Editorials
The Nature Awards for Mentoring in Science show that it is crucial to support researchers in leading their groups well.
doi: 10.1038/d41586-017-07840-2
Trees and shrubs could be less fussy about the climate than scientists thought. That might be good news as the planet warms.
doi: 10.1038/d41586-017-07841-1
Scientists must continue to play their part in pointing out the potential environmental dangers.
doi: 10.1038/d41586-017-08214-4
News
Thousands of ancient Native American sites to lose protections.
doi: 10.1038/d41586-017-07794-5
Embryos found in some fossil eggs suggest that hatchlings struggled to fly.
doi: 10.1038/nature.2017.23049
Chinese scientists find all the genetic building blocks of SARS in a single population of horseshoe bats.
doi: 10.1038/d41586-017-07766-9
Space agencies are planning a Deep Space Gateway to orbit the Moon.
doi: 10.1038/d41586-017-07869-3
Negotiations to reduce journal prices and promote open access are progressing slowly.
doi: 10.1038/d41586-017-07817-1
News Features
High-pressure experiments explore what it might take to make exoplanets habitable
doi: 10.1038/d41586-017-07844-y
News & Views
DNA can be designed to self-assemble into target shapes, but the size and quantity of objects that can be prepared have
been limited. Methods to overcome these problems have now been found.
doi: 10.1038/d41586-017-07690-y
The relative roles of biological and environmental factors in driving evolutionary change have been unclear. Now fossil analysis shows that their action depends on where an animal group is in its evolutionary trajectory.
doi: 10.1038/d41586-017-07440-0
Martian clays present a conundrum: the models proposed to explain their formation require conditions that are not predicted by computational climate simulations. Experiments now suggest an alternative scenario.
doi: 10.1038/d41586-017-07661-3
Structures of an unusual enzymatic domain in PINK1 provide insights into how this protein regulates the function of organelles called mitochondria, and how mutations in PINK1 contribute to Parkinson’s disease.
doi: 10.1038/d41586-017-07691-x
Materials that consist of just one or a few layers of atoms could have a range of useful applications. Computer simulations now show that the element tellurium might form three such phases, and that they have potentially useful properties.
doi: 10.1038/d41586-017-07159-y
Inhibiting the protein PD-1 can activate T cells that trigger immune responses against tumour cells. But it emerges that, in mice, this immunotherapy exacerbates a cancer that involves the T cells themselves. See Letter p.121
doi: 10.1038/nature24759
In 1997, it was demonstrated that quantum states can be teleported from one location to a distant one. The discovery had huge consequences for the development of quantum communication and computing.
doi: 10.1038/d41586-017-07689-5
Articles
Models show that several aspects of Earth’s top-of-atmosphere energy budget and the magnitude of projected global warming are correlated, enabling us to infer that future warming has been underestimated.
doi: 10.1038/nature24672
Stabilization of a transient protein kinase–substrate complex using a nanobody provides molecular details about how the Parkinson’s disease-linked protein kinase PINK1 phosphorylates ubiquitin, and suggests new pharmacological strategies.
doi: 10.1038/nature24645
A 22-nucleotide fragment of a transfer RNA regulates translation by binding to the mRNA of a ribosomal protein and increasing its expression, and downregulation of the fragment in patient-derived liver tumour cells reduces tumour growth in mice.
doi: 10.1038/nature25005
Letters
A direct measurement of cosmic-ray electrons and positrons with unprecedentedly high energy resolution reveals a spectral break at about 0.9 teraelectronvolts, confirming the evidence found by previous indirect measurements.
doi: 10.1038/nature24475
Simple assembly rules applied recursively in a multistage assembly process enable the creation of DNA origami arrays with sizes of up to 0.5 square micrometres and with arbitrary patterns.
doi: 10.1038/nature24655
DNA bricks with binding domains of 13 nucleotides instead of the typical 8 make it possible to self-assemble gigadalton-scale, three-dimensional nanostructures consisting of tens of thousands of unique components.
doi: 10.1038/nature24648
By using DNA sequence information to encode the shapes of DNA origami building blocks, shape-programmable assemblies can be created, with sizes and complexities similar to those of viruses.
doi: 10.1038/nature24651
All necessary strands for DNA origami can be created in a single scalable process by using bacteriophages to generate single-stranded precursor DNA containing the target sequences interleaved with self-excising DNA enzymes.
doi: 10.1038/nature24650
Many Martian clays formed when Mars’ primary crust reacted with a water/carbon dioxide steam or supercritical atmosphere and subsequent impacts and volcanism caused the distribution of clay exposures seen today.
doi: 10.1038/nature24657
Focusing attention on the expansion of taxa, rather than their survival, resolves the apparent contradiction between seemingly deterministic patterns of waxing and waning of taxa over time and the randomness of extinction implied by the Red Queen’s hypothesis.
doi: 10.1038/nature24656
Genome sequencing analyses from 765 specimens of Anopheles gambiae and Anopheles coluzzii from 15 locations across Africa characterize patterns of gene flow and variations in population size, and provide a resource for studying the evolution of natural malaria vector populations.
doi: 10.1038/nature24995
Proteins expressed on the surfaces of erythrocytes infected with Plasmodium falciparum help the parasite to evade the host immune system by acting as ligands for immune inhibitory receptors and thereby downregulating the immune response.
doi: 10.1038/nature24994
Maternal age is found to be a major source of phenotypic variation in isogenic C. elegans populations living in a controlled environment, with the progeny of young mothers impaired for multiple fitness traits.
doi: 10.1038/nature25012
Fibroblast-specific IL-11 expression causes heart and kidney fibrosis and organ failure, whereas IL-11 inhibition prevents fibroblast activation and organ fibrosis, indicating that IL-11 inhibition is a potential therapeutic strategy to treat fibrotic diseases.
doi: 10.1038/nature24676
The inactivation of DNA mismatch repair in cancer cells produces dynamic mutational profiles and generates neoantigens, which result in improved immune surveillance against these cells.
doi: 10.1038/nature24673
Loss of the PD-1 receptor promotes the development of T cell non-Hodgkin lymphomas by modulating oncogenic signalling pathways, and blocking these pathways reduces tumourigenesis.
doi: 10.1038/nature24649
N6-methyladenosine (m6A) is an abundant internal RNA modification in both coding and non-coding RNAs that is catalysed by the METTL3–METTL14 methyltransferase complex. However, the specific role of these enzymes in cancer is still largely unknown. Here we define a pathway that is specific for METTL3 and is implicated in the maintenance of a leukaemic state. We identify METTL3 as an essential gene for growth of acute myeloid leukaemia cells in two distinct genetic screens. Downregulation of METTL3 results in cell cycle arrest, differentiation of leukaemic cells and failure to establish leukaemia in immunodeficient mice. We show that METTL3, independently of METTL14, associates with chromatin and localizes to the transcriptional start sites of active genes. The vast majority of these genes have the CAATT-box binding protein CEBPZ present at the transcriptional start site, and this is required for recruitment of METTL3 to chromatin. Promoter-bound METTL3 induces m6A modification within the coding region of the associated mRNA transcript, and enhances its translation by relieving ribosome stalling. We show that genes regulated by METTL3 in this way are necessary for acute myeloid leukaemia. Together, these data define METTL3 as a regulator of a chromatin-based pathway that is necessary for maintenance of the leukaemic state and identify this enzyme as a potential therapeutic target for acute myeloid leukaemia.
doi: 10.1038/nature24678
A genetically encoded platform can produce chiral organoboranes in bacteria with high turnover, enantioselectivity and chemoselectivity, and can be tuned and configured through DNA manipulation.
doi: 10.1038/nature24996