Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

Volume 482 Issue 7385, 16 February 2012

The channelrhodopsins are light-gated ion channels, found in algae, that have rapidly become familiar in the neuroscience lab as optogenetics reagents: the activities of neurons expressing channelrhodopsins can be optically controlled within systems as complicated as living mammals. The X-ray crystal structure of a chimaera of two channelrhodopsins has now been determined at 2.3 E resolution. The structure reveals the molecular architecture of this ion channel, including the retinal-binding pocket and cation conduction pathway. This work paves the way for the design of new channelrhodopsin variants with enhanced properties. Cover image: Hiroshi M. Sasaki.

Editorial

  • Progress towards a United Nations arms-trade treaty is encouraging, but it won't keep weapons out of the hands of human-rights abusers.

    Editorial

    Advertisement

  • Scientists must find ways to make more efficient use of funds — or politicians may do it for them.

    Editorial
  • The soaring incidence of diabetes is driving the United Arab Emirates' science ambitions.

    Editorial
Top of page ⤴

World View

  • If research continues to be sidelined, Spain will be left with little domestic expertise, warns Amaya Moro-Martín.

    • Amaya Moro-Martín
    World View
Top of page ⤴

Research Highlights

Top of page ⤴

Seven Days

  • The week in science: Europe’s Vega rocket launches; US approves first new nuclear reactors for three decades; and this year’s schedule for the Large Hadron Collider is announced.

    Seven Days
Top of page ⤴

News

Top of page ⤴

News Feature

  • A South African archaeologist digs into his own past to seek connections between climate change and human development.

    • Jeff Tollefson
    News Feature
  • Susan Lindquist has challenged conventional thinking on how misfolded proteins drive disease and may power evolution. But she still finds that criticism stings.

    • Bijal P. Trivedi
    News Feature
Top of page ⤴

Comment

  • Mark Pagel proposes that our ability to share and build on ideas is what made us human.

    • Mark Pagel
    Comment
  • The World Health Organization is the only body that can promote health through the use of international law. It should make alcohol its next target, says Devi Sridhar.

    • Devi Sridhar
    Comment
Top of page ⤴

Books & Arts

  • Culture is both a product and a driver of human evolution, finds Peter Richerson.

    • Peter Richerson
    Books & Arts
  • John Vidal is gripped by a book that reveals how natural riches can impoverish nations.

    • John Vidal
    Books & Arts
  • Next month in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, artist Richard Pell opens the Center for PostNatural History — a museum of bioengineered organisms. He talks about the joys and pitfalls involved in collecting genetically modified maize, mosquitoes and zebrafish.

    • Jascha Hoffman
    Books & Arts
Top of page ⤴

Correspondence

Top of page ⤴

News & Views Forum

  • In the cell, genomic DNA is transcribed into various types of RNA. But not all RNAs are translated into proteins. Does this give protein-coding RNAs greater credibility in terms of function? Views differ.

    • Monika S. Kowalczyk
    • Douglas R. Higgs
    • Thomas R. Gingeras
    News & Views Forum
Top of page ⤴

News & Views

  • Radiocarbon is rare, forming no more than one part per trillion of the total carbon content of the atmosphere. An optical method allows radiocarbon to be detected at roughly 25-fold lower levels than this, opening up fresh avenues of research.

    • Richard N. Zare
    News & Views
  • The appearance of new ecological niches propels the evolution of species, but the converse can also occur. A study shows that changing lake habitats have caused extinctions and reduced the genetic differences between species. See Article p.357

    • Jeffrey S. McKinnon
    • Eric B. Taylor
    News & Views
  • The origin of volcanic activity occurring far from tectonic-plate boundaries has been a subject of contention. The latest geodynamic model offers a fresh take on the matter. See Letter p.386

    • Cin-Ty A. Lee
    • Stephen P. Grand
    News & Views
  • Cells can destroy invading bacteria through a digestive process called autophagy. A study finds that sugar molecules, exposed by bacterial damage to the cell's membrane, can trigger this process. See Letter p.414

    • Ju Huang
    • John H. Brumell
    News & Views
  • Almost two centuries after the eruption of one of the most massive binary systems in our Galaxy, light reflected from its surroundings has been detected. The observations challenge traditional models for the eruption. See Letter p.375

    • Noam Soker
    • Amit Kashi
    News & Views
  • When expressed in neurons, channelrhodopsin proteins allow the cells' electrical activity to be controlled by light. The structure of one such protein will guide efforts to make better tools for controlling neurons. See Article p.369

    • Oliver P. Ernst
    • Thomas P. Sakmar
    News & Views
Top of page ⤴

Editorial

    • Angela K. Eggleston
    • Alex Eccleston
    • Claudia Lupp
    Editorial
Top of page ⤴

Review Article

Top of page ⤴

Article

  • Historical and contemporary data of whitefish radiations from pre-alpine European lakes and reconstruction of changes in whitefish genetic species differentiation through time show that species diversity may have evolved in response to ecological opportunity, and that eutrophication, by diminishing this opportunity, has driven extinctions through speciation reversal and demographic decline.

    • P. Vonlanthen
    • D. Bittner
    • O. Seehausen
    Article
  • Previously thought to be rare laboratory artefacts or diseases of yeast, prions are actually found in one third of 700 wild strains; the prions give their hosts beneficial traits that can be transmitted epigenetically to the next generation, and then fixed in the genome.

    • Randal Halfmann
    • Daniel F. Jarosz
    • Susan Lindquist
    Article
Top of page ⤴

Letter

Top of page ⤴

Feature

  • A great idea will get applicants only so far. But there are other strategies that can add to the chances of success.

    • Karen Kaplan
    Feature
Top of page ⤴

Career Brief

Top of page ⤴

Futures

Top of page ⤴

Brief Communications Arising

Top of page ⤴

Insight

  • In-depth sequencing studies have revealed an unexpected complexity to the nature and function of RNAs encoded by DNA. This Insight includes an explanation of how dynamic reorganization of RNA structure directs many cellular processes, discusses systems controlled by specific RNAs and offers a modular model for the function of long non-coding RNAs.

    Insight
Top of page ⤴
Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing

Search

Quick links