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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.
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.
Susan Lindquist has challenged conventional thinking on how misfolded proteins drive disease and may power evolution. But she still finds that criticism stings.
Study protocols need to be rigorous, because more than science is at stake. Sometimes participants' lives depend on the results, writes Gholson J. Lyon.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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
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
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
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
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.
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.
Channelrhodopsins are light-gated cation channels used in optogenetics; here, the high-resolution crystal structure of a channelrhodopsin from Chlamydomonas reinhardtii is determined.
Light echoes from the massive binary star η Carinae reveal it to have been much cooler than models suggest during its Great Eruption in 1840 but the cause of the eruption remains unknown.
Laboratory observations show how a macroscopic magnetohydrodynamic plasma instability drives a fine-scale secondary instability that is associated with magnetic reconnection.
A controlled-controlled NOT, or Toffoli, gate is used to develop a fast, high-fidelity, three-qubit error correction protocol with the potential to correct arbitrary single-qubit errors.
A model of subduction that reveals a long tear under Oregon and Nevada provides a new mechanism for the origin of Columbia River flood basalt, resolving previous hypotheses.
In human lymphoblastoid cell lines, 8,902 loci were identified at which genetic variation is significantly associated with local DNase I sensitivity; these variants are responsible for a large fraction of expression quantitative trait loci.
Selective impairment of peripheral regulatory T-cell differentiation is found to result in spontaneous allergic TH2-type inflammation in the intestine and lungs, demonstrating the functional heterogeneity of regulatory T cells generated in the thymus and extrathymically in controlling immune mediated inflammation and disease.
This paper illustrates that immunosurveillance and immunoediting can occur in an oncogene-driven endogenous tumour model provided that the tumours carry strong neoantigens not present in the host.
The earliest stages of tumorigenesis are mimicked in a three-dimensional model of mammary epithelial cells, showing that oncogenes that can promote cell translocation can also drive clonal outgrowth.
Galectin 8, a cytosolic lectin, is shown to function as a danger receptor that detects damaged vesicles and protects cells from bacterial infection by inducing autophagy.
Brassinosteroid inhibits stomatal development by alleviating GSK3-mediated inhibition of a MAPK module, revealing a link between a plant MAPKKK and its upstream regulators, and between brassinosteroid and a specific developmental output.
The search for DNA homology is vital to recombinational DNA repair and occurs by intersegment contact sampling wherein the three-dimensional conformational state of the double-stranded DNA target and the length of the homologous RecA–single-stranded DNA filament have important roles.
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.