Volume 500 Number 7464

Editorials

科学分野でも、隠喩には利用価値があることが多いが、その扱いには慎重さも必要だ。

Beyond compare p.501

Metaphors are like cheese — often desirable but sometimes full of holes.

doi: 10.1038/500501b

最近、地球温暖化の勢いが鈍っているが、二酸化炭素による温暖化の長期的危険性は相変わらずであり、気を緩めるべきではない。

Hidden heat p.501

Scientists are homing in on the reasons for the current hiatus in global warming, but all must recognize that the long-term risk of warming from carbon dioxide remains high.

doi: 10.1038/500501a

News

衛星の推進システムに、液体ヒドラジンよりも効率が高く毒性の低い、グリーン燃料が。

Green fuels blast off p.509

Propellants offer satellites greater efficiency and lower toxicity than liquid hydrazine.

doi: 10.1038/500509a

ブラジルの複数の雑誌がインパクトファクターの水増しを図っていたことが明るみに出て、当面、算出の対象から除外へ。

Brazilian citation scheme outed p.510

Thomson Reuters suspends journals from its rankings for ‘citation stacking’.

doi: 10.1038/500510a

夏の嵐のおかげで、北極圏の氷が一時的に回復傾向に。

Summer storms bolster Arctic ice p.512

This year’s cyclones grant sea ice a temporary reprieve.

doi: 10.1038/500512a

米国でバイオ企業の新規株式公開が相次いでいるが、ブームがいつまで続くかに懸念も。

Biotech boom prompts fears of bust p.513

A spate of successful public offerings has raised ample funding for biotechnology — and anxiety about when the good times will end.

doi: 10.1038/500513a

遺伝学手法で考古学的、言語学的データを補うことにより、初期人類のアフリカへの回帰が明らかに。

African genes tracked back p.514

Method extends archaeological and linguistic data by tracing early human migration.

doi: 10.1038/500514a

News Features

理論物理学:時空の起源

Theoretical physics: The origins of space and time p.516

時間と空間の挙動だけでなく、これらがどこから来たかを説明しないかぎり、物理学は完結しないと多くの研究者は考えている。

doi: 10.1038/500516a

News & Views

フォーラム:生物地球化学:閾値を乗り越えた古代の藻類

Biogeochemistry: Ancient algae crossed a threshold p.532

ある種の藻類の鱗片には大気中二酸化炭素濃度が低かった時期の特徴が含まれていることがあると分かり、これに触発されて、化石記録中でこのような特徴が見つかった。今回のフォーラムでは、この発見の気候科学と海洋生態学における意味について、専門家たちが論じている。

doi: 10.1038/500532a

神経科学:だんだん増えるドーパミン

Neuroscience: Dopamine ramps up p.533

学習から嗜癖に至るさまざまな過程に関わっている神経調節因子のドーパミンの作用は解明済みと考えられていた。しかし、ラットが報酬を求めて移動する際にドーパミン濃度が上昇するという知見は、現在の理論を覆すかもしれない。

doi: 10.1038/500533a

宇宙物理学:放射能を生み出す光は動かぬ証拠

Astrophysics: Radioactive glow as a smoking gun p.535

持続時間の短いγ線バーストに続く赤外線放射が観測されたことは、コンパクトな連星系の合体がこのようなバーストの原因であり、宇宙で最も重い原子核を作り出すという仮説を裏付けるものだ。

doi: 10.1038/500535a

遺伝子調節:がんの増殖を仕掛ける長鎖RNA

Gene regulation: Long RNAs wire up cancer growth p.536

前立腺がんで重要な役割を持つある転写因子とその標的遺伝子の間のつながりを制御する長鎖非コードRNAが見つかったことは、RNAが細胞核中の情報の流れを支配する仕組みについての手がかりを与えてくれる。

doi: 10.1038/nature12548

宇宙物理学:自らの秘密を明かす黒雲

Astrophysics: A dark cloud unveils its secrets p.537

太陽の数十倍を超える質量を持つ大質量星は、我々の宇宙で支配的である。だが今回、収縮しているさなかのガス雲や塵の観測から、このような星の形成についての理論に疑問が投げかけられている。

doi: 10.1038/500537a

微生物学:腸内での資産管理

Microbiology: Wealth management in the gut p.538

腸内細菌の多様性が低いと、多様性が高い場合に比べて、体脂肪率が高く、炎症が起こりやすくなることが分かった。だが、食餌を変えるという治療法は、こうした状態を改善する助けとなる可能性がある。

doi: 10.1038/500538a

Article

微生物学:ヒトの腸内マイクロバイオームの豊かさは代謝マーカーと関連する

Richness of human gut microbiome correlates with metabolic markers p.541

Analysis of the gut microbial gene composition in obese and non-obese individuals shows marked differences in bacterial richness between the two groups, with individuals with low richness exhibiting increased adiposity, insulin resistance, dyslipidaemia and inflammation; only a few bacterial marker species are needed to distinguish between individuals with high and low bacterial richness, providing potential for future diagnostic tools.

doi: 10.1038/nature12506

Letters

宇宙:持続期間の短いγ線バースト GRB 130603B に関係する「キロノヴァ」

A ‘kilonova’ associated with the short-duration γ-ray burst GRB 130603B p.547

Strong evidence that a kilonova — an event similar to a faint, short-lived supernova — accompanied the short-duration γ-ray burst GRB 130603B provides support for the hypothesis that such bursts are produced by the merger of two compact stellar objects.

doi: 10.1038/nature12505

宇宙:タイタンの風化した硬い氷殻

A rigid and weathered ice shell on Titan p.550

A strong inverse correlation between gravity and topography leads to the conclusion that Saturn’s largest moon, Titan, must have a rigid ice shell with an elastic thickness exceeding 40 kilometres.

doi: 10.1038/nature12400

材料科学:人工スピンアイスにおける磁荷の結晶子

Crystallites of magnetic charges in artificial spin ice p.553

Artificial spin-ice systems are lithographically fabricated arrays of interacting ferromagnetic nanometre-scale islands; a procedure to thermalize two types of artificial spin ice with different geometries has now been developed, resulting in unprecedentedly large ground-state domains in square lattices and crystallites of ordered magnetic charges in kagome lattices.

doi: 10.1038/nature12399

気候:中新世後期の二酸化炭素の制約に対する海洋性藻類の閾値応答

Late Miocene threshold response of marine algae to carbon dioxide limitation p.558

New measurements of stable isotope vital effects in fossil coccoliths show a step increase in reliance of coccolithophore photosynthesis on active transport of dissolved bicarbonate in the late Miocene epoch, suggesting both a low threshold for adaptation of coccolithophores to carbon dioxide and a decrease in global carbon dioxide levels at that time.

doi: 10.1038/nature12448

気候:東南極太平洋岸の流出氷河に見られる気候起源の急速な変化

Rapid, climate-driven changes in outlet glaciers on the Pacific coast of East Antarctica p.563

Multidecadal trends in the terminus position of outlet glaciers along the margin of the East Antarctic ice sheet reveal three epochal patterns of glacier retreat or advance consistent with a rapid and coherent response to air temperature and sea-ice trends.

doi: 10.1038/nature12382

微生物学:新規古細菌系統における硝酸還元と共役した嫌気的メタン酸化

Anaerobic oxidation of methane coupled to nitrate reduction in a novel archaeal lineage p.567

An anaerobic methanotroph (ANME-2d) can perform nitrate-driven anaerobic oxidation of methane through reverse methanogenesis, using nitrate as the terminal electron acceptor, and nitrite produced by ANME-2d is reduced to dinitrogen gas through a syntrophic relationship with an anaerobic ammonium-oxidizing bacterium.

doi: 10.1038/nature12375

進化:進化する40の酵母集団に広く見られる遺伝子ヒッチハイクとクローン干渉

Pervasive genetic hitchhiking and clonal interference in forty evolving yeast populations p.571

Whole-genome whole-population sequencing is used to examine the dynamics of genome-sequence evolution in Saccharomyces cerevisiae populations for 1,000 generations; this reveals patterns of sequence evolution driven by pervasive genetic hitchhiking and interference, and shows that beneficial mutations that escape drift and increase in frequency typically occur in cohorts.

doi: 10.1038/nature12344

神経生理学:線条体の延長型ドーパミンシグナル伝達が遠方の報酬までの距離と価値を知らせる

Prolonged dopamine signalling in striatum signals proximity and value of distant rewards p.575

Cyclic voltammetry reveals an extended mode of reward-predictive dopamine signalling in the striatum as rats navigate; signals increase as the rats approach distant rewards, instead of showing phasic or steady tonic activity, and the increases scale flexibly with the distance and size of the rewards.

doi: 10.1038/nature12475

神経科学:味覚受容体パラログがショウジョウバエにおける速やかな温度忌避行動を制御する

A gustatory receptor paralogue controls rapid warmth avoidance in Drosophila p.580

After previously discovering that the ion channel TRPA1 is used as an internal temperature sensor in Drosophila to control the slow response of flies to shallow thermal gradients, the authors show here that the rapid response of flies to steep warming gradients relies on a different protein, GR28B, providing the first example of a thermosensory role for a gustatory receptor.

doi: 10.1038/nature12390

微生物学:食餌介入が腸内微生物遺伝子の豊かさに与える影響

Dietary intervention impact on gut microbial gene richness p.585

In obese and overweight individuals, diet-induced weight loss and weight-stabilization interventions improve the low microbiota gene richness and clinical phenotypes seen before intervention, but have less of an effect on inflammatory phenotypes.

doi: 10.1038/nature12480

発生:多能性心肺前駆細胞による心臓と肺の共発生の調整

Coordination of heart and lung co-development by a multipotent cardiopulmonary progenitor p.589

A population of multipotent cardiopulmonary mesoderm progenitors (CPPs) within the posterior pole of the heart expresses Wnt2, Gli1 and Isl1; these CPPs arise from cardiac progenitors before lung development, generate the mesoderm lineages within the cardiac inflow tract and lung, and are regulated by hedgehog expression from the foregut endoderm.

doi: 10.1038/nature12358

発生:単一細胞RNA塩基配列解読により示されたヒトとマウスの初期胚における遺伝子プログラム

Genetic programs in human and mouse early embryos revealed by single-cell RNA sequencing p.593

Single-cell RNA sequencing and weighted gene co-expression network analysis are used to study transcriptome change in pre-implantation embryos and oocytes; this reveals a conserved genetic program between human and mouse but with different developmental specificity and timing, and conserved hub genes that may be key in pre-implantation development.

doi: 10.1038/nature12364

がん:アンドロゲン受容体が調節する遺伝子活性化プログラムのlncRNA依存性作用機構

lncRNA-dependent mechanisms of androgen-receptor-regulated gene activation programs p.598

A study of prostate cancer cells reveals a transcriptional activation role for long non-coding RNAs (PRNCR1 and PCGEM1) that bind to the androgen receptor, and is also observed for the truncated androgen receptor characteristic of many aggressive prostate cancers.

doi: 10.1038/nature12451

細胞生物学:有糸分裂のトリガー波とアフリカツメガエルの細胞周期の空間的な協調

Mitotic trigger waves and the spatial coordination of the Xenopus cell cycle p.603

In an in vitro Xenopus extract system that can undergo cell cycles, mitosis spreads through the cytoplasm in ‘trigger waves’ of Cdk1 activation, which may reflect a more general biological mechanism related to action potentials and calcium waves.

doi: 10.1038/nature12321

分子生物学:複製フォークの衝突時に起こり得る染色体の異常状態の回避

Avoiding chromosome pathology when replication forks collide p.608

The site of collision between two chromosome replication forks can be used to reinitiate replication independent of an active origin, with potentially pathogenic effects.

doi: 10.1038/nature12312

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