Editorials
Researchers spot genes in an African mouse to identify the genetics of developmental patterning.
doi: 10.1038/539005b
Upheaval in the former superpower is bad for research and the wider world.
doi: 10.1038/539005a
An MP’s dismissive tweet that scientists have ‘no experience of the real world’ highlights a chasm in mutual understanding.
doi: 10.1038/539006a
News
Antarctic agreement follows years of failed discussions and represents the first major conservation effort in the high seas.
doi: 10.1038/nature.2016.20900
Many biologists are founding their own firms as venture capitalists show increased interest in science.
doi: 10.1038/539014a
DSCOVR’s computer may be suffering from radiation-induced glitches, months after it became the primary sentinel for incoming solar storms.
doi: 10.1038/nature.2016.20880
As gene editing opens doors, plant researchers are hamstrung by the need for better ways to slip their molecular tools into cells.
doi: 10.1038/539016a
Wolbachia-infected mosquitoes will be widely deployed in two South American cities to combat viral infections.
doi: 10.1038/nature.2016.20878
Joshua Gordon says that his focus at the National Institute of Mental Health will be on quick wins, brain circuits and mathematical rigour.
doi: 10.1038/nature.2016.20893
News Features
With prices for renewables dropping, many countries in Africa might leap past dirty forms of energy towards a cleaner future.
doi: 10.1038/539020a
News & Views
Monkeys have been observed pounding stones and unintentionally forming sharp-edged, tool-like fragments. This deliberate breakage raises questions about the evolution of intentional stone modification. See Letter p.85
doi: 10.1038/nature19484
Shortening of the ends of chromosomes limits a cell's lifespan. Some cancer cells avoid this fate through a mechanism called alternative lengthening of telomeres, molecular details of which have now been defined. See Article p.54
doi: 10.1038/nature19483
The discovery of a cascade of sound waves across many wavelengths in an ultracold atomic gas advances our understanding of turbulence in fluids governed by quantum mechanics. See Letter p.72
doi: 10.1038/539036a
A previously unknown way in which cells mark proteins for destruction has been found in bacteria — phosphorylation of the amino acid arginine targets proteins for degradation by protease enzymes. See Article p.48
doi: 10.1038/539038a
The sounds of words that represent particular meanings are usually thought to vary arbitrarily across languages. However, a large-scale study of languages finds that some associations between sound and meaning are widespread.
doi: 10.1038/nature20474
Physicists are hunting for a particle called the axion that could solve two major puzzles in fundamental physics. An ambitious study calculates the expected mass of this particle, which might reshape the experimental searches. See Letter p.69
doi: 10.1038/539040a
Articles
The structure of the bacterial toxin BinAB, which is used to combat mosquito-borne diseases, reveals pH-sensitive switches and carbohydrate-binding modules that may contribute to the larvicidal function of the toxin.
doi: 10.1038/nature19825
In Gram-positive bacteria, arginine phosphorylation by the McsB kinase functions as a general post-translational marker for Clp-mediated proteolysis.
doi: 10.1038/nature20122
Alternative lengthening of telomeres in cancer cells is initiated by a specialized replisome and noncanonical homologous recombination at damaged telomeres, culminating in the synthesis of long tracts of telomere DNA.
doi: 10.1038/nature20099
REXER, a new method that allows long sections of DNA to be inserted or replaced in the genome of the bacterium Escherichia coli, is used to investigate codon replacement schemes for the generation of synthetic genomes.
doi: 10.1038/nature20124
Letters
The unusual dark red coloration of Charon’s northern polar cap is shown to be produced from hydrocarbons that are cold-trapped from Pluto’s escaping atmosphere during winter.
doi: 10.1038/nature19340
The mass of the axion, a particle that is central to many dark-matter theories, is calculated via the equation of state of the Universe and the temperature dependence of the so-called topological susceptibility of quantum chromodynamics.
doi: 10.1038/nature20115
The gradual development of a turbulent cascade in a weakly interacting homogeneous Bose gas is observed on application of a periodic driving force.
doi: 10.1038/nature20114
The flavouring, perfume and pharmaceutical industries rely on the selective hydrogenation of α,β-unsaturated aldehydes to generate unsaturated alcohols; here, a new type of highly selective catalyst is described in which platinum nanoparticles are sandwiched between a core and a shell of a metal−organic framework.
doi: 10.1038/nature19763
Deformation experiments on bridgmanite indicate that it may be the main contributor to the shear wave anisotropy observed around several subducting plates.
doi: 10.1038/nature19777
Wild capuchin monkeys in Brazil deliberately break stones, unintentionally producing flakes similar to the ancient sharp-edged flakes characterized as intentionally produced Pliocene–Pleistocene hominin tools, although why they do so remains unclear.
doi: 10.1038/nature20112
The mutually exclusive expression of the Hoxa11 and Hoxa13 genes is required for pentadactyl (five-digit) limbs and is proposed to have contributed to the transition from several digits polydactyl (several-digit) limbs in the earliest tetrapods.
doi: 10.1038/nature19813
Drosophila sechellia, a species closely related to the model species Drosophila melanogaster, bypasses a premature stop codon in neuronal cells to express a functional olfactory receptor protein from an assumed pseudogene template.
doi: 10.1038/nature19824
A study of the early genetic diversity and history of the HIV-1 epidemic in North America through sequencing of eight full-length viral genomes from the 1970s.
doi: 10.1038/nature19827
Innate lymphoid cells (ILCs) functionally resemble T lymphocytes in cytotoxicity and cytokine production but lack antigen-specific receptors, and they are important regulators of immune responses and tissue homeostasis. ILCs are generated from common lymphoid progenitors, which are subsequently committed to innate lymphoid lineages in the α-lymphoid progenitor, early innate lymphoid progenitor, common helper innate lymphoid progenitor and innate lymphoid cell progenitor compartments. ILCs consist of conventional natural killer cells and helper-like cells (ILC1, ILC2 and ILC3). Despite recent advances, the cellular heterogeneity, developmental trajectory and signalling dependence of ILC progenitors are not fully understood. Here, using single-cell RNA-sequencing (scRNA-seq) of mouse bone marrow progenitors, we reveal ILC precursor subsets, delineate distinct ILC development stages and pathways, and report that high expression of programmed death 1 (PD-1hi) marked a committed ILC progenitor that was essentially identical to an innate lymphoid cell progenitor. Our data defined PD-1hiIL-25Rhi as an early checkpoint in ILC2 development, which was abolished by deficiency in the zinc-finger protein Bcl11b but restored by IL-25R overexpression. Similar to T lymphocytes, PD-1 was upregulated on activated ILCs. Administration of a PD-1 antibody depleted PD-1hi ILCs and reduced cytokine levels in an influenza infection model in mice, and blocked papain-induced acute lung inflammation. These results provide a perspective for exploring PD-1 and its ligand (PD-L1) in immunotherapy, and allow effective manipulation of the immune system for disease prevention and therapy.
doi: 10.1038/nature20105
Clear cell renal cell carcinoma, the most common form of kidney cancer, is usually linked to inactivation of the pVHL tumour suppressor protein and consequent accumulation of the HIF-2α transcription factor (also known as EPAS1). Here we show that a small molecule (PT2399) that directly inhibits HIF-2α causes tumour regression in preclinical mouse models of primary and metastatic pVHL-defective clear cell renal cell carcinoma in an on-target fashion. pVHL-defective clear cell renal cell carcinoma cell lines display unexpectedly variable sensitivity to PT2399, however, suggesting the need for predictive biomarkers to be developed to use this approach optimally in the clinic.
doi: 10.1038/nature19795
The HIF-2 antagonist PT2399 is tested in mice bearing tumourgrafts derived from human renal cell cancers to demonstrate its efficacy, identify markers of sensitivity and characterize its effects.
doi: 10.1038/nature19796
The structure of the VO subcomplex of yeast V-ATPase, solved by electron cryomicroscopy, reveals a new subunit and suggests a mechanism for the translocation of protons across membranes.
doi: 10.1038/nature19828