Articles in 2017

Extracellular ATP acts as a damage-associated molecular pattern that triggers signaling responses to wounding and environmental stimuli in plants. Here Chen et al. show that ATP perception by DORN1 can trigger stomatal closure mediated via RBOHD phosphorylation and ROS production.

The timing of clouds is critical to the Earth’s energy balance. Here the authors show that in current climate models, clouds over the land tend to peak too early in the morning, reflecting less solar radiation than observed.

Heterogeneous nucleation is a process that mediates the birth of many crystalline materials, but is not fully understood. Here, the authors show that the study of precritical cluster fluctuations paves new ways for the identification of polymorphism, polymorphic control and theoretical modeling.

Non-proteinogenic (np) amino acids in the food chain present challenges for the human translation machinery. Here the authors show that, while AlaRS and ProRS activate toxic np azetidine-2-carboxylic acid (Aze) present in sugar beets and lilies, only the AlaRS editing system rejects Aze.

Despite many achievements in the topological semimetal Cd₃As₂, the high-quality Cd₃As₂ films are still rare. Here, Uchida et al. grow high-crystallinity and high-mobility Cd₃As₂ thin films and observe quantum Hall states dependent on the confinement thickness.

Several animals and plants get their often spectacular colouration and iridescence from structural colouration. Here, Hsiung et al. show the 3-dimensional nanostructures that produce the rainbow colours on the abdomen of miniature peacock spiders.

Electron-electron correlation is a complex and interesting phenomenon that occurs in multi-electron systems. Here, the authors demonstrate the imaging of the correlated two-electron wave function in hydrogen molecule using the coincident detection of the electron and proton after the photoionization.

With the growing threat of antibiotic resistance, unconventional approaches to antimicrobial discovery are needed. Here, the authors present a peptide topology that mimics virus architecture and assembles into antimicrobial capsids that disrupt bacterial membranes upon contact.

Despite intensive research on photoexcited molecules, stereocontrol of direct bond formation upon photoexcitation remains limited. Here the authors expand the research on stereocontrolled bond forming photochemistry and introduce the catalytic asymmetric synthesis of chiral nitrogen heterocycles.

Understanding the transfer of heat currents, specifically, neutral heat modes which do not carry net charge, is of great interest. Here, the authors study the transmission of upstream neutral modes through a quantum point contact in order to render the relative spatial distribution of these chargeless modes.

Using ultracold atoms in hybrid quantum devices is an interesting yet challenging task with possible applications for quantum storage. Here the authors demonstrate coherent magnetic coupling of an ensemble of ultracold rubidium atoms to a superconducting coplanar waveguide resonator.

Bipolarons - two electrons or holes localized on the same molecule - are generally considered negligible in organic electronic devices. Dhanker et al. show that large bipolaron densities can exist near electrode interfaces and that they are linked to the phenomenon of unipolar organic magnetoresistance.

Radar sounders, used for the geophysical exploration of celestial objects in the solar system, possess striking similarities to bat sonars. Here, the authors adapt and implement the bat clutter mitigation mechanism to radar geophysical exploration of planetary bodies.

OLEDs based on thermally activated delayed fluorescence have shown high fluorescence efficiency but poor lifetime. Herein, Cui et al. demonstrate that the use of n-type host molecules can increase the device lifetime by 30 times and 1000 times for green and blue OLEDs, respectively.

Sepsis is a life-threatening condition where exaggerated inflammatory responses lead to severe tissue damage. Here, Rayes and colleagues show that the interaction between podoplanin and its receptor CLEC-2 on platelets plays a critical role in limiting inflammation during sepsis.

Proximity-ligation methods like Hi-C map DNA-DNA interactions and reveal its organization into topologically associating domains (TADs). Here the authors describe PSYCHIC, a computational approach for analysing Hi-C data that allows the identification of promoter-enhancer interactions.

New Delhi metallo-β-lactamases (NDMs) hydrolyze almost all β-lactam antibiotics and pose a major public health threat. Here, the authors study the mechanism of NDM-1 catalyzed carbapenem hydrolysis and present the crystal structures of the enzyme-intermediate and product complexes, which is important for drug design.

Apicomplexan parasites such as Toxoplasma gondii possess a tubulin-rich structure called the conoid. Here, Long et al. identify a conoid protein that interacts with motor and structural proteins and is required for structural integrity of the conoid, parasite motility, and host cell invasion.

Origins of replication are licensed by loading of MCM onto DNA, and origin firing depends on interaction with Cdc45 and GINS to form two CMG holo-helicases. Here, authors determine the cryo-EM structures of DNA-bound MCM and visualise a phospho-dependent MCM element important for Cdc45 recruitment.

Circadian clock regulates hepatic gene expression and functions. Here Chao et al. show that alteration of circadian clock genes by Period deletion induces polyploidy in hepatocytes due to impaired regulation of Erk signaling by mitogen-activated protein kinase phosphatase 1.