Physiology articles within Nature

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  • News & Views |

    The identity of the enzyme that enables vitamin K to combat the adverse side effects of a drug called warfarin has been long sought. Analysis of a type of cell death called ferroptosis has now unexpectedly solved the mystery.

    • Nathan P. Ward
    •  & Gina M. DeNicola

  • News & Views |

    A modified method for delivering oxygen to the whole body can restore function in pig organs one hour after the animals have died. The achievement points to ways to improve transplants and the treatment of strokes and heart attacks.

    • Robert J. Porte

  • Article |

    OrganEx—an extracorporeal pulsatile-perfusion system with cytoprotective perfusate for porcine whole-body settings—preserved tissue integrity, decreased cell death and restored selected molecular and cellular processes across multiple vital organs after 1 h of warm ischaemia in pigs.

    • David Andrijevic
    • , Zvonimir Vrselja
    •  & Nenad Sestan

  • News & Views |

    Mutated forms of the protein Akt can be central drivers of cancer metabolism. A mechanism by which Akt promotes synthesis of the metabolic molecule coenzyme A broadens our understanding of the protein’s activity.

    • Philipp Poeller
    •  & Almut Schulze

  • Article |

    Fruitflies require Sestrin to regulate mTORC1 signalling in response to dietary leucine, survive a diet low in leucine, and control leucine-sensitive physiological characteristics, which establishes Sestrin as a physiologically relevant leucine sensor.

    • Xin Gu
    • , Patrick Jouandin
    •  & David M. Sabatini

  • News & Views |

    Brown fat in the body converts energy into heat. The discovery that inosine molecules are released from dying brown fat and induce heat production in nearby brown fat cells could point to a way of combating obesity.

    • Katrien De Bock
    •  & Christian Wolfrum

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Untargeted metabolomics demonstrate that apoptotic brown adipocytes release a specific pattern of metabolites with purine metabolites being highly enriched, and inosine is identified as a metabolite released during apoptosis regulating thermogenic fat and counteracting obesity.

    • Birte Niemann
    • , Saskia Haufs-Brusberg
    •  & Alexander Pfeifer

  • Article |

    tDeclining YAP/TAZ mechanotransduction drives ageing by unleashing cGAS–STING signalling, a pillar of innate immunity, so sustaining YAP/TAZ mechanosignalling or inhibiting STING present promising approaches for limiting senescence-associated inflammation and improving healthy ageing.

    • Hanna Lucie Sladitschek-Martens
    • , Alberto Guarnieri
    •  & Stefano Piccolo

  • Article |

    Single-nuclear transcriptomic and proteomic analyses identify molecular characteristics shared by multiple classes of congenital heart disease, including phenotypes associated with insulin resistance.

    • Matthew C. Hill
    • , Zachary A. Kadow
    •  & James F. Martin

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Experiments in mice show that the mechanically activated ion channel PIEZO1 is expressed in itch-specific sensory neurons and has a role in transducing mechanical itch.

    • Rose Z. Hill
    • , Meaghan C. Loud
    •  & Ardem Patapoutian

  • News & Views |

    A metabolite called Lac-Phe is associated with exercise-induced ‘muscle burn’. This molecule has now been shown to reduce food intake after exercise in mice, racehorses and humans, and to trigger weight loss in obese mice.

    • Tahnbee Kim
    •  & Scott M. Sternson

  • Research Briefing |

    Neurotransmitters have key roles in regulating the nervous system. To better understand these processes, researchers need tools to analyse neurotransmitter signalling in the organs of living animals. We have invented NeuroString, a soft sensor for monoamine neurotransmitters, which can be fitted to the brain or gut of animals without disturbing the organ’s natural functions.

  • Article |

    In mouse, two distinct types of neurons from the brainstem nucleus ambiguus, one that innervates the heart and another that innervates both the heart and lung, collectively control cardiac function and coordinate cardiac and pulmonary function.

    • Avin Veerakumar
    • , Andrea R. Yung
    •  & Mark A. Krasnow

  • Article |

    Molecular analyses of modern and fossil skeletal samples reveal that elevated metabolic rates consistent with endothermy evolved independently in mammals and plesiosaurs, and ornithodirans: Exceptional metabolic rates are ancestral to dinosaurs and pterosaurs and were acquired before energetically costly adaptations, such as flight.

    • Jasmina Wiemann
    • , Iris Menéndez
    •  & Derek E. G. Briggs

  • News & Views |

    The migration and growth of cancer cells at sites far from the initial tumour is usually fatal. Metabolic heterogeneity — variable expression of an enzyme in the initial tumour — is identified as an early step in this deadly process.

    • Sanjeethan C. Baksh
    •  & Lydia W. S. Finley

  • News & Views |

    It emerges that high blood sugar deregulates the enzyme TET3 in the eggs of female mice, preventing it from properly modifying sperm-derived DNA when eggs are fertilized. This leads to metabolic defects in adult progeny.

    • Yumiko K. Kawamura
    •  & Antoine H. F. M. Peters

  • News & Views |

    Fatty structures called plaques can form in arteries, and are separated from nerves by the artery walls. But this is no barrier to communication — it seems that nerves interact with plaques and immune cells to drive cardiovascular disease.

    • Courtney Clyburn
    •  & Susan J. Birren

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Whole-genome sequencing is used to analyse the landscape of somatic mutation in intestinal crypts from 16 mammalian species, revealing that rates of somatic mutation inversely scale with the lifespan of the animal across species.

    • Alex Cagan
    • , Adrian Baez-Ortega
    •  & Iñigo Martincorena

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Metabolomics analysis of the mouse embryo shows a metabolic shift towards the tricarboxylic acid cycle between gestational days 10.5 and 11.5, leading to the subsequent development of organ-specific metabolic programmes.

    • Ashley Solmonson
    • , Brandon Faubert
    •  & Ralph J. DeBerardinis

  • Article |

    In extinct species including non-avian dinosaurs, bone density is shown to be a reliable indicator of aquatic behavioural adaptations, which emerged in spinosaurids during the Early Cretaceous.

    • Matteo Fabbri
    • , Guillermo Navalón
    •  & Nizar Ibrahim

  • Article |

    A single-cell atlas of white adipose tissue from mouse and human reveals diverse cell types and similarities and differences across species and dietary conditions.

    • Margo P. Emont
    • , Christopher Jacobs
    •  & Evan D. Rosen

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Single-cell profiling of vagal sensory neurons from seven organs in mice and calcium-imaging-guided spatial transcriptomics reveal that interoceptive signals are coded through three distinct dimensions, allowing efficient processing of multiple signals in parallel using a combinatorial strategy.

    • Qiancheng Zhao
    • , Chuyue D. Yu
    •  & Rui B. Chang

  • Article |

    Detailed reconstruction using enhanced focused ion beam scanning electron microscopy imaging and deep-learning-based automated segmentation demonstrates that hepatocyte subcellular organelle architecture regulates metabolism.

    • Güneş Parlakgül
    • , Ana Paula Arruda
    •  & Gökhan S. Hotamışlıgil

  • Article |

    A transcriptomics study demonstrates cell-type-specific responses to differentially aged blood and shows young blood to have restorative and rejuvenating effects that may be invoked through enhanced mitochondrial function.

    • Róbert Pálovics
    • , Andreas Keller
    •  & Tony Wyss-Coray

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The molecular target of the antidiabetic medicine metformin is identified as PEN2, a subunit of γ-secretases, and the PEN2–ATP6AP1 axis offers potential targets for screening for metformin substitutes.

    • Teng Ma
    • , Xiao Tian
    •  & Sheng-Cai Lin

  • Perspective |

    The Dog Aging Project is an open-data, community science study to identify genetic, environmental and lifestyle factors associated with canine healthy lifespan, generating knowledge that could readily translate to human ageing.

    • Kate E. Creevy
    • , Joshua M. Akey
    •  & Benjamin S. Wilfond

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