Home-brew tests need regulation p.5
A US proposal to regulate medical diagnostics from individual labs reflects the tests’ growing complexity. Such guidance should be welcomed, not resisted.
doi: 10.1038/512005a
Volume 512 Number 7512
今週のハイライト
Cover Story: 成長因子：合理的に設計されたエンドキャップを種に育つ構造的に純粋な単層カーボンナノチューブ
生態学: 気候に対する植物の生産力の応答
進化: 歯の発生から進化をたどる
構造生物学: サリドマイドの二通りの作用機構
宇宙: Iax型超新星の前駆天体
量子物理学: 力を得つつある量子シミュレーション
免疫: インフラマソームに関係する関節リウマチモデル
医学: HIV1リザーバーは早期に形成される
がん: 大腸がんのトランスクリプトームの特徴
分子生物学: 胚発生におけるエンハンサー活性
目次
Editorial
News
Binary star to spill celestial secrets p.13
Close approach and violent interaction of stars in η Carinae system will provide rare insight into stellar enigma.
doi: 10.1038/512013a
Hidden bonus from vaccination p.14
Immunization against pneumococcus in Africa also reduces levels of antibiotic resistance.
doi: 10.1038/512014a
Open-access website gets tough p.17
Leading directory tightens listing criteria to weed out rogue journals.
doi: 10.1038/512017a
US big-data health network launches aspirin study p.18
PCORI clinical-research initiative will collect information on some 30 million people.
doi: 10.1038/512018a
News Features
Organic synthesis: THE ROBO-CHEMIST p.20
どんな有機化合物でも合成できる自動機械の開発競争が始まっており、化学を大きく変貌させる可能性がある。
doi: 10.1038/512020a
News & Views
Materials chemistry: Seeds of selective nanotube growth p.30
複数種の混合体でなく、一種類の単層カーボンナノチューブのみの合成を可能にする「シード（種子となる）」分子が作られた。これによってどんな種類のナノチューブであっても、純度の高いサンプルを用意できるようになりそうだ。
doi: 10.1038/512030a
Cancer: Directions for the drivers p.31
103人の患者に由来する大腸がん細胞と正常細胞との比較から腫瘍細胞での発現の仕方に違いのある遺伝子が数十個見つかった。これらの違いは、転写調節が変化した結果である。
doi: 10.1038/nature13649
Neurodegeneration: Alzheimer's disease under strain p.32
アルツハイマー病の原因となるアミロイドβタンパク質凝集体についての2つの研究から、凝集体のコンホメーションの違いによって、どのような系統のアルツハイマー病を発症するかが決まる可能性が明らかになった。これはプリオン病との類似性を示している。
doi: 10.1038/512032a
Astrophysics: Portrait of a doomed star p.34
星の中には熱核爆発を起こして超新星になるものがあるが、こうした爆発がどうして起こるのか、その理由の解明は、主に間接的な手がかりによっている。今回、このような爆発の珍しいクラスに属する前駆天体が直接観測されたようだ。
doi: 10.1038/512034a
HIV: Early treatment may not be early enough p.35
サル免疫不全ウイルスに曝露したわずか3日後に抗ウイルス療法を開始したサルでも、その後のウイルス複製のリバウンドが防止できないことが分かった。これは、ウイルスリザーバーが早期に確立されることを示唆している。
doi: 10.1038/nature13647
Evolution: Tooth structure re-engineered p.36
EDAタンパク質を欠損するマウスでは、正常な歯が持つ特徴が失われる。胎児期の歯にEDAを徐々に量を増しながら戻してやると、こうした歯の特徴が進化を模倣する段階的パターンで回復することが分かった。
doi: 10.1038/nature13651
Articles
Convergence of terrestrial plant production across global climate gradients p.39
Net primary production is affected by temperature and precipitation, but whether this is a direct kinetic effect on plant metabolism or an indirect ecological effect mediated by changes in plant age, plant biomass or growing season length is unclear — this study develops metabolic scaling theory to be able to answer this question and applies it to a global data set of plant productivity, concluding that it is indirect effects that explain the influence of climate on productivity, which is characterized by a common scaling relationship across climate gradients.
doi: 10.1038/nature13470
Replaying evolutionary transitions from the dental fossil record p.44
Gradual changes that occur to mammalian tooth morphology across evolutionary time were modeled in vitro and in vivo by modulation of signalling pathways in the mouse, and computer modelling was used to provide further analysis of the parameters influencing tooth morphology.
doi: 10.1038/nature13613
Structure of the DDB1–CRBN E3 ubiquitin ligase in complex with thalidomide p.49
The crystal structures of thalidomide and its derivatives bound to the E3 ligase subcomplex DDB1–CRBN are shown; these drugs are found to have dual functions, interfering with the binding of certain cellular substrates to the E3 ligase but promoting the binding of others, thereby modulating the degradation of cellular proteins.
doi: 10.1038/nature13527
Letters
A luminous, blue progenitor system for the type Iax supernova 2012Z p.54
The detection of the luminous, blue progenitor system of the type Iax supernova 2012Z suggests that this supernova was the explosion of a white dwarf accreting material from a helium-star companion.
doi: 10.1038/nature13615
Tunable spin–spin interactions and entanglement of ions in separate potential wells p.57
The ability of individual ions trapped in separate potential wells to simulate spin–spin interactions is demonstrated by tuning the Coulomb interaction between two ions, independently controlling their local wells and entangling their internal states with a fidelity of approximately 0.82.
doi: 10.1038/nature13565
Controlled synthesis of single-chirality carbon nanotubes p.61
Present preparation methods fail to meet fully the demand for structurally pure single-walled carbon nanotubes; surface-catalysed cyclodehydrogenation reactions are now shown to convert precursor molecules deposited on a platinum(111) surface into ultrashort nanotube seeds that can then be grown further into defect-free and structurally pure single-walled carbon nanotubes of single chirality.
doi: 10.1038/nature13607
A global ocean inventory of anthropogenic mercury based on water column measurements p.65
GEOTRACES sampling of deep water from the Atlantic, Pacific and Southern oceans allows an estimate of the amount (tripled in surface waters) and distribution (two-thirds increase in water less than a thousand metres deep) of anthropogenic mercury accumulating in the global ocean.
doi: 10.1038/nature13563
Negative regulation of the NLRP3 inflammasome by A20 protects against arthritis p.69
Pathogenesis of rheumatoid arthritis depends critically on the NLRP3 inflammasome/interleukin-1 signalling axis.
doi: 10.1038/nature13322
Rapid seeding of the viral reservoir prior to SIV viraemia in rhesus monkeys p.74
Reservoirs of virus infection represent the most important reason why HIV-1 cannot be cured with current antiretroviral drugs; now the refractory viral reservoir is shown to be seeded as early as 3 days after infection in a monkey model, even before the virus is detected in the blood.
doi: 10.1038/nature13594
Neuropathy of haematopoietic stem cell niche is essential for myeloproliferative neoplasms p.78
Myeloproliferative neoplasms are caused by mutations in the haematopoietic stem cell (HSC) compartment, and here the authors show that the HSC niche contributes to the pathogenesis; sympathetic innervation of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) is reduced in the bone marrow of patients, which leads to reduced MSC numbers and increased mutant HSC expansion, and restoring sympathetic regulation of MSCs with neuroprotective/sympathomimetic drugs prevents mutant HSC expansion.
doi: 10.1038/nature13383
PVT1 dependence in cancer with MYC copy-number increase p.82
Pvt1 overexpression in mice contributes to high Myc levels due to 8q24.21 gain and to MYC-driven tumorigenesis.
doi: 10.1038/nature13311
Putative cis-regulatory drivers in colorectal cancer p.87
Examination of allele-specific expression identifies 71 genes with excess somatic cis-regulatory effects in colorectal cancer (CRC), and 1,693 and 948 expression quantitative trait loci (eQTLs) in normal samples and tumours, respectively (with 36% of tumour eQTLs exclusive to CRC); tumour-specific eQTLs are more enriched for low CRC genome-wide association study P values and accumulate more somatic mutations than shared eQTLs, suggesting a role as germline-derived cancer regulatory drivers.
doi: 10.1038/nature13602
Genome-scale functional characterization of Drosophila developmental enhancers in vivo p.91
Systematically assaying the activity of 7,705 candidate enhancers during Drosophila embryogenesis shows that nearly half are active in the embryo and display dynamic spatial patterns during development; enhancer activity is matched to expression patterns of putative target genes and predictive cis-regulatory motifs are identified.
doi: 10.1038/nature13395
Enhancer loops appear stable during development and are associated with paused polymerase p.96
A high-resolution map of enhancer three-dimensional contacts during Drosophila embryogenesis shows that although local regulatory interactions are frequent, long-range interactions are also very common; unexpectedly, most interactions appear unchanged between tissues and across development and are formed prior to gene expression, indicating that transcription initiates from preformed enhancer–promoter loops, which are associated with paused polymerase.
doi: 10.1038/nature13417
Visualizing the kinetic power stroke that drives proton-coupled zinc(ii ) transport p.101
In the transport cycle of Yiip, zinc(ii) binding triggers a highly localized, all-or-nothing change of water accessibility to the transport site and an adjacent hydrophobic gate.
doi: 10.1038/nature13382
