Research articles

Population recordings reveal that neurons in the mouse superior colliculus are grouped according to their preferred orientations or movement axes for visual line stimuli, similar to the columnar arrangement in visual cortex of higher mammals; this functional architecture suggests that the superior colliculus samples the visual world unevenly for stimulus orientations.

This study describes a fast, clathrin-independent endocytic pathway mediated by endophilin, dynamin and actin; the pathway is activated by ligand binding to a variety of cargo receptors, and endophilin-mediated endocytosis occurs primarily at the leading edges of cells where lamellipodin and the lipid PtdIns(3,4)P₂ ensure endophilin targeting.

Polycomb group proteins are known to maintain gene repression during development; however, when autism susceptibility candidate 2 (AUTS2) associates with some Polycomb group complexes, these complexes have an unexpected gene activation role, offering new insight into the role of AUTS2 in neurological disorders.

The production of hydrogen gas from the Precambrian continental lithosphere has been underestimated; taking into account hydrogen from serpentinization and radiolysis may double estimates previously based on marine systems alone.

Endophilin-A2 (endoA2) is shown to mediate clathrin-independent endocytosis of Shiga and cholera toxins, and to function in parallel with dynamin and actin in the pulling-force-driven scission of Shiga-toxin-induced tubular structures.

Multiferroic devices that can switch magnetization with electric field at room temperature are desirable, but in BiFeO₃ the required direct 180-degree switch is thermodynamically forbidden; here it is shown that such switching is possible because the kinetics of the switching process favours a two-step sequence of partial switching.

Reconstruction of the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation from a highly resolved marine sedimentary record shows that a deep, vigorous overturning circulation mode has persisted for most of the last glacial cycle, dominating ocean circulation in the Atlantic, but that a shallower glacial mode prevailed during glacial maxima.

Using electron cryomicroscopy, the structure of the closed-state rabbit ryanodine receptor RyR1 in complex with its modulator FKBP12 is solved at 3.8 Å; in addition to determining structural details of the ion-conducting channel domain, three previously uncharacterized domains help to reveal a molecular scaffold that allows long-range allosteric regulation of channel activities.

Seismicity and ground deformation measurements show how a recent segmented dyke intrusion in the Bárðarbunga volcanic system in Iceland grew laterally for 45 kilometres over 14 days; dyke opening and seismicity were focused at the most distal segment, where lateral dyke growth with segment barrier breaking by pressure build-up occurred.

In Caenorhabditis elegans, reduced insulin/IGF-1 signalling can promote longevity through a program that is genetically distinct from the dauer developmental pathway, and requires SKN-1-dependent collagen remodelling that is a broadly essential feature of longevity assurance pathways.

The core promoters of developmental and housekeeping genes are shown to have distinct specificities for different enhancer sequences in Drosophila, and this specificity separates developmental and housekeeping gene regulatory programs across the genome.

Gas hydrates are ice-like solids that have guest species encaged within a crystalline water framework, making the empty hydrate a natural — though long assumed to be inaccessible — point of reference; it is now shown that several days of continuous vacuum pumping removes all guests from neon hydrate, and the physical properties of the empty hydrate have been determined.

A mechanical crack-based sensor inspired by the mechanism spiders use to sense minute variations in stress offers ultrahigh sensitivity to pressure and vibration and can easily be mounted on human skin for the purposes of speech recognition and the monitoring of physiological signals.

Analysis of air trapped in Antarctic ice between 16,000 and 10,000 years before present yields nitrous oxide concentrations and isotopic data showing that the relative contributions from marine and terrestrial sources to nitrous oxide emission changes were equal during that period, but that terrestrial emissions dominated on centennial timescales.

The CRISPR-Cas9 system, a powerful tool for genome editing, has been engineered to activate endogenous gene transcription specifically and potently on a genome-wide scale and applied to a large-scale gain-of-function screen for studying melanoma drug resistance.

If deprived of exogenous glutamine, naive mouse embryonic stem cells are shown to be capable of generating the amino acid from other sources to enable their proliferation; the stem cells use glutamine and glucose catabolism to maintain a high level of intracellular α-ketoglutarate and promote demethylation of chromatin and ensure sufficient expression of pluripotency-associated genes.

Exome sequence analysis of nearly 10,000 people was carried out to identify alleles associated with early-onset myocardial infarction; mutations in low-density lipoprotein receptor (LDLR) or apolipoprotein A-V (APOA5) were associated with disease risk, identifying the key roles of low-density lipoprotein cholesterol and metabolism of triglyceride-rich lipoproteins.

This study presents an extensive molecular characterization of the reprograming process by analysis of transcriptomic, epigenomic and proteomic data sets describing the routes to pluripotency; it finds distinct routes towards two stable pluripotent states characterized by distinct epigenetic events.