Biological techniques articles within Nature

Featured

  • Article |

    As part of the modENCODE initiative, which aims to characterize functional DNA elements in D. melanogaster and C. elegans, this study presents a genome-wide chromatin landscape of the fruitfly, based on 18 histone modifications. Nine prevalent chromatin states are described. Integrating these analyses with other data types reveals individual characteristics of different genomic elements. The work provides a resource of unprecedented scale for future experimental investigations.

    • Peter V. Kharchenko
    • , Artyom A. Alekseyenko
    •  & Peter J. Park

  • News & Views |

    Labelling molecules by fast oxidation allows mass spectrometry to study protein folding at submillisecond time resolution. The method also brings a wealth of structural information about protein folding within reach.

    • Martin Gruebele

  • News & Views |

    A simple peptide that assembles into desirable nanoscale structures is a striking example of how the whole can be greater than the sum of its parts. What's more, the assembly process is controllably reversible.

    • Charlotte A. E. Hauser
    •  & Shuguang Zhang

  • News & Views |

    A type of sugar transporter has been discovered that exports glucose from cells. In plants, these transporters are targeted by disease-causing microbes that divert sugar production for their own use. See Article p.527

    • Nicholas J. Talbot

  • Brief Communications Arising |

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

  • Letter |

    Acid sensing has so far been demonstrated in the gustatory system only. Now, fruitfly olfactory sensory neurons selectively activated by acidic compounds have been identified. Acid sensing also requires the transmembrane protein IR64a, expressed in those neurons as well as neurons involved in the detection of non acidic odorants. Although the IR64a protein isn't sufficient by itself to determine acid recognition, the requirement for IR64a in acid recognition is the first function for a member of this recently discovered family of putative odorant receptors — the ionotropic receptor family.

    • Minrong Ai
    • , Soohong Min
    •  & Greg S. B. Suh

  • Technology Feature |

    The list of human genetic variations is expanding; but an understanding of how they contribute to disease is still patchy.

    • Monya Baker

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The goal of the 1000 Genomes Project is to provide in-depth information on variation in human genome sequences. In the pilot phase reported here, different strategies for genome-wide sequencing, using high-throughput sequencing platforms, were developed and compared. The resulting data set includes more than 95% of the currently accessible variants found in any individual, and can be used to inform association and functional studies.

    • Richard M. Durbin
    • , David Altshuler (Co-Chair)
    •  & Gil A. McVean

  • Books & Arts |

    Synthetic biology could offer truly sustainable approaches to the built environment, predict Rachel Armstrong and Neil Spiller.

    • Rachel Armstrong
    •  & Neil Spiller

  • Letter |

    Electrophoresis is a motion of charged dispersed particles relative to a fluid in a uniform electric field. Here it is described how an anisotropic fluid — a nematic liquid crystal — can lead to motion of both charged and neutral particles, even when they are perfectly symmetrical, in any type of electric field. The phenomenon is caused by a distortion in the orientation of the liquid crystals around the particles. The approach could see applications in, for example, display technologies and colloidal assembly and disassembly.

    • Oleg D. Lavrentovich
    • , Israel Lazo
    •  & Oleg P. Pishnyak

  • News & Views |

    The resonant behaviour of clusters of gold nanoparticles has been tuned by gradually bringing the particles together. The approach could have many applications, including chemical and biological sensing.

    • Mark I. Stockman

  • News |

    Decision to relocate colony of ageing research chimpanzees becomes political.

    • Heidi Ledford

  • News & Views |

    Nanoparticles that generate light through a mechanism known as second harmonic generation have been used to image live tissue. The particles overcome many problems associated with fluorescent probes for bioimaging.

    • Bruce E. Cohen

  • Letter |

    It was demonstrated recently that passing electrons through a spiral stack of graphite thin films generates an electron beam with orbital angular momentum — analogous to the spiralling wavefronts that can be introduced in photon beams and which have found widespread application. Here, a versatile holographic technique for generating these twisted electron beams is described. Moreover, a demonstration is provided of their potential use in probing a material's magnetic properties.

    • J. Verbeeck
    • , H. Tian
    •  & P. Schattschneider

  • Letter |

    Newly synthesized messenger RNA is exported from the nucleus through nuclear pores. Here, a new imaging and tracking method has been developed to study the kinetics of mRNA export, with 20-ms time-precision and 26-nm spatial precision. A three-step model for export is presented, comprising docking, transport and release. Notably, mRNAs can move bi-directionally through the pore complex.

    • David Grünwald
    •  & Robert H. Singer

  • News |

    Gentler ways of handling the rodents could keep them calm and reduce experimental variability.

    • Janelle Weaver

  • News & Views |

    Advances in stem-cell technology have broken the barrier to gene targeting in mammals other than mice. A wide array of research opportunities now opens up, especially in studies involving the laboratory rat.

    • F. Kent Hamra

  • Letter |

    When double-strand breaks occur in DNA, the broken ends must undergo processing to prepare them for repair. Here, and in an accompanying study, this processing reaction has now been replicated in vitro using yeast proteins. Processing minimally requires the activities of a helicase, a nuclease and a single-strand-binding protein, although the reaction is enhanced by the addition of three factors that help to target the core complex and stimulate the unwinding activity.

    • Hengyao Niu
    • , Woo-Hyun Chung
    •  & Patrick Sung

  • Article |

    Here, the analysis of 'HapMap 3' is reported — a public data set of genomic variants in human populations. The resource integrates common and rare single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and copy number polymorphisms (CNPs) from 11 global populations, providing insights into population-specific differences among variants. It also demonstrates the feasibility of imputing newly discovered rare SNPs and CNPs.

    • David M. Altshuler
    • , Richard A. Gibbs
    •  & Jean E. McEwen

  • News & Views |

    Theoretical models of the dynamics of self-driven systems predict the collective motion of biological systems, such as insect swarms. An experimental model has been developed to test the predictions.

    • Jean-François Joanny
    •  & Sriram Ramaswamy

  • Outlook |

    The lack of a good animal model is frustrating efforts to curb disease progression, explains M. Flint Beal.

    • M. Flint Beal

  • Letter |

    Propionyl-coenzyme A carboxylase (PCC) is a biotin-dependent enzyme that is essential for the catabolism of several amino acids, cholesterol and some fatty acids. Here, the crystal structure of a bacterial PCC is presented, along with a cryo-electron microscopy reconstruction showing a similar structure for human PCC. The structural information establishes a molecular basis for understanding the known disease-causing mutations in PCC, and is relevant to the holoenzymes of other biotin-dependent carboxylases.

    • Christine S. Huang
    • , Kianoush Sadre-Bazzaz
    •  & Liang Tong

  • 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

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