Articles in 2018

Olfactory neuroblastoma (ONB) is a rare malignant tumor whose genetic basis is poorly understood. Here the authors identify recurrent deletions involving dystrophin in the majority of ONB patient tumors examined.

Eukaryotic transcription requires passage of RNA polymerase II (Pol II) through chromatin, which is impaired by nucleosomes. Here the authors report the cryo-EM structure of transcribing Pol II engaged with a downstream nucleosome core particle at an overall resolution of 4.4 Å, providing insights into the mechanism of chromatin transcription.

There has been recent interest in understanding why the biodiversity-productivity relationship varies among studies and across scales. Here Fei et al. show that climatic variation drives forest biodiversity-productivity relationships at large spatial scales, whilst biotic and abiotic factors are important in given climate units.

The latent HIV-1 reservoir is the key obstacle for curing HIV-1 infection, but the timepoint at which the HIV-1 reservoir is established is currently unclear. Here, Whitney et al. show in non-human primates that the SIV reservoir in CD4⁺ T cells is seeded within the first 2 days after infection.

Flaviviruses have emerged or re-emerged in several regions, but factors underlying emergence are incompletely understood. Here, Pandit et al. identify potential sylvatic reservoirs of flaviviruses and, in combination with vector distribution data, predict regions of global vulnerability.

Silicon nanostructures have important applications as functional materials. Here the authors investigate the structural transformations of 2D silicon nanosheets under compression and decompression, showing the irreversible formation of 1D silicon nanowires.

Understanding what happens to the liquid in melt pools during welding and metal-based additive manufacturing remains a challenge. Here, the authors directly image internal melt pool dynamics using synchrotron radiation to show surface tension affects flow speed, orientation and surface turbulence.

Plants and fungi interact widely and in diverse ways, from mutualism to parasitism and decomposition. Here, Lutzoni et al. analyse the timing of plant and fungal evolutionary radiations and identify four major periods in which plant-fungal interactions likely drove lineage diversification.

Serine synthesis from glucose is required even when serine is available from the environment. Here, the authors explain this paradox by showing that the enzyme PHGDH enables nucleotide synthesis by coordinating anabolic fluxes related to central carbon metabolism, independent of its role in serine production.

The occurrence and distribution of permafrost region disturbances (PRDs) remain poorly resolved across the Arctic and Subarctic. Here, the authors quantify the abundance and distribution of three primary PRDs using a time-series analysis of 30-m resolution Landsat imagery between 1999 and 2014.

VRN2 is a Polycomb Repressive Complex 2 subunit, best known as a regulator of vernalization that accumulates during prolonged cold. Here Gibbs et al. show that VRN2 is degraded via the N-end rule pathway, which  prevents ectopic accumulation of VRN2 in the absence of appropriate environmental stimuli.

Nodal-Lefty signaling combines a short-range activator and a long-range inhibitor for axis formation and left-right patterning. Here the authors reconstitute a synthetic biology activator-inhibitor circuit of Nodal-Lefty to drive pattern formation in mammalian cells.

Competition for shared cellular resources often renders genetic circuits poorly predictable. Here the authors design a biomolecular quasi-integral controller that allows gene expression to adapt to variable demand in translation resources.

Here, Liu et al. compare the genomic signatures of two tree species, one of which had undergone population collapse. The declining species had low genetic diversity, but had more strongly purged severely deleterious recessive variations, likely due to inbreeding and perhaps mitigating extinction risk.

Much of the North American megafauna went extinct in the late Pleistocene, but the causes are debated. Here the authors analyze human and megafaunal population dynamics in Pleistocene North America and find variation among taxa and region in whether hunting, climate or both best predict extinction.

Particulate optical backscattering is key to studying the oceanic carbon pump though it remains unclear what particles are detected. Here the authors show that complex particles larger than 1 µm help reproduce all the measured backscattering across the Atlantic Ocean and explain the majority of the signal.

Molecular circuits implementing fold-change detection (FCD) allow cells to respond to fold-change in signals regardless of absolute levels. Here, the authors find that meaning, attention and saturation similarly form an FCD circuit and produce the observed dynamics of human behavior in creative search.

Prolyl hydroxylase domain protein 2 (PHD2) regulates cellular response to hypoxia. Here the authors show that PHD2 is downregulated in melanoma and that PHD2 depletion, in a mouse model, promotes the progression of benign melanocytic lesions into melanoma, via activation of the Akt/mTOR signaling cascade.

Robust surveillance methods are needed for trachoma control and recrudescence monitoring, but existing methods have limitations. Here, Pinsent et al. analyse data from nine trachoma-endemic populations and provide operational thresholds for interpretation of serological data in low transmission and post-elimination settings.

Here, the authors provide a vivid demonstration of the dynamic effect of transverse spin momentum in an optical beam in free space revealed by placing a dielectric bead in a counter-propagating optical beam trap in vacuum.