米国カリフォルニア州の低炭素燃料基準は、国レベルでの基準を考える際にも、多くを学べる手本となる。
The cleaner state p.157
Federal regulators could learn much from California’s low-carbon fuel programme.
doi: 10.1038/497157b
Federal regulators could learn much from California’s low-carbon fuel programme.
doi: 10.1038/497157b
The US Supreme Court should overturn the 2003 law that requires federally funded HIV/AIDS programmes abroad to denounce prostitution.
doi: 10.1038/497157a
Confidence is rising among scientists defending animal research. It should be encouraged.
doi: 10.1038/497158a
Obama boosts ‘stockpile stewardship’ funds at energy labs.
doi: 10.1038/497165a
Three projects seek to track changes in Atlantic overturning circulation currents.
doi: 10.1038/497167a
Russia and Qatar prepare to dominate market as gas price inflation puts researchers under pressure.
doi: 10.1038/497168a
University finds evidence of fakery in Jamaican dance data.
doi: 10.1038/497170a
DNAデータベースに登録された「匿名」のDNAデータから、被験者が特定できることが明らかになった。
doi: 10.1038/497172a
義手の機能は非常に向上してきており、これからの課題は、触覚を持った義手の開発である。
doi: 10.1038/497176a
ある種の核が作る洋ナシ形の形状は捉えにくく、理論的予測も難しいが、この形状がついに正確に測定された。この結果が核物理学および素粒子物理学に意味するものについて、2人の専門家が見解を語っている。
doi: 10.1038/497190a
互いに近傍にあるアンドロメダ銀河とさんかく座銀河の間にのびているわずかな中性水素ガス成分が観測されたことから、この捉えにくい銀河間媒質の分光画像が高解像度で得られるようになった。
doi: 10.1038/497191a
mTORキナーゼの、触媒活性を持った状態の結晶構造がついに明らかにされた。この酵素は、細胞増殖のマスター調節因子である。この構造から、活性部位への基質の接近を制御する「門番」機構の存在が示された。
doi: 10.1038/nature12101
粘膜表面にある記憶免疫細胞が病原体と遭遇するとシグナルを発し、他の記憶細胞をその場所に動員することがわかった。この知見は、ワクチンの設計に関わってくる可能性がある。
doi: 10.1038/497194b
筋芽細胞と呼ばれる筋細胞の融合は、動物の一生を通じて骨格筋の形成と維持の基盤となっている。哺乳類では、細胞死がシグナルとして働いてこの過程を増強していることがだんだんに明らかになってきた。
doi: 10.1038/nature12097
脳の視床下部では、炎症により活性化したシグナル伝達経路が老化関連ホルモンの産生を制御している。この知見は、炎症、ストレス応答と全身の老化とを結び付けるものだ。
doi: 10.1038/nature12100
There is strong circumstantial evidence that certain heavy, unstable atomic nuclei are ‘octupole deformed’, that is, distorted into a pear shape. This contrasts with the more prevalent rugby-ball shape of nuclei with reflection-symmetric, quadrupole deformations. The elusive octupole deformed nuclei are of importance for nuclear structure theory, and also in searches for physics beyond the standard model; any measurable electric-dipole moment (a signature of the latter) is expected to be amplified in such nuclei. Here we determine electric octupole transition strengths (a direct measure of octupole correlations) for short-lived isotopes of radon and radium. Coulomb excitation experiments were performed using accelerated beams of heavy, radioactive ions. Our data on
doi: 10.1038/nature12073
Whisking and sniffing are predominant aspects of exploratory behaviour in rodents. Yet the neural mechanisms that generate and coordinate these and other orofacial motor patterns remain largely uncharacterized. Here we use anatomical, behavioural, electrophysiological and pharmacological tools to show that whisking and sniffing are coordinated by respiratory centres in the ventral medulla. We delineate a distinct region in the ventral medulla that provides rhythmic input to the facial motor neurons that drive protraction of the vibrissae. Neuronal output from this region is reset at each inspiration by direct input from the pre-Bötzinger complex, such that high-frequency sniffing has a one-to-one relationship with whisking, whereas basal respiration is accompanied by intervening whisks that occur between breaths. We conjecture that the respiratory nuclei, which project to other premotor regions for oral and facial control, function as a master clock for behaviours that coordinate with breathing.
doi: 10.1038/nature12076
Ageing is a result of gradual and overall functional deteriorations across the body; however, it is unknown whether an individual tissue primarily works to mediate the ageing progress and control lifespan. Here we show that the hypothalamus is important for the development of whole-body ageing in mice, and that the underlying basis involves hypothalamic immunity mediated by IκB kinase-β (IKK-β), nuclear factor κB (NF-κB) and related microglia–neuron immune crosstalk. Several interventional models were developed showing that ageing retardation and lifespan extension are achieved in mice by preventing ageing-related hypothalamic or brain IKK-β and NF-κB activation. Mechanistic studies further revealed that IKK-β and NF-κB inhibit gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) to mediate ageing-related hypothalamic GnRH decline, and GnRH treatment amends ageing-impaired neurogenesis and decelerates ageing. In conclusion, the hypothalamus has a programmatic role in ageing development via immune–neuroendocrine integration, and immune inhibition or GnRH restoration in the hypothalamus/brain represent two potential strategies for optimizing lifespan and combating ageing-related health problems.
doi: 10.1038/nature12143
The mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR), a phosphoinositide 3-kinase-related protein kinase, controls cell growth in response to nutrients and growth factors and is frequently deregulated in cancer. Here we report co-crystal structures of a complex of truncated mTOR and mammalian lethal with SEC13 protein 8 (mLST8) with an ATP transition state mimic and with ATP-site inhibitors. The structures reveal an intrinsically active kinase conformation, with catalytic residues and a catalytic mechanism remarkably similar to canonical protein kinases. The active site is highly recessed owing to the FKBP12–rapamycin-binding (FRB) domain and an inhibitory helix protruding from the catalytic cleft. mTOR-activating mutations map to the structural framework that holds these elements in place, indicating that the kinase is controlled by restricted access. In vitro biochemistry shows that the FRB domain acts as a gatekeeper, with its rapamycin-binding site interacting with substrates to grant them access to the restricted active site. Rapamycin–FKBP12 inhibits the kinase by directly blocking substrate recruitment and by further restricting active-site access. The structures also reveal active-site residues and conformational changes that underlie inhibitor potency and specificity.
doi: 10.1038/nature12122
About half of the gas stretching between the galaxies M31 and M33 is shown to be composed of clouds, with the rest distributed in an extended, diffuse component.
doi: 10.1038/nature12082
The fair-sampling loophole is closed in a Bell inequality violation experiment with entangled photons, making the photon the first physical system for which all the main loopholes have been closed.
doi: 10.1038/nature12012
The non-Fermi-liquid regime that emerges in MnSi under high pressures displays a Hall signal that can be traced to topologically non-trivial spin configurations at low pressures — a well-understood skyrmion lattice — empirically suggesting a route towards a breakdown of Fermi liquid theory in pure metals.
doi: 10.1038/nature12023
A model of the four main outlet glaciers that drain the Greenland Ice Sheet predicts that they will contribute 19 to 30 millimetres to sea-level rise by 2200 in a mid-range future warming scenario, and 29 to 49 millimetres in a more extreme scenario.
doi: 10.1038/nature12068
M-CSF, a myeloid cytokine released during infection and inflammation, instructs myeloid lineage fate in single haematopoietic stem cells by directly inducing PU.1, a known myeloid lineage master regulator; this shows that specific cytokines can act directly on haematopoietic stem cells to instruct a change of cell identity.
doi: 10.1038/nature12026
This study shows that Dis3l2 is the 3′–5′ exonuclease that mediates the degradation of uridylated precursor let-7 microRNA; this is the first physiological RNA substrate identified for this new exonuclease, which causes the Perlman syndrome of fetal overgrowth and Wilms’ tumour susceptibility when mutated.
doi: 10.1038/nature12119
The neonatal heart has a high regenerative capacity that is lost in adult life; the transcription factor Meis1 has been identified as a relevant proliferative switch for this transition, providing a potential therapeutic target for adult heart regeneration.
doi: 10.1038/nature12054
The CRISPR/Cas system known to aid bacterial defences by targeting invading DNA can also act to evade eukaryotic defences through a different class of small RNAs downregulating an endogenous immunogenic bacterial lipoprotein.
doi: 10.1038/nature12048
By using high-throughput sequencing of T-cell receptors, this study shows that thymus-derived regulatory T (Treg) cells constitute most Treg cells in all lymphoid and intestinal organs, including the colon, suggesting that thymic Treg cells and not induced Treg cells dominantly control tolerance to the gut’s antigens such as commensal microbiota.
doi: 10.1038/nature12079
The apoptotic event of phosphatidylserine exposure and its recognition by the receptor BAI1 has an unexpected new role as a signal enhancing mouse myoblast fusion, an insight with relevance to some congenital muscle diseases and muscle injury treatments.
doi: 10.1038/nature12135
The crystal structure of an inward-facing, nucleotide-free folate energy-coupling factor transporter from Lactobacillus brevis at a resolution of 3 Å suggests a transport model that involves a substantial conformational change of the substrate-specific binding protein, FolT.
doi: 10.1038/nature12046
The crystal structure of a nucleotide-free energy-coupling factor transporter from Lactobacillus brevis at a resolution of 3.5 Å suggests a plausible working model for the transport cycle of such transporters.
doi: 10.1038/nature12045