Volume 500 Number 7461

Editorials

H7N9鳥インフルエンザウイルスを研究用に作製して、公衆衛生に役立てようとする試みに対しては、リスクの慎重な評価と正当化が必要だ。

Handle with care p.121

The possibility that H7N9 avian influenza may evolve sufficiently to cause a pandemic has scientists turning again to controversial research —they must be careful how they justify the risks taken.

doi: 10.1038/500121a

生体試料を研究目的に提供した者に対して、利用状況などの情報を開示する機会を充実させるべきだ。

Blood ties p.121

Scientists should give donors more information about how their biospecimens are used.

doi: 10.1038/500121b

News

トルコの科学者に対する有罪判決に関して、誤審という外部調査報告が。

Scientists swept up in terrorism trials p.129

Turkish government ignores calls that trials are unfair.

doi: 10.1038/500129a

実験動物を最も安楽に死なせる方法に関するコンセンサス形成の、新たな試みが。

Best way to kill lab animals sought p.130

Researchers debate most humane methods of dispatch.

doi: 10.1038/500130a

スクイーズド光により、量子雑音を低減させるという手法が。

Squeezed light mutes quantum noise p.131

Silicon zip reduces energy fluctuations in laser beams to improve sensitivity of optical motion sensors.

doi: 10.1038/500131a

NIHが、HeLa細胞の提供者ヘンリエッタ・ラックスの遺族との間に絆を。

Deal done over HeLa cell line p.132

Family of Henrietta Lacks agrees to release of genomic data.

doi: 10.1038/500132a

周囲の降着円盤から放射されるX線により、ブラックホールの回転速度を算出しようという試みが。

Spin rate of black holes pinned down p.135

Calculation offers way to probe galactic evolution.

doi: 10.1038/500135a

News Features

気候科学:譲れない一線

Climate science: A line in the sands p.136

カナダから米国へタールサンドを運ぶキーストーンXLパイプラインの建設計画に関して、科学者の見解が分かれており、この建設計画をめぐる論争の深層を探った。

doi: 10.1038/500136a

エキゾチック光学:メタマテリアルの世界

Exotic optics: Metamaterial world p.138

奇妙な光学特性を有する人工構造体が、次々と商業化への道を歩んでおり、高感度アンテナ、マイクロ波画像を撮像するカメラ、平面レンズなどの事例を紹介する。

doi: 10.1038/500138a

News & Views

神経科学:視覚回路の正確な地図

Neuroscience: Accurate maps of visual circuitry p.154

脳は極めて複雑であり、小型の神経回路にすら数百個のニューロンを含んでいて、それらが数千個に及ぶ結合を形成している。接続の解析と光学的解析によって、このような回路の2つについて詳しい地図が得られた。

doi: 10.1038/500154a

太陽系:エンセラダスのプリュームは土星の潮汐力によって制御されている

Solar system: Saturn's tides control Enceladus' plume p.155

カッシーニ探査機によって得られたデータから、土星の衛星であるエンセラダスの南極で噴出している氷の粒子のプリュームは、エンセラダスが土星から最も遠い位置にある時には、最も近い位置にある時のほぼ4倍の明るさになることが分かった。

doi: 10.1038/nature12462

生化学:需要が少ない時に過剰を削る

Biochemistry: Curbing the excesses of low demand p.157

代謝過程は最終産物の相対的な必要度によって調節されているが、需要が極めて少ない場合にはこの制御機構が働かなくなる可能性がある。需要が少ない場合に対処する安全機構が細菌で見つかった。

doi: 10.1038/nature12461

進化生物学:上手な細工

Evolutionary biology: The handiwork of tinkering p.158

胚での四肢の発生の際に働く調節性DNA塩基配列を、ヒト、マカクザルとマウスで比較することにより、調節活性が増強された数千の部位が明らかになった。これらは、ヒトに特徴的な解剖学的性質の進化を推進した可能性がある。

doi: 10.1038/500158a

気候科学:氷河時代の謎について考えられた説明

Climate science: Solution proposed for ice-age mystery p.159

太陽放射がピークだった期間に相当する1万年前に氷床は後退したが、このピークはその前のピークよりは小さかった。モデル研究によって、この時期に氷床が異例に解けやすかった理由が説明された。

doi: 10.1038/500159a

古生物学:ジュラ紀化石と哺乳動物の古さ

Palaeontology: Jurassic fossils and mammalian antiquity p.160

新たに見つかった2個のジュラ紀の化石によって、哺乳類の系統樹について相反する再構築像が得られた。これらの相異なる系譜は、哺乳類の起源と初期の多様化に対して、根本的に異なる意味を持つ。

doi: 10.1038/500160a

Articles

進化:ジュラ紀の哺乳形類と、哺乳類の最も初期の進化的適応

A Jurassic mammaliaform and the earliest mammalian evolutionary adaptations p.163

Haramiyids were Mesozoic era animals that until now have been identified only from their distinctive teeth, and are thought to be related to the better-known multituberculates: here the authors describe a haramiyid that is very primitive in terms of its jaw and ankle characteristics, suggesting a lack of relationship to the multituberculates.

doi: 10.1038/nature12429

神経科学:マウス網膜の内網状層のコネクトミクスによる再構築

Connectomic reconstruction of the inner plexiform layer in the mouse retina p.168

Improved electron microscopy methods are used to map a mammalian retinal circuit of close to 1,000 neurons; the work reveals a new type of retinal bipolar neuron and suggests functional mechanisms for known visual computations.

doi: 10.1038/nature12346

神経科学:ショウジョウバエのコネクトミクスが示唆する視覚運動検出回路

A visual motion detection circuit suggested by Drosophila connectomics p.175

Reconstruction of a connectome within the fruitfly visual medulla, containing more than 300 neurons and over 8,000 chemical synapses, reveals a candidate motion detection circuit; such a circuit operates by combining displaced visual inputs, an operation consistent with correlation based motion detection.

doi: 10.1038/nature12450

Letters

宇宙:エンセラダスにおけるプリューム活動と潮汐応力の間に観測された相関関係

An observed correlation between plume activity and tidal stresses on Enceladus p.182

The plume at the south pole of Enceladus is several times brighter when that moon is near the apocentre of its eccentric orbit around Saturn than when it is near its orbital pericentre, showing that more material appears to be escaping from beneath Enceladus’ surface at times when models predict its fissures should be under tension.

doi: 10.1038/nature12371

光学:シリコン微小機械共振器からのスクイーズド光

Squeezed light from a silicon micromechanical resonator p.185

Quantum fluctuations of a laser are transferred onto the motion of a mechanical resonator and interfere with the fluctuations of the light reflected from the resonator, leading to ‘squeezed’ light with optical noise suppressed below the standard quantum limit.

doi: 10.1038/nature12307

気候:日射量変化が駆動する10万年周期の氷期サイクルと氷床体積のヒステリシス

Insolation-driven 100,000-year glacial cycles and hysteresis of ice-sheet volume p.190

Comprehensive climate and ice-sheet models show that insolation and internal feedbacks between the climate, the ice sheets and the lithosphere–asthenosphere system explain the 100,000-year period on which the Northern Hemisphere ice sheets grow and shrink.

doi: 10.1038/nature12374

生態:Thioplocaとアナモックス細菌との共生コンソーシアムは、無酸素性海洋堆積物中での窒素消失を促進する

Nitrogen losses in anoxic marine sediments driven by Thioploca–anammox bacterial consortia p.194

A novel symbiotic consortium is described between two chemolithotrophic bacteria — anaerobic ammonium-oxidizing (anammox) bacteria and the nitrate-sequestering sulphur-oxidizing Thioploca species — in anoxic sediments of the Soledad basin at the Mexican Pacific margin.

doi: 10.1038/nature12365

進化:新たな樹上性ハラミヤ類の化石はジュラ紀のクラウン哺乳類の多様性を示す

A new arboreal haramiyid shows the diversity of crown mammals in the Jurassic period p.199

Suggestions that haramiyids were related to multituberculates are substantiated with the first discovery of a haramiyid skeleton from the Jurassic period of China; recalibrating evolutionary relationships, this finding means that the lineage leading to placentals and marsupial mammals was distinct in the Triassic period, more than 200 million years ago.

doi: 10.1038/nature12353

分子進化学:代謝系で外適応によって進化上の新機軸が生じるための潜在能力

A latent capacity for evolutionary innovation through exaptation in metabolic systems p.203

A computational analysis of the ability of a metabolic reaction network to synthesize all biomass from a single source of carbon and energy shows that when such networks are required to be viable on one particular carbon source, they are typically also viable on multiple other carbon sources that were not targets of selection.

doi: 10.1038/nature12301

遺伝学:異数性HeLaがん細胞株のハプロタイプが分解されたゲノムおよびエピゲノム

The haplotype-resolved genome and epigenome of the aneuploid HeLa cancer cell line p.207

Haplotype-resolved whole-genome sequencing of the HeLa CCL-2 strain shows that HeLa is relatively stable in terms of point variation; integration of several data sets reveals strong, haplotype-specific activation of the proto-oncogene MYC by the human papilloma virus type 18 genome, and enables the relationship between gene dosage and expression to be examined.

doi: 10.1038/nature12064

神経科学:ショウジョウバエの動き検出器(EMD)の方向性同調マップ

A directional tuning map of Drosophila elementary motion detectors p.212

This study uses calcium imaging to show that T4 and T5 neurons are divided in specific subpopulations responding to motion in four cardinal directions, and are specific to ON versus OFF edges, respectively; when either T4 or T5 neurons were genetically blocked, tethered flies walking on air-suspended beads failed to respond to the corresponding visual stimuli.

doi: 10.1038/nature12320

発生:三次元培養下での多能性幹細胞からの内耳感覚上皮の作出

Generation of inner ear sensory epithelia from pluripotent stem cells in 3D culture p.217

A new approach has been developed in order to achieve the stepwise differentiation of inner ear sensory epithelia from mouse embryonic stem cells in a three-dimensional culture: this process, which mimics normal development and produces cells that have functional characteristics of mechanosensitive hair cells, is hoped to provide further insights into inner ear development and disorder.

doi: 10.1038/nature12298

遺伝学:ビタミンCはES細胞でTet依存的なDNA脱メチル化および胚盤胞様状態を誘導する

Vitamin C induces Tet-dependent DNA demethylation and a blastocyst-like state in ES cells p.222

Vitamin C is a direct regulator of Tet enzyme activity and DNA methylation fidelity in mouse ES cells; addition of vitamin C promotes Tet activity, increases 5-hydroxymethlycytosine (5hmC) and DNA demethylation of many gene promoters, upregulates demethylated germline genes, and induces a state that more closely approximates that of the inner cell mass of the blastocyst.

doi: 10.1038/nature12362

構造生物学:新規なヒトコロナウイルスMERS-CoVとその受容体CD26間の結合の分子基盤

Molecular basis of binding between novel human coronavirus MERS-CoV and its receptor CD26 p.227

MERS-CoV is a newly emerged coronavirus that is related to SARS-CoV and has proven fatal in half of the people it has infected to date: here the crystal structure of the MERS-CoV receptor binding domain is presented in complex with its receptor on human cells, CD26.

doi: 10.1038/nature12328

免疫:ヒト微生物叢から合理的に選択したクロストリジウム株の混合物によるTregの誘導

Treg induction by a rationally selected mixture of Clostridia strains from the human microbiota p.232

This study identifies 17 strains of human-derived Clostridia capable of inducing the accumulation and functional maturation of regulatory T cells; it is suggested that these strains may be useful candidates for the future development of oral bacterial therapeutics to treat human inflammatory disorders.

doi: 10.1038/nature12331

生化学:ピリミジンの恒常性は、統制型オーバーフロー代謝によって維持されている

Pyrimidine homeostasis is accomplished by directed overflow metabolism p.237

Here, the authors identify a previously unknown regulatory strategy used by Escherichia coli to control end-product levels of the pyrimidine biosynthetic pathway: this involves feedback regulation of the near-terminal pathway enzyme UMP kinase, with accumulation of UMP prevented by its degradation to uridine through UmpH, a phosphatase with a previously unknown function.

doi: 10.1038/nature12445

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