Articles

The motor protein myosin II is implicated in three-dimensional organ development. In this study, the authors apply live imaging techniques to describe the dynamics of the developing Drosophilawing and the involvement of myosin II in this process.

The identification of hosts of blood-sucking insects is important for studying ecological factors that affect pathogen distribution. Önder et al. report a proteomics-based methodology for the analysis of blood remnants in ticks that identifies the host species from which the tick has fed up to 6 months earlier.

Nanoantennas provide improvements in detection and fluorescence of nanoscale objects, which are usually limited to electric dipole radiation. By exploiting coupling to nanowire antennas, Curto et al. show controlled multipolar emission of a quantum dot, offering a novel multipolar photon source.

Both dendritic cells and basophils have been shown to influence T helper 2 cell induction, however the relative importance of their roles remains unclear. Otsuka et al. find that basophils present hapten and peptide antigens to T cells, but are unable to present protein antigens in the absence of dendritic cells.

Brown fat can dissipate energy as heat and has an important role in energy homoeostasis of rodents and possibly humans. Chenet al. show that microRNA 155 regulates the differentiation of brown adipocytes as well as the 'browning' of white fat cells in mice.

Referential gestures such as pointing direct attention towards an object and have only been observed in apes and ravens. Vail et al. show that fish signal to indicate the location of hidden prey to hunting partners, demonstrating that referential gestures are not restricted to large-brained species.

NMDA receptor activation requires the occupation of binding sites by glutamate and a glycine site agonist. Li and colleagues study this in synapses of the lateral nucleus of the amygdala and find that the identity of the NMDAR glycine site agonist depends on the level of synaptic activation.

The coffee ring effect is commonly observed in drying droplets containing suspended matter leading to a deposition at the droplet edge. Sempels et al. show that self-generated biosurfactants in living bacterial systems reverse the coffee ring effect and result in a homogeneous deposition.

Mutations of the SOD1gene are implicated in neurodegenerative diseases such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. Wright and colleagues find that SOD1 aggregation in cells is arrested by compounds that bind at the core of SOD1 aggregates, rather than at the dimer interface site.

Cyanobacterial symbionts of marine diatoms can localize intracellularly or externally to their host partners. Here Hilton et al. describe the genomes of two diazotroph cyanobacterial symbionts of diatoms and show that the location of the symbiont affects expression of nitrogen assimilation genes.

Cavity polaritons, arising from strong coupling between light and matter in semiconductor structures, exhibit interesting and exotic phenomena. Tanese et al. study a polariton condensate in a periodic one-dimensional microcavity and find gap soliton states, which may be useful for polaritonic circuits.

Here, Brotherton and colleagues sequence 39 mitochondrial genomes from ancient human remains. They track population changes across Central Europe and find that the foundations of the European mitochondrial DNA pool were formed during the Neolithic rather than the post-glacial period.

IP39 is an abundant protozoan protein known to form highly-ordered striations in Euglena gracilis’ plasma membrane. Here, Suzuki et al. determine its three-dimensional structure by electron crystallography revealing that IP39 polymerises to form trimeric longitudinal units arranged in a molecular strand of antiparallel double-rows.

Low-dimensional materials containing defects such as twin boundaries are known to fail well below their theoretical strength due to surface imperfections. Here, Wang et al. observe strengths close to the ideal limit in gold nanowires with angstrom scale twins, where homogeneous dislocation nucleation controls deformation.

Vascular permeability is increased by inflammation and in disorders such as acute respiratory distress syndrome. Mammoto et al. show that lung vascular permeability is controlled by the stiffness of the extracellular matrix and identify lysyl oxidase as a regulator of vascular leakage in pulmonary oedema in mice.

In order to use nuclear spins for the creation of qubits, an efficient nuclear spin hyperpolarisation at room temperature is crucial. Here the authors show how this can be achieved by spin polarized conduction-band electrons in a semiconductor, exploiting the defect-engineered spin-filtering effect.

Even though both embryonic stem cells and primordial germ cells express pluripotency markers, they differ in their developmental potential. Maeda et al. show that, in embryonic stem cells, the Myc family member Max mediates epigenetic repression of genes involved in germ cell development.

Sigma factors are proteins controlling gene expression that allow bacteria to adapt to changing environmental conditions. Qiu and colleagues investigate sigma factor regulatory networks in Geobacter sulfurreducens, providing insights into how sigma factors regulate bacterial growth and energy metabolism.

Transcription activator-like effector nucleases (TALENs) are dimeric 'molecular scissors' that can be readily engineered for gene-targeting applications. Beurdeley et al. develop a single-chain TALEN architecture having significant in vivoactivity in yeast, plant and mammalian systems.

Detecting and phenotyping Mycobacterium tuberculosis, especially in resource-limited settings, is important for global tuberculosis control. Here Liong et al. report a point-of-care diagnostic platform based on magnetic barcoding and nuclear magnetic resonance for the detection of mycobacterial nucleic acids.