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Volume 463 Issue 7278, 14 January 2010

A male Drosophila fruitfly performs a wing threat, typical aggression behaviour, towards a rival male. Liming Wang and David Anderson show that the volatile pheromone cVA promotes male-to-male aggression by activating olfactory sensory neurons expressing the receptor protein, Or67d. This work opens the study of aggressive behaviour to detailed genetic manipulation and investigation. Cover image: Liming Wang & Michael Maire, Caltech.

Postdoc Journal

  • My journey as a Postdoc Journal keeper is at an end, just as my life is about to get exciting.

    • Julia Boughner
    Postdoc Journal

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  • It took me a while to adjust to the non-postdoc life — but I'm starting to see the upside.

    • Joanne Isaac
    Postdoc Journal
  • I'm at a pivotal point in my career. I hope I make the right decision.

    • Bryan Venters
    Postdoc Journal
  • So far, I've applied for faculty positions without success, but I still hold out hope and relish the possibilities.

    • Sam Walcott
    Postdoc Journal
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Authors

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Editorial

  • Science in Canada cannot realize its full potential without clear direction from government.

    Editorial
  • It is time to assess what worked, and what didn't, in the global efforts to cope with swine flu.

    Editorial
  • Manufacturers of computer systems should welcome researchers' efforts to find flaws.

    Editorial
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Research Highlights

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Correction

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Journal Club

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News

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News Feature

  • Richard Besser led the United States' top public-health agency as swine flu broke out on its doorstep. And his communication shaped the early days of a pandemic, finds Brendan Maher.

    • Brendan Maher
    News Feature
  • An increase in premature births means that more babies are at risk of neurological damage. Erika Check Hayden talks with researchers who are developing ways to help these children.

    • Erika Check Hayden
    News Feature
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Correspondence

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Opinion

  • A lack of coordination in Arctic research funding leaves scientists without the support they need for fieldwork. John England outlines how Canada can set things right, and show leadership in the north.

    • John England
    Opinion
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Books & Arts

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News & Views

  • Received wisdom about the main driver of the South Asian monsoon comes into question with a report that tests the idea that the Himalayas, not the Tibetan plateau, are the essential topographic ingredient.

    • Mark A. Cane
    News & Views
  • The key enzyme in photosynthesis, Rubisco, is a relic of a bygone age. The ability to assemble Rubisco in the test tube offers the prospect of genetically manipulating the enzyme to make it fit for the modern world.

    • R. John Ellis
    News & Views
  • Parent birds commonly face the problem of distinguishing their own brood from foreign chicks. Learnt chick-recognition evolves only when parents do not mistakenly learn to reject their own young.

    • Rebecca Kilner
    News & Views
  • Windy weather is forecast where stars are forming. Numerical simulations show that these winds can reshape dwarf galaxies, reconciling their properties with the prevailing theory of galaxy formation.

    • Marla Geha
    News & Views
  • Chemical models of enzymes' active sites aid our understanding of biological reactions. Such a model of a reaction intermediate promises to advance our knowledge of the biochemistry of iron-containing haem enzymes.

    • Kenneth D. Karlin
    News & Views
  • Memory formation is known to occur at the level of synaptic contacts between neurons. It therefore comes as a surprise that another type of brain cell, the astrocyte, is also involved in establishing memory.

    • Mirko Santello
    • Andrea Volterra
    News & Views
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Review Article

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Article

  • Soybean is an important crop plant, providing seed protein and oil and fixing atmospheric nitrogen through symbioses with soil-borne microorganisms. Using a whole-genome shotgun approach, its 1.1-gigabase genome is now sequenced and integrated with physical and high-density genetic maps to create a chromosome-scale draft sequence assembly.

    • Jeremy Schmutz
    • Steven B. Cannon
    • Scott A. Jackson
    Article Open Access
  • Tobacco smoke contains more than sixty carcinogens that bind and mutate DNA. Here, massively parallel sequencing technology is used to sequence a small-cell lung cancer cell line, exploring the mutational burden associated with tobacco smoking. Multiple mutation signatures from the cocktail of carcinogens in tobacco smoke are found, as well as evidence of transcription-coupled repair and another, more general, expression-linked repair pathway.

    • Erin D. Pleasance
    • Philip J. Stephens
    • Peter J. Campbell

    Milestone:

    Article Open Access
  • Here, the genomes of a malignant melanoma and a lymphoblastoid cell line from the same person are sequenced, providing the first comprehensive catalogue of somatic mutations from an individual cancer. The data provide insight into the causes of tumour formation and the development of the cancer genome, with the dominant mutational signature reflecting DNA damage due to ultraviolet light exposure.

    • Erin D. Pleasance
    • R. Keira Cheetham
    • Michael R. Stratton

    Milestone:

    Article Open Access
  • Form I Rubisco, one of the most abundant proteins in nature, catalyses the fixation of atmospheric CO2 in photosynthesis. The limited catalytic efficiency of Rubisco has sparked extensive efforts to re-engineer the enzyme to enhance agricultural productivity. To bring this goal closer, the formation of cyanobacterial form I Rubisco is now analysed by in vitro reconstitution and cryo-electron microscopy.

    • Cuimin Liu
    • Anna L. Young
    • Manajit Hayer-Hartl
    Article
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Letter

  • The properties of 'dwarf' galaxies have long challenged the cold dark matter (CDM) model of galaxy formation, as the properties of most observed dwarf galaxies contrast with models based on the dominance of CDM. Here, hydrodynamical simulations (assuming the presence of CDM) are reported in which the analogues of dwarf galaxies — bulgeless and with shallow central dark-matter profiles — arise naturally.

    • F. Governato
    • C. Brook
    • P. Madau
    Letter
  • The close binary Algol system contains a radio-bright KIV sub-giant star in a very close and rapid orbit with a main sequence B8 star. Evidence points to the existence of an extended, complex coronal magnetosphere originating at the cooler K subgiant, but the detailed morphology of the subgiant's corona and its possible interaction with its companion are unknown. Multi-epoch radio imaging of the Algol system now reveals a large coronal loop suggestive of a persistent asymmetric magnetic field structure aligned between the two stars.

    • W. M. Peterson
    • R. L. Mutel
    • W. M. Goss
    Letter
  • Chiral spin liquids are a hypothetical class of spin liquids in which time-reversal symmetry is macroscopically broken even in the absence of an applied magnetic field or any magnetic dipole long-range order. Although such spin-liquid states were proposed more than two decades ago, they remain elusive. Here, evidence is presented that the time-reversal symmetry can be broken spontaneously on a macroscopic scale in the absence of magnetic dipole long-range order, suggesting the emergence of a chiral spin liquid.

    • Yo Machida
    • Satoru Nakatsuji
    • Toshiro Sakakibara
    Letter
  • Most schemes for three-dimensional (3D) structure determination of an object require multiple measurements over various orientations, or a means of scanning it section by section. A 3D imaging modality, termed ankylography, is now presented that under certain circumstances enables complete 3D structure determination from a single diffraction measurement. This approach could find broad applications in the physical and life sciences.

    • Kevin S. Raines
    • Sara Salha
    • Jianwei Miao
    Letter
  • The elevation of the Tibetan plateau is thought to cause its surface to serve as a heat source that drives the South Asian summer monsoon, potentially coupling uplift of the plateau to climate changes on geologic timescales. Here, however, an atmospheric model is used to show that flattening of the Tibetan plateau has little effect on the monsoon, provided that the narrow orography of the Himalayas and adjacent mountain ranges is preserved.

    • William R. Boos
    • Zhiming Kuang
    Letter
  • Why hosts of brood parasites generally fail to recognize parasitic offspring after they have hatched from the egg, even when the host and parasitic chicks are very different, remains a puzzle. American coots are now shown to use first-hatched chicks in a brood as referents to learn to recognize their own chicks and discriminate against later-hatched parasitic chicks. A lack of reliable information may explain why the evolution of such chick recognition is not more common.

    • Daizaburo Shizuka
    • Bruce E. Lyon
    Letter
  • Although aggression is known to be regulated by pheromones in many animal species, in no system have the pheromones, their receptors and corresponding sensory neurons been identified. Here, 11-cis-vaccenyl acetate (cVA), a volatile pheromone produced by male fruitflies, is shown to promote male-to-male aggression through the activation of olfactory sensory neurons expressing the receptor Or67d.

    • Liming Wang
    • David J. Anderson
    Letter
  • The involvement of astroglia in long-term potentiation (LTP) of synaptic transmission remains controversial. Clamping internal Ca2+ in individual astrocytes in the CA1 area of the hippocampus is now shown to block LTP induction at nearby excitatory synapses through an effect on the N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor. This LTP blockade can be reversed by exogenous D-serine, normally released in a Ca2+-dependent manner from astrocytes.

    • Christian Henneberger
    • Thomas Papouin
    • Dmitri A. Rusakov
    Letter
  • Much of the mammalian genome is derived from retroelements, a significant proportion of which are endogenous retroviruses (ERVs). ERVs are transcriptionally silenced during early embryogenesis by histone and DNA methylation, but the initiators of this process are largely unknown. Here, deletion of KAP1 is shown to lead to a marked upregulation of a range of ERVs in mouse embryonic stem cells and in early embryos.

    • Helen M. Rowe
    • Johan Jakobsson
    • Didier Trono
    Letter
  • Stomata are specialized structures in the epidermal layer of leaves that regulate the exchange of gases between the plant and the atmosphere. One or more positive intercellular signalling factors are assumed to be involved in stomatal development, but their identities remain elusive. A novel secretory protein — named stomagen — is now shown to be just such a factor; it is conserved among vascular plants and positively regulates stomatal density.

    • Shigeo S. Sugano
    • Tomoo Shimada
    • Ikuko Hara-Nishimura
    Letter
  • Rho is a general transcription termination factor in bacteria, but the mechanism by which it disrupts the RNA polymerase (RNAP) elongation complex is unknown. Here, Rho is shown to bind tightly to the RNAP throughout the transcription cycle, with the formation of the RNAP–Rho complex being crucial for termination. Furthermore, RNAP is proposed to have an active role in Rho termination through an allosteric mechanism.

    • Vitaly Epshtein
    • Dipak Dutta
    • Evgeny Nudler
    Letter
  • Phytochromes regulate numerous photoresponses in plants and microorganisms through their ability to photointerconvert between a red-light-absorbing, ground state (Pf) and a far-red-light-absorbing, photoactivated state (Pfr). The structures of several phytochromes as Pf have been determined previously; here, the three-dimensional solution structure of the bilin-binding domain as Pfr is described. The results shed light on the structural basis for photoconversion to the activated Pfr form.

    • Andrew T. Ulijasz
    • Gabriel Cornilescu
    • Richard D. Vierstra
    Letter
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Prospects

  • The past year's postdoc journal keepers face familiar dilemmas, writes Gene Russo.

    • Gene Russo
    Prospects
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News

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Careers and Recruitment

  • Pittsburgh's universities are helping the city to emerge from its Rust Belt roots and forge a knowledge economy. Paul Smaglik reports.

    • Paul Smaglik
    Careers and Recruitment
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Futures

  • It's no joke.

    • Marko Jankovic
    Futures
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