Editorials
With birth defects blamed on the virus now deemed a matter of international concern, researchers must work fast to assess the extent of the threat.
doi: 10.1038/530005a
The European Union has its issues, but a Brexit could spell problems for science.
doi: 10.1038/530006b
US policymakers must set aside their divisions and give climate research a much-needed boost.
doi: 10.1038/530006a
News
Organization says spike might be the result of heightened awareness because of possible link to Zika — but not everyone agrees.
doi: 10.1038/nature.2016.19259
If the United Kingdom leaves the EU, researchers throughout the bloc will feel the effects.
doi: 10.1038/530015a
Columbia courts philanthropic benefactors to support research in impacts and adaptation.
doi: 10.1038/nature.2016.19260
Industry and researchers push for ways to assess memory and concentration deficits.
doi: 10.1038/530017a
Team at Francis Crick Institute permitted to use CRISPR–Cas9 technology in embryos for early-development research.
doi: 10.1038/nature.2016.19270
Research clusters emerge as the big success of Germany’s Excellence Initiative — despite its focus on elite institutes.
doi: 10.1038/530018a
News Features
As Earth's dry zones shift rapidly polewards, researchers are scrambling to figure out the cause — and consequences.
doi: 10.1038/530020a
Rigid robots step aside — a new generation of squishy, stretchy machines is wiggling our way.
doi: 10.1038/530024a
News & Views
The water-splitting reaction is a promising route to renewable energy. Catalytic hotspots, and the best sites for co-catalyst placement, have now been pinpointed in a water-splitting catalyst, guiding future catalyst design. See Letter p.77
doi: 10.1038/530036a
Plots of survival against time for nematode worms in different conditions can be superimposed by rescaling the time axis. This observation has far-reaching implications for our understanding of the nature of ageing. See Letter p.103
doi: 10.1038/nature16873
The native structure of the protein α-synuclein, which is implicated in Parkinson's disease, is controversial. In-cell nuclear magnetic resonance now shows that it remains disordered when loaded into living cells. See Article p.45
doi: 10.1038/nature16871
The response of electrons in atoms to ultrashort optical light pulses has been probed by measuring the ultraviolet light emitted by the atoms. This reveals that a finite time delay occurs before the response. See Letter p.66
doi: 10.1038/530041a
Connective-tissue cells known as fibroblasts display an increasing spectrum of functions. Different fibroblast subtypes are now shown to either promote or suppress inflammation-associated intestinal cancers.
doi: 10.1038/530042a
doi: 10.1038/530043a
Articles
Atomic resolution in-cell NMR and EPR spectroscopy show that the human amyloid protein α-synuclein remains disordered within all mammalian cells tested, including neurons, and identifies which parts of the protein dynamically interact or remain shielded from the cytoplasm, thus counteracting aggregation under physiological cell conditions.
doi: 10.1038/nature16531
By examining viral sequences in lymphoid tissue from three HIV-1-infected individuals receiving drug therapy, the authors find phylogenetic evidence for ongoing virus replication, suggesting that the antiretroviral drug concentration in the lymphoid tissue is insufficient to fully suppress the virus; using a mathematical model, they further explain why drug resistance does not necessarily arise as a result.
doi: 10.1038/nature16933
Genomic studies of the paediatric brain tumour medulloblastoma have revealed four clinically distinct molecular subgroups; here active gene regulatory elements in 28 primary medulloblastoma tissues are mapped to reveal differentially regulated enhancers across the different subgroups, allowing insights into the transcription factors that characterize subgroup divergence and the cellular origin of the poorly characterized Group 3 and 4 subgroups.
doi: 10.1038/nature16546
Letters
The precise mass, bulk density, porosity and internal structure of the nucleus of comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko are calculated, on the basis of its gravity field, showing it to be dusty, homogeneous, low-density and highly porous.
doi: 10.1038/nature16535
Intense light pulses in the visible and adjacent spectral ranges with their energy mostly confined to a half wave cycle—optical attosecond pulses—are synthesized and used to measure the time it takes electrons to respond to light.
doi: 10.1038/nature16528
Electronic implants are often used in diagnosing and treating human illness, but permanent implants come with problems; here, devices are described that can sense temperature, pressure, pH or thermal characteristics, and—crucially—are fully resorbable by the body.
doi: 10.1038/nature16492
Using single-molecule fluorescence imaging of photoelectrocatalysis, the charge-carrier activities on single TiO2 nanorods and the corresponding water-oxidation photocurrent are mapped at high spatiotemporal resolution, revealing the best catalytic sites and the most effective sites for depositing an oxygen evolution catalyst.
doi: 10.1038/nature16534
Deformation experiments on lawsonite reveal that unstable fault slip occurs during dehydration reactions with continuous acoustic emission signals; this indicates the potential for unstable frictional sliding in natural lawsonite layers, which could possibly be the source of intermediate-depth earthquakes in cold subduction zones.
doi: 10.1038/nature16501
Historical assessment of nectar provision in the UK from the 1930s to 2007 shows an initial dramatic fall, but more recently nectar provision has increased; the diversity of nectar sources has fallen to the point that four species now produce half of the total UK nectar.
doi: 10.1038/nature16532
Robust phylogenetic analysis based on transcriptomes of Xenoturbella and acoelomorph worms shows that Xenacoelomorpha is an early bilaterian lineage forming the sister group to Nephrozoa.
doi: 10.1038/nature16520
Description of four new species of Xenoturbella and phylogenomic analyses, aligning Xenacoelomorpha as sister group to the rest of Bilateria, or as sister to Protostomia.
doi: 10.1038/nature16545
Lentivirus-based transgenic Macaca fascicularis monkeys are generated expressing the human MECP2 transgene in the brain, and they display behavioural alterations including changes in social interaction and increased anxiety; germline transmission of the transgene to the F1 offspring is shown, and these monkeys also had an altered social interaction phenotype.
doi: 10.1038/nature16533
A diverse range of molecular and genetic manipulations all alter lifespan distributions of Caenorhabditis elegans by an apparent stretching or shrinking of time.
doi: 10.1038/nature16550
An adeno-associated virus (AAV) receptor protein essential for AAV2 entry into cells is identified; AAV receptor binds directly to the virus, and its ablation renders a diverse range of mammalian cell types and mice resistant to infection by AAV of multiple serotypes.
doi: 10.1038/nature16465
Genome-wide binding profiles for eight different chromatin remodellers in mouse embryonic stem (ES) cells are determined at single nucleosome resolution; each remodeller binds at specific nucleosome positions relative to the start of genes, and the same remodeller acts as a positive or negative regulator of transcription depending on the promoter chromatin organization and epigenetic marking of the gene it binds.
doi: 10.1038/nature16505