Table of contents
Volume 459 Number 7249 pp889-1026
(this content only available online) indicates content that is available online only
Editorials
Animal farm: pig in the middle p889
The 2009 flu pandemic highlights the urgent need for an independent international body for research into human diseases that originate in animals.
doi:10.1038/459889a
See also: Editor's summary
Coherent advocacy please p889
Reactions to UK government changes are an example of how researchers should not behave in a downturn.
doi:10.1038/459889b
Degrees of knowledge p890
Technology is founded on precision measurements, and scientists strive to make these ever more exact.
doi:10.1038/459890a
Research Highlights
Cell biology: A grey's anatomy p892
doi:10.1038/459892a
Agriculture: No hectare spare p892
doi:10.1038/459892b
Human evolution: Not so clean sweep p892
doi:10.1038/459892c
Physiology: Pain's new path p892
doi:10.1038/459892d
Plant genetics: Asexual Arabidopsis p892
doi:10.1038/459892e
Immunology: Trouble for termites p892
doi:10.1038/459892f
Quantum mechanics: Do the wave–particle p893
doi:10.1038/459893a
Chemistry: Don't be square p893
doi:10.1038/459893b
Plant biology: Seeding expression p893
doi:10.1038/459893c
Gene regulation: Just-in-time activation p893
doi:10.1038/459893d
News
Climate talks snarled up p894
Two-pronged negotiations fail to bridge divide between nations.
Jeff Tollefson
doi:10.1038/459894a
Patchy pig monitoring may hide flu threat p894
Experts call for increased surveillance of animals.
Declan Butler
doi:10.1038/459894b
Research parks feel the economic pinch p896
Once lauded as incubators of high-tech jobs, science parks find themselves struggling in the new financial environment.
Heidi Ledford
doi:10.1038/459896a
Astronomers lose access to military data p896
Satellite information on incoming meteors is blocked.
Geoff Brumfiel
doi:10.1038/459897a
Venezuelan scientists speak out p898
University cuts are the latest in a series of government actions that have researchers seeing red.
Anna Petherick
doi:10.1038/459898a
Early man becomes early ape p899
Author withdraws claim that ancient jawbone is human ancestor.
Rex Dalton
doi:10.1038/459899a
Italy outsources peer review to NIH p900
Some question whether grants should be decided in-country.
Richard Van Noorden
doi:10.1038/459900a
Editor to quit over hoax open-access paper p901
doi:10.1038/459901a
FDA gains the power to regulate tobacco products p901
doi:10.1038/459901b
Japan's lunar orbiter ends mission with crash landing p901
doi:10.1038/459901c
Artefact raiders charged after undercover operation p901
doi:10.1038/459901d
US revives FutureGen 'clean' coal plant p901
doi:10.1038/459901e
Infrared scan reveals colourful past of the Parthenon p901
doi:10.1038/459901f
Corrections p901
doi:10.1038/459901g
News Features
Metrology: The new and improved kelvin p902
Metrologists are on a path to redefine the unit of temperature. The freezing point of water will never be the same again, finds Nicola Jones.
doi:10.1038/459902a
Forestry: Planting the forest of the future p906
While conservation biologists debate whether to move organisms threatened by the warming climate, one forester in British Columbia is already doing it. Emma Marris reports.
doi:10.1038/459906a
Correspondence
Global warming: why the 2 °C goal is a political delusion p909
David G. Victor
doi:10.1038/459909a
Ancient ivory figurine deserves a more thoughtful label p909
Anna McDonnell
doi:10.1038/459909b
San Andreas array failure is only a temporary setback p909
Mark D. Zoback, William Ellsworth & Stephen Hickman
doi:10.1038/459909c
Essay
The mystery ape of Pleistocene Asia p910
Fossil finds of early humans in southeast Asia may actually be the remains of an unknown ape. Russell Ciochon says that many palaeoanthropologists — including himself — have been mistaken.
Russell L. Ciochon
doi:10.1038/459910a
Books and Arts
A fresh take on food p912
A slew of publications examines our changing attitudes to the things we eat, so what lies behind our need for mutant maize or locally grown organic food, asks Jascha Hoffman?
Jascha Hoffman
doi:10.1038/459912a
Q&A: Education from the ground up p913
When Alice Waters founded Chez Panisse restaurant in 1971, she used fresh ingredients from local suppliers and sparked a culinary revolution in Berkeley, California, that has spread worldwide. For the past decade she has been taking that revolution into education. Waters talks about teaching science in the garden, and the true cost of a school lunch.
Jascha Hoffman
doi:10.1038/459913a
Seeds of an edible city architecture p914
Global warming and food shortages are renewing interest in urban agriculture, finds John Whitfield.
John Whitfield
doi:10.1038/459914a
Sustainable fashion p915
Josie Glausiusz reviews Design for a Living World
doi:10.1038/459915a
News and Views
Organometallic chemistry: Charting the course of catalysis p917
With palladium catalysts, chemists can manipulate ordinarily inert carbon–hydrogen bonds to build useful molecules from simple building blocks. How the catalysts guide this process has just become a bit clearer.
Gregory L. Hamilton & F. Dean Toste
doi:10.1038/459917a
Malaria: The gatekeeper revealed p918
A molecular machine used by the malaria parasite to export its protein armoury into the host cell has at last been identified, providing researchers with a potentially invaluable therapeutic target.
Sarah B. Reiff & Boris Striepen
doi:10.1038/459918a
See also: Editor's summary
Biomechanics: Serpentine steps p919
Combine theoretical modelling, friction measurements and observations of serpentine slithering. Together, they show that snakes are in effect just taking a walk even when moving at high speed.
Andrew J. Clark & Adam P. Summers
doi:10.1038/459919a
Planetary science: Io's escape p920
According to the latest study, our witnessing of the volcanic splendour of Jupiter's moon Io might just be a lucky circumstance. The odds are that the satellite will become quiescent on its escape from orbital custody.
Gerald Schubert
doi:10.1038/459920a
See also: Editor's summary
Inflammation: Wound healing in zebrafish p921
What is the first signal that directs the rapid influx of immune cells to a wound to stave off potential infection? A study in the zebrafish reveals an unusual but well-qualified candidate.
Paul Martin & Yi Feng
doi:10.1038/459921a
See also: Editor's summary
Condensed-matter physics: Coupled vibrations p923
Demonstrating that macroscopic objects can display quantum behaviour, which is usually associated with the microscopic world of atoms, is a long-standing goal in physics. That goal is now within closer reach.
Pertti J. Hakonen & Mika A. Sillanpää
doi:10.1038/459923a
See also: Editor's summary
Cell biology: Beyond the prion principle p924
It seems that many misfolded proteins can act like prions — spreading disease by imparting their misshapen structure to normal cellular counterparts. But how common are bona fide prions really?
Adriano Aguzzi
doi:10.1038/459924a
Correction p925
doi:10.1038/459925a
Feature
Unlocking the secrets of the genome p927
Despite the successes of genomics, little is known about how genetic information produces complex organisms. A look at the crucial functional elements of fly and worm genomes could change that.
Susan E. Celniker, Laura A. L. Dillon, Mark B. Gerstein, Kristin C. Gunsalus, Steven Henikoff, Gary H. Karpen, Manolis Kellis, Eric C. Lai, Jason D. Lieb, David M. MacAlpine, Gos Micklem, Fabio Piano, Michael Snyder, Lincoln Stein, Kevin P. White, Robert H. Waterston & modENCODE Consortium
doi:10.1038/459927a
Full Text | PDF (1,054K) | Supplementary information
See also: Editor's summary
Review
Emergence and pandemic potential of swine-origin H1N1 influenza virus p931
Gabriele Neumann, Takeshi Noda & Yoshihiro Kawaoka
doi:10.1038/nature08157
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (917K)
See also: Editor's summary
Articles
A Jurassic ceratosaur from China helps clarify avian digital homologies p940
The bird hand is thought to derive from the second, third and fourth digits of an ancestral five-digit hand. However, the three-fingered hand of theropod dinosaurs, which are the closest extinct relatives of birds, are thought to derive from the first, second and third digits. The discovery of a small, primitive herbivorous theropod from the Jurassic period of China with a stub of the first digit alongside more developed second, third and fourth digits, sheds light on this problem.
Xing Xu, James M. Clark, Jinyou Mo, Jonah Choiniere, Catherine A. Forster, Gregory M. Erickson, David W. E. Hone, Corwin Sullivan, David A. Eberth, Sterling Nesbitt, Qi Zhao, Rene Hernandez, Cheng-kai Jia, Feng-lu Han & Yu Guo
doi:10.1038/nature08124
Abstract | Full Text | PDF (707K) | Supplementary information
See also: Editor's summary
A newly discovered protein export machine in malaria parasites p945
Malaria parasites reside in vacuoles during intracellular infection of erythrocytes and export many proteins into the host cell, a process that is essential for the virulence and viability of Plasmodium. Whereas transport across the parasite membrane is known to rely on the secretory pathway, the transporter responsible for the translocation of proteins across the vacuole membrane is now identified.
Tania F. de Koning-Ward, Paul R. Gilson, Justin A. Boddey, Melanie Rug, Brian J. Smith, Anthony T. Papenfuss, Paul R. Sanders, Rachel J. Lundie, Alexander G. Maier, Alan F. Cowman & Brendan S. Crabb
doi:10.1038/nature08104
Abstract | Full Text | PDF (1,098K) | Supplementary information
See also: Editor's summary | News and Views by Reiff & Striepen
The Listeria transcriptional landscape from saprophytism to virulence p950
Listeria monocytogenes is responsible for severe food-borne infections. The first global comparative transcriptome analysis of this species reveals successive and coordinated global transcriptional changes during infection and points to previously unknown regulatory mechanisms in bacteria.
Alejandro Toledo-Arana, Olivier Dussurget, Georgios Nikitas, Nina Sesto, Hélène Guet-Revillet, Damien Balestrino, Edmund Loh, Jonas Gripenland, Teresa Tiensuu, Karolis Vaitkevicius, Mathieu Barthelemy, Massimo Vergassola, Marie-Anne Nahori, Guillaume Soubigou, Béatrice Régnault, Jean-Yves Coppée, Marc Lecuit, Jörgen Johansson & Pascale Cossart
doi:10.1038/nature08080
Abstract | Full Text | PDF (1,204K) | Supplementary information
See also: Editor's summary
Letters
Strong tidal dissipation in Io and Jupiter from astrometric observations p957
The geological activity on Io, volcanically the most active body in the Solar System, is thought to be the result of tides raised by Jupiter, but it is not known whether the current tidal heat production is sufficiently high to generate the observed surface heat flow. Here, a determination of the tidal dissipation in Io and Jupiter is reported; for Io, this is in good agreement with the observed surface heat flow, whereas for Jupiter, dissipation is found to be close to the upper bound of its average value expected from the long-term evolution of the system.
Valéry Lainey, Jean-Eudes Arlot, Özgür Karatekin & Tim Van Hoolst
doi:10.1038/nature08108
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (271K) | Supplementary information
See also: Editor's summary | News and Views by Schubert
Nanomechanical measurements of a superconducting qubit p960
Fabricating tiny mechanical structures where the vibrational motion is purely quantum mechanical is a long-standing goal in physics, and a parallel goal is the development of a scheme for observing and controlling such tiny motions. By coupling a tiny mechanical resonator to a superconducting two-level quantum system (qubit), the state of the superconducting qubit can be measured through its influence on the vibrations of the resonator, a demonstration of nanomechanical read-out of quantum interference.
M. D. LaHaye, J. Suh, P. M. Echternach, K. C. Schwab & M. L. Roukes
doi:10.1038/nature08093
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (759K) | Supplementary information
See also: Editor's summary | News and Views by Hakonen & Sillanpää
Peierls distortion as a route to high thermoelectric performance in In4Se3-
crystals p965
Thermoelectric materials, which can convert heat into electricity, are of great interest for energy sustainability. The problem is the low efficiency of these materials, quantified by a coefficient, ZT, which for mid-temperature materials is usually around 1. The realization of a material, In4Se3–
, which achieves the ZT value of 1.48 at 705 K, could open up a new avenue in the research to generate high ZT materials.
Jong-Soo Rhyee, Kyu Hyoung Lee, Sang Mock Lee, Eunseog Cho, Sang Il Kim, Eunsung Lee, Yong Seung Kwon, Ji Hoon Shim & Gabriel Kotliar
doi:10.1038/nature08088
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (557K) | Supplementary information
See also: Editor's summary
Increased seasonality through the Eocene to Oligocene transition in northern high latitudes p969
About 33.5 million years ago, at the Eocene–Oligocene transition, the Earth's climate switched from greenhouse to icehouse conditions. The analysis of terrestrial spore and pollen evidence deposited in ocean sediments in the Norwegian–Greenland Sea now reveals that cold-month mean temperatures declined by about 5 °C prior to the Eocene–Oligocene transition and that seasonality increased.
James S. Eldrett, David R. Greenwood, Ian C. Harding & Matthew Huber
doi:10.1038/nature08069
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (635K) | Supplementary information
See also: Editor's summary
Creep cavitation can establish a dynamic granular fluid pump in ductile shear zones p974
Fluid migration in the middle crust is difficult to explain—the environment is considered too hot for a dynamic fracture-sustained permeability, as in the upper crust, and fluid pathways are generally too deformed to be controlled by equilibrium wetting angles that apply to hotter, deeper environments. Here, synchroton X-ray tomography and scanning electron microscopy observations are used to formulate a model for fluid migration in shear zones which may explain fluid transfer through the middle crust.
F. Fusseis, K. Regenauer-Lieb, J. Liu, R. M. Hough & F. De Carlo
doi:10.1038/nature08051
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (1,137K) | Supplementary information
See also: Editor's summary
Colorado Plateau magmatism and uplift by warming of heterogeneous lithosphere p978
There has been a long-standing debate about the forces that drove uplift of the low-relief and tectonically-stable Colorado plateau, which experienced about 2 km of rock uplift without significant internal deformation. Warming of the thicker, more iron-depleted Colorado plateau lithosphere over 35–40 million years—following removal of the Farallon plate from beneath North America—is now proposed to be the primary mechanism for driving rock uplift.
Mousumi Roy, Thomas H. Jordan & Joel Pederson
doi:10.1038/nature08052
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (2,303K) | Supplementary information
See also: Editor's summary
Adaptation and the evolution of parasite virulence in a connected world p983
The evolution of lowered virulence in spatially structured populations with limited dispersal has been suggested to be an example of adaptation at the group level. The extension of previous models now shows that the effect of dispersal can be understood within the framework of inclusive fitness theory, demonstrating that reduced virulence could be due to individual-level adaptation by the parasite.
Geoff Wild, Andy Gardner & Stuart A. West
doi:10.1038/nature08071
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (170K) | Supplementary information
See also: Editor's summary
Copy number variation at 1q21.1 associated with neuroblastoma p987
Copy number variations (CNVs) and single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) are two important potential sources of phenotypic variation in humans; however, only SNPs have been associated with cancer. Here, a CNV at 1q21.1 is shown to be associated with neuroblastoma, and a transcript within this CNV, NBPF23, is implicated in early tumorigenesis of the disease.
Sharon J. Diskin, Cuiping Hou, Joseph T. Glessner, Edward F. Attiyeh, Marci Laudenslager, Kristopher Bosse, Kristina Cole, Yaël P. Mossé, Andrew Wood, Jill E. Lynch, Katlyn Pecor, Maura Diamond, Cynthia Winter, Kai Wang, Cecilia Kim, Elizabeth A. Geiger, Patrick W. McGrady, Alexandra I. F. Blakemore, Wendy B. London, Tamim H. Shaikh, Jonathan Bradfield, Struan F. A. Grant, Hongzhe Li, Marcella Devoto, Eric R. Rappaport, Hakon Hakonarson & John M. Maris
doi:10.1038/nature08035
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (379K) | Supplementary information
See also: Editor's summary
Identification of the pollen self-incompatibility determinant in Papaver rhoeas p992
Self-incompatibility is an important mechanism used in many species to prevent inbreeding by ensuring rejection of 'self' pollen. The cloning of three alleles of a highly polymorphic pollen-expressed gene, PrpS (Papaver rhoeas pollen S), now provides evidence that it encodes the pollen S locus determinant and adds to our knowledge of the evolution of cell–cell recognition systems.
Michael J. Wheeler, Barend H. J. de Graaf, Natalie Hadjiosif, Ruth M. Perry, Natalie S. Poulter, Kim Osman, Sabina Vatovec, Andrea Harper, F. Christopher H. Franklin & Vernonica E. Franklin-Tong
doi:10.1038/nature08027
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (655K) | Supplementary information
See also: Editor's summary
A tissue-scale gradient of hydrogen peroxide mediates rapid wound detection in zebrafish p996
In animals, within minutes of wounding, leukocytes are recruited to the site of injury across distances of hundreds of micrometres. Early leukocyte recruitment after injury is now shown to be driven by the establishment of an H2O2 gradient from the epithelium to the vasculature in zebrafish.
Philipp Niethammer, Clemens Grabher, A. Thomas Look & Timothy J. Mitchison
doi:10.1038/nature08119
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (900K) | Supplementary information
See also: Editor's summary | News and Views by Martin & Feng
CCR7 signalling as an essential regulator of CNS infiltration in T-cell leukaemia p1000
T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (T-ALL) patients are at an increased risk of central nervous system (CNS) relapse, and yet, despite its clinical importance, little is known about the mechanism of leukaemic cell infiltration of the CNS. Here, using T-ALL animal modelling and gene-expression profiling, the chemokine receptor CCR7 is shown to be the essential adhesion signal required for the targeting of leukaemic T cells into the CNS.
Silvia Buonamici, Thomas Trimarchi, Maria Grazia Ruocco, Linsey Reavie, Severine Cathelin, Brenton G. Mar, Apostolos Klinakis, Yevgeniy Lukyanov, Jen-Chieh Tseng, Filiz Sen, Eric Gehrie, Mengling Li, Elizabeth Newcomb, Jiri Zavadil, Daniel Meruelo, Martin Lipp, Sherif Ibrahim, Argiris Efstratiadis, David Zagzag, Jonathan S. Bromberg, Michael L. Dustin & Iannis Aifantis
doi:10.1038/nature08020
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (807K) | Supplementary information
See also: Editor's summary
Genes that mediate breast cancer metastasis to the brain p1005
Little is known about the mechanisms by which breast cancer cells metastasize to the brain. By performing gene expression analysis on cells that preferentially infiltrate the brain it has now been possible to identify three genes that are involved in this process, two of which—COX2 and HBEGF—have previously been shown to mediate breast cancer metastasis to the lung.
Paula D. Bos, Xiang H.-F. Zhang, Cristina Nadal, Weiping Shu, Roger R. Gomis, Don X. Nguyen, Andy J. Minn, Marc J. van de Vijver, William L. Gerald, John A. Foekens & Joan Massagué
doi:10.1038/nature08021
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (834K) | Supplementary information
See also: Editor's summary
The RNA-binding protein KSRP promotes the biogenesis of a subset of microRNAs p1010
MicroRNAs (miRNAs) have a role in down-regulating gene expression, and the levels of specific miRNAs are important for correct embryonic development; however, the mechanisms by which this is regulated are unknown. The splicing regulatory protein, KSRP, is now found to regulate the precursor processing of a subset of miRNAs, and its disruption leads to effects on proliferation, differentiation and apoptosis.
Michele Trabucchi, Paola Briata, MariaFlor Garcia-Mayoral, Astrid D. Haase, Witold Filipowicz, Andres Ramos, Roberto Gherzi & Michael G. Rosenfeld
doi:10.1038/nature08025
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (844K) | Supplementary information
See also: Editor's summary
Structure and mechanism of a bacterial light-regulated cyclic nucleotide phosphodiesterase p1015
Although structures of single-domain BLUF proteins—a photoreceptor protein domain that senses blue light—have been determined, there have been no reports of the structure of a BLUF protein containing a functional output domain; for this reason, the mechanism of light activation has remained enigmatic. The first biochemical, structural and mechanistic characterization of a full-length, active photoreceptor containing a BLUF sensor domain and a phosphodiesterase EAL output domain is now reported.
Thomas R. M. Barends, Elisabeth Hartmann, Julia J. Griese, Thorsten Beitlich, Natalia V. Kirienko, Dmitri A. Ryjenkov, Jochen Reinstein, Robert L. Shoeman, Mark Gomelsky & Ilme Schlichting
doi:10.1038/nature07966
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (789K) | Supplementary information
See also: Editor's summary
Naturejobs
NewsWomen at the top p1021
US academies track women's success along the academic pipeline.
Hannah Hoag
doi:10.1038/nj7249-1021a
Postdoc journal
Befriending rejection p1021
Being rebuffed can be a source of strength.
Sam Walcott
doi:10.1038/nj7249-1021b
In Brief
Biosafety training p1021
University-based biosafety training programme expands.
doi:10.1038/nj7249-1021c
Science for physicians p1021
Premed and medical-school curricula need defined science competencies.
doi:10.1038/nj7249-1021d
Venezuela science boost p1021
Venezuelan government announces grant to research universities.
doi:10.1038/nj7249-1021e
Careers and Recruitment
Texas-sized challenge p1022
Houston's Texas Medical Center is a biomedical behemoth. But it's not immune to the souring economy, as Gene Russo finds out.
Gene Russo
doi:10.1038/nj7249-1022a
