Within reach p.263
A redoubling of efforts should swiftly eradicate polio from its last strongholds.
doi: 10.1038/511263b
Volume 511 Number 7509
今週のハイライト
Cover Story: 木星の内側：米国立点火施設で巨大惑星の内部が再現された
宇宙: ドーン探査機が照らし出すベスタの地殻マントル境界
進化: 隔たりの拡大による種分化
細胞: 人工血管ニッチを利用して作る新しい血液
がん: がん細胞の防御用被覆
宇宙: 超新星に由来する大きな塵粒子
材料科学: 塩を取り換えるだけで太陽電池を安くできる
地球: 沈み込み帯における流体とメルトのふるまい
生態学: 鳥類個体群を縮小させるネオニコチノイド系殺虫剤
神経科学: 知的障害に見られる遺伝的変動
細胞: 角膜の発生と修復におけるABCB5遺伝子の働き
目次
Editorials
Struggle for independence p.263
The faculty of the Scripps Research Institute is bucking a national trend with its refusal to merge with the University of Southern California.
doi: 10.1038/511263a
Food for thought p.264
Researchers investigating different farming practices should not have to pick sides.
doi: 10.1038/511264a
News
Quantum-hub finalists picked p.271
UK government considers eight proposals for up to six research centres.
doi: 10.1038/511271a
Landslide risks rise up agenda p.272
Forum on deadly natural phenomena discusses use of simulation and hazard-mapping technologies.
doi: 10.1038/511272a
Scripps merger fiasco highlights US funding woes p.274
Other independent biomedical research institutions have turned to private benefactors.
doi: 10.1038/511274a
Charity begins at CERN p.276
Particle-physics lab sets up fund for ‘extras’ as other big institutes mull similar move.
doi: 10.1038/511276a
News Features
Physics: Wave of the future p.278
After two decades and more than half a billion dollars, LIGO, the world's largest gravitational-wave observatory, is on the verge of a detection. Maybe.
doi: 10.1038/511278a
Weight-loss surgery: A gut-wrenching question p.282
Gastric-bypass surgery can curb obesity as well as diabetes and a slew of other problems. Researchers are now trying to find out how it works.
doi: 10.1038/511282a
News & Views
High-pressure physics: Piling on the pressure p.294
The machine that houses the world's largest laser, and which stands in for the starship Enterprise's warp core in the film Star Trek Into Darkness, has compressed diamond to the density of lead. See Letter p.330
doi: 10.1038/511294a
Ecology: Pesticides linked to bird declines p.295
Decreases in bird numbers are most rapid in areas that are most heavily polluted with neonicotinoids, suggesting that the environmental damage inflicted by these insecticides may be much broader than previously thought. See Letter p.341
doi: 10.1038/nature13642
Astrophysics: Survival of the largest p.296
Whether supernovae create most of the dust in the cosmos is a controversial question. Observations of a distant supernova have revealed signs of freshly formed dust, but the properties of the dust are unexpected. See Letter p.326
doi: 10.1038/nature13640
Neurobiology: Keeping a lid on it p.297
The protein Npas4 dampens activated excitatory brain circuits by recruiting inhibitory signals to excitatory neurons. It emerges that this protein has the opposite role in some inhibitory neurons, promoting their activity.
doi: 10.1038/nature13641
Cancer: Sugar-coated cell signalling p.298
Cell membranes are covered with sugar-conjugated proteins. New findings suggest that the physical properties of this coating, which is more pronounced in cancer cells, regulate cell survival during tumour spread. See Article p.319
doi: 10.1038/nature13506
Materials science: A superelastic organic crystal p.300
Superelasticity — a form of elasticity that involves a phase transition — has been observed for the first time in a pure organic crystal. The material could find applications in microfluidics.
doi: 10.1038/511300a
Stem cells: Reprogramming finds its niche p.301
Production of blood stem cells from reprogrammed adult cells is notoriously difficult. It emerges that a supportive microenvironment may be crucial for their efficient generation. See Article p.312
doi: 10.1038/nature13516
Analysis
A deep crust–mantle boundary in the asteroid 4 Vesta p.303
Data on Vesta’s surface material provided by the Dawn probe and impacts modelling reveals that Vesta’s crust–mantle boundary must be deeper than 80 kilometres below the surface.
doi: 10.1038/nature13499
Articles
Genetics of ecological divergence during speciation p.307
Traits responsible for recent niche divergence between sympatric threespine stickleback species are subjected to forward genetic analysis; additive variation at several loci across the genome accounts for most of the genetic basis of ecological divergence, with a further role for epistatic interactions that disadvantage hybrids.
doi: 10.1038/nature13301
Reprogramming human endothelial cells to haematopoietic cells requires vascular induction p.312
This study describes the conversion of human fetal and adult vascular endothelial cells into engraftable haematopoietic progenitors by transduction with some transcription factors and then culture on a vascular niche feeder layer; the haematopoietic progenitors may be useful for the generation of engraftable healthy and long-lasting haematopoietic cells for treatment of inherited and acquired blood disorders.
doi: 10.1038/nature13547
The cancer glycocalyx mechanically primes integrin-mediated growth and survival p.319
Metastatic cancer cells are shown to have a tendency towards forming a bulky glycocalyx owing to the production of large glycoproteins, and this cancer-associated glycocalyx has a mechanical effect on the spatial organization of integrins — by funnelling integrins into adhesions, integrin clustering and signalling is promoted, which leads to enhanced cell survival and proliferation.
doi: 10.1038/nature13535
Letters
Rapid formation of large dust grains in the luminous supernova 2010jl p.326
The formation of dust in the dense circumstellar medium of the bright supernova 2010jl is at first rapid and produces very large grains, which resist destruction, whereas later the dust production rate increases, meaning its source is ejecta; this links early and late dust mass evolution in supernovae with dense circumstellar media.
doi: 10.1038/nature13558
Ramp compression of diamond to five terapascals p.330
New laboratory techniques for applying enormous pressures allow diamond to be compressed to 50 million atmospheres, providing insight into the interiors of planets and theoretical implications.
doi: 10.1038/nature13526
A low-cost non-toxic post-growth activation step for CdTe solar cells p.334
MgCl2 is shown to be a cheap and non-toxic replacement for the costly and environmentally unfriendly salt CdCl2 that has long been used as the ‘activation’ step in the production of cadmium telluride solar cells.
doi: 10.1038/nature13435
Pathway from subducting slab to surface for melt and fluids beneath Mount Rainier p.338
Magnetotelluric data from the state of Washington, USA, are used to image the fluid–melt phase of volcanic subduction in Mt Rainier, revealing fluid release at or near the top of the slab, and its migration into the overlying mantle.
doi: 10.1038/nature13493
Declines in insectivorous birds are associated with high neonicotinoid concentrations p.341
The water concentrations of imidacloprid, a neonicotinoid pesticide, correlate with declines in farmland bird populations in the Netherlands.
doi: 10.1038/nature13531
Genome sequencing identifies major causes of severe intellectual disability p.344
Whole-genome sequencing is used to identify genetic alterations in patients with severe intellectual disability for whom all other tests, including array and exome sequencing, returned negative results; de novo single-nucleotide and copy number variations affecting the coding region seem to be a major cause of this disorder.
doi: 10.1038/nature13394
Engineering a memory with LTD and LTP p.348
A rodent study using optogenetics to induce long-term potentiation and long-term depression provides a causal link between synaptic plasticity and memory.
doi: 10.1038/nature13294
ABCB5 is a limbal stem cell gene required for corneal development and repair p.353
The loss of limbal stem cells (LSCs) due to injury or disease is one of the leading causes of blindness; here, the ABCB5 protein is identified as a marker of LSCs in mouse and human eye, and shown to be functionally required for LSC maintenance, corneal development and repair.
doi: 10.1038/nature13426
WNT7A and PAX6 define corneal epithelium homeostasis and pathogenesis p.358
p63 and PAX6 act to specify limbal stem or progenitor cells (LSCs), and WNT7A controls corneal epithelium differentiation through PAX6; loss of WNT7A or PAX6 induces LSCs into epithelium, and transduction of PAX6 in skin epithelial stem cells converts them to LSC-like cells and transplantation in a rabbit corneal injury model can replenish corneal epithelial cells and repair damaged corneal surface.
doi: 10.1038/nature13465
BRCA2 prevents R-loop accumulation and associates with TREX-2 mRNA export factor PCID2 p.362
BRCA2, the breast cancer susceptibility gene factor, interacts with TREX-2, a protein complex involved in the biogenesis and export of messenger ribonucleoprotein, to process DNA–RNA hybrid structures called R-loops that can trigger genome instability; these may be a central cause of the stress occurring in early cancer cells that drives oncogenesis.
doi: 10.1038/nature13374
The structural basis of transfer RNA mimicry and conformational plasticity by a viral RNA p.366
RNA molecules can perform multiple functions, which can be driven by different conformational states; here, the crystal structure of the transfer-RNA-like structure of the turnip yellow mosaic virus is solved, providing insight into the structural basis of RNA multifunctionality.
doi: 10.1038/nature13378
