This press release contains:
· Summaries of newsworthy papers:
Medicine: New treatment for inborn error of metabolism
Geoscience: Atmosphere–biosphere feedbacks
Genetics: Genetics of hypertriglyceridemia
Geoscience: Black carbon plumes
Chemical Biology: PEGging glycans
Cell Biology: Determinants of cellular age
· 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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PLEASE CITE THE SPECIFIC NATURE JOURNAL AND WEBSITE AS THE SOURCE OF THE FOLLOWING ITEMS. IF PUBLISHING
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[1] Medicine: New treatment for inborn error of metabolism
DOI: 10.1038/nm.2188
Combined treatment with two drugs, metronidazole and N-acetylcysteine, is effective in treating children with ethylmalonic encephalopathy—a birth defect of the metabolism that affects the gastrointestinal, circulatory, and nervous systems. The article in this week’s Nature Medicine suggests that this therapy may be useful in the treatment of children suffering from the genetic disorder.
Ethylmalonic encephalopathy is caused by mutations in a mitochondrial protein important for metabolizing sulfide. As sulfide is largely a product of intestinal microbes, Massimo Zeviani and colleagues tested the effect of an antibiotic—metronidazole—together with N-acetylcysteine—a precursor of the sulfide-buffering molecule—in mice and in patients with this disease.
The treatment substantially prolonged the lifespan of mice carrying disease-causing mutations and resulted in marked clinical improvement in five affected children, with no adverse effects. A larger clinical trial will now be necessary to confirm these encouraging results.
Author contact:
Massimo Zeviani (Carlo Besta Institute of Neurology, Milan, Italy)
Tel: +39 2 2394 2630
E–mail: [email protected]
[2] Geoscience: Atmosphere–biosphere feedbacks
DOI: 10.1038/ngeo905
Biogeochemical feedbacks between the terrestrial biosphere and the atmosphere could be important in modulating future climate change, according to a review article published online this week in Nature Geoscience.
Biogeochemical cycles, such as the carbon cycle, are strongly affected by climate change and other human activities. Almut Arneth and colleagues provide a first estimate of the warming caused by feedbacks between the biosphere and atmosphere over the twenty-first century. They find that biogeochemical feedbacks will warm the planet and potentially negate the cooling effect resulting from carbon dioxide fertilization of terrestrial
ecosystems.
Author contact:
Almut Arneth (Lund University, Sweden)
Tel: +46 70 2930 979
E-mail: [email protected]
[3] Genetics: Genetics of hypertriglyceridemia
DOI: 10.1038/ng.628
Common and rare genetic variants associated with hypertriglyceridemia—where the concentration of triglyceride blood lipid is above the ninety-fifth percentile—are reported online this week in Nature Genetics, The study suggests that both common and rare genetic variants found in the population contribute to susceptibility to hypertriglyceridemia.
Robert Hegele and colleagues report a genome-wide association study in which they identify association of hypertriglyceridemia with common variants at four genes. They sequenced these four genes in individuals with hypertriglyceridemia and in controls and identified a significant excess of rare variants in individuals with hypertriglyceridemia compared to controls.
Author contact:
Robert Hegele (University of Western Ontario, London, Canada)
Tel: +1 519 931 5271
E-mail: [email protected]
[4] Geoscience: Black carbon plumes
DOI: 10.1038/ngeo918
Increasing the ratio of black carbon to sulphate in the atmosphere increases climate warming, suggests a study published online this week in Nature Geoscience. Black carbon aerosols absorb solar radiation and are thought to be a significant source of global warming.
Veerabhadran Ramanathan and colleagues used surface and aircraft measurements of aerosol plumes in China to examine the impact of different ratios of black carbon to sulphate on warming. They found that the amount of solar radiation that was absorbed increased as the ratio rose. Furthermore, black carbon plumes derived from fossil fuels were 100% more efficient at warming than plumes that arose from biomass burning.
The authors suggest that climate mitigation policies should aim to reduce the ratio of black carbon to sulphate in emissions, as well as the total amount of black carbon released.
Author contact:
Veerabhadran Ramanathan (Scripps Institution of Oceanography, La Jolla, CA, USA)
Tel: +1 858 534 8815
E-mail: [email protected]
[5] Chemical Biology: PEGging glycans
DOI: 10.1038/nchembio.412
A new method for visualizing sugar occupancy in complex biological samples is described online this week in Nature Chemical Biology. This new mass-tagging strategy using polymers to label sugars could provide further knowledge into cardiac muscle survival, cell cycle progression, and synaptic transmission.
Linda Hsieh-Wilson and colleagues found that attaching PEG—polyethylene glycol—chains of different molecular weight to glycoproteins enables rapid quantification of cellular glycosylation levels within the cell without the need for protein purification, advanced instrumentation, or expensive radiolabels. This new strategy was then applied to see the effect of phosphorylation on glycosylation. Though current data suggests that phosphorylation should decrease glycosylation, this method revealed an unexpected reverse relationship that was undetectable by previous methods.
This novel mass-tagging strategy will advance the understanding of glycosylation and other post-translational modifications.
Author contact:
Linda C. Hsieh-Wilson (California Institute of Technology,
Pasadena, CA, USA)
Tel: +1 626 395 6101
E-mail: [email protected]
[6] Cell Biology: Determinants of cellular age
DOI: 10.1038/ncb2085
Reduced function of a family of membrane transporters may play a role in replicative ageing in yeast cells, reports a paper online in Nature Cell Biology. The study also suggests that this protein family may influence cellular ageing in multicellular organisms.
Just like most cells in our bodies, budding yeast cells can only divide 20–30 times. However, what limits their so called ‘replicative age’ has remained unknown. Li and colleagues found that some multidrug resistance (MDR) proteins are inherited differently between the mother and the newly budded daughter cell. Whereas the newly produced proteins go to the daughter, the old pool remains attached to the mother. This could, over time, lead to reduced amounts and/or activities of MDR proteins as the mother cell ‘ages’. Indeed, the authors show that the activity of a polyamine transporter is reduced in older cells. As these proteins are important to maintain the health of the cell, such a decline could influence cellular lifespan.
In accordance with this idea, the group also finds that yeast mutants lacking some MDR genes show faster replicative ageing, whereas the introduction of an extra copy of these genes extends replicative lifespan.
Author contact:
Rong Li (Stowers Institute for Medical Research, Kansas City, MO, USA)
Tel: +1 816 926 4340
E-mail: [email protected]
*************************************************
Items from other Nature journals to be published online at the same time and with the same embargo:
NATURE
[7] Wnt11 patterns a myocardial electrical gradient through regulation of the L-type Ca2+ channel
DOI: 10.1038/nature09249
[8] Dynamics and mechanism of repair of ultraviolet-induced (6–4) photoproduct by photolyase
DOI: 10.1038/nature09192
NATURE BIOTECHNOLOGY
[9] Implications of the presence of N-glycolylneuraminic acid in recombinant therapeutic glycoproteins
DOI: 10.1038/nbt.1651
[10] Discovery and characterization of chromatin states for systematic annotation of the human genome
DOI: 10.1038/nbt.1662
NATURE CELL BIOLOGY
[11] A spindle-like apparatus guides bacterial chromosome segregation
DOI: 10.1038/ncb2083
NATURE CHEMISTRY
[12] A series of isoreticular chiral metal–organic frameworks as a tunable platform for asymmetric catalysis
DOI: 10.1038/nchem.738
[13] Networked molecular cages as crystalline sponges for fullerenes and other guests
DOI: 10.1038/nchem.742
[14] Highly stable tetrathiafulvalene radical dimers in [3]catenanes
DOI: 10.1038/nchem.749
NATURE GENETICS
[15] Matriptase initiates activation of epidermal pro-kallikrein and disease onset in a mouse model of Netherton syndrome
DOI: 10.1038/ng.629
NATURE GEOSCIENCE
[16] Surface deformation and slab–mantle interaction during Banda arc subduction rollback
DOI: 10.1038/ngeo917
[17] Extreme deepening of the Atlantic overturning circulation during deglaciation
DOI: 10.1038/ngeo921
[18] Influence of high-latitude vegetation feedbacks on late Palaeozoic glacial cycles
DOI: 10.1038/ngeo922
[19] Holocene evolution of the Indonesian throughflow and the western Pacific warm pool
DOI: 10.1038/ngeo920
NATURE IMMUNOLOGY
[20] Widespread genomic breaks generated by activation-induced cytidine deaminase are prevented by homologous recombination
DOI: 10.1038/ni.1909
NATURE MATERIALS
[21] Reversible electric control of exchange bias in a multiferroic field effect device
DOI: 10.1038/nmat2803
[22] Accurate surface and adsorption energies from many body perturbation theory
DOI: 10.1038/nmat2806
[23] Light induced size changes in BiFeO3 crystals
DOI: 10.1038/nmat2807
NATURE MEDICINE
[24] Metabotropic glutamate receptor-4 impacts adaptive immunity and restrains neuroinflammation
DOI: 10.1038/nm.2183
NATURE NANOTECHNOLOGY
[25] Computer simulation of the translocation of nanoparticles with different shapes across a lipid bilayer
DOI: 10.1038/nnano.2010.141
[26] Reduction of thermal conductivity in phononic nanomesh structures
DOI: 10.1038/nnano.2010.149
NATURE NEUROSCIENCE
[27] ABHD6 controls 2-AG accumulation and efficacy at cannabinoid receptors
DOI: 10.1038/nn.2601
[28] Grid cells in pre- and parasubiculum
DOI: 10.1038/nn.2602
NATURE PHOTONICS
[29] Quantum optical coherence can survive photon losses using a continuous-variable quantum erasure-correcting code
DOI: 10.1038/nphoton.2010.168
[30] Subnanosecond spectral diffusion measurement using photon correlation
DOI: 10.1038/nphoton.2010.174
NATURE PHYSICS
[31] Direct entropy determination and application to artificial spin ice
DOI: 10.1038/nphys1728
[32] Beyond the Jaynes-Cummings model: circuit QED in the ultrastrong coupling regime
DOI: 10.1038/nphys1730
[33] The uncertainty principle in the presence of quantum memory
DOI: 10.1038/nphys1734
NATURE STRUCTURAL & MOLECULAR BIOLOGY
[34] The A-repeat links ASF/SF2-dependent Xist RNA processing with random choice during X inactivation
DOI: 10.1038/nsmb.1877
[35] Visualizing one-dimensional diffusion of eukaryotic DNA repair factors along a chromatin lattice
DOI: 10.1038/nsmb.1858
[36] Corecognition of DNA and a methylated histone tail by the MSL3 chromodomain
DOI: 10.1038/nsmb.1856
*************************************************
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: 34
North Ryde: 2
AUSTRIA
Vienna: 22
BELGIUM
Brussels: 27, 29
CANADA
Hamilton: 3
London: 3
Waterloo: 33
CHINA
Nanjing: 25
Suzhou: 25
DENMARK
Kongens Lyngby: 29
FINLAND
Helsinki: 2, 3
FRANCE
Bordeaux: 27
Gif-sur-Yvette: 23
Grenoble: 14, 30
Marseille: 28
GERMANY
Berlin: 30
Bremerhaven: 17
Darmstadt: 33
Erlangen: 29
Garching: 32
Hamburg: 2
Hannover: 1
Jena: 2
Munich: 33
ISRAEL
Jerusalem: 1
ITALY
Campobasso: 24
L’Aquila: 22
Milan: 1
Modena: 24
Padua: 1
Perugia: 24
Pozzilli: 24
Rome: 24
JAPAN
Tokyo: 13
KOREA
Seoul: 4
NETHERLANDS
Amsterdam: 3
Utrecht: 16
NORWAY
Trondheim: 28
SPAIN
Augsburg: 32
Barcelona: 3
Bilbao: 32
Madrid: 32
Vigo: 17
Zaragoza: 32
SWEDEN
Lund: 2
SWITZERLAND
Zurich: 33
UNITED KINGDOM
Bristol: 2
Cardiff: 17
Cambridge: 17, 34
Edinburgh: 14
Glasgow: 14
London: 16
Southampton: 23
St Andrews: 14
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
California
Berkeley: 2, 11, 21
La Jolla: 4, 9, 21, 27
Los Angeles: 5
Pasadena: 5, 14, 26
San Francisco: 34
Santa Barbara: 14
Stanford: 11
Vista: 9
Illinois
Evanston: 14
Indiana
Bloomington: 27
Iowa
Iowa City: 4
Kansas
Kansas City: 6
Maine
Bar Harbor: 20
Maryland
Bethesda: 15
Massachusetts
Boston: 3, 7, 11
Cambridge: 3, 10
Framingham: 3
Woods Hole: 19
Michigan
Detroit: 15, 18
Montana
Kansas City: 6
New Jersey
New Brunswick: 19
New Mexico
Los Alamos: 31
New York
Albany: 19
Ithaca: 35
New York: 2, 29, 35
North Carolina
Chapel Hill: 8, 12
Ohio
Columbus: 8
Oregon
Eugene: 2
Pennsylvania
University Park: 18, 31
Texas
Houston: 15
Utah
Salt Lake City: 34
Virginia
Charlottesville: 36
Washington
Seattle: 3, 27
Wisconsin
Madison: 4
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)
Sarah Daniels
Tel: +1 617 475 9241
E-mail: [email protected]
Nature Chemistry (London)
Stuart Cantrill
Tel: +44 20 7014 4018
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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