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Calcium-sensing fluorescent proteins such as TN-XXL are valuable tools for studying cellular function but, when expressed in mice, may affect animal physiology and behaviour. The authors of this paper create transgenic mice expressing TN-XXL and show that long-term expression of TN-XXL is tolerated well.

Vesicle trafficking in the cell is likely to involve a tug-of-war between motor proteins of opposing directionality. Guet al. use high-speed single-particle tracking in neurons to uncover rotation of paused cargo vesicles, providing insight into the changing forces as the vesicles change direction.

The spectral position of Raman peaks is a useful diagnostic for determining the degree of strain and excess electronic charges present in graphene. This study demonstrates that these two contributions can be separated from each other and therefore be obtained at the same time.

Fibre-based technologies provide miniaturization, flexibility and the capability to access hard to reach areas. Čižmár and Dholakia exploit disorder in multimode fibres to enable a variety of imaging modalities, including bright- and dark-field microscopy and fluorescent imaging, using a single waveguide.

Reverse rotation of the F1-ATPase results in the synthesis, rather than hydrolysis of ATP. Adachiet al. show that the molecular mechanism of ATP synthesis is the reverse of hydrolysis-driven rotation of the motor, and that ADP and ATP are discriminated by angle-dependent binding.

Semi-automated imaging systems help with the task of classifying large numbers of biological images. This study presents a novel framework—CARTA—with an active learning algorithm combined with a genetic algorithm, whose applications include the classification of magnetic resonance imaging of cancer cells.

Mother's milk contains a number of protective factors, such as the anti-inflammatory enzyme PAFAH. Here, Duet al. show that the VLDL receptor protects nursing newborns from systemic inflammation by maintaining secretion of PAFAH from maternal macrophages into mother's milk.

Speech is encoded by the firing patterns of speech-controlling neurons in different regions of the brain, which Tankus and colleagues analyse in this study. They find highly specific encoding of vowels in medial–frontal neurons and nonspecific tuning in superior temporal gyrus neurons.

Signal modulation is a mechanism which embeds an information-carrying signal into a carrier wave to broadcast information and is essential for high-speed communication. Zhonget al. report a flexible, transparent all-graphene modulator circuit performing quaternary modulation schemes with only two transistors.

Molybdenum disulphide offers some tantalizing advantages over graphene as a material with which to fabricate field-effect transistors. Kimet al. present a comprehensive study of field-effect transistors made from multilayer samples of MoS₂and find that they can achieve high carrier mobilities.

The mitochondrial transcription factor A (TFAM) mediates both mitochondrial transcription and DNA compaction, but how it achieves these two functions is unknown. In this study, TFAM is shown to slide along DNA and cause local melting, suggesting a mechanism for how TFAM modulates both transcription and compaction.

Pupylation is a bacterial posttranslational modification pathway with functional analogies to ubiquitination. Here, Özceliket al.report the structures of the Pup Ligase, PafA and the Depupylase, Dop. Mutational analysis revealed residues required for catalysis and for the interaction with Pup.

The amyloid beta peptide can aggregate into insoluble plaques, which may indicate the onset of Alzheimer's disease. In a mouse model of Alzheimer's disease, Cao and colleagues report a phenotype of altered connectivity in the olfactory neuronal circuit that precedes amyloid plaque deposition.

It is assumed that budding yeast need to reach a certain size before entering the cell cycle. Here, using imaging and a mathematical model, Ferrezueloet al.show that there is variability in the size of cells entering the cell cycle and this is controlled by growth rate in G1.

Flavodoxin requires tight binding of its FMN cofactor to be active, but the residues involved are unknown. In this biophysical study, FMN binding is shown to change from nanomolar to picomolar affinity on extremely slow protein relaxation and the residues responsible for cofactor binding are identified.

Singlet fission converts single singlet excitons into pairs of triplet excitons, and it has been proposed to give additional photocurrent to solar cells. Ehrleret al. use lead selenide nanocrystals of varying sizes to measure the triplet energy in pentacene photovoltaic cells, and achieve efficiencies approaching 5%.

Mechanosensitive channels are required to sense cell swelling in response to osmotic shock. Nakayamaet al.report that Msy1 and Msy2 are the fission yeast homologues of the bacterial mechanosensitive channel MscS, and are required for regulating intracellular calcium in response to cell swelling.

The kinase PINK1 is mutated in Parkinson's disease and accumulates in defective mitochondria, where it recruits Parkin. Here, PINK1 is shown to be autophosphorylated and this is required for the localization of PINK1 to mitochondria with a reduced membrane potential, and for the recruitment of Parkin.

Hemimetabolous insects comprise many pests but introducing targeted mutations into these species has been difficult. This paper reports efficient targeted mutagenesis, and the generation of homozygous knockouts, in crickets based on zinc finger nucleases or transcription activator-like effector nucleases.

Metallic nanoantennas can be used to enhance and tailor the photoluminescence effects in small-scale devices. Huanget al.design combined nanoantenna electrodes for quantum well nanoscale light-emitting diodes, to both inject charge and control the electroluminescence properties.