via modulation of translational termination
DOI: 10.1038/nm1376
[10] Decidual NK cells regulate key developmental processes at the human fetal-maternal interface
DOI: 10.1038/nm1452
NATURE GENETICS (<http://www.nature.com/naturegenetics>)
[11] Population genomic analysis of outcrossing and recombination in yeast
DOI: 10.1038/ng1859
[12] JAK signaling globally counteracts heterochromatic gene silencing
DOI: 10.1038/ng1860
Nature NEUROSCIENCE (<http://www.nature.com/natureneuroscience>)
[13] The Rho-GTPase cdc42 regulates neural progenitor fate at the apical surface
DOI: 10.1038/nn1744
[14] Spine growth precedes synapse formation in the adult neocortex in vivo
DOI: 10.1038/nn1747
[15] High-resolution imaging reveals highly selective nonface clusters in the fusiform face area
DOI: 10.1038/nn1745
NATURE CELL BIOLOGY (<http://www.nature.com/naturecellbiology>)
[16] Smc5-Smc6 mediate DNA double-strand-break repair by promoting sister-chromatid recombination
DOI: 10.1038/ncb1466
[17] Cool-1 functions as an essential regulatory node for EGF receptor- and Src-mediated cell growth
DOI: 10.1038/ncb1453
[18] Interactions between E2F1 and SirT1 regulate apoptotic response to DNA damage
DOI: 10.1038/ncb1468
[19] Examining how the spatial organization of chromatin signals influences metaphase spindle assembly
DOI: 10.1038/ncb1455
[20] Regulation of the Raf-MEK-ERK pathway by protein phosphatase 5
DOI: 10.1038/ncb1465
Nature STRUCTURAL & MOLECULAR BIOLOGY (<http://www.nature.com/natstructmolbiol>)
[21] Mechanism of receptor-catalyzed activation of heterotrimeric G proteins
DOI: 10.1038/nsmb1129
[22] Extensive functional overlap between sigma factors in Escherichia coli
DOI: 10.1038/nsmb1130
[23] Molecular recognition of H3K4 trimethylation by ASH2L, a shared subunit of MLL complexes
DOI: 10.1038/nsmb1131
***************************************************************************************************************
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.
AUSTRIA
Vienna: 4
DENMARK
Copenhagen: 13
FRANCE
Strasbourg: 1
GERMANY
Cologne: 4
Dresden: 13
Gottingen: 4, 5
Munich: 13
ISRAEL
Beer Sheva: 10
Jerusalem: 10
ITALY
Monterotondo: 4
JAPAN
Kanagawa: 2
Kusatsu: 3
Osaka: 2, 3
Saitama: 13
KOREA
Daejeon: 6
NETHERLANDS
Amsterdam: 5
SPAIN
Lleida: 16
Seville: 16
SWITZERLAND
Basel: 1
Lausanne: 14
UNITED KINGDOM
Birmingham: 22
Cambridge: 8
Glasgow: 20
London: 16
Norwich: 1
Oxford: 22
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
California
Los Angeles: 21
Stanford: 15
Florida
Tampa: 18
Maryland
Bethesda: 16, 18
Massachusetts
Boston: 4, 9, 22
Charlestown: 23
Waltham: 16
Michigan
Ann Arbor: 7
Missouri
St Louis: 23
New Jersey
Princeton: 11
New York
Cold Spring Harbor: 14
Ithaca: 17
New York: 5, 16, 18, 19, 22
Rochester: 12
Rhode Island
Providence: 15
Tennessee
Nashville: 21
Texas
Houston: 16
PRESS CONTACTS…
For media inquiries relating to embargo policy for all the Nature Research Journals:
Helen Jamison (Nature London)
Tel: +44 20 7843 4658; E-mail: [email protected]
Ruth Francis (Senior Press Officer, 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 Cell Biology (London)
Bernd Pulverer
Tel: +44 20 7843 4892; E-mail: [email protected]
Nature Chemical Biology (Boston)
Andrea Garvey
Tel: +1 617 475 9241, E-mail: [email protected]
Nature Genetics (New York)
Orli Bahcall
Tel: +1 212 726 9311; E-mail: [email protected]
Nature Immunology (New York)
Laurie Dempsey
Tel: +1 212 726 9372; E-mail: [email protected]
Nature Materials (London)
Maria Bellantone
Tel: +44 20 7843 4556; E-mail: [email protected]
Nature Medicine (New York)
Juan Carlos Lopez
Tel: +1 212 726 9325; E-mail: [email protected]
Nature Neuroscience (New York)
Sandra Aamodt (based in California)
Tel: +1 530 795 3256; E-mail: [email protected]
Nature Structural & Molecular Biology (New York)
Michelle Montoya
Tel: +1 212 726 9326; E-mail: [email protected]
About Nature Publishing Group
Nature Publishing Group (NPG) is a division of Macmillan Publishers Ltd, dedicated to serving the academic, professional scientific and medical communities. NPG's flagship title, Nature, was first published in 1869. Other publications include Nature research journals, Nature Reviews, Nature Clinical Practice and a range of prestigious academic journals including society-owned publications. NPG also provides news content through [email protected] and scientific career information through Naturejobs.
NPG is a global company with headquarters in London and offices in New York, San Francisco, Washington DC, Boston, Tokyo, Paris, Munich, Hong Kong, Melbourne, Delhi, Mexico City and Basingstoke. For more information, please go to <www.nature.com>.
