Editorials
Researchers must stand up to funders that insist on gagging clauses.
doi: 10.1038/nature.2017.21948
Presenting science as a battle for truth against ignorance is an unhelpful exaggeration.
doi: 10.1038/545133b
An intellectual free-for-all doesn’t lead to the common ground on which research can build.
doi: 10.1038/545134a
News
Algorithms help to produce precise maps of where people in developing countries live and work.
doi: 10.1038/545141a
Scientists are split over whether limiting grant support to individuals will help young researchers or hurt collaboration.
doi: 10.1038/nature.2017.21949
Immune cells that encompass and invade tumours could dictate the success or failure of therapy.
doi: 10.1038/nature.2017.21931
By converting a defunct communications dish, astronomers are breaking ground on Earth and beyond.
doi: 10.1038/545144a
Rise in copyright breaches prompts industry to discuss ways to allow ‘fair sharing’ of articles.
doi: 10.1038/545145a
News Features
China has a lucrative market for fake research reagents. Some scientists are fighting back.
doi: 10.1038/545148a
News & Views
Pluripotent stem cells, which give rise to every cell type, can acquire cancer-causing genetic mutations when grown in vitro. This finding has implications for the use of pluripotent cells in basic research and in the clinic. See Letter p.229
doi: 10.1038/nature22490
The people, economies and agriculture of central Asia and parts of south Asia rely on water from mountains. Modelling suggests that glacier melt, in particular, is a key water source during dry periods in some of these regions. See Letter p.169
doi: 10.1038/545161a
Previous crystal structures of membrane-spanning enzymes called ATPases have revealed that the enzymes undergo complex movements. The movements, it now emerges, involve rocking in place in the membrane. See Article p.193
doi: 10.1038/nature22492
A technique for manipulating molecules uses an intermediary atom to query a nearby molecule's energy state and produces 'quantum superpositions' of these states, a prerequisite for extremely high-precision spectroscopy. See Letter p.203
doi: 10.1038/545164a
Ultraviolet light can damage DNA, triggering a general shutdown of gene transcription — yet some genes are activated by UV light. An investigation of this counter-intuitive behaviour reveals a surprising gene-regulation mechanism.
doi: 10.1038/nature22488
Understanding the prevalence and impact of personal attacks in online discussions is challenging. A method that combines crowdsourcing and machine learning provides a way forward, but caveats must be considered.
doi: 10.1038/545166a
Articles
Glaciers in the high mountains of Asia provide a uniquely drought-resilient source of water, supplying summer meltwater sufficient for the basic needs of 136 million people.
doi: 10.1038/nature22062
The first large, high-coverage whole-genome sequencing study of melanomas from cutaneous, acral and mucosal sites.
doi: 10.1038/nature22071
Thalamic neurons show selective persistent activity that predicts movement direction, and their photoinhibition decreases activity in the anterior lateral motor cortex, and vice versa, suggesting that persistent activity requires reciprocal excitation in a thalamocortical loop.
doi: 10.1038/nature22324
LGR5+ cells in human colorectal cancer tissue xenografted into mice act as cancer stem cells, and differentiated cancer cells can revert to cancer stem cells and express LGR5 after ablation of existing LGR5+ cells.
doi: 10.1038/nature22081
Solvent contrast modulation reveals how the lipid bilayer actively participates in the conformational switches of Ca2+-ATPase through the actions of tryptophan, arginine and lysine residues, which function as membrane floats and anchors.
doi: 10.1038/nature22357
Letters
Interferometric telescope observations of the Jovian moon Io reveal that the floor of the Loki Patera volcano has been resurfaced in two waves, with different starting times and velocities.
doi: 10.1038/nature22339
By exploiting a co-trapped Ca+ ion, a single CaH+ ion is prepared in pure quantum states, which are coherently manipulated, using a protocol that could easily be extended to other molecular ion species.
doi: 10.1038/nature22338
Films of metal halide perovskite are used as the absorber material in solar cells, and light irradiation during their formation is shown to affect their crystallization, morphology and photovoltaic performance.
doi: 10.1038/nature22072
Starting with alkyl carboxylic acids, a simple olefin synthesis using any substitution pattern or geometry, based on amide-bond synthesis with nickel- or iron-based catalysis, is described.
doi: 10.1038/nature22307
The mediodorsal nucleus of the thalamus amplifies the functional connectivity of the prefrontal cortex, thereby sustaining cortical representations of rule sets without relaying categorical information.
doi: 10.1038/nature22073
Fibroblast growth factor receptor (FGFR) signalling is a crucial regulator of endothelial metabolism and vascular development.
doi: 10.1038/nature22322
The authors surveyed whole-exome and RNA-sequencing data from 252 unique pluripotent stem cell lines, some of which are in the pipeline for clinical use, and found that approximately 5% of cell lines had acquired mutations in the TP53 gene that allow mutant cells to rapidly outcompete non-mutant cells, but do not prevent differentiation.
doi: 10.1038/nature22312
Wnt proteins modulate cell proliferation and differentiation and the self-renewal of stem cells by inducing β-catenin-dependent signalling through the Wnt receptor frizzled (FZD) and the co-receptors LRP5 and LRP6 to regulate cell fate decisions and the growth and repair of several tissues. The 19 mammalian Wnt proteins are cross-reactive with the 10 FZD receptors, and this has complicated the attribution of distinct biological functions to specific FZD and Wnt subtype interactions. Furthermore, Wnt proteins are modified post-translationally by palmitoylation, which is essential for their secretion, function and interaction with FZD receptors. As a result of their acylation, Wnt proteins are very hydrophobic and require detergents for purification, which presents major obstacles to the preparation and application of recombinant Wnt proteins. This hydrophobicity has hindered the determination of the molecular mechanisms of Wnt signalling activation and the functional importance of FZD subtypes, and the use of Wnt proteins as therapeutic agents. Here we develop surrogate Wnt agonists, water-soluble FZD–LRP5/LRP6 heterodimerizers, with FZD5/FZD8-specific and broadly FZD-reactive binding domains. Similar to WNT3A, these Wnt agonists elicit a characteristic β-catenin signalling response in a FZD-selective fashion, enhance the osteogenic lineage commitment of primary mouse and human mesenchymal stem cells, and support the growth of a broad range of primary human organoid cultures. In addition, the surrogates can be systemically expressed and exhibit Wnt activity in vivo in the mouse liver, regulating metabolic liver zonation and promoting hepatocyte proliferation, resulting in hepatomegaly. These surrogates demonstrate that canonical Wnt signalling can be activated by bi-specific ligands that induce receptor heterodimerization. Furthermore, these easily produced, non-lipidated Wnt surrogate agonists facilitate functional studies of Wnt signalling and the exploration of Wnt agonists for translational applications in regenerative medicine.
doi: 10.1038/nature22306
The canonical Wnt/β-catenin signalling pathway governs diverse developmental, homeostatic and pathological processes. Palmitoylated Wnt ligands engage cell-surface frizzled (FZD) receptors and LRP5 and LRP6 co-receptors, enabling β-catenin nuclear translocation and TCF/LEF-dependent gene transactivation. Mutations in Wnt downstream signalling components have revealed diverse functions thought to be carried out by Wnt ligands themselves. However, redundancy between the 19 mammalian Wnt proteins and 10 FZD receptors and Wnt hydrophobicity have made it difficult to attribute these functions directly to Wnt ligands. For example, individual mutations in Wnt ligands have not revealed homeostatic phenotypes in the intestinal epithelium—an archetypal canonical, Wnt pathway-dependent, rapidly self-renewing tissue, the regeneration of which is fueled by proliferative crypt Lgr5+ intestinal stem cells (ISCs). R-spondin ligands (RSPO1–RSPO4) engage distinct LGR4–LGR6, RNF43 and ZNRF3 receptor classes, markedly potentiate canonical Wnt/β-catenin signalling, and induce intestinal organoid growth in vitro and Lgr5+ ISCs in vivo. However, the interchangeability, functional cooperation and relative contributions of Wnt versus RSPO ligands to in vivo canonical Wnt signalling and ISC biology remain unknown. Here we identify the functional roles of Wnt and RSPO ligands in the intestinal crypt stem-cell niche. We show that the default fate of Lgr5+ ISCs is to differentiate, unless both RSPO and Wnt ligands are present. However, gain-of-function studies using RSPO ligands and a new non-lipidated Wnt analogue reveal that these ligands have qualitatively distinct, non-interchangeable roles in ISCs. Wnt proteins are unable to induce Lgr5+ ISC self-renewal, but instead confer a basal competency by maintaining RSPO receptor expression that enables RSPO ligands to actively drive and specify the extent of stem-cell expansion. This functionally non-equivalent yet cooperative interaction between Wnt and RSPO ligands establishes a molecular precedent for regulation of mammalian stem cells by distinct priming and self-renewal factors, with broad implications for precise control of tissue regeneration.
doi: 10.1038/nature22313
The molecular mechanism of Goodpasture disease is modelled to mechanistically determine how a human leukocyte antigen (HLA) allele can exert its dominant protective effect in autoimmune disease.
doi: 10.1038/nature22329
The 3.4 Å crystal structure of the 15-subunit core Mediator complex in yeast.
doi: 10.1038/nature22328