Volume 501 Number 7468

Editorials

海洋科学分野では増大する維持管理費が予算を圧迫するようになっており、米国立科学財団(NSF)は、大規模プロジェクトを助成する際には長期的な視点を持つべきだ。

Counting the cost p.461

As more and more of its ocean-sciences budget is eaten up by operational and maintenance costs, the US National Science Foundation should learn to take a long view when investing in major projects.

doi: 10.1038/501461a

メルケル首相の下でドイツの科学は好調だが、三期目の政権では大学への助成の問題に優先的に取り組む必要がある。

Time for change p.461

Angela Merkel needs to tackle the issue of Germany’s uneven university funding.

doi: 10.1038/501461b

博物館からの先住民の遺骨返還は大きな流れになっているが、不適切な返還要求から博物館を守ることも重要だ。

Homes for bones p.462

A dispute over the skull of an Italian cheese thief highlights the enduring debate over repatriation.

doi: 10.1038/501462a

News

米国の海洋掘削研究に、予算問題の荒波が。

Drilling hit by budget woes p.469

US funding for research vessel uncertain as international programme reorganizes.

doi: 10.1038/501469a

実在しない著者が研究論文を出すという謎めいた不正行為に、同じ分野の研究者が当惑。

Mystery over obesity ‘fraud’ p.470

Researcher baffled after his results appear in bogus paper.

doi: 10.1038/501470a

特許の収益化の難しさで、米国の大学が倫理的ジレンマに。

Universities struggle to make patents pay p.471

Surfeit of unlicensed intellectual property pushes research institutions into unseemly partnerships.

doi: 10.1038/501471a

科学研究に使われるコンピュータープログラムのバグを防ぐため、Mozilla社が名乗りを。

Mozilla plan seeks to debug scientific code p.472

Software experiment raises prospect of extra peer review.

doi: 10.1038/501472a

電子タバコをめぐって、健康への影響やその規制のあり方について、さまざまな見方が。

Regulation stacks up for e-cigarettes p.473

Devices may be the ‘healthy’ future of smoking — or a menace.

doi: 10.1038/501473a

鉄化合物の結晶が、室温超伝導体への期待が再燃するきっかけに。

Interface superconductivity found in single crystal p.474

Iron-based compound revives search for room-temperature superconductors.

doi: 10.1038/501474a

Features

バイオテクノロジー:エンジン始動

Biotechnology: The start-up engine p.476

Third Rock Ventures made its name by placing big bets on the biotechnology companies it launched. Now, everyone is waiting for the pay-off.

doi: 10.1038/501476a

海の科学:海洋学の10億ドルの宝物

Marine science: Oceanography's billion-dollar baby p.480

A mammoth undersea US project will soon start streaming data to researchers. But some wonder whether the system is worth its high price.

doi: 10.1038/501480a

News & Views

生物多様性:温帯の生物多様性ホットスポット

Biodiversity: Temperate hotspots p.494

礁に生息する魚の全球的調査で得られた大量のデータを取り込むことで、生物の機能的多様性の新たなホットスポットが明らかになった。こうしたホットスポットは、全てが種数豊富というわけではない。この知見は、保全の優先順位に影響を与える可能性がある。

doi: 10.1038/501494a

エレクトロニクス:カーボンナノチューブコンピューターの到来

Electronics: The carbon-nanotube computer has arrived p.495

これまでに作られたカーボンナノチューブ製の電子デバイスの中で最も複雑なものが、今回実証された。このシステムは機能する汎用コンピューターで、新興電子材料の分野における大きな進歩を表している。

doi: 10.1038/501495a

地球科学:始生代のパラドックスを解く

Earth science: A resolution of the Archaean paradox p.496

初期地球のヒートパイプモデルでは、内部からの熱が火山というヒートパイプを通して表面に運ばれると考えられている。つまり、40億年前の地球は、現在の地球よりも木星の衛星であるイオの方と共通点が多かったようだ。

doi: 10.1038/501496a

物性物理学:量子磁石としての回転分子

Condensed-matter physics: Rotating molecules as quantum magnets p.497

格子内に束縛された離れた分子の間の相互作用によって引き起こされる制御されたダイナミクスの観測によって、量子多体系を極低温気体を使って操作し、調べる方法が画期的段階に到達した。

doi: 10.1038/nature12560

細胞生物学:2種類のオートファジー経路をつなぐパーキン

Cell biology: A table for two p.498

細胞の自食過程であるオートファジーは、さまざまな形式をとる。今回、そのうちの2つであるマイトファジーとゼノファジーが共に、開始タンパク質としてパーキンを使っていることが明らかになった。

doi: 10.1038/nature12555

Articles

地球:ヒートパイプ地球

Heat-pipe Earth p.501

A heat-pipe model of Earth, whereby interior heat is brought to the surface through localized channels, yields predictions that agree with craton data and the detrital zircon record, and offers a global geodynamic framework in which to explore Earth’s evolution before the onset of plate tectonics.

doi: 10.1038/nature12473

ゲノミクス:ヒトのトランスクリプトームとゲノムの塩基配列解読から明らかになった機能的変異

Transcriptome and genome sequencing uncovers functional variation in humans p.506

Sequencing and deep analysis of mRNA and miRNA from lymphoblastoid cell lines of 462 individuals from the 1000 Genomes Project reveal widespread genetic variation affecting the regulation of most genes, with transcript structure and expression level variation being equally common but genetically largely independent, and the analyses point to putative causal variants for dozens of disease-associated loci.

doi: 10.1038/nature12531

免疫:ユビキチンリガーゼであるパーキンは細胞内病原体に対する抵抗性をもたらす

The ubiquitin ligase parkin mediates resistance to intracellular pathogens p.512

Mutations in the ubiquitin ligase parkin are associated with increased susceptibility to Parkinson’s disease; parkin is already known to have a role in mitophagy and this work identifies a new innate immunity role for parkin in ubiquitin-mediated autophagy of intracellular bacterial pathogens.

doi: 10.1038/nature12566

Letters

宇宙:連星系のミリ秒パルサーにおける回転による駆動と降着による駆動の間の揺れ動き

Swings between rotation and accretion power in a binary millisecond pulsar p.517

A neutron star with a low mass companion star was observed at different times as a millisecond pulsar powered either by the rotation of its magnetic field or by the accretion of mass, demonstrating the evolutionary link between these two classes of pulsars, and probing the short timescales on which the transitions between the two states may occur.

doi: 10.1038/nature12470

物理:格子に閉じ込められた極性分子を用いた双極子スピン交換相互作用の観測

Observation of dipolar spin-exchange interactions with lattice-confined polar molecules p.521

In a step towards developing a system in which to study quantum magnetism, the long-range dipolar interactions of polar molecules pinned in a three-dimensional optical lattice are used to realize a lattice spin model.

doi: 10.1038/nature12483

電子工学:カーボンナノチューブコンピューター

Carbon nanotube computer p.526

A computer built entirely using transistors based on carbon nanotubes, which is capable of multitasking and emulating instructions from the MIPS instruction set, is enabled by methods that overcome inherent challenges with this new technology.

doi: 10.1038/nature12502

有機化学:ベンザインへの協奏的二重水素原子転移によるアルカン不飽和化

Alkane desaturation by concerted double hydrogen atom transfer to benzyne p.531

Benzynes are capable of concerted removal of two vicinal hydrogen atoms from a hydrocarbon, a discovery enabled by the thermal generation of reactive benzyne intermediates through the hexadehydro-Diels–Alder cycloisomerization reaction of triyne substrates.

doi: 10.1038/nature12492

地球:30億年前の大気酸素化

Atmospheric oxygenation three billion years ago p.535

The distribution of chromium isotopes and redox-sensitive metals in the Nsuze palaeosol and in the Ijzermyn iron formation from the Pongola Supergroup, in South Africa, suggests that there were appreciable levels of atmospheric oxygen about three billion years ago, some 300–400 million years earlier than previous indications for Earth surface oxygenation.

doi: 10.1038/nature12426

生態:個体数と機能的形質を統合することで明らかになった、全球の新しい魚類多様性ホットスポット

Integrating abundance and functional traits reveals new global hotspots of fish diversity p.539

Global reef fish diversity is studied with metrics incorporating species abundances and functional traits; these identify diversity hotspots corresponding to the diversity of functional traits amongst individuals in the community, and greater evenness in the abundance of reef fishes at higher latitudes, findings that contrast with patterns reported previously using traditional richness-based methods.

doi: 10.1038/nature12529

神経科学:視覚皮質で可塑性臨界期を開始させる微小回路の脱抑制

A disinhibitory microcircuit initiates critical-period plasticity in the visual cortex p.543

The role of parvalbumin (PV)-positive interneurons in ocular dominance plasticity (ODP) has been a point of contention; here PV-positive cells are shown to initiate competitive periods of plasticity during the critical periods of eye development when ODP occurs, and transient reductions in inhibitory firing from PV-positive cells provides a return to normal firing rates in excitatory neurons, a key step in ODP progression.

doi: 10.1038/nature12485

構造生物学:ABC型毒素のBC成分は、RHS反復配列含有タンパク質の収納装置である

The BC component of ABC toxins is an RHS-repeat-containing protein encapsulation device p.547

The crystal structure of the complex formed by the B and C toxin complex proteins is reported, revealing how toxin complexes are processed and protected; the proteins assemble to form a large hollow structure that sequesters the cytotoxic portion of the C protein, and a β-propeller domain mediates attachment to the A protein in the native ABC complex.

doi: 10.1038/nature12465

医学:ヒトから分離されたA型鳥インフルエンザウイルスH7N9の性状解析

Characterization of H7N9 influenza A viruses isolated from humans p.551

Here, biological attributes of two early human isolates of the newly emerged H7N9 influenza viruses are characterized: the potential of these viruses to infect and/or transmit within various animal models is discussed, as is their relative sensitivity to neuraminidase inhibitors and experimental polymerase inhibitors compared to an H1N1 pandemic strain.

doi: 10.1038/nature12392

医学:A型鳥インフルエンザウイルスH7N9のフェレットとマウスにおける病原性および伝播

Pathogenesis and transmission of avian influenza A (H7N9) virus in ferrets and mice p.556

The new H7N9 influenza virus, recently emerged in China, can replicate in human airway cells and in the respiratory tract of ferrets to a higher level than can seasonal H3N2 virus and shows higher lethality in mice than genetically related H7N9 and H9N2 viruses, but shows limited transmission in ferrets by respiratory droplets.

doi: 10.1038/nature12391

医学:A型インフルエンザウイルスH7N9のフェレット間での空気感染は限定的である

Limited airborne transmission of H7N9 influenza A virus between ferrets p.560

An investigation into the transmissibility of the H7N9 influenza A virus in ferrets finds that although the virus has some determinants associated with human adaptation and transmissibility between mammals, the airborne transmission between ferrets is limited.

doi: 10.1038/nature12476

細胞生物学:Waplはクロマチン構造と染色体分配に不可欠な調節因子である

Wapl is an essential regulator of chromatin structure and chromosome segregation p.564

Depletion of the cohesin-associated protein Wapl in mice is shown to increase the residence time of cohesin on DNA, which leads to clustering of cohesin in axial structures, and causes chromatin condensation in interphase chromosomes; the findings suggest that cohesin could have an architectural role in interphase chromosome organization.

doi: 10.1038/nature12471

遺伝:2つの複製フォーク維持経路は逆向き反復配列を融合して染色体を再編成する

Two replication fork maintenance pathways fuse inverted repeats to rearrange chromosomes p.569

Stalling of replication forks in sequences that have non-allelic repeats can lead to genomic rearrangements; here two pathways consistent with homologous recombination and error-free post-replication repair fuse identical and mismatched repeats, respectively, thus inducing chromosomal rearrangements in mouse embryonic stem cells.

doi: 10.1038/nature12500

構造生物学:ナトリウム/プロトン対向輸送の2ドメインエレベーター機構

A two-domain elevator mechanism for sodium/proton antiport p.573

The X-ray crystal structure of NapA, a Na+/H+ antiporter from Thermus thermophilus, in an active, outward-facing state is reported; comparisons to the structure of a related transporter in a low pH/inactivated, inward-facing state show the conformational changes that occur when the membrane protein moves from an inward-facing to an outward-facing state, suggesting that Na+/H+ antiporters operate by a two-domain rocking bundle model.

doi: 10.1038/nature12484

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