Editorial
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Europe should hold fast to its scientific ambitions p483
The EU’s fresh round of billion-euro Flagship research projects must be open to all types of science.
doi: 10.1038/540483a
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Place your bets for a white Christmas p484
But don’t fall for an old chestnut.
doi: 10.1038/540484a
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Raise the importance of retirement policy p484
Studies that inform policies on retirement need to assess occupations as well.
doi: 10.1038/540484b
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News
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Peaceful EU starts to fund military research p491
Shift in focus comes in response to a changing world order and the threat of terrorism.
Elizabeth Gibney
doi: 10.1038/540491a
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US Earth scientists plan for uncertain future under Trump p492
Concerned by president-elect’s choice of advisers, researchers take steps to defend their fields.
Jeff Tollefson, Alexandra Witze
doi: 10.1038/540492a
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Europe's Galileo satellites herald new era for Earth science p493
Third global fleet will soon be joined by Asian counterparts, setting the atmosphere abuzz with scientifically-useful radio-wave signals.
Declan Butler
doi: 10.1038/nature.2016.21183
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World Health Organization rethinks its response to disease outbreaks p494
Programme aims to prevent crises similar to the recent Ebola epidemic.
Erika Check Hayden
doi: 10.1038/nature.2016.21134
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2016 in news: The science events that shaped the year p496
Climate accords, controversial assisted reproduction and the CRISPR patent battle are among the year's top stories.
Alison Abbott, Declan Butler, Davide Castelvecchi, Daniel Cressey, Elizabeth Gibney, Heidi Ledford, Jane J Lee, Lauren Morello, Sara Reardon, Jeff Tollefson + et al.
doi: 10.1038/540496a
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2016 in pictures: The best science images of the year p500
Includes storms from space, southern stars and a striking cell.
Daniel Cressey
doi: 10.1038/540500a
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News Features
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Nature’s 10 p507
Ten people who mattered this year.
doi: 10.1038/540507a
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News & Views
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Pathways of parallel progression p528
Two studies in mice identify mechanisms by which tumour cells disseminate in very early breast cancer. Both show that these cells colonize distant tissues more efficiently than their later counterparts. See Article p.552 & Letter p.588
Cyrus M. Ghajar, Mina J. Bissell
doi: 10.1038/nature21104
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Unexplored territory for self-assembly p529
Cage-like structures can self-assemble from suitable metal ions and organic linkers, but the size of the assemblies was limited. The surprise discovery of a new series of cages opens up fresh horizons for self-assembly. See Letter p.563
Florian Beuerle
doi: 10.1038/540529a
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A turbulent path to plaque formation p531
Plaque deposits often occur in curved arterial regions with turbulent blood flow. Endothelial cells have been found to respond to blood flow through a previously unidentified signalling pathway that affects plaque build-up. See Letter p.579
Vedanta Mehta, Ellie Mehta
doi: 10.1038/nature20489
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Sharks shift their spine into high gear p532
It emerges that a dogfish shark's spine becomes stiffer as the fish swims faster, enabling the animal to swim efficiently at different speeds. The finding could also provide inspiration for the design of robotic biomaterials.
Matthew A. Kolmann, Adam P. Summers
doi: 10.1038/nature21102
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Quantum mechanics in a spin p534
Quantum spin liquids are exotic states of matter first predicted more than 40 years ago. An inorganic material has properties consistent with these predictions, revealing details about the nature of quantum matter. See Letter p.559
Leon Balents
doi: 10.1038/540534a
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Frozen in darkness p534
doi: 10.1038/nature21108
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2016 Editors' choice p536
Extracts from selected News & Views articles published this year.
doi: 10.1038/540536a
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Article
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Redefining the invertebrate RNA virosphere p539
Profiling the total RNA of 220 invertebrate species leads to the discovery of almost 1,500 new species of RNA virus, revealing that the RNA virosphere is much more diverse than was previously thought.
doi: 10.1038/nature20167
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Persistent microbiome alterations modulate the rate of post-dieting weight regain p544
The identification of an intestinal microbiome signature that persists after successful dieting in obese mice and contributes to faster weight regain upon re-exposure to an obesity-promoting diet, and that transmits the altered weight regain phenotype to non-dieting mice.
Christoph A. Thaiss, Shlomik Itav, Daphna Rothschild, Mariska T. Meijer, Maayan Levy, Claudia Moresi, Lenka Dohnalová, Sofia Braverman, Shachar Rozin, Sergey Malitsky + et al.
doi: 10.1038/nature20796
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Early dissemination seeds metastasis in breast cancer p552
Two related papers show that cells disseminated from malignant lesions at early time points during tumorigenesis can contribute to metastases at distant organs and provide insights into the molecular basis of dissemination.
Hedayatollah Hosseini, Milan M. S. Obradović, Martin Hoffmann, Kathryn L. Harper, Maria Soledad Sosa, Melanie Werner-Klein, Lahiri Kanth Nanduri, Christian Werno, Carolin Ehrl, Matthias Maneck + et al.
doi: 10.1038/nature20785
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Letter
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Evidence for a spinon Fermi surface in a triangular-lattice quantum-spin-liquid candidate p559
A spin excitation continuum across a large region of the Brillouin zone that persists at near-zero temperatures provides evidence for a quantum spin liquid state with a spinon Fermi surface in YbMgGaO4.
Yao Shen, Yao-Dong Li, Hongliang Wo, Yuesheng Li, Shoudong Shen, Bingying Pan, Qisi Wang, H. C. Walker, P. Steffens, M. Boehm + et al.
doi: 10.1038/nature20614
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Self-assembly of tetravalent Goldberg polyhedra from 144 small components p563
Graph theory is used to guide the self-assembly of a complex consisting of 48 palladium ions and 96 ligands, with the topology of a tetravalent Goldberg polyhedron.
Daishi Fujita, Yoshihiro Ueda, Sota Sato, Nobuhiro Mizuno, Takashi Kumasaka, Makoto Fujita
doi: 10.1038/nature20771
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Water balance creates a threshold in soil pH at the global scale p567
There is an abrupt transition from alkaline to acid soil pH when mean annual precipitation exceeds mean annual potential evapotranspiration, demonstrating that climate creates a nonlinear pattern in soil solution chemistry at the global scale.
E. W. Slessarev, Y. Lin, N. L. Bingham, J. E. Johnson, Y. Dai, J. P. Schimel, O. A. Chadwick
doi: 10.1038/nature20139
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Broadening not strengthening of the Agulhas Current since the early 1990s p570
The Agulhas Current has not intensified since the early 1990s, but has instead broadened as a result of more eddy activity.
Lisa M. Beal, Shane Elipot
doi: 10.1038/nature19853
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Chemical intervention in plant sugar signalling increases yield and resilience p574
Treatment with signalling precursors of trehalose-6-phosphate allows light-triggered release of trehalose-6-phosphate in Arabidopsis thaliana and increases the yield and drought resistance of spring wheat (Triticum aestivum).
Cara A. Griffiths, Ram Sagar, Yiqun Geng, Lucia F. Primavesi, Mitul K. Patel, Melissa K. Passarelli, Ian S. Gilmore, Rory T. Steven, Josephine Bunch, Matthew J. Paul + et al.
doi: 10.1038/nature20591
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Integrin-YAP/TAZ-JNK cascade mediates atheroprotective effect of unidirectional shear flow p579
YAP and TAZ, effectors of the Hippo pathway, sense mechanical forces generated by blood flow and play a role in atherosclerosis pathogenesis.
Li Wang, Jiang-Yun Luo, Bochuan Li, Xiao Yu Tian, Li-Jing Chen, Yuhong Huang, Jian Liu, Dan Deng, Chi Wai Lau, Song Wan + et al.
doi: 10.1038/nature20602
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NLRC3 is an inhibitory sensor of PI3K–mTOR pathways in cancer p583
Mice deficient in the protein NLRC3 are highly prone to colitis and tumour development in the colon as NLRC3 suppresses the activation of mTOR signalling pathways that help drive tumorigenesis.
Rajendra Karki, Si Ming Man, R. K. Subbarao Malireddi, Sannula Kesavardhana, Qifan Zhu, Amanda R. Burton, Bhesh Raj Sharma, Xiaopeng Qi, Stephane Pelletier, Peter Vogel + et al.
doi: 10.1038/nature20597
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Mechanism of early dissemination and metastasis in Her2+ mammary cancer p588
Two related papers show that cells disseminated from malignant lesions at early time points during tumorigenesis can contribute to metastases at distant organs and provide insights into the molecular basis of dissemination.
Kathryn L. Harper, Maria Soledad Sosa, David Entenberg, Hedayatollah Hosseini, Julie F. Cheung, Rita Nobre, Alvaro Avivar-Valderas, Chandandaneep Nagi, Nomeda Girnius, Roger J. Davis + et al.
doi: 10.1038/nature20609
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mRNA quality control is bypassed for immediate export of stress-responsive transcripts p593
Heat shock drives the expression of transcripts that bypass mRNA quality control for direct export and translation, allowing cells to survive extreme situations at the cost of accuracy.
Gesa Zander, Alexandra Hackmann, Lysann Bender, Daniel Becker, Thomas Lingner, Gabriela Salinas, Heike Krebber
doi: 10.1038/nature20572
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Near-atomic-resolution cryo-EM analysis of the Salmonella T3S injectisome basal body p597
The authors report the structure of the assembled membrane spanning ring forming proteins of the Salmonella Typhimurium injectisome basal body, including the first atomic structure of a member of the secretin family of outer-membrane pores.
L. J. Worrall, C. Hong, M. Vuckovic, W. Deng, J. R. C. Bergeron, D. D Majewski, R. K. Huang, T. Spreter, B. B. Finlay, Z. Yu + et al.
doi: 10.1038/nature20576
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High-resolution crystal structure of the human CB1 cannabinoid receptor p602
The authors report a 2.6 Å resolution crystal structure of the human CB1 cannabinoid receptor trapped in the inactive conformation and bound to the antagonist taranabant.
Zhenhua Shao, Jie Yin, Karen Chapman, Magdalena Grzemska, Lindsay Clark, Junmei Wang, Daniel M. Rosenbaum
doi: 10.1038/nature20613
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Structure of RNA polymerase I transcribing ribosomal DNA genes p607
Structures of budding yeast RNA polymerase I in a catalytically active conformation are presented and confirmed by visualizing processive transcription along ribosomal DNA genes; they support a general model for transcription elongation in which contracted and expanded polymerase conformations are associated with active and inactive states, respectively.
Simon Neyer, Michael Kunz, Christian Geiss, Merle Hantsche, Victor-Valentin Hodirnau, Anja Seybert, Christoph Engel, Margot P. Scheffer, Patrick Cramer, Achilleas S. Frangakis
doi: 10.1038/nature20561
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