Volume 501 Number 7465

Editorials

国際的な兵器協定は完璧なものではないが、戦争の非人道性を軽減し、戦争を少しでも減らすための非常に重要な取り組みである。

The power of treaties p.5

International weapons conventions may not be perfect, but they are a vital mechanism for making wars less barbaric and less frequent — a cause that should galvanize scientists and others.

doi: 10.1038/501005a

福島第一原発の事故処理と研究について、日本は国際的な協力を求めるべきだ。

Nuclear error p.5

Japan should bring in international help to study and mitigate the Fukushima crisis.

doi: 10.1038/501005b

単純な鉄錯体に、世界のアンモニア供給を大きく変える可能性が秘められている。

The nitrogen fix p.6

A simple iron complex offers a chance to update how the global supply of ammonia is made.

doi: 10.1038/501006a

News

ブラジルのヨーロッパ南天天文台への参加費不払いで、超大型望遠鏡(ELT)計画に遅れが。

Brazil delays stargazing pact p.13

Reluctance to pay entrance fees stalls European Southern Observatory’s giant telescope.

doi: 10.1038/501013a

ヒマラヤ水系諸国が協力して、洪水増加など、気候変動による深刻な影響の研究を。

Floods spur mountain study p.14

Himalayan nations take action in response to changing climate and its deadly effects.

doi: 10.1038/501014a

サンフランシスコで、外来侵入種であるユーカリの管理と防災をめぐって激しい論争が。

Forest management plans in a tangle p.15

Conservation fight flares over invasive California eucalyptus.

doi: 10.1038/501015a

NASAは、ケプラー宇宙望遠鏡の復旧を断念したが、他の観測へ転用できないかを検討へ。

NASA ponders Kepler’s future p.16

Spacecraft could continue to hunt for planets — or take on alternative tasks, such as asteroid spotting.

doi: 10.1038/501016a

ビデオゲームに、加齢に伴う認知機能低下を改善する効果があることが明らかに。

Gaming improves multitasking skills p.18

Study reveals plasticity in age-related cognitive decline.

doi: 10.1038/501018a

News Features

システム生態学:外洋で生物学

Systems ecology: Biology on the high seas p.20

細胞を理解するために、世界の海を航海するという極端な行動に出た生物学者がいる。

doi: 10.1038/501020a

News & Views

自閉症:長い遺伝子で説明する

Autism: A long genetic explanation p.36

酵素のトポイソメラーゼはDNAのもつれをほどくことで遺伝子の転写を促進する。この酵素の機能が不調になると非常に長い遺伝子の発現がうまく行われなくなるらしい。これは、神経発達障害に関わっている可能性がある。

doi: 10.1038/nature12553

量子情報:量子の秘密を分かち合う

Quantum information: Sharing quantum secrets p.37

量子暗号法の費用効果の高いアーキテクチャーが、ネットワークのハブノードに置いた単一の受信機を多数のエンドユーザーが共有して秘密の暗号鍵を交換するという方式によって実現された。

doi: 10.1038/501037a

進化生物学:擬態はどこまでも

Evolutionary biology: Mimicry all the way down p.38

生物間で見られる形態的な模倣である擬態は、長い間適応戦略の1つと考えられてきた。だが、擬態は分子レベルでも起こる。明らかになりつつある1つの例は、病原微生物が構造を擬態することで宿主の細胞受容体に結合するというものだ。

doi: 10.1038/501038a

生物地球化学:夜と昼では大違い

Biogeochemistry: As different as night and day p.39

北半球の生態系の解析から、夜間の気温上昇の植物の成長への影響は、昼間の気温が上昇した場合とは逆であることが分かった。この知見は、炭素循環モデルに関わってくる。

doi: 10.1038/501039a

細胞生物学:視覚における再生利用

Cell biology: Recycling in sight p.40

視覚には、光褪色した色素の継続的な再生利用が必要である。変則的な分解経路であるオートファジーが、レチナール色素を含む上皮細胞でこの過程に関わっているらしい。

doi: 10.1038/501040a

免疫学:腸でのB細胞発生

Immunology: B-cell development in the gut p.42

B細胞は骨髄中で生じ、微生物感染を防御するための抗体を産生するようになる。意外なことに、B細胞の発生は腸でも起こっているようで、そこでは常在微生物によって発生が促進されることが分かった。

doi: 10.1038/nature12551

神経科学:細菌は神経をいらつかせる

Neuroscience: Bacteria get on your nerves p.43

感染が起こると、炎症性の免疫応答が侵害受容器神経を活性化して痛みを引き起こすことがある。細菌病原体の1つは、痛みを直接引き起こして、免疫応答を自分に有利な方向に調節することもしているらしい。

doi: 10.1038/nature12550

Review

神経科学:神経変性疾患における病原性タンパク質凝集体の自己増殖

Self-propagation of pathogenic protein aggregates in neurodegenerative diseases p.45

The prion paradigm – the hypothesis that the seeded aggregation of certain proteins is key to understanding age-related neurodegenerative disorders – is evaluated in relation to recent studies and disease models; the paradigm suggests a unifying pathogenic principle with broad relevance to a large class of currently intractable diseases.

doi: 10.1038/nature12481

Articles

神経科学:細菌は痛みと炎症を調節する感覚神経を活性化する

Bacteria activate sensory neurons that modulate pain and inflammation p.52

This study shows that most known mediators of immunity, such as TLR2, MyD88, T cells or B cells, and neutrophils and monocytes, are dispensable for pain produced by Staphylococcus aureus infection; instead, bacterial products, such as N-formylated peptides and α-haemolysin, induce pain by directly activating nociceptor neurons, which in turn modulate inflammation.

doi: 10.1038/nature12479

神経科学:トポイソメラーゼは自閉症と関連した長い遺伝子の転写を促進する

Topoisomerases facilitate transcription of long genes linked to autism p.58

Reducing topoisomerase activity in mouse and human neurons is found to reduce the expression of long genes by impairing transcription elongation: among genes affected are numerous high-confidence candidates for autism spectrum disorder.

doi: 10.1038/nature12504

病原微生物学:炭疽毒素に起因する致死性に重要な組織標的

Key tissue targets responsible for anthrax-toxin-induced lethality p.63

Cell-type-specific anthrax toxin receptor CMG2-null mice are generated and used to show that the Bacillus anthracis toxins lethal toxin (LT) and oedema toxin (ET) target distinct cell types; in contrast to previous suggestions, it is shown that endothelial cells are not key targets for either toxin and instead LT targets cardiomyocytes and vascular smooth muscle cells whereas ET targets hepatocytes.

doi: 10.1038/nature12510

Letters

量子情報科学:量子アクセスネットワーク

A quantum access network p.69

An experimental demonstration of the concept of a ‘quantum access network’ based on simple and cost-effective telecommunication technologies yields a viable method for realizing multi-user quantum key distribution networks with efficient use of resources.

doi: 10.1038/nature12493

物理学:量子ポイントコンタクトにおける「0.7異常」の微視的起源

Microscopic origin of the ‘0.7-anomaly’ in quantum point contacts p.73

The ‘0.7-anomaly’ — an unexpected feature in the conductance of a quantum point contact — is shown to originate in a smeared van Hove singularity in the local density of states at the bottom of the lowest one-dimensional subband of the point contact.

doi: 10.1038/nature12421

物理学:量子点接触における創発的(emergent)局在による奇数と偶数の近藤効果

Odd and even Kondo effects from emergent localization in quantum point contacts p.79

Electric conductance through a narrow constriction of width comparable to the electronic wavelength is quantized in units of 2e2/h, but a shoulder at around 0.7 of the conductance quantum is often present in measurements; detailed experiments now confirm that this effect is due to the emergence of localized states that result from many-body interactions between electrons in the constriction.

doi: 10.1038/nature12491

無機化学:モデル鉄錯体による窒素からアンモニアへの触媒変換

Catalytic conversion of nitrogen to ammonia by an iron model complex p.84

Catalysis of the reduction of nitrogen to ammonia under mild conditions by a tris(phosphine)borane-supported iron complex indicates that a single iron site may be capable of stabilizing the various NxHy intermediates generated during catalytic ammonia formation.

doi: 10.1038/nature12435

生物地球化学:北半球の植生に対する昼間と夜間の温暖化の非対称的な効果

Asymmetric effects of daytime and night-time warming on Northern Hemisphere vegetation p.88

Correlations between the maximum and minimum daily temperatures and a vegetation index in the Northern Hemisphere suggest that asymmetric diurnal warming (faster warming of the land surface during the night than during the day) produces several different vegetation and carbon storage effects.

doi: 10.1038/nature12434

進化:鳥類の脳の進化的起源

Evolutionary origins of the avian brain p.93

High-resolution computed tomography is used to compare cranial volumes of extant birds, the early avialan Archaeopteryx lithographica, and non-avian maniraptoran dinosaurs that are close to the origins of Avialae and avian flight; the cranial cavity of Archaeopteryx is not distinct from that of maniraptorans, suggesting that some non-avian maniraptorans may have had the neurological equipment required for flight.

doi: 10.1038/nature12424

神経科学:ビデオゲームによる訓練は高齢者の認知制御能力を高める

Video game training enhances cognitive control in older adults p.97

Training with a multitasking video game is shown to improve cognitive control abilities that decline with age, revealing the plasticity of the ageing brain; these behavioural improvements were accompanied by underlying neural changes that predicted the training-induced boost in sustained attention and enhanced multitasking performance 6 months later.

doi: 10.1038/nature12486

神経科学:抗プリオン抗体の毒性にはプリオンタンパク質の柔軟な尾部が介在している

The toxicity of antiprion antibodies is mediated by the flexible tail of the prion protein p.102

Biochemical and structural investigation of a model for prion-induced neurodegeneration—antibody binding to PrPC—reveals the role of the PrP flexible tail and reactive oxygen species in mediating toxicity.

doi: 10.1038/nature12402

医学:R-スポンジン1とSlit2による腸幹細胞の誘導は化学放射線防御を高める

Induction of intestinal stem cells by R-spondin 1 and Slit2 augments chemoradioprotection p.107

Evidence of crosstalk between the Robo/Slit and Wnt signalling pathways is provided, and R-spondin signalling is shown to enhance canonical Wnt signalling and increase the proliferation of intestinal stem cells.

doi: 10.1038/nature12416

免疫:腸管粘膜固有層における微生物の定着は初期B系列細胞の発生に影響する

Microbial colonization influences early B-lineage development in the gut lamina propria p.112

Primary B-cell development is thought to be restricted to the bone marrow; here it is shown to occur also in intestinal tissues of postnatal mice, that it peaks at the time of weaning and is increased upon colonization of germ-free mice, and is thus influenced by commensal microbes.

doi: 10.1038/nature12496

細胞生物学:小胞輸送と非小胞輸送は、ゴルジ体の異なる糖鎖付加経路への輸送を担う

Vesicular and non-vesicular transport feed distinct glycosylation pathways in the Golgi p.116

Glucosylceramide (GlcCer), a common precursor of different glycosphingolipids, is shown to be channelled to two distinct pathways in the Golgi; non-vesicular transport from the cis- to trans-Golgi network results in the synthesis of the globo series of glycosphingolipids, whereas vesicular transport is the main source of GlcCer for ganglioside synthesis in the Golgi cisternae.

doi: 10.1038/nature12423

生物物理:K+チャネルの不活性化からの遅い回復は水分子により制御される

Recovery from slow inactivation in K+ channels is controlled by water molecules p.121

A series of long molecular dynamics simulations shows that the K+ channel is sterically locked in the inactive conformation by buried water molecules bound behind the selectivity filter; a kinetic model deduced from the simulations shows how releasing the buried waters can elongate the timescale of the recovery period, and this hypothesis is confirmed using ‘wet’ biophysical experiments.

doi: 10.1038/nature12395

「Journal home」に戻る

プライバシーマーク制度