Keep shouting to save science p.7
As political leaders on either side of the Atlantic set out contrasting positions on science funding, researchers everywhere need to ensure that their voices are heard.doi: 10.1038/546007a
Volume 546 Issue 7656
Editorials
Why function is catching on in conservation p.7
Counting what species do is becoming as important as counting how many there are.doi: 10.1038/nature.2017.22058
Announcement: Towards greater reproducibility for life-sciences research in Nature p.8
doi: 10.1038/546008a
News
Trials of embryonic stem cells to launch in China p.15
Studies to treat vision loss and Parkinson’s disease are the first to proceed under new regulations.doi: 10.1038/546015a
UK election: science spending pledges overshadowed by Brexit p.16
Parties promise more money for research, but scientists fear impact of split with European Union.doi: 10.1038/546016a
Mummy DNA unravels ancient Egyptians’ ancestry p.17
Genetic analysis reveals a close relationship with Middle Easterners, not central Africans.doi: 10.1038/546017a
Neutron stars set to open their heavy hearts p.18
Space mission will peer inside the densest matter in the Universe.doi: 10.1038/546018a
Trump budget would slash science programmes across government p.19
Proposed cuts include 11% at the National Science Foundation, 18% at the National Institutes of Health and 30% at the Environmental Protection Agency.doi: 10.1038/nature.2017.22036
News Features
Biodiversity moves beyond counting species p.22
Ecologists are increasingly looking at how richness of traits — rather than number of species — helps set the health of ecosystems.doi: 10.1038/546022a
News & Views
Signalling under the microscope p.36
G-protein-coupled receptors are biological targets for drug discovery. Developments in cryo-electron microscopy have enabled the solution of the structure of a class B receptor in complex with its signalling protein. Two biologists and a microscopist explain the exciting implications of this work. See Article p.118doi: 10.1038/nature22491
Multi-molecular views of a stellar nursery p.37
New detectors for radio telescopes can map emissions from many different molecules simultaneously across interstellar clouds. One such pioneering study has probed a wide area of a star-forming cloud in the Orion constellation.doi: 10.1038/nature22499
An intracellular dance visualized p.39
The development of a microscopy technique that enables observation of the interactions between six types of organelle, in 3D and over time, holds promise for improving our understanding of intracellular processes. See Letter p.162doi: 10.1038/nature22500
Functional materials at the flick of a switch p.40
The function of materials that have been coated with an ionic liquid can be altered by applying an electric field to shuttle ions in and out. The technique has been used to make materials that have switchable properties. See Letter p.124doi: 10.1038/546040a
The self-cleansing ability of prehistoric air p.41
Isotopic data from an ice core have been used to estimate atmospheric oxidant levels during past climate transitions — pointing to relatively unexplored climate feedbacks as drivers of atmospheric composition. See Letter p.133doi: 10.1038/546041a
Sunflowers sequenced p.43
doi: 10.1038/546043a
Diversity breeds tolerance p.44
A gene has been identified that underpins the capacity of mycobacterial cells to divide to produce physiologically different daughter cells. This finding has implications for drug treatment of tuberculosis. See Letter p.153doi: 10.1038/546044a
Premature lambs grown in a bag p.45
A bag that mimics the environment of the womb can support lambs born extremely prematurely for four weeks. This development points to ways to improve the prospects of extremely premature babies.doi: 10.1038/546045a
Articles
A neural circuit architecture for angular integration in Drosophila p.101
A neural circuit in Drosophila reveals how the fly’s internal sense of heading rotates when it turns.doi: 10.1038/nature22343
Blocking FSH induces thermogenic adipose tissue and reduces body fat p.107
An antibody against the pituitary hormone Fsh reduces adiposity and increases thermogenesis in ovariectomized mice or mice fed a high-fat diet.doi: 10.1038/nature22342
Ensemble cryo-EM elucidates the mechanism of translation fidelity p.113
Structural ensembles of the 70S ribosome bound to cognate or near-cognate charged tRNAs in complex with EF-Tu illustrate the crucial role of the nucleotide G530 in decoding of mRNA, and demonstrate that translational fidelity results from direct control of GTPase by the decoding centre.doi: 10.1038/nature22397
Phase-plate cryo-EM structure of a class B GPCR–G-protein complex p.118
Volta phase-plate cryo-electron microscopy reveals the structure of the full-length calcitonin receptor in complex with its peptide ligand and Gαsβγ.doi: 10.1038/nature22327
Letters
Electric-field control of tri-state phase transformation with a selective dual-ion switch p.124
Materials are described here that can change their crystalline phase in response to the electrically controlled insertion or extraction of oxygen and hydrogen ions, giving rise to three distinct phases with different optical, electrical and magnetic properties.doi: 10.1038/nature22389
Femtosecond response of polyatomic molecules to ultra-intense hard X-rays p.129
Upon exposure to ultra-intense, hard X-ray pulses, polyatomic molecules containing one heavy atom reach a much higher degree of ionization than do individual heavy atoms, contrary to previous assumptions.doi: 10.1038/nature22373
Isotopic evidence of multiple controls on atmospheric oxidants over climate transitions p.133
Observations from a Greenland ice core reveal that tropospheric oxidants are sensitive to climate-driven changes in reactive halogen chemistry and stratosphere-to-troposphere transport of ozone, in addition to ozone precursor emissions.doi: 10.1038/nature22340
Extreme hydrothermal conditions at an active plate-bounding fault p.137
Extreme temperatures and fluid pressures are measured, and their causes modelled, in a borehole into the Alpine Fault, where an earthquake rupture is expected within the next few decades.doi: 10.1038/nature22355
Large conservation gains possible for global biodiversity facets p.141
Expanding protected areas for ecological conservation by just 5% has the potential to markedly increase terrestrial biodiversity protection.doi: 10.1038/nature22368
Leaf bacterial diversity mediates plant diversity and ecosystem function relationships p.145
A tree biodiversity and ecosystem function experiment shows that leaf bacterial diversity is positively related to plant community productivity, and explains a portion of the variation in productivity that would otherwise be attributed to plant diversity and functional traits.doi: 10.1038/nature22399
The sunflower genome provides insights into oil metabolism, flowering and Asterid evolution OPEN p.148
A high-quality reference for the sunflower genome (Helianthus annuus L.) and analysis of gene networks involved in flowering time and oil metabolism provide a basis for nutritional exploitation and analyses of adaptation to climate change.doi: 10.1038/nature22380
Deletion of a mycobacterial divisome factor collapses single-cell phenotypic heterogeneity p.153
The mycobacterial protein LamA functions as an inhibitor of cell wall synthesis at the nascent cell pole, contributing to asymmetry in polar growth, and could represent a much-needed target for the development of anti-tuberculosis therapies.doi: 10.1038/nature22361
Lymphatic endothelial S1P promotes mitochondrial function and survival in naive T cells p.158
The chemoattractant S1P is identified as an extrinsic factor that supports naive T cell survival, and acts via a signalling mechanism to maintain mitochondrial content and function.doi: 10.1038/nature22352
Applying systems-level spectral imaging and analysis to reveal the organelle interactome p.162
Using confocal and lattice light sheet microscopy, the authors perform systems-level analysis of the organelle interactome in live cells, allowing them to visualize the frequency and locality of up to five-way interactions between different organelles.doi: 10.1038/nature22369
CPS1 maintains pyrimidine pools and DNA synthesis in KRAS/LKB1-mutant lung cancer cells p.168
In human cell lines with mutant KRAS and loss of LKB1, CPS1 expression correlates inversely with LKB1 expression; silencing CPS1 in these cells induces DNA damage and cell death as a result of pyrimidine depletion rather than ammonia toxicity.doi: 10.1038/nature22359
