Articles in 2008

This study presents the crystal structure of a Fas-FADD complex, a central feature of the so-called death inducing signalling complex. The structure reveals a new mode of death domain interactions that allows four FADD and four Fas proteins in one complex.

The next 40 years will see telescopes that far outstrip any ever seen before. Jeff Kanipe profiles four of them; illustrations by Lynette Cook.

Intrinsically photosensitive retinal ganglion cells sense and transmit light information to brain centres that control non-image-forming visual functions, such as the pupillary light reflex and circadian photoentrainment. This paper describes the biophysical properties of these melanopsin-containing cells. It is found that single-photons of light are sufficient to elicit large and prolonged responses.

This paper shows that Desulfitobacterium hafniense pyrrolysyl-tRNA synthetase–tRNA^Pyl is an orthogonal pair in vivo and in vitro. The structure of the co-complex reveals the distinct interactions of the protein and tRNA that distinguish this pair from those which function with the twenty standard amino acids.

The CBM complex has a key role in transducing signals from the antigen receptors in T and B cells to the transcription factor NF-κB during lymphocyte activation. Casein kinase 1α (CK1α) is shown to regulate the CBM complex in two opposing ways, first promoting and then subsequently terminating receptor-induced NF-κB activity and lymphocyte activation.

Interrogation of scientist prompts demands for Iranian government to guarantee visitors' safety.

As the year draws to a close, Nature looks back on a selection of news stories to find out what happened next.

Britain's Research Assessment Exercise finds excellence more widespread than a focus on elite institutions would suggest.

Cash pool could break power struggles between competing agencies on the continent.

Tunable material promises cheap route to electronic books and advertising displays.

Genetically engineered rats should follow soon, providing new models of human disease.

Staff and science cut as museum's endowments crash.

An arachnid with no talent for weaving may have excreted the first known spider silk 386 million years ago.

Experiment claims to resolve an old debate about how light behaves.

Induced pluripotent stem cells pass key milestone.

Man navigates obstacles he can't consciously see.

Here, subdiffraction-resolution STED fluorescence microscopy is used to detect the diffusion of single lipids or GPI-anchored proteins on the plasma membrane of a living cell. Tuning the probing spot area ∼70-fold below that of a confocal microscope reveals that unlike phosphoglycerolipids, sphingolipids and GPI-anchored proteins are trapped for ∼10 ms in cholesterol-mediated complexes within <20 nm space.

In vertebrates and other deuterostomes, the molecular pathway that leads to asymmetry utilizes the signalling molecule Nodal, a member of the TGF-β superfamily. But no orthologues of Nodal have been found in the other two great groups of bilaterians. This paper finds orthologues of nodal and one of its targets, Pitx, in two species of snail, and show that loss of nodal disrupts shell coiling.

Nuclear pore complexes (NPCs) serve as gateways between the nucleus and cytoplasm and allow only the transport of selected macromolecules across the nuclear envelope. NPCs are comprised of a scaffold that anchors proteins called FG-nucleoporins, which contain disordered regions that line the inner surface of the pore and extend into the lumen. This study reports the design of an artificial membrane that functions as a selective filter in allowing efficient passage of transport factors and transport factor carrying cargo that specifically bind to FG-nucleoporins.

This paper generates an iPS cell line from patients with spinal muscular atrophy, an autosomal recessive genetic disorder that is one of the most common inherited forms of neurological disease in children.