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Volume 523 Issue 7562, 30 July 2015

Electrically conductive mitochondria in a skeletal muscle cell. How is energy distributed within the cell? In the skeletal muscle, energy distribution has been proposed to occur through metabolite-facilitated diffusion, although genetic evidence has raised questions about the importance of this mode of distribution. Using various forms of high-resolution microscopy, Robert Balaban and colleagues explore whether the mitochondria themselves � as well as actually generating the energy � also have a role in its distribution. They find that they do, by forming a conductive pathway throughout the cell in the form of a proton-motive force. Throughout this network, the mitochondrial protein localization seems to be varied, allowing optimized generation and utilization of the mitochondrial membrane potential. This energy distribution network, which depends on conduction rather than diffusion, is potentially extremely rapid, thereby enabling muscle to respond almost instantaneously to new energy demands. Cover: Ethan Tyler, NIH Medical Arts.

Editorial

  • After years of talk, the palm-oil industry is looking into adopting environmental standards. Such rules must be strong, and need to be implemented.

    Editorial

    Advertisement

  • Government labs should be subject to the same transparent oversight as academic facilities.

    Editorial
  • The communication of risk in disease outbreaks is too often neglected; that must change.

    Editorial
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World View

  • Pope Francis has found a meeting place for those with extreme religious and environmentalist stances, says David M. Lodge.

    • David M. Lodge
    World View
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Research Highlights

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Social Selection

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Seven Days

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News

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Correction

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News Feature

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Comment

  • Seventy years after the destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki by nuclear weapons, David Kaiser investigates the legacy of 'the physicists' war'.

    • David Kaiser
    Comment
  • The future of the bioeconomy requires global agreement on metrics and the creation of a dispute resolution centre, say Roeland Bosch, Mattheüs van de Pol and Jim Philp.

    • Roeland Bosch
    • Mattheüs van de Pol
    • Jim Philp

    Special:

    Comment
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Summer Books

  • Plunge into a profusion of brilliant summer reads suggested by regular reviewers and editors, far away from the lab and lecture hall.

    • Nathaniel Comfort
    • Kevin Padian
    • Sara Abdulla
    Summer Books
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Correspondence

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Obituary

  • Established role of ubiquitin in the destruction of cellular proteins.

    • Keith Wilkinson
    • Avram Hershko
    Obituary
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News & Views

  • A genetically modified rice with more starch in its grains also provides fewer nutrients for methane-producing soil microbes. This dual benefit might help to meet the urgent need for globally sustainable food production. See Letter p.602

    • Paul L. E. Bodelier

    Special:

    News & Views
  • A microscopy technique has been used to study the formation and growth of crystals of porous solids known as metal–organic frameworks in real time. The findings will aid the design of methods for making these useful compounds.

    • Krista S. Walton
    News & Views
  • A polymer-based material has been discovered that breaks the rules — it has the right combination of properties for use in energy-storage devices called dielectric capacitors, and can function at high temperatures. See Letter p.576

    • Harry J. Ploehn
    News & Views
  • The first crystal structure of a G-protein-coupled receptor in complex with an arrestin protein provides insight into how the signalling pathways activated by these receptors are switched off through desensitization. See Article p.561

    • Jeffrey L. Benovic
    News & Views
  • Two genetic regions associated with major depressive disorder have been revealed for the first time, through whole-genome sequencing of a population of Han Chinese women. See Letter p.588

    • Patrick F. Sullivan

    Special:

    News & Views
  • Mutations underlying hereditary cataracts in two families impair the function of an enzyme that synthesizes the lens molecule lanosterol. The finding may lead to non-surgical prevention and treatment of cataracts. See Letter p.607

    • J. Fielding Hejtmancik
    News & Views
  • Electrons in a crystal can tunnel between energy bands when a strong electric field is switched on. It emerges that electron pathways interfere almost instantaneously, giving rise to ultra-short, pulsed emission of light. See Letter p.572

    • Peter Hommelhoff
    • Takuya Higuchi
    News & Views
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Correction

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Article

  • Ice-core and tree-ring data show that large volcanic eruptions in the tropics and high latitudes were primary drivers of temperature variability in the Northern Hemisphere during the past 2,500 years, firmly implicating such eruptions as catalysts in major sixth-century pandemics, famines, and socioeconomic disruptions.

    • M. Sigl
    • M. Winstrup
    • T. E. Woodruff

    Collection:

    Article
  • G protein-coupled receptors are a large family of signalling proteins that mediate cellular responses primarily via G proteins or arrestins, and they are targets of one-third of the current clinically used drugs; here, an active form of human rhodopsin bound to a pre-activated form of the mouse visual arrestin-1 is determined, revealing unique structural features that may constitute essential elements for arrestin-biased signalling.

    • Yanyong Kang
    • X. Edward Zhou
    • H. Eric Xu
    Article
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Letter

  • The generation of high harmonics in the solid phase is studied with time-resolved measurements and a quantum many-body theory; the underlying motion of electrons is found to differ from that observed during high-harmonic generation in atomic gases, and involves quantum interference between electrons from multiple valence bands.

    • M. Hohenleutner
    • F. Langer
    • R. Huber
    Letter
  • The addition of boron nitride nanosheets to polymer nanocomposites creates dielectric materials that operate at much higher working temperatures than previous polymer dielectrics, as well as being flexible, lightweight, photopatternable, scalable and robust, which now makes them more attractive for electronic device applications than ceramic dielectrics.

    • Qi Li
    • Lei Chen
    • Qing Wang
    Letter
  • A new microendoscopic method reveals that hippocampal dendritic spines in the CA1 region undergo a complete turnover in less than six weeks in adult mice; this contrasts with the much greater stability of synapses in the neocortex and provides a physical basis for the fact that episodic memories are only retained by the mouse hippocampus for a few weeks.

    • Alessio Attardo
    • James E. Fitzgerald
    • Mark J. Schnitzer
    Letter
  • Little is known about how the relative proportions of stem cells and differentiated cells are regulated; basal stem/progenitor cells of the mouse airway epithelium self renew and differentiate into secretory and ciliated cells, and basal stem cells continuously send daughter cells a forward niche signal necessary for daughter cell fate maintenance.

    • Ana Pardo-Saganta
    • Purushothama Rao Tata
    • Jayaraj Rajagopal
    Letter
  • Exploring the genetic basis of congenital cataracts in two families identifies a molecule, lanosterol, which prevents intracellular protein aggregation of various cataract-causing mutant crystallins, and which can reduce cataract severity and increase lens transparency in vivo in dogs.

    • Ling Zhao
    • Xiang-Jun Chen
    • Kang Zhang
    Letter
  • Mitochondria are shown to form a conductive pathway throughout the cell in the form of a proton motive force, and throughout this network, mitochondrial protein localization seems to be varied, allowing optimized generation and utilization of the mitochondrial membrane potential; the rapid energy distribution network, which depends on conduction rather than diffusion, could explain how the muscle can rapidly respond to energy demands.

    • Brian Glancy
    • Lisa M. Hartnell
    • Robert S. Balaban
    Letter
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Retraction

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Corrigendum

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Feature

  • When committees come knocking, scientists need to know which requests will benefit them and which will only steal their time — and how to tell the difference.

    • Roberta Kwok
    Feature
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Q&A

  • When a postdoc joins an initiative to collect baseline plant data, she finds its rewards come in forms other than research papers.

    • Virginia Gewin
    Q&A
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Futures

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