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      • The role of mechanics in biological and bio-inspired systems

        Paul Egan, Robert Sinko, Philip R. LeDuc, Sinan Keten
        There are many examples in nature of biological materials having developed interesting mechanical properties to enhance their functional performance. Here, Egan et al. review these materials and how they can inspire the design of biomimetic mechanical systems.
        06 Jul 2015
        doi:
        10.1038/ncomms8418

    • Latest Articles

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      • Mechanism of potassium ion uptake by the Na+/K+-ATPase Open

        Juan P. Castillo, Huan Rui, Daniel Basilio, Avisek Das, Benoît Roux, Ramon Latorre, Francisco Bezanilla, Miguel Holmgren
        During transport by the Na+/K+-ATPase, Na+ and K+ ions become occluded between intra- and extracellular gates. Here Castillo et al. measure transient electrical signals arising from K+ occlusion and use molecular simulations to describe a K+ gating mechanism fundamentally different to that of Na+.
        24 Jul 2015
        doi:
        10.1038/ncomms8622

      • Structural prerequisites for G-protein activation by the neurotensin receptor Open

        Brian E. Krumm, Jim F. White, Priyanka Shah, Reinhard Grisshammer
        The structural basis of how G-protein coupled receptors respond to unique stimuli remains poorly understood. Here, Krumm et al. present new structures of the neurotensin receptor and reveal insights into how ligand binding is linked to structural rearrangements associated with receptor activation.
        24 Jul 2015
        doi:
        10.1038/ncomms8895

      • Fgf and Esrrb integrate epigenetic and transcriptional networks that regulate self-renewal of trophoblast stem cells Open

        Paulina A. Latos, Angela Goncalves, David Oxley, Hisham Mohammed, Ernest Turro, Myriam Hemberger
        The transcription factor estrogen-related receptor beta, Esrrb, regulates pluripotency genes in embryonic stem cells, but how it acts in trophoblast stem (TS) cells is unclear. Here, the authors identify Esrrb as a primary target of Fgf/Mek signaling and outline a unique TS cell-specific interactome to sustain stemness.
        24 Jul 2015
        doi:
        10.1038/ncomms8776

      • Unusual fast secondary relaxation in metallic glass Open

        Q. Wang, S.T. Zhang, Y. Yang, Y.D. Dong, C.T. Liu, J. Lu
        Mechanical relaxation processes in glasses can provide information on the structural and mechanical properties of glasses. Here, the authors observe a fast secondary relaxation process in La-based metallic glasses, providing information on the inelasticity of metallic glasses.
        24 Jul 2015
        doi:
        10.1038/ncomms8876

      • The water catalysis at oxygen cathodes of lithium–oxygen cells Open

        Fujun Li, Shichao Wu, De Li, Tao Zhang, Ping He, Atsuo Yamada, Haoshen Zhou
        The main challenges in lithium-oxygen batteries are the low round-trip efficiency and decaying cycle life. Here, the authors present that a trace amount of water in electrolytes facilitates oxygen cathode reactions, enabling the batteries to be operated with small overpotential and good cycling stability.
        24 Jul 2015
        doi:
        10.1038/ncomms8843

      • Utilization of ancient permafrost carbon in headwaters of Arctic fluvial networks Open

        Paul J. Mann, Timothy I. Eglinton, Cameron P. McIntyre, Nikita Zimov, Anna Davydova, Jorien E. Vonk, Robert M. Holmes, Robert G. M. Spencer
        The climatic impact of ancient carbon released during the thawing of Arctic permafrost depends on the degree to which it is degraded. Here, the authors show that permafrost-sourced carbon is preferentially metabolized by microbial communities during transit in high-latitude rivers.
        24 Jul 2015
        doi:
        10.1038/ncomms8856

      • Highly condensed chromatins are formed adjacent to subtelomeric and decondensed silent chromatin in fission yeast Open

        Atsushi Matsuda, Yuji Chikashige, Da-Qiao Ding, Chizuru Ohtsuki, Chie Mori, Haruhiko Asakawa, Hiroshi Kimura, Tokuko Haraguchi, Yasushi Hiraoka
        The level of chromatin condensation and gene expression is believed to be inversely correlated. Here the authors show that the transcriptionally silent telomere regions are flanked by highly condensed chromatin, and are less condensed than euchromatin in the interphase of Schizosaccharomyces pombe.
        24 Jul 2015
        doi:
        10.1038/ncomms8753

      • Developmental disruptions underlying brain abnormalities in ciliopathies Open

        Jiami Guo, Holden Higginbotham, Jingjun Li, Jackie Nichols, Josua Hirt, Vladimir Ghukasyan, E.S. Anton
        Primary cilia are essential conveyors of signals underlying major cellular functions but their role in brain development is not completely understood. Here the authors compiled a shRNA library targeting ciliopathy genes known to cause brain disorders, and used it to query how ciliopathy genes affect distinct stages of mouse cortical development.
        24 Jul 2015
        doi:
        10.1038/ncomms8857

      • Intrinsically disordered proteins drive membrane curvature Open

        David J. Busch, Justin R. Houser, Carl C. Hayden, Michael B. Sherman, Eileen M. Lafer, Jeanne C. Stachowiak
        Proteins that bend membranes often contain curvature-promoting structural motifs such as wedges or crescent-shaped domains. Busch et al. report that intrinsically disordered domains can also drive membrane curvature and provide evidence that steric pressure driven by protein crowding mediates this effect.
        24 Jul 2015
        doi:
        10.1038/ncomms8875

      • MEG3 long noncoding RNA regulates the TGF-β pathway genes through formation of RNA–DNA triplex structures Open

        Tanmoy Mondal, Santhilal Subhash, Roshan Vaid, Stefan Enroth, Sireesha Uday, Björn Reinius, Sanhita Mitra, Arif Mohammed, Alva Rani James, Emily Hoberg, Aristidis Moustakas, Ulf Gyllensten, Steven J.M. Jones, Claes M Gustafsson, Andrew H Sims, Fredrik Westerlund, Eduardo Gorab, Chandrasekhar Kanduri
        Long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) regulate gene expression by association with chromatin. Here, the authors show that lncRNA MEG3 regulates the TGF-β pathway by bridging the interactions between polycomb repressive complex 2 and the distal regulatory elements of the TGF-β pathway genes via formation of RNA–DNA triplexes.
        24 Jul 2015
        doi:
        10.1038/ncomms8743

      • Perinuclear tethers license telomeric DSBs for a broad kinesin- and NPC-dependent DNA repair process

        Daniel K.C. Chung, Janet N.Y. Chan, Jonathan Strecker, Wei Zhang, Sasha Ebrahimi-Ardebili, Thomas Lu, Karan J. Abraham, Daniel Durocher, Karim Mekhail
        Damaged DNA is often targeted to nuclear pore complexes for repair. Here, the authors show that kinesin-14 mediates this process ensuring error-prone repair, while perinuclear telomere attachment licenses damaged telomeric loci for this repair and kinesin-14 blocks senescence in the absence of telomerase.
        24 Jul 2015
        doi:
        10.1038/ncomms8742

      • Plasmodium falciparum full life cycle and Plasmodium ovale liver stages in humanized mice Open

        Valérie Soulard, Henriette Bosson-Vanga, Audrey Lorthiois, Clémentine Roucher, Jean- François Franetich, Gigliola Zanghi, Mallaury Bordessoulles, Maurel Tefit, Marc Thellier, Serban Morosan, Gilles Le Naour, Frédérique Capron, Hiroshi Suemizu, Georges Snounou, Alicia Moreno-Sabater, Dominique Mazier
        Mice engrafted with human cells are useful models for research on human malaria parasites. Here the authors show that the complete life cycle of Plasmodium falciparum and the liver stages of Plasmodium ovale can be studied in mice doubly engrafted with human primary hepatocytes and red blood cells.
        24 Jul 2015
        doi:
        10.1038/ncomms8690

      • Engineering a dirhodium artificial metalloenzyme for selective olefin cyclopropanation Open

        Poonam Srivastava, Hao Yang, Ken Ellis-Guardiola, Jared C. Lewis
        Artificial metalloenzymes (ArMs) have the potential to improve transition metal reactivity in complex media. Here, the authors link a dirhodium catalyst to a prolyl oligopeptidase to create an ArM that catalyzes enantioselective olefin cyclopropanation in aqueous solution.
        24 Jul 2015
        doi:
        10.1038/ncomms8789

      • Structural and dynamic insights into the energetics of activation loop rearrangement in FGFR1 kinase Open

        Tobias Klein, Navratna Vajpai, Jonathan J. Phillips, Gareth Davies, Geoffrey A. Holdgate, Chris Phillips, Julie A. Tucker, Richard A. Norman, Andrew D. Scott, Daniel R. Higazi, David Lowe, Gary S. Thompson, Alexander L. Breeze
        Receptor tyrosine kinases are key mediators of cell proliferation that have been implicated in several disease states for which they represent promising drug targets. Here the authors determine the thermodynamic basis for the low propensity of FGFR1 to access the DFG-Phe-out conformation required to bind type-II inhibitors.
        23 Jul 2015
        doi:
        10.1038/ncomms8877

      • Condensin targets and reduces unwound DNA structures associated with transcription in mitotic chromosome condensation Open

        Takashi Sutani, Toyonori Sakata, Ryuichiro Nakato, Koji Masuda, Mai Ishibashi, Daisuke Yamashita, Yutaka Suzuki, Tatsuya Hirano, Masashige Bando, Katsuhiko Shirahige
        Chromosome condensation is a prerequisite for faithful segregation of chromosomes to daughter cells. Here, the authors show that the condensin complex binds to protein-coding genes in a transcription-dependent manner during condensation, and reduces unwound DNA segments generated by transcription.
        23 Jul 2015
        doi:
        10.1038/ncomms8815

      • Single-photon emitting diode in silicon carbide

        A. Lohrmann, N. Iwamoto, Z. Bodrog, S. Castelletto, T. Ohshima, T.J. Karle, A. Gali, S. Prawer, J.C. McCallum, B.C. Johnson
        Single-photon emitters are required for quantum cryptography and computation and single-photon metrology. Here, Lohrmann et al. fabricate electrically driven, single-photon emitting diodes in silicon carbide with a fully polarized output, high emission rates and stability at room temperature.
        23 Jul 2015
        doi:
        10.1038/ncomms8783

      • High-resolution optical spectroscopy using multimode interference in a compact tapered fibre

        Noel H. Wan, Fan Meng, Tim Schröder, Ren-Jye Shiue, Edward H. Chen, Dirk Englund
        While desirable for compact solutions, the miniaturization of spectrometers comes at the cost of spectral resolution and operating range. Here, Wan et al. propose a tapered fibre multimode interference spectrometer exhibiting high spectral resolution from the visible to the near infrared in a compact configuration.
        23 Jul 2015
        doi:
        10.1038/ncomms8762

      • Controllable synthesis of molybdenum tungsten disulfide alloy for vertically composition-controlled multilayer Open

        Jeong-Gyu Song, Gyeong Hee Ryu, Su Jeong Lee, Sangwan Sim, Chang Wan Lee, Taejin Choi, Hanearl Jung, Youngjun Kim, Zonghoon Lee, Jae-Min Myoung, Christian Dussarrat, Clement Lansalot-Matras, Jusang Park, Hyunyong Choi, Hyungjun Kim
        The band gap modulation of two-dimensional transition metal dichalcogenide alloy is essential for successful applications. Here, we show a controllable synthesis of Mo1−xWxS2 alloy and vertically composition-controlled Mo1−xWxS2 multilayer, which is promising as a photoactive material.
        23 Jul 2015
        doi:
        10.1038/ncomms8817

      • Conserved nematode signalling molecules elicit plant defenses and pathogen resistance Open

        Patricia Manosalva, Murli Manohar, Stephan H. von Reuss, Shiyan Chen, Aline Koch, Fatma Kaplan, Andrea Choe, Robert J. Micikas, Xiaohong Wang, Karl-Heinz Kogel, Paul W. Sternberg, Valerie M. Williamson, Frank C. Schroeder, Daniel F. Klessig
        Plants are able to induce defense responses following recognition of certain pathogen derived molecules at the cell surface. Here, Manosalva et al. show that plants respond to ascarosides, a conserved class of nematode pheromones, providing the first example of plant recognition of an animal-derived signalling molecule.
        23 Jul 2015
        doi:
        10.1038/ncomms8795

      • Arabidopsis AZI1 family proteins mediate signal mobilization for systemic defence priming

        Nicolás M. Cecchini, Kevin Steffes, Michael R. Schläppi, Andrew N. Gifford, Jean T. Greenberg
        Azelaic acid (AZA) is a mobile signal that is thought to induce defence responses in plants in tissues distal from the initial infection site. Here, Cecchini et al. propose that AZI1, a plastid-targeted lipid transfer protein that is necessary for the movement and priming functions of AZA.
        23 Jul 2015
        doi:
        10.1038/ncomms8658
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