Browse Articles

Here, Brotherton and colleagues sequence 39 mitochondrial genomes from ancient human remains. They track population changes across Central Europe and find that the foundations of the European mitochondrial DNA pool were formed during the Neolithic rather than the post-glacial period.

IP39 is an abundant protozoan protein known to form highly-ordered striations in Euglena gracilis’ plasma membrane. Here, Suzuki et al. determine its three-dimensional structure by electron crystallography revealing that IP39 polymerises to form trimeric longitudinal units arranged in a molecular strand of antiparallel double-rows.

Low-dimensional materials containing defects such as twin boundaries are known to fail well below their theoretical strength due to surface imperfections. Here, Wang et al. observe strengths close to the ideal limit in gold nanowires with angstrom scale twins, where homogeneous dislocation nucleation controls deformation.

Vascular permeability is increased by inflammation and in disorders such as acute respiratory distress syndrome. Mammoto et al. show that lung vascular permeability is controlled by the stiffness of the extracellular matrix and identify lysyl oxidase as a regulator of vascular leakage in pulmonary oedema in mice.

In order to use nuclear spins for the creation of qubits, an efficient nuclear spin hyperpolarisation at room temperature is crucial. Here the authors show how this can be achieved by spin polarized conduction-band electrons in a semiconductor, exploiting the defect-engineered spin-filtering effect.

Even though both embryonic stem cells and primordial germ cells express pluripotency markers, they differ in their developmental potential. Maeda et al. show that, in embryonic stem cells, the Myc family member Max mediates epigenetic repression of genes involved in germ cell development.

Sigma factors are proteins controlling gene expression that allow bacteria to adapt to changing environmental conditions. Qiu and colleagues investigate sigma factor regulatory networks in Geobacter sulfurreducens, providing insights into how sigma factors regulate bacterial growth and energy metabolism.

Transcription activator-like effector nucleases (TALENs) are dimeric 'molecular scissors' that can be readily engineered for gene-targeting applications. Beurdeley et al. develop a single-chain TALEN architecture having significant in vivoactivity in yeast, plant and mammalian systems.

Detecting and phenotyping Mycobacterium tuberculosis, especially in resource-limited settings, is important for global tuberculosis control. Here Liong et al. report a point-of-care diagnostic platform based on magnetic barcoding and nuclear magnetic resonance for the detection of mycobacterial nucleic acids.

The original definition of a memristor envisions a two-terminal memory device with a pinched, zero-crossing hysteresis loop. As the authors show here, an electromotive force leads to non-zero-crossing characteristics in nanoionic-type memristors, implying that the memristor definition must be amended.

Troodontid dinosaurs share a close ancestry with birds and were distributed widely across the northern hemisphere before the extinction of non-avian dinosaurs. Goswami et al. report the discovery in South India of the first Gondwanan troodontid, extending their geographic range by nearly 10,000 km.

Dynamin promotes membrane fission by constricting the neck of invaginating membranes; however, it was recently shown that dynamin also regulates membrane fusion. Here the authors show that this fusogenic activity is mediated by interaction with the Qa SNARE, thereby promoting trans-SNARE formation.

The detection of light of different wavelengths in the same structure typically requires a complex device architecture. Here direct wavelength determination of monochromatic light is realized in a power-independent fashion with a simple metal-insulator-metal device.

Conductive polymers are of great interest for electronic applications, but their disorder has made it difficult to realize their full electronic potential. Here transport measurements uncover the intrinsic transport properties of metal-organic polymer nanoribbons.

The characterization and manipulation of carbon nanotubes is of relevance for a range of nanotechnology applications, but usually requires electron microscopes. Here Zhang et al. evaporate nanoparticles on carbon nanotubes to make them visible even under an optical microscope.

Robustness to mutations can give rise to cryptic variation —a bottled-up genetic potential, which is of undetermined importance in developmental processes. Kienle and Sommer show the occurrence of cryptic variation in nematode vulva development and identify cis-regulatory evolution of the transcription factor’s HAIRY-binding site as mechanism.

Arginine-rich peptides act as delivery systems for the internalization of cargoes in cells. Here, the clustering of arginine units in a parallel array on a macrocyclic scaffold produces a vector with high efficiency in DNA delivery and transfection.

The number of different host species that a parasite uses should affect its extinction risk, yet the number of documented host–parasite coextinctions is lower than expected. Strona et al. find that specialised parasites tend to use hosts with low vulnerability to extinction, which explains the paradox.

Ultrashort electron bunches are promising for diffraction measurements of structural dynamics, particularly in surfaces, thin films or membrane proteins. With this goal in mind, Engelen et al.generate high-coherence ultrafast electron bunches by photoionisation of laser-cooled atoms.

Dielectric breakdown in Mott insulators induced by strong electric fields is thought to take place via a Zener mechanism. Guiot et al. show that the breakdown characteristics are instead similar to the avalanche breakdown in conventional semiconductors, although with much longer delay times.