Research articles

Adult neural stem and progenitor cells (NSPCs) show high levels of fatty acid synthase (Fasn)-dependent de novo lipogenesis, a process that is controlled by Spot14 to regulate the rate of proliferation; this indicates a functional coupling between the regulation of lipid metabolism and adult NSPC proliferation.

Single-molecule FRET assays used to probe the conformational dynamics of ubiquitin chains reveal that conformational selection is an important mechanism of ubiquitin chain recognition.

The twin-arginine translocation (Tat) pathway transports folded proteins across membranes in bacteria and plant chloroplasts; the crystal structure of TatC, an integral membrane protein and core component of this complex, is now presented.

Calcium–lipid electrostatic interactions are shown to amplify the tyrosine phosphorylation of CD3ε and CD3ζ in T-cell antigen receptor complex.

The human long non-coding RNA TINCR binds to STAU1 and controls epidermal differentiation by stabilizing key differentiation mRNAs, by means of a TINCR-binding motif found enriched in epidermal differentiation genes.

Observations of trace gases over the south pole of Titan indicate that the moon’s middle-atmospheric circulation extends to an altitude of at least 600 kilometres, which is higher than previously thought and requires active chemistry and dynamics in the upper atmosphere.

Direct measurements of the conduction properties of strongly interacting ultracold fermions reveal the well-known drop of resistance associated with the onset of superfluidity.

Aerotaxy, an aerosol-based growth method, is used to produce gallium arsenide nanowires with a growth rate of about 1 micrometre per second, which is 20 to 1,000 times higher than previously reported for traditional nanowires and allows sensitive and reproducible control of the nanowires’ optical and electronic properties.

It is shown that zinc sulphinate salts can be used to transfer alkyl radicals to heterocycles, allowing for the mild, direct and operationally simple formation of medicinally relevant carbon–carbon bonds while reacting in a complementary fashion to other innate carbon–hydrogen functionalization methods.

Resequencing of genes from individuals of European and African American ancestry indicates that approximately 73% of all protein-coding SNVs and approximately 86% of SNVs predicted to be deleterious arose in the past 5,000–10,000 years, and that European Americans carry an excess of deleterious variants in essential and Mendelian disease genes compared to African Americans.

Observations of the stellar dynamics of the compact lenticular galaxy NGC 1277 show that its central black hole accounts for more than half of the mass of the host galaxy’s bulge, indicating that lenticular galaxies do not follow the usual black-hole mass scaling relations.

Sequencing the nuclear genomes of Guillardia theta and Bigelowiella natans, transitional forms in the endosymbiotic acquisition of photosynthesis by engulfment of certain eukaryotic algae, reveals unprecedented alternative splicing for a single-celled organism (B. natans) and extensive genetic and biochemical mosaicism, shedding light on why nucleomorphs persist in these species but not other algae.

Sequencing of the hexaploid bread wheat genome shows that it is highly dynamic, with significant loss of gene family members on polyploidization and domestication, and an abundance of gene fragments.

Here it is shown that the NAD-dependent deacetylase SIRT2 is an essential component of necrosis, and that mouse hearts that do not contain SIRT2 or that are treated with a pharmacological inhibitor of SIRT2 are largely protected from ischaemic injury.

A cell-autonomous role for the COUP-TFII transcription factor in prostate cancer cells is identified, in which COUP-TFII inhibits TGF-β signalling by binding to SMAD4; COUP-TFII promotes prostate tumorigenesis and metastasis in a mouse model, and is associated with more aggressive disease in human prostate cancers.

Global distributions of trace elements in ocean floor basalts are found to describe a systematic pattern that is due to cycling of magma through the global ensemble of magma chambers.

Single-molecule and ensemble assays are used to show that large T antigen, the replicative DNA helicase of the simian virus 40 (SV40), unwinds DNA as a single hexamer by steric exclusion and is able to bypass covalent DNA–protein crosslinks.

A new mechanism of chromosomal rearrangement is identified through the observation that broken or collapsed DNA replication forks restarted by homologous recombination have a high propensity for U-turns at short inverted repeats; the error-prone nature of this mechanism is suggested to contribute to gross chromosomal rearrangements and copy-number variations present in cancer and other genomic disorders.

GABA-releasing neurons from the ventral tegmental area that project to the nucleus accumbens are shown to block the firing of cholinergic accumbal interneurons, affecting learning in mice.