Research articles

Fibroblasts constitute the major mesenchymal cell type in the connective tissue and their functions are remarkably diverse: here, by characterising lineages of mouse skin fibroblasts, it is shown that distinct subpopulations contribute to skin development and repair during injury.

Whole-exome sequencing reveals that a rare variant of phospholipase D3 (PLD3(V232M)) segregates with Alzheimer’s disease status in two independent families and doubles risk for the disease in case–control series, and that several other PLD3 variants increase risk for Alzheimer’s disease in African Americans and people of European descent.

A three-dimensional global climate model shows that the loss of a planet’s oceans through complete vaporization or evaporative escape to space will occur at considerably higher insolation than previously thought, owing to stabilizing atmospheric effects.

In adult mouse hippocampus, a learning-associated plasticity mechanism may exist that depends on the configuration of parvalbumin(PV)-expressing basket cell networks; trial and error learning initially promotes a higher fraction of cells with low PV expression, whereas learning completion promotes a higher fraction of cells with high PV expression, and these opposite configurations modulate learning and the underlying structural plasticity.

Strigolactones (SLs), key regulators of plant growth, are believed to mediate their responses through a proposed receptor (D14) that interacts with an F-box protein (D3) to form a D14–SCF^D3 protein complex; here the perception of SLs by the D14–SCF^D3 complex and the control of gene expression are linked by the finding that DWARF 53, a repressor protein of SL signalling, interacts with the D14–SCF^D3 complex and is ubiquitinated and degraded in a SL-dependent manner.

Primary cilia are known as specialized calcium signalling compartments on the cell surface, but the ionic permeability and other physiological properties of these protrusions are unknown—this is one of two studies identifying the ion channels that densely populate primary cilia, with direct measurements revealing cilia as a unique, functionally independent calcium signalling compartment that modulates hedgehog signalling pathways.

Strigolactones (SLs), key regulators of plant growth, are believed to mediate their responses through a proposed receptor (D14) that interacts with an F-box protein (D3) to form a D14–SCF^D3 protein complex; here the perception of SLs by the D14–SCF^D3 complex and the control of gene expression are linked by the finding that DWARF 53, a repressor protein of SL function, interacts with the D14–SCF^D3 complex and is ubiquitinated and degraded in a SL-dependent manner.

Strong, rapid adhesion between two hydrogels and even slices of animal tissue can be achieved at room temperature by using a silica nanoparticle solution as a ‘glue’.

Peptidoglycan is an essential structural component of the cell wall in the majority of bacteria, but the obligate intracellular human pathogen Chlamydia trachomatis was thought to be one of the few exceptions; here a click chemistry approach is used to label peptidoglycan in replicating C. trachomatis with novel d-amino acid dipeptide probes.

Consuming diets rich in plant versus animal products changes the microbes found in the human gut within days, with important implications for our health and evolution.

The idea that magnetic particles suspended in a liquid crystal might spontaneously orient into a ferromagnetic state has hitherto not been confirmed experimentally, but such a state has now been realized using nanometre-sized ferromagnetic platelets in a nematic liquid crystal.

Observations of local galaxy I Zw 18 imply that the dust mass in star-forming, metal-poor environments is much lower than expected, and, therefore, that the amount of dust in young galaxies of the early Universe, such as redshift-6.6 galaxy Himiko, is probably a factor of about 100 less than previously thought.

Examination of demographic age trajectories for species from a wide range of taxonomic groups shows that these species have very diverse life-history patterns; mortality and reproduction vary greatly with age for both long- and short-lived species, and the relationships between ageing, mortality and reproduction are clearly complex.

A method of selectively activating both allylic carbon–hydrogen bonds and carbon–carbon bonds can furnish sophisticated molecular scaffolds with all-carbon quaternary stereogenic centres that can themselves be derivatized.

The airway mucin Muc5b (but not Muc5ac) is required for mucociliary clearance, defence against bacterial infection in the airways and middle ear, and maintenance of immune homeostasis in the lungs; Muc5b deficiency causes accumulation of apoptotic macrophages, impairment of phagocytosis and reduced production of interleukin-23, leading to infection and inflammation.

Inhibitors of the bile acid transporter ASBT may be useful therapeutics for treating hypercholesterolaemia and type 2 diabetes; here, two X-ray crystal structures of an ASBT homologue from Yersinia frederiksenii are solved.

Using long-term intravital photography to explore the cellular changes after compression-induced traumatic brain injury in a murine model, it is shown that parenchymal and meningeal inflammation as well as cell death can be modulated by topical treatment with purinergic receptor antagonists and glutathione.

The calculated density and seismic structure of the two best-exposed island arc sections (Kohistan and Talkeetna) reveals that the foundering of the lower arc crust produces a sharp seismic discontinuity characteristic of the continental Mohorovičić discontinuity.

The immediate optical afterglow of the γ-ray burst GRB 120308A is highly polarized, showing that γ-ray bursts contain magnetized baryonic jets with large-scale uniform fields that can survive long after the initial explosion.

Sustained neurotransmission requires recycling of synaptic vesicles, but the proposed mechanisms have been controversial; here a ‘flash-and-freeze’ method for electron microscopy reveals a new ultrafast form of endocytosis that is actin- and dynamin-dependent and occurs within 100 milliseconds of stimulation.