Research articles

Field-effect transistors are widely used for environmental sensing and monitoring applications. Here, the authors present an organic field-effect transistor with the inherent advantages of low-cost and scalable fabrication, and which is sufficiently stable to be deployed in marine environments.

Battery technologies are promising for grid-scale applications, but existing batteries in general operate at low rates, have limited cycle life and are expensive. Pasta et al. develop a grid-scale battery based on Prussian Blue electrodes, which shows potential in overcoming these problems.

The protein thioredoxin regulates the activity of many signalling molecules. Here, Hwang et al.report structural and biochemical evidence that the interaction between thioredoxin and its inhibitor thioredoxin-interacting protein is regulated by a redox-dependent disulphide bond-switching mechanism.

The bacterial symporter MelB transports galactosides with Na⁺, Li⁺ or H⁺ ions. Ethayathulla et al. present crystal structures of MelB in two distinct conformations, providing the first structural insights into the transport mechanism of a sodium-coupled permease of the major facilitator superfamily.

Light induces the expression of many plant genes including chlorophyll a/b-binding proteins—CABs—but whether this occurs via altered genomic organization is unknown. Here, Feng et al. use a rolling-circle amplification model to show that CABgenes undergo nuclear repositioning in response to light.

A gate electrode is normally required to perform tunable transport measurement via scanning tunnelling microscopy. Here, the authors use the tip of the microscope itself as the gate, inducing band bending in zinc oxide, and is used to study charging transitions, binding energies and vibrational excitations.

The majority of ovarian granulosa tumours harbour the C134W mutation in FOXL2 but the mechanism of tumorigenesis is largely unknown. Here, Kim et al. show that mutant FOXL2 is hyperphosphorylated by GSK3β, which targets the protein for degradation, and find that GSK3β inhibition represses the growth of ovarian granulosa cells.

The conserved MHF1/MHF2 DNA-processing complex is essential for DNA repair in response to genotoxic stress. Here, Zhao et al.report the crystal structure of a human MHF–DNA complex that provides insight into how MHF recognizes branched DNA—a feature important for cellular resistance to DNA damage.

Nano-grained materials are known to demonstrate different physical properties to coarse grained materials, due to changes in mechanism. Here, the authors find a new mechanism, revealing that grain growth in nano-grained gold is assisted by twin formation during cyclic loading.

Molybdenum disulphide may be prepared by lithiation and exfoliation; however the process requires a long lithiation and produces low yields. Here, the authors show that metal naphthalenides may be used for the intercalation, and that the resulting products are of high quality and may be inkjet-printed.

Extending the optical response of silicon below the band gap towards infrared wavelengths is of interest for applications such as imaging. Here, Mailoa et al. achieve room-temperature infrared photoresponse from silicon doped with supersaturated concentrations of gold impurities.

The precise contributions of solar forcing, the carbon cycle and glaciation to the pacing of global climate remains unresolved. Using four 3D ice-sheet models, de Boer et al.show that Antarctic ice volume and carbon-cycle dynamics varied coherently during the Pleistocene, as has been observed in the Miocene.