Editorials
新興感染症に対して迅速かつ効果的に対応するためには、研究者が最新データに簡単にアクセスできるような環境を整備することが不可欠だ。
Benefits of sharing p.129
A swift and effective response to emerging infectious diseases demands that researchers have ready access to the latest data on the pathogens responsible. There is still a long way to go to ensure this.
doi: 10.1038/530129a
ギニア虫撲滅などの感染症根絶を目指した米国のカーター元大統領の尽力は称賛に値するもので、こうした意思を未来へとつないでいかなければならない。
A good precedent p.129
Jimmy Carter’s efforts to eradicate Guinea worm should be applauded.
doi: 10.1038/530130a
各国政府は、BECCS(Bio-Energy with Carbon Capture and Storage)のような実態の不明瞭な気候変動対策よりも、科学に基づいた対策に力を入れるべきだ。
Outside the bubble p.130
Governments must stop proposing solutions and invest in large-scale removal of carbon dioxide.
doi: 10.1038/530130b
News
タスマニアでは温暖化の影響で大規模森林火災が多発しており、1億8000万年前から続く貴重な生態系に危険が。
Tasmanian bushfires threaten iconic ancient forests p.137
Blazes have encroached on ecosystems that date back more than 180 million years.
doi: 10.1038/nature.2016.19308
研究界のセクハラ問題をどのように取り扱うべきなのか、米国の研究助成機関が苦慮を。
How should science funders deal with sexual harassers? p.138
US science agencies threaten harsh penalties, but many have yet to take action.
doi: 10.1038/530138a
日本のX線天文衛星ASTRO-Hが、間もなく打ち上げへ。
High stakes as Japanese space observatory prepares for launch p.140
ASTRO-H will carry a technology that two earlier, ill-fated space telescopes failed to put into action.
doi: 10.1038/530140a
大手バイオ企業アムジェン社が、既報の再現実験に失敗したという論文を発表し、再現性問題の議論に一石を。
Biotech giant publishes failures to confirm high-profile science p.141
Amgen posts three studies at new online channel for discussing reproducibility.
doi: 10.1038/nature.2016.19269
米国専門家会議が「3人の親」を持つヒト胚の作製を容認し、こうした胚を使った臨床試験に向けての後押しを。
US panel greenlights creation of male 'three-person' embryos p.142
But federal law prevents regulators from approving the technique.
doi: 10.1038/nature.2016.19290
ジカ熱はすでに33か国に広がっており、ウイルス感染と小頭症との関連を科学的に証明しようと、盛んな研究が。
Proving Zika link to birth defects poses huge challenge p.142
Obtaining conclusive evidence either way could take years, say researchers.
doi: 10.1038/530142a
News Features
コンピューター:ムーアの向こうに
The chips are down for Moore’s law p.144
半導体業界は、ムーアの法則の終焉を公式に発表しようとしているが、これは新たな技術革新の時代の幕開けを意味している。
doi: 10.1038/530144a
論文出版:持久戦
Does it take too long to publish research? p.148
論文を投稿してから出版されるまでにかかる時間がどんどん長くなっているといわれるが、本当にそうだろうか。
doi: 10.1038/530148a
News & Views
統合失調症:遺伝学からついに生理学の領域へ
Schizophrenia: From genetics to physiology at last p.162
統合失調症の発症リスクと強い関連がある一連の遺伝的多様性が今回明らかにされ、この破壊的疾患の神経生物学的性質についての手掛かりが得られた。
doi: 10.1038/nature16874
気候科学:北極にあった巨大な棚氷
Climate science: A great Arctic ice shelf p.163
新たにマッピングされた北極海海底の地形は、北極海盆がかつては厚さ1 kmの流動する棚氷に覆われていたことを示唆している。この棚氷はシベリア東部、カナダ領北極圏とバレンツ海にあった広大な氷床に由来するものである。
doi: 10.1038/nature16878
老化:古きを捨てる
Ageing: Out with the old p.164
マウスで不可逆的な老化状態に陥った細胞を選択的に除去すると寿命が伸び、一部の老化関連疾患過程が軽減することが分かった。
doi: 10.1038/nature16875
プラズマ物理学:2段加速器のためのコンパクトな結合戦略
Plasma physics: Compact coupling for a two-stage accelerator p.165
レーザーで励起したプラズマ波によって加速された電子を第二のプラズマ波に注入する方法は、2段電子加速器に相当する。こうした過程を100回行えば、衝突型加速器への応用が可能になる。
doi: 10.1038/530165a
エボラ:現場で行う塩基配列解読
Ebola: Sequencing on the ground p.167
ポータブルなゲノム塩基配列解読装置を使えば、エボラウイルス感染者由来のウイルスRNA試料を使って、対策本部の塩基配列解読装置からデータを受け取るのに必要な期間より最大で数週間早く、ゲノム塩基配列を解読できることが今回立証された。
doi: 10.1038/530167a
遺伝学:DNA中にある非対称的な切断箇所は不妊の原因となる
Genetics: Asymmetric breaks in DNA cause sterility p.167
DNA中に二本鎖切断を生じさせる際にマウスの遺伝子Prdm9が果たす役割は、この遺伝子が種分化で果たす役割と考えられていたものと結び付くことが、この遺伝子の「ヒト化」版を使った実験によって明らかになった。
doi: 10.1038/nature16870
結晶学:回折限界を超える分解能
Crystallography: Resolution beyond the diffraction limit p.168
回折限界を超えてX線結晶構造の分解能を向上させる方法が考案された。これは「回折パターンがあいまいな」結晶を作るタンパク質の構造可視化技術の改善に役立ちそうだ。
doi: 10.1038/530168a
宇宙物理学:ギャップの中に隠されていた太陽系外惑星
Astrophysics: Exoplanets hidden in the gaps p.169
惑星は、新たに形成された恒星の回りを囲む、塵とガスの円盤から成長する。4つのこのような系で円盤中にギャップが観察され、惑星形成過程の解明を始めることができそうだ。
doi: 10.1038/530169a
Articles
進化生物学:PRDM9のジンクフィンガー配列の再設計がマウスの雑種不妊を覆す
Re-engineering the zinc fingers of PRDM9 reverses hybrid sterility in mice p.171
PRDM9 is a DNA-binding protein that controls the position of double-strand breaks in meiosis, and the gene that encodes it is responsible for hybrid infertility between closely related mouse species; this hybrid infertility is eliminated by introducing the zinc-finger domain sequence from the human version of the PRDM9 gene, a change which alters both the position of double-strand breaks and the symmetry of PRDM9 binding and suggests that PRDM9 may have a more general but transient role in the early stages of speciation.
doi: 10.1038/nature16931
神経科学:補体成分4の複雑な多様性に起因する統合失調症のリスク
Schizophrenia risk from complex variation of complement component 4 p.177
Schizophrenia is associated with genetic variation at the major histocompatibility complex locus; this study reveals that alleles at this locus associate with schizophrenia in proportion to their tendency to generate greater expression of complement component 4 (C4A) genes and that C4 promotes the elimination of synapses.
doi: 10.1038/nature16549
老化:自然に生じるp16Ink4a陽性細胞は健康寿命を短くする
Naturally occurring p16Ink4a-positive cells shorten healthy lifespan p.184
When senescent cells accumulate during adulthood they negatively influence lifespan and promote age-dependent changes in several organs; clearance of these cells delayed tumorigenesis in mice and attenuated age-related deterioration of several organs without overt side effects, suggesting that the therapeutic removal of senescent cells may be able to extend healthy lifespan.
doi: 10.1038/nature16932
Letters
素粒子物理学:独立したレーザープラズマ加速器の多段結合
Multistage coupling of independent laser-plasma accelerators p.190
Laser-plasma particle accelerators offer much higher acceleration than conventional methods, which could enable high-energy applications; here two separate accelerator stages, driven by two independent lasers, are coupled using plasma-based optics.
doi: 10.1038/nature16525
量子物理学:量子磁性流体のRosensweig不安定性を観察する
Observing the Rosensweig instability of a quantum ferrofluid p.194
Spontaneous translational symmetry breaking is experimentally observed in a dipolar Bose–Einstein condensate of dysprosium atoms, whereby an instability causes a spontaneous transition from an unstructured superfluid to an ordered arrangement of droplet crystals, which is surprisingly long-lived.
doi: 10.1038/nature16485
材料科学:酸化物超格子における極性渦糸の観測
Observation of polar vortices in oxide superlattices p.198
In material systems with several interacting degrees of freedom, the complex interplay between these factors can give rise to exotic phases; now superlattices consisting of alternating layers of PbTiO3 and SrTiO3 are found to exhibit an unusual form of ferroelectric ordering in the PbTiO3 layers, in which the electric dipoles arrange themselves into regular, ordered arrays of vortex–antivortex structures.
doi: 10.1038/nature16463
X線結晶学:不完全結晶を用いた巨大分子の回折イメージング
Macromolecular diffractive imaging using imperfect crystals p.202
Crystal lattice disorder, which gives rise to a continuous diffraction pattern, is exploited to determine the structure of the integral membrane protein complex photosystem II to a higher resolution than could be achieved using Bragg diffraction alone.
doi: 10.1038/nature16949
生物地球科学:大気中CO2と南大洋深海の酸素化の最終氷期を通した共変動
Covariation of deep Southern Ocean oxygenation and atmospheric CO2 through the last ice age p.207
A reconstruction of changes in ocean oxygenation throughout the last glacial cycle shows that respired carbon was removed from the deep Southern Ocean during deglaciation and Antarctic warm events, consistent with a prominent role of reduced iron fertilization and enhanced ocean ventilation, modifying atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations over the past 80,000 years.
doi: 10.1038/nature16514
森林生態学:新熱帯の二次林のバイオマス復元力
Biomass resilience of Neotropical secondary forests p.211
An analysis of above-ground biomass recovery during secondary succession in forest sites and plots, covering the major environmental gradients in the Neotropics.
doi: 10.1038/nature16512
古生物学:ゴリラとヒトの系統分岐年代の新たな地質学的、古生物学的絞り込み
New geological and palaeontological age constraint for the gorilla–human lineage split p.215
A substantial revision to the age of the Chorora Formation, Ethiopia, constraining the deposits to around 8 million years old and forming a revised age constraint for the human–gorilla lineage split.
doi: 10.1038/nature16510
神経科学:視床から側坐核への入力がオピエート依存を媒介する
A thalamic input to the nucleus accumbens mediates opiate dependence p.219
The paraventricular nucleus of the thalamus to the nucleus accumbens pathway mediates physical signs and aversive memory of opiate withdrawal.
doi: 10.1038/nature16954
幹細胞:Hoxb5は長期造血幹細胞を標識し、均一な血管周囲ニッチを明らかにする
Hoxb5 marks long-term haematopoietic stem cells and reveals a homogenous perivascular niche p.223
Until recently, complex multi-parameters were required for the isolation and identification of haematopoietic stem cells, complicating study of their biology in situ; here the authors have found that expression of a single gene, Hoxb5, defines haematopoietic stem cells with long-term reconstitution capacity, and that these cells are mainly found in direct contact with endothelial cells.
doi: 10.1038/nature16943
ウイルス感染:エボラサーベイランス用の携行可能なリアルタイムゲノム塩基配列解読装置
Real-time, portable genome sequencing for Ebola surveillance p.228
A nanopore DNA sequencer is used for real-time genomic surveillance of the Ebola virus epidemic in the field in Guinea; the authors demonstrate that it is possible to pack a genomic surveillance laboratory in a suitcase and transport it to the field for on-site virus sequencing, generating results within 24 hours of sample collection.
doi: 10.1038/nature16996
構造生物学:Plasmodium属選択的に働くプロテアソーム阻害剤の構造と機能に基づく設計
Structure- and function-based design of Plasmodium-selective proteasome inhibitors p.233
Structural and functional characterizations show that the specificity of the Plasmodium falciparum proteasome is sufficiently unique from that of the human proteasome to allow selective targeting with inhibitors.
doi: 10.1038/nature16936
構造生物学:β1アドレナリン受容体のアロステリックシグナル伝達ネットワークの主鎖NMRによる解明
Backbone NMR reveals allosteric signal transduction networks in the β1-adrenergic receptor p.237
G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) are physiologically important transmembrane signalling proteins that trigger intracellular responses upon binding of extracellular ligands. Despite recent breakthroughs in GPCR crystallography, the details of ligand-induced signal transduction are not well understood owing to missing dynamical information. In principle, such information can be provided by NMR, but so far only limited data of functional relevance on few side-chain sites of eukaryotic GPCRs have been obtained. Here we show that receptor motions can be followed at virtually any backbone site in a thermostabilized mutant of the turkey β1-adrenergic receptor (β1AR). Labelling with [15N]valine in a eukaryotic expression system provides over twenty resolved resonances that report on structure and dynamics in six ligand complexes and the apo form. The response to the various ligands is heterogeneous in the vicinity of the binding pocket, but gets transformed into a homogeneous readout at the intracellular side of helix 5 (TM5), which correlates linearly with ligand efficacy for the G protein pathway. The effect of several pertinent, thermostabilizing point mutations was assessed by reverting them to the native sequence. Whereas the response to ligands remains largely unchanged, binding of the G protein mimetic nanobody NB80 and G protein activation are only observed when two conserved tyrosines (Y227 and Y343) are restored. Binding of NB80 leads to very strong spectral changes throughout the receptor, including the extracellular ligand entrance pocket. This indicates that even the fully thermostabilized receptor undergoes activating motions in TM5, but that the fully active state is only reached in presence of Y227 and Y343 by stabilization with a G protein-like partner. The combined analysis of chemical shift changes from the point mutations and ligand responses identifies crucial connections in the allosteric activation pathway, and presents a general experimental method to delineate signal transmission networks at high resolution in GPCRs.
doi: 10.1038/nature16577