Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

Volume 558 Issue 7708, 7 June 2018

Body electric

Skates and sharks have specialized electrosensory organs that detect weak electric fields and communicate the information to their central nervous systems. In this issue, David Julius and his colleagues analyse sensory cells within these organs and show that although both skates and sharks use similar low-threshold voltage-gated calcium channels to start the cellular process, they each use distinct potassium channels to modulate this activity. The authors found that the potassium channels in the chain catshark (Scyliorhinus retifer) support large, repetitive membrane voltage spiking in response to electrical stimuli, but those in the little skate (Leucoraja erinacea, pictured on the cover) produce smaller, tunable oscillations. The researchers suggest that as a result sharks use their electrosensory capabilities primarily as an aid in predation whereas skates also use them to communicate with one another.

Cover image: Duncan Leitch

This Week

Top of page ⤴

News in Focus

Top of page ⤴

Comment

Top of page ⤴

Technology

Top of page ⤴

Careers

Top of page ⤴

Futures

  • Reflected glory.

    • Taik Hobson
    Futures
Top of page ⤴

Research

  • News & Views

    • The unexpected discovery of a nearly complete skull from the Early Cretaceous epoch that has been preserved in three dimensions provides profound insights into the evolution and biogeography of early mammals.

      • Simone Hoffmann
      • David W. Krause
      News & Views
    • An avalanche of data is about to revolutionize astronomy, but the options for validating those data have been limited. High-precision measurements from the Hubble Space Telescope enable a much-needed alternative option.

      • Rachael Beaton
      News & Views
    • An embryo’s body plan is established by a structure called the organizer. Evidence of this structure in humans has been lacking, but a stem-cell-based protocol has now enabled researchers to demonstrate its existence.

      • Olivier Pourquié
      News & Views
    • The speed at which tropical cyclones travel has slowed globally in the past seven decades, especially over some coastlines. This effect can compound flooding by increasing regional total rainfall from storms.

      • Christina M. Patricola
      News & Views
    • Recordings of individual neurons in the mouse brain reveal a main mechanism for motion processing in the primary visual cortex. These findings are likely to have implications for other species.

      • Jose Manuel Alonso
      News & Views
    • Emerging nanoelectronic devices could revolutionize artificial neural networks, but their hardware implementations lag behind those of their software counterparts. An approach has been developed that tips the scales in their favour.

      • Gina C. Adam
      News & Views
  • Reviews

  • Perspectives

  • Articles

    • A genetic atlas of the human plasma proteome, comprising 1,927 genetic associations with 1,478 proteins, identifies causes of disease and potential drug targets.

      • Benjamin B. Sun
      • Joseph C. Maranville
      • Adam S. Butterworth
      Article
  • Letters

Top of page ⤴
Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing

Search

Quick links