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Volume 475 Issue 7356, 21 July 2011

The type VI secretion system (T6SS) is a protein-export machine that is present in about one-quarter of all sequenced bacteria. Bacteria can use this system to deliver toxic effector proteins in a contact-dependent manner to other bacterial cells. However, what these proteins do once their destination is reached has remained largely unknown. It is now shown that the opportunistic human pathogen Pseudomonas aeruginosa uses its T6SS to kill competing Gram-negative bacteria by injecting them with two peptidoglycan-degradative enzymes, the effector proteins Tse1 and Tse3. P. aeruginosa protects itself from these effectors by expressing immunity proteins that bind the toxins. A clash between bacteria is depicted on the cover. T6SS effector proteins transferred from a donor (red) to a recipient cell (green) degrade the cell wall, resulting in a breach in the peptidoglycan layer of the recipient. The outer membrane of the duelling Gram-negative bacteria is not shown, so that the underlying peptidoglycan layer is visible. Cover graphic: Jaime Easter.

Editorial

  • Tales of fake vaccination drives are the least of Pakistan's public-health problems. A disjointed care system and lack of services are doing more damage.

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  • It is time to update decades-old regulation of genetically engineered crops.

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  • Researchers should shrug off their fears and welcome the concept of venture philanthropy.

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World View

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Seven Days

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Comment

  • Jason Clay identifies eight steps that, taken together, could enable farming to feed 10 billion people and keep Earth habitable.

    • Jason Clay
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  • Researchers like to work on projects that start small and slowly scale up. They must think bigger and faster, says Sandy J. Andelman, to tackle today's problems in time.

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Books & Arts

  • Margaret Weitekamp reflects on how fashion influenced astronautical attire for the Apollo missions.

    • Margaret A. Weitekamp
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  • Richard Berendzen is director of NASA's Space Grant Consortium in Washington DC, and advised on the science-fiction film Another Earth, winner of the Alfred P. Sloan Feature Film Prize for science at this year's Sundance Film Festival. On the film's North American release, he talks to Nature about parallel worlds and the future of human space exploration.

    • Jascha Hoffman
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Correspondence

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News & Views

  • For the first time, spin flips of a single trapped proton in free space have been observed. This is a major step towards a million-fold improved test of matter–antimatter symmetry using a nuclear magnetic moment.

    • Rainer Blatt
    News & Views
  • A gene is considered to be imprinted if only the copy inherited from the mother or from the father is expressed throughout life. But one imprinted gene, Dlk1, disobeys this rule during postnatal neurodevelopment. See Letter p.381

    • Edwin C. Oh
    • Nicholas Katsanis
    News & Views
  • An exceptional data set documents surface deformation before, during and after the earthquake that struck northeastern Japan in March 2011. But models for assessing seismic and tsunami hazard remain inadequate. See Letter p.373

    • Jean-Philippe Avouac
    News & Views
  • New data suggest that the most recently discovered class of bacterial 'molecular syringes' inject proteins only across the outer membrane of target cells during interbacterial competition. See Article p.343

    • Peggy Cotter
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  • The IceCube detector is a super-sensitive tool with which astronomers hope to find the elusive neutrinos from cosmic γ-ray bursts. A search that, surprisingly, has come up empty handed prompts a rethink of the underlying theory.

    • Dieter H. Hartmann
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  • The idea that artificial neural networks could be based on molecular components is not new, but making such a system has been difficult. A network of four artificial neurons made from DNA has now been created. See Letter p.368

    • Anne Condon
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  • Sodium channels in cell membranes have a crucial role in triggering bioelectrical events that lead to processes such as muscle contraction or hormone release. A crystal structure reveals how one such channel might work. See Article p.353

    • Richard Horn
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Feature

  • Minnesota made its mark in medical devices and has green potential. But state funding woes could hamper progress.

    • Paul Smaglik
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Q&A

  • Bioorganic chemist Christian Hackenberger hopes to bring young investigators together in interdisciplinary collaborations.

    • Katharine Sanderson
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Career Brief

  • US initiative will provide funding for investigators in developing nations.

    Career Brief
  • University support boosts productivity for academic inventors.

    Career Brief
  • Most US universities are unlikely to freeze hiring or mandate unpaid leave in the next year.

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Futures

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Insight

  • Advances in optical imaging have given researchers an unprecedented view of the inner workings of a cell. Cellular processes are now known to be much more dynamic than previously imagined. This Insight explores some of the most exciting developments in cell biology, including how cells might perceive and interpret mechanical forces from the external environment, how RNA and protein can be transported between the nucleus and cytoplasm, how one molecule can influence a cell's phenotype and how molecular 'chaperones' assist in the crucial process of protein folding to maintain cellular homeostasis.

    Insight
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