Volume 556 Issue 7699, 5 April 2018

Governments must provide incentives for businesses to fix the global food system, not just punish them for acting irresponsibly, argues Lawrence Haddad.

How do changes in climate affect forest ecosystems? A study of temperate forests in the United States has assessed alterations in biomass and tree-species composition across a 20-year period of climate variability.

Two-pore channels span the membranes of acidic organelles inside cells. A structural and functional analysis reveals secrets about how these channels open to allow ions to pass across the membrane.

A superlattice consisting of two graphene sheets twisted relative to each other by a specific amount exhibits superconductivity when doped electrostatically, with a relatively high critical temperature.

Tracing of projection neuron axons from the primary visual cortex to their targets shows that these neurons often project to multiple cortical areas of the mouse brain.

Phage-assisted continuous evolution of Cas9 variants with broad PAM compatibility and high DNA specificity that can be used for transcriptional activation, gene disruption and base editing.

Cryo-electron microscopy and biochemical analyses of the GATOR1 protein complex reveal that two binding modes underpin its ability to regulate Rag GTPases as a GTPase-activating protein for RAGA.

Observations of 12 X-ray binaries that contain black holes within the central parsec of the Galaxy suggest the existence of hundreds more, and even more isolated black holes.

In a step towards topological quantum computation, a quantized Majorana conductance has been demonstrated for a semiconducting nanowire coupled to a superconductor.

When the two graphene sheets in a van der Waals heterostructure are twisted relative to each other by a specific amount, Mott-like insulating phases are observed at half-filling.

Quantum-well photodetectors fabricated from photonic metamaterials show enhanced room-temperature sensitivity to long-wavelength infrared radiation and produce gigahertz-frequency heterodyne signals when pumped with quantum cascade lasers.

Cryo-transmission electron microscopy reveals the initiation of glucose isomerase crystals and their growth into different crystalline or gel polymorphs, and shows that mutating specific amino acids controls which polymorph grows.

A suite of river discharge, tree-ring, sedimentary and climate data shows that the Mississippi’s flood magnitude has risen by about twenty per cent over the past half-century, largely owing to engineering works.

Forest inventory data from the 1980s and 2000s show the response of eastern USA forests to climate variability; direct effects of climate on forest biomass are amplified by changes in tree species composition.

Synthetic retinoid compounds can kill both growing and persister MRSA cells by disrupting the membrane lipid bilayer, and are effective in a mouse model of chronic MRSA infection.

A single-cell sequencing method is developed that uses transcriptomics and CRISPR–Cas9 technology to investigate clonal relationships in cells present in different zebrafish tissues.

WebTreatment of lipopolysaccharide-activated macrophages with the cell-permeable itaconate derivative 4-octyl itaconate activates the anti-inflammatory transcription factor Nrf2 by alkylating key cysteine residues on the KEAP1 protein.

Evolutionary coupling-enabled molecular replacement determination of the structure of Thermus thermophilus RodA reveals a highly conserved cavity in its transmembrane domain, and mutagenesis experiments in Bacillus subtilis and Escherichia coli show that perturbation of this cavity abolishes RodA function.

Cryo-electron microscopy structures of insulin in a complex with the insulin receptor define the S2 binding site on the receptor and suggest a mechanism for downstream propagation of insulin signalling.

Cryo-electron microscopy structures of multiple states along the assembly pathway of the nucleolar pre-60S ribosomal subunit suggest that folding of the pre-ribosomal RNA and sequential binding of transient assembly factors are regulated by steric hindrance among these factors.

Structures of the voltage-gated and phosphatidylinositol 3,5-bisphosphate-activated mouse two-pore channel TPC1 in apo and ligand-bound states provide insights into the selectivity and gating mechanisms of mammalian two-pore channels.

Satellite data, and the tools that ecologists use to analyse them, are more accessible and plentiful than ever.