The ugly truth is that the plastic microbeads found in many skin scrubs and other personal-care products are a serious pollutant of the marine environment. They should be phased out rapidly.
doi: 10.1038/525425a
The replacement of mitochondria does not signal ethical problems.
doi: 10.1038/525425b
Reanalysis of the controversy provides a strong example of the self-correcting nature of science.
doi: 10.1038/525426a
Educational void risks hampering reconstruction in Middle East.
doi: 10.1038/525433a
Sustainable development goals aim to wipe out poverty without wrecking the environment.
doi: 10.1038/525434a
Treatment of developing brains offers greater scope for improvement but also intensifies risks.
doi: 10.1038/525436a
Prime Minister Stephen Harper's government has cut funding and limited researchers' influence over policy.
doi: 10.1038/nature.2015.18381
Observatory will extend the capabilities of existing US and European facilities, and boost Indian research.
doi: 10.1038/525438a
Pair will focus on resolving financial issues after controversial failed merger.
doi: 10.1038/nature.2015.18391
納税や医療、福祉などの行政管理データは科学者にとって宝の山だが、プライバシーを確実に守れることが大前提となる。
doi: 10.1038/525440a
細胞の「発電所」ミトコンドリアの担う役割は予想以上に多い可能性があり、これがミトコンドリア置換療法にも関わってくる恐れがある。
doi: 10.1038/525444a
パーキンソン病患者の脳内で凝集するタンパク質であるα-シヌクレインが作る集合体のコア領域の構造が超高分解能で決定された。神経生物学と構造生物学をそれぞれ専門とする研究者2人にこの進展の意味するところを論じてもらった。
doi: 10.1038/nature15630
1回の暴風雨によって暗い深海から太陽光が当たる海洋表面へと巻き上げられる栄養素の量が船舶と海洋観測ロボットを使って定量された。これは暴風雨が海洋のバイオマス生産にどのような影響を与えるかを評価するための第一歩である。
doi: 10.1038/525460a
ヒト心臓の組織は損傷を受けた後に再生する能力が非常に低い。だが、普段は心外膜領域で発現されているタンパク質のFstl1が、心臓発作後の再生を誘導することが明らかにされた。
doi: 10.1038/nature15217
本来、中性子は軌道角運動量を持たない。しかし、光子が軌道角運動量を持つことが明らかになってから23年後の今、中性子ビームがこの特性を獲得できることが実証された。これは画像化技術の向上を期待させる結果である。
doi: 10.1038/525462a
親の卵あるいは精子中で染色体シャッフリングが起こると、次の世代に全く新しい特徴が生じることがある。ショウジョウバエでは、寄生生物に感染した母親からはこうした組換えを持つ子孫が、未感染の母親に比べて多く生まれるらしい。
doi: 10.1038/525464a
最も明るい銀河が形成される仕組みは謎だったが、その解明が近づいているようだ。新たに行われたシミュレーションによって、このような銀河は長寿命の大質量銀河で、大量のガスの落下と超新星が駆動するアウトフローの再利用によってエネルギーを獲得していることが示された。
doi: 10.1038/525465a
クローン起源のアブラヤシでは、こうした起源にもかかわらず、一部の木が油のほとんど採れない果実をつけることがある。Karmaと呼ばれるDNA領域に結合しているメチル基の数によって、こうした欠陥のある木を判別できることが明らかになった。
doi: 10.1038/nature15216
In response to the need for a defined set of criteria to assess stem-cell potency, this review proposes guidelines for the evaluation of newly derived pluripotent stem cells, from functional assays to integrative molecular analyses of transcriptional, epigenetic and metabolic states.
doi: 10.1038/nature15515
The secreted factor follistatin-like 1 (FSTL1) becomes undetectable in the epicardium of infarcted hearts; when reconstituted using a collagen patch sutured onto an infarcted heart, FSTL1 can induce cell cycle entry and division of pre-existing cardiomyocytes, thus boosting heart function and survival in mouse and pig models of myocardial infarction.
doi: 10.1038/nature15372
A short segment of α-synuclein called NACore (residues 68–78) is responsible for the formation of amyloid aggregates responsible for cytotoxicity in Parkinson disease; here the nanocrystal structure of this invisible-to-optical-microscopy segment is determined using micro-electron diffraction, offering insight into its function and simultaneously demonstrating the first use of micro-electron diffraction to solve a previously unknown protein structure.
doi: 10.1038/nature15368
The cryo-electron microscopy structure of the eukaryotic initiation factor 3 (eIF3) within the larger 43S complex is determined; the improved resolution enables visualization of the secondary structures of the subunits, as well as the contacts between eIF3 and both eIF2 and DHX29.
doi: 10.1038/nature14891
Submillimetre-bright galaxies at high redshift are the most luminous, heavily star-forming galaxies in the Universe, but cosmological simulations of such galaxies have so far been unsuccessful; now a cosmological hydrodynamic galaxy formation simulation is reported that can form a submillimetre galaxy that simultaneously satisfies the broad range of observed physical constraints.
doi: 10.1038/nature15383
Observations of water ice on the surface of comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko show the ice appearing and disappearing in a cyclic pattern that follows local illumination conditions, providing a source of localized activity and leading to cycling modification of the ice abundance on the surface.
doi: 10.1038/nature14869
Interferometry reveals quantized changes in the angular momentum of neutrons that have been ‘twisted’ by passage through a spiral staircase structure.
doi: 10.1038/nature15265
The complex anti-HIV alkaloid (+)-batzelladine B is efficiently synthesized by using aromatic heterocycles as synthetic precursors.
doi: 10.1038/nature14902
A 2,000-kilometre-long volcanic hotspot track is identified in eastern Australia, along which magma composition and volcanic outcrop show a strong correlation with lithospheric thickness, providing an observational constraint on the sub-continental melting depth of mantle plumes.
doi: 10.1038/nature14903
Species’ range dynamics depend not only on their ability to track climate, but also on the migration of their competitors, and the extent to which novel and current competitors exert differing competitive effects.
doi: 10.1038/nature14952
Sexual dimorphism in neuronal circuits is proposed to underlie sex differences in behaviour, such as virgin female mice acting maternally toward alien pups, while males ignore or attack them; here the authors show that specific tyrosine hydroxylase-expressing neurons in the hypothalamus are more numerous in mothers than in virgin females and males, and that they control parental behaviour in a sex-specific manner.
doi: 10.1038/nature15378
This study shows that a vertebrate-specific ubiquitin ligase modulates neural crest specification in Xenopus development and human embryonic stem-cell differentiation; a proteomics approach reveals that the CUL3KBTBD8 ligase modulates translation by targeting the modulators of ribosomes production NOLC1 and its paralogue TCOF1, which is mutated in a neural-crest-associated syndrome.
doi: 10.1038/nature14978
Neutrophil ageing, which encourages inflammation and vaso-occlusion in a mouse model of sickle-cell disease, is shown to depend on the intestinal microbiota and activation of the TLR/Myd88 signalling pathways.
doi: 10.1038/nature15367
The oil palm fruit ‘mantled’ abnormality is a somaclonal variant that markedly reduces yield; here, a genome-wide DNA methylation analysis finds that hypomethylation of a single Karma family retrotransposon embedded in a homeotic gene intron is common to all mantled clones and is associated with aberrant splicing and termination of the gene transcript, and that loss of methylation predicts a loss of oil palm yield.
doi: 10.1038/nature15365
BET inhibitors that target bromodomain chromatin readers such as BRD4 are being explored as potential therapeutics in cancer; here, in a MLL–AF9 mouse leukaemia model, resistance to BET inhibitors is shown to emerge from leukaemia stem cells, and be partly due to increased Wnt/β-catenin signalling.
doi: 10.1038/nature14888
BET bromodomain inhibitors are being explored as potential therapeutics in cancer; here, AML cells are shown to evade sensitivity to BET inhibition through rewiring the transcriptional regulation of BRD4 target genes such as MYC in a process that is facilitated by suppression of PRC2 and WNT signalling activation.
doi: 10.1038/nature14898
Microorganisms can export toxic fluoride ions through highly selective channels of the Fluc family; here, the crystal structures of two bacterial Fluc homologues are presented, revealing that selectivity for small F− ions may arise from the proteins’ narrow pores and unusual anion coordination.
doi: 10.1038/nature14981
