Reviews & Analysis

Mitochondria are intracellular organelles that contain a large set of proteins to help them produce energy, among other functions. A systematic analysis reveals how mitochondrial proteins are organized into complexes and assemblies, facilitating the identification of the molecular mechanisms and pathways that underlie the organelle’s many functions.

A new ultrasound patch can image the heart while being worn, even when the wearer is moving during strenuous exercise. A customized model that uses a technique of artificial intelligence called deep learning then processes the images to extract important measures of cardiac performance.

Whether to self-degrade is a crucial cellular decision. When nutrients are abundant, degradation of cell components is reduced through inactivation of a protein called TFEB by the enzyme complex mTORC1. The structure of a megacomplex consisting of 36 polypeptide chains, which presents TFEB to mTORC1, has been resolved.

The variation in the mass of newly born stars has been debated for decades. A star-count analysis now reveals that the initial mass of stars varies with their levels of metal elements, and that populations of stars born earlier in the Universe’s history contain fewer low-mass stars than do younger populations.

Immune cells called T cells were activated in mice and transferred to new mice; the process was repeated several times. The T-cell population derived from the original mice continued to respond to the same immune trigger after ten years — which is about four times the lifespan of a mouse.

A phenomenon known as unconventional superconductivity allows electric current to flow without resistance at unusually high temperatures, but the necessary pairing of charge carriers is poorly understood in modern physics. Using an optical microscope, an experimental demonstration of such a pairing has been achieved in a simple system.

Air temperatures at the Greenland ice sheet have been reconstructed with unprecedented quality from an array of ice cores. The analysis shows that modern temperatures are 1.5 °C warmer than those of the twentieth century, and that this warming has been accompanied by increased run-off of Greenland meltwater.

In egg cells, the ribosomes — the machinery responsible for protein synthesis — are stored in a dormant state that is released later in the developing embryo. An evolutionarily conserved set of proteins has been shown to bind to ribosomes in the egg cells of vertebrates, stabilizing the ribosomes and suppressing their activity.

Heatwaves are increasing in frequency, duration and intensity because of climate change. Projections indicate that if global warming is left unchecked, many animal species will experience almost-permanent extreme-heat conditions, and such weather events will present a major threat to biodiversity.

Electric motors convert electrical energy into mechanical motion. A molecular motor has been designed in which electricity drives redox reaction cycles that lead to the movement of two small rings around a large circular loop. The small rings make one full revolution around the loop for every two redox cycles.

The bacterial protein BlaR1 regulates resistance to β-lactam antibiotics in the multidrug-resistant bacteria, Staphylococcus aureus. Cryo-electron microscopy has revealed the detailed structures of BlaR1 in its resting state and in its β-lactam-bound activated state, illuminating possible routes to combating antibiotic resistance.

Disease-causing microorganisms can alter the social behaviour of their hosts. Caenorhabditis elegans hermaphrodite worms exposed to an infectious bacterial strain become attracted to a mixture of pheromone cues instead of avoiding it. This boosts mating with males in the hermaphrodites, increasing the ability to produce genetic diversity in the face of microbial challenge.

More than 200,000 human stem cells were imaged at high resolution and in 3D to make a reference data set that was used to create a generalizable computational framework. This enables cell shapes and the locations of internal structures to be measured and compared using rigorous statistical methods.