Biological techniques articles within Nature

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  • News & Views |

    What is the new gold standard for genome-wide association studies? As exemplified by analyses of blood lipids, it is collaboration to amass huge sample sizes and functional studies of the genes identified.

    • Alan R. Shuldiner
    •  & Toni I. Pollin

  • Column |

    More and earlier public involvement is required to steer powerful new technologies wisely, says Daniel Sarewitz.

    • Daniel Sarewitz

  • News |

    First reliable components for synthetic biology could be available by the end of the year.

    • Alla Katsnelson

  • News |

    Researchers claim outbreaks of unknown haemorrhagic illness are no threat to humans.

    • David Cyranoski

  • Letter |

    These authors show that the JmjC domain-containing protein PHF8 has histone demethylase activity against H4K20me1 and is linked to two distinct events during cell cycle progression. PHF8 is recruited to the promoters of genes involved in the G1–S phase transition, where it removes H4K20me1 and contributes to gene activation, whereas dissociation of PHF8 from chromatin in prophase allows H4K20me1 to accumulate during mitosis.

    • Wen Liu
    • , Bogdan Tanasa
    •  & Michael G. Rosenfeld

  • Letter |

    Birds and mammals have distinct sex chromosomes: in birds, males are ZZ and females ZW; in mammals, males are XY and females XX. By sequencing the chicken Z chromosome and comparing it with the human X chromosome, these authors overturn the currently held view that these chromosomes have diverged little from their autosomal progenitors. The Z and X chromosomes seem to have followed convergent evolutionary trajectories, despite evolving with opposite systems of heterogamety.

    • Daniel W. Bellott
    • , Helen Skaletsky
    •  & David C. Page

  • News & Views |

    Measuring the tension forces at specific sites in living cells is technically challenging. Now, a fluorescent biosensor protein can be used to characterize dynamic local changes in tension in migrating cells.

    • Andrew D. Doyle
    •  & Kenneth M. Yamada

  • News & Views |

    Autophagy is an essential cellular process for protein and organelle quality control. Analyses of proteins that interact with the human autophagic machinery provide an outline of the molecular organization of this pathway.

    • Beth Levine
    •  & Rama Ranganathan

  • News |

    Implanted tissue and microchip mimic both perform functions of lung.

    • Alla Katsnelson

  • Brief Communications Arising |

    • Sabine Conrad
    • , Markus Renninger
    •  & Thomas Skutella

  • Letter |

    Blood oxygenation level-dependent (BOLD) signals are the basis for much of the work on which regions of the human brain are active during particular tasks or behaviours, but there is controversy over their source and interpretation. Here a combination of optogenetics and BOLD signal monitoring shows that specific excitatory neurons within a mixed population are sufficient to produce positive BOLD signals, and could be used to map connections.

    • Jin Hyung Lee
    • , Remy Durand
    •  & Karl Deisseroth

  • News & Views |

    Analysis of a selected class of neuron in the brains of live animals using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) opens the door to mapping genetically specified neural circuits.

    • David A. Leopold

  • Opinion |

    Many researchers avoid using female animals. Stringent measures should consign this prejudice to the past, argue Irving Zucker and Annaliese Beery, in the third piece of three on gender bias in biomedicine.

    • Irving Zucker
    •  & Annaliese K. Beery

  • Editorial |

    Mouse research for human diseases has grown, and researchers must defend and promote it accordingly.

  • Opinion |

    Nature asked eight synthetic-biology experts about the implications for science and society of the “synthetic cell” made by the J. Craig Venter Institute (JCVI). The institute's team assembled, modified and implanted a synthesized genome into a DNA-free bacterial shell to make a self-replicating Mycoplasma mycoides.

  • Editorial |

    Rats turn out to be surprisingly useful for research on cognition. But if the goal is to understand the human brain and its many disorders, then primate studies remain essential.

  • News Feature |

    Studying primates is the only way to understand human cognition — or so neuroscientists thought. But there may be much to learn from rats and mice, finds Alison Abbott.

    • Alison Abbott

  • News |

    A technology that simultaneously reads a DNA sequence and its crucial modifications makes its debut.

    • Alla Katsnelson

  • News Feature |

    Systems neuroscientists are pushing aside their electrophysiology rigs to make room for the tools of 'optogenetics'. Lizzie Buchen reports from a field in the process of reinvention.

    • Lizzie Buchen

  • Article |

    Single-molecule studies allow biological processes to be examined one molecule at a time, as they occur. Here, zero-mode waveguides have been used to concentrate reactions in zeptolitre-sized volumes, making it possible to study real-time translocation by the ribosome. The binding of transfer RNAs (tRNAs) to the ribosome could be followed; the results show that tRNA release from the exit site is uncoupled from tRNA binding to the aminoacyl-tRNA site.

    • Sotaro Uemura
    • , Colin Echeverría Aitken
    •  & Joseph D. Puglisi

  • News |

    Biomedical scientists say revised European directive on animal welfare averts feared disaster for research.

    • Alison Abbott

  • Letter |

    How large groups of animals move in a coordinated way has defied complete explanation. Inability to track each member of a flock has hampered understanding of the behavioural rules governing flocks of birds. This, however, has been achieved for a small group of homing pigeons fitted with lightweight GPS loggers. A well–defined hierarchy is revealed — the average position of a pigeon within the flock strongly correlates with is position in the social hierarchy (a kind of airborne pecking order).

    • Máté Nagy
    • , Zsuzsa Ákos
    •  & Tamás Vicsek

  • Letter |

    Rhodospsin is a G-protein-coupled receptor that is responsible for vision in dim light. Light isomerizes the protein's retinal chromophore and triggers concerted movements of several transmembrane helices. Here, an approach involving mutant rhodopsins and infrared spectroscopy enabled changes in the electrostatic environment to be seen as rhodopsin proceeded along its activation pathway. Early conformational changes were observed that precede the well-known larger movements of the transmembrane helices.

    • Shixin Ye
    • , Ekaterina Zaitseva
    •  & Reiner Vogel

  • Article |

    High-throughput microscopy combined with gene silencing by RNA interference is a powerful method for studying gene function. Here, a genome-wide method is presented for phenotypic screening of each of the ∼21,000 human protein-coding genes, using two-day imaging of dividing cells with fluorescently labelled chromosomes. The method enabled the identification of hundreds of genes involved in biological functions such as cell division, migration and survival.

    • Beate Neumann
    • , Thomas Walter
    •  & Jan Ellenberg

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