Editorials
The US Department of Energy should classify and dispose of nuclear rubbish according to risk.
doi: 10.1038/550429b
Permanent jobs in academia are scarce, and someone needs to let PhD students know.
doi: 10.1038/550429a
Online platforms can help to steer emergency response and ensure money is well spent.
doi: 10.1038/550430a
News
Juno probe discovers surprising activity in the giant planet’s interior.
doi: 10.1038/nature.2017.22866
Discovery raises questions about how a light 'supercurrent' might behave.
doi: 10.1038/nature.2017.22868
Precision tools expand the number of ‘base editors’ available for manipulating DNA and RNA.
doi: 10.1038/550439a
The Chandrayaan-2 orbiter, lander and rover will track how lunar dust might scupper settlement.
doi: 10.1038/nature.2017.22870
Researchers seek approval from regulators for this quicker, easier treatment.
doi: 10.1038/nature.2017.22856
US-registered Central European University faces another year of uncertainty over whether it can continue to operate in Hungary.
doi: 10.1038/nature.2017.22855
News Features
Aid organizations have been piloting a nimble approach to cut through the fog of war.
doi: 10.1038/550444a
Killing off cells that refuse to die on their own has proved a powerful anti-ageing strategy in mice. Now it's about to be tested in humans.
doi: 10.1038/550448a
News & Views
Epithelial stem cells maintain the skin's epidermis and promote wound healing in response to injury. Scientists from two fields discuss implications of the discovery that these stem cells harbour a memory of previous injuries, which enables skin to respond rapidly to subsequent assaults. See Article p.475
doi: 10.1038/nature24154
Laser experiments and computer simulations have been used to analyse the jiggling of atoms in compressed solids. The results take us closer to designing materials that can withstand extreme conditions. See Letters p.492 & p.496
doi: 10.1038/550461a
The cellular origins of a precancerous condition called Barrett's oesophagus have been unclear. Tracking and analysis of epithelial cells at the affected site could shed light on the problem. See Letter p.529
doi: 10.1038/nature24150
doi: 10.1038/550464a
An ultrasensitive balance has been developed to weigh single or multiple cells, at high time and mass resolution — revealing fast and subtle mass fluctuations during the cell cycle and viral infection. See Letter p.500
doi: 10.1038/550465a
When a particle-laden droplet evaporates on a solid surface, the particles form a ring-like deposit. The explanation for this phenomenon, provided in 1997, has led to advances in many areas of science and engineering.
doi: 10.1038/550466a
The petals of a range of flowers harbour repeated patterns of nanostructures that show similar levels of disorder across species. This degree of disorder produces a blue halo of scattered light that helps bees to find flowers. See Article p.469
doi: 10.1038/nature24155
Articles
Disordered nanoscale striations on petals, tepals and bracts have evolved multiple times among flowering plants and provide a salient visual signal to foraging bumblebees (Bombus terrestris).
doi: 10.1038/nature24285
After acute inflammation, epithelial stem cells retain a memory that accelerates restoration of the skin barrier during subsequent tissue damage, and this enhancement is dependent on the AIM2 inflammasome and its downstream effectors.
doi: 10.1038/nature24271
Small molecules are identified that inhibit the ubiquitin-specific protease USP7 with high affinity and specificity as explained by co-crystal structures, and are shown to reduce tumour growth in mice.
doi: 10.1038/nature24451
Letters
A structural phase transition in a monolayer of molybdenum ditelluride has been shown experimentally to be driven forwards and backwards by electrostatic doping.
doi: 10.1038/nature24043
The limits of dislocation-mediated metal plasticity are studied by using in situ computational microscopy to reduce the enormous amount of data from fully dynamic atomistic simulations into a manageable form.
doi: 10.1038/nature23472
In situ femtosecond X-ray diffraction measurements reveal that the dominant mechanism of shock-wave-driven deformation in tantalum changes from twinning to dislocation slip as pressure increases.
doi: 10.1038/nature24061
A picobalance consisting of an optically excited microcantilever has been developed and used to measure the masses of individual healthy and virus-infected cells at high temporal and mass resolutions in culture conditions.
doi: 10.1038/nature24288
Plough marks in Pine Island Bay, West Antarctica, left by the keels of drifting icebergs 12,000 years ago provide evidence that marine ice-cliff instability can drive rapid ice-sheet retreat.
doi: 10.1038/nature24458
An approach to ecological interactions that integrates coevolutionary dynamics and network structure, showing that selection in mutualisms is shaped not only by the mutualistic partners but also by all sorts of indirect effects from other species in the network.
doi: 10.1038/nature24273
Spatial and temporal modelling of a large dataset of Plasmodium falciparum prevalence rates reveals cycles and trends of malaria transmission in sub-Saharan Africa over a 115 year period.
doi: 10.1038/nature24059
Application of network control theory to the neuronal connectome of Caenorhabditis elegans, allowing prediction of the involvement of individual neurons in locomotion.
doi: 10.1038/nature24056
Identification of a transmembrane protein, Mfsd2b, that is essential for the export of the signalling molecule sphingosine-1-phosphate (S1P) from red blood cells and platelets.
doi: 10.1038/nature24053
Barrett’s oesophagus—a metaplasia that can be induced by persistent acid reflux, and predisposes patients to oesophageal cancer—arises from a population of basal cells at the gastro-oesophageal junction.
doi: 10.1038/nature24269
The development of selective ubiquitin-specific protease-7 (USP7) inhibitors GNE-6640 and GNE-6776, which induce tumour cell death and reveal differential kinetics of Lys-48 and Lys-63-linked ubiquitin chain depolymerization by USP7.
doi: 10.1038/nature24006
A cryo-electron microscopy structure of the chromatin remodelling factor Chd1 bound to a nucleosome leads to a model for DNA translocation by its ATPase motor.
doi: 10.1038/nature24046
G-protein-coupled receptors mediate the biological effects of many hormones and
neurotransmitters and are important pharmacological targets. They
transmit their signals to the cell interior by interacting with G proteins. However,
it is unclear how receptors and G proteins meet, interact and couple. Here we
analyse the concerted motion of G-protein-coupled receptors and G proteins on the
plasma membrane and provide a quantitative model that reveals the key factors that
underlie the high spatiotemporal complexity of their interactions. Using two-colour,
single-molecule imaging we visualize interactions between individual receptors and G
proteins at the surface of living cells. Under basal conditions, receptors and G
proteins form activity-dependent complexes that last for around one second. Agonists
specifically regulate the kinetics of receptor–G protein interactions,
mainly by increasing their association rate. We find hot spots on the plasma
membrane, at least partially defined by the cytoskeleton and clathrin-coated pits,
in which receptors and G proteins are confined and preferentially couple. Imaging
with the nanobody Nb37 suggests that signalling by G-protein-coupled receptors
occurs preferentially at these hot spots. These findings shed new light on the
dynamic interactions that control G-protein-coupled receptor signalling.
doi: 10.1038/nature24264