Volume 552 Issue 7683, 7 December 2017

Inhibiting the protein PD-1 can activate T cells that trigger immune responses against tumour cells. But it emerges that, in mice, this immunotherapy exacerbates a cancer that involves the T cells themselves. See Letter p.121

Models show that several aspects of Earth’s top-of-atmosphere energy budget and the magnitude of projected global warming are correlated, enabling us to infer that future warming has been underestimated.

Stabilization of a transient protein kinase–substrate complex using a nanobody provides molecular details about how the Parkinson’s disease-linked protein kinase PINK1 phosphorylates ubiquitin, and suggests new pharmacological strategies.

A 22-nucleotide fragment of a transfer RNA regulates translation by binding to the mRNA of a ribosomal protein and increasing its expression, and downregulation of the fragment in patient-derived liver tumour cells reduces tumour growth in mice.

A direct measurement of cosmic-ray electrons and positrons with unprecedentedly high energy resolution reveals a spectral break at about 0.9 teraelectronvolts, confirming the evidence found by previous indirect measurements.

Simple assembly rules applied recursively in a multistage assembly process enable the creation of DNA origami arrays with sizes of up to 0.5 square micrometres and with arbitrary patterns.

DNA bricks with binding domains of 13 nucleotides instead of the typical 8 make it possible to self-assemble gigadalton-scale, three-dimensional nanostructures consisting of tens of thousands of unique components.

By using DNA sequence information to encode the shapes of DNA origami building blocks, shape-programmable assemblies can be created, with sizes and complexities similar to those of viruses.

All necessary strands for DNA origami can be created in a single scalable process by using bacteriophages to generate single-stranded precursor DNA containing the target sequences interleaved with self-excising DNA enzymes.

Many Martian clays formed when Mars’ primary crust reacted with a water/carbon dioxide steam or supercritical atmosphere and subsequent impacts and volcanism caused the distribution of clay exposures seen today.

Focusing attention on the expansion of taxa, rather than their survival, resolves the apparent contradiction between seemingly deterministic patterns of waxing and waning of taxa over time and the randomness of extinction implied by the Red Queen’s hypothesis.

Genome sequencing analyses from 765 specimens of Anopheles gambiae and Anopheles coluzzii from 15 locations across Africa characterize patterns of gene flow and variations in population size, and provide a resource for studying the evolution of natural malaria vector populations.

Proteins expressed on the surfaces of erythrocytes infected with Plasmodium falciparum help the parasite to evade the host immune system by acting as ligands for immune inhibitory receptors and thereby downregulating the immune response.

Maternal age is found to be a major source of phenotypic variation in isogenic C. elegans populations living in a controlled environment, with the progeny of young mothers impaired for multiple fitness traits.

Fibroblast-specific Il-11 expression causes heart and kidney fibrosis and organ failure, whereas IL-11 inhibition prevents fibroblast activation and organ fibrosis, indicating that IL-11 inhibition is a potential therapeutic strategy to treat fibrotic diseases.

The inactivation of DNA mismatch repair in cancer cells produces dynamic mutational profiles and generates neoantigens, which result in improved immune surveillance against these cells.

Loss of the PD-1 receptor promotes the development of T cell non-Hodgkin lymphomas by modulating oncogenic signalling pathways, and blocking these pathways reduces tumourigenesis.

The methyltransferase METTL3 promotes the leukaemic state in acute myeloid leukaemia (AML) by catalysing the m⁶A RNA modification through its recruitment on the transcription start sites of AML-associated genes.

A genetically encoded platform can produce chiral organoboranes in bacteria with high turnover, enantioselectivity and chemoselectivity, and can be tuned and configured through DNA manipulation.

Meet the winners of Nature’s 2017 mentoring awards.