Research articles

The effects of forests on water yield are uncertain, with some studies indicating that increased evapotranspiration reduces water yield and other showing that forests increase it. Here, the authors analyse published data to settle this debate, finding that afforestation has a positive effect on water yield.

Inflammation and wounding can promote cancer development, but the underlying mechanisms are unclear. Here Hoste et al.show that leukocytes sensing flagellin, a component of bacteria, play a key role in inducing skin cancer in the context of wounding and chronic inflammation.

Hydrogen oxidation and evolution are two of the key reactions in renewable energy conversion and storage devices. Here, the authors report the correlation between reaction rate and measured hydrogen binding energy for polycrystalline platinum in buffer solutions ranging from pH 0 to 13.

Cellular imaging studies can generate large volumes of complex phenotypic data; however, presenting this information in a form that quickly conveys trends in the data set remains a challenge. Sailem et al.present a tool which translates such data into easily interpretable cell-like glyphs.

Understanding the transport of ions, electrons and heat in magnetized plasmas is important to the development of fusion power as well as our understanding of the behaviour of astrophysical objects. Ida et al.find that stochastization of magnetic field lines in a plasma damps plasma flow more strongly than expected.

Co-infection of plants with multiple pathogen strains is predicted to alter disease dynamics. Here, Susi et al.use experimental and natural population data to show that co-infected host plants spread more disease and cause more devastating epidemics than singly infected hosts.

Glucocorticoids show promise for the treatment of ovarian cancer. Here the authors show that glucocorticoids transcriptionally induce the tumour suppressor miR-708, which is downregulated in ovarian cancer, especially in late stages and metastatic tumours.

Current models of HIV maturation involve the diffusion of the cleaved capsid protein into the viral core. Here, Frank et al. use cryo-electron tomography to characterize HIV assembly intermediates, and propose a novel maturation mechanism involving a non-diffusional phase transition.

An ultrafast mechanism of endocytosis was recently discovered, and proposed to be dependent on local reduction in membrane tension. Shi and Baumgart provide experimental support for this hypothesis by quantifying the impact of membrane tension on membrane tubulation by endocytic proteins, such as endophilin A1.

Optical methods allow for the excitation of diverse magnetic phenomena in nanostructured materials. Here, Uchida et al. demonstrate how pure spin current may be generated across a Pt/BiY₂Fe₅O₁₂thin film interface by optically exciting surface plasmon resonance in embedded gold nanoparticles.

Protein fusions between the paracaspase MALT1 and API2 (inhibitor of apoptosis 2) are found in B-cell lymphoma. Here the authors identify the tumour suppressor LIMA1 as a new target of API2–MALT1 chimeric protein and show that API2–MALT1-mediated proteolysis generates a LIM domain-only (LMO)-containing fragment with oncogenic properties in vitro and in vivo.

Marginal zone lymphoma (MZL) is a common subtype of B-cell non-Hodgkin lymphoma. Here the authors carry out a two-stage genome-wide association study in over 8,000 Europeans and identify two new MZL risk loci at chromosome 6p, implicating the major histocompatibility complex in the disease for the first time.

Quantum steering is a form of quantum non-locality that can be verified for arbitrarily low detection efficiencies and high losses at the price of requiring complete trust in one of the parties. Here, Kocsis et al. present measurement-device-independent steering protocols that remove this need for trust.

The control of magnetization by an electric field can offer new magnetic data devices. Here, controlling magnetic phases in FeRh, the authors achieve a large electroresistance response in FeRh/PMN-PT heterostructures by applying an electric field, which could be used for non-volatile memory applications.

Driver mutations in early T-cell precursor leukaemia (ETP-ALL) are poorly characterized. Here the authors show that Zeb2overexpression is often found in ETP-ALL, can recapitulate the disease in transgenic mice and confers survival advantage by upregulating IL-7 signalling.

Redox flow batteries are a promising technique for large-scale electricity storage, but suffer from low energy density and volumetric capacity. Here, the authors present a lithium redox flow battery with a sulphur-impregnated carbon composite as the catholyte, which leads to substantial performance improvement.

DNA-functionalized particles can aggregate into materials with programmable morphology, but the response of these materials to external stimuli is limited. Here, the authors demonstrate how the structure of DNA-liposome aggregates can be controlled by changing temperature.

Particle tracking with ultra-high resolution in optical and magnetic tweezers has so far relied on laser detection through photodiodes. Here, Huhle et al. demonstrate three-dimensional particle tracking with Ångström accuracy and real-time GPU-accelerated data processing at kHz rates using camera-based imaging.

The phosphatidylserine receptor PSR-1 has been proposed to mediate recognition of apoptotic cells by phagocytes; however, this function has been contested. Yang et al. identify a lysine-rich motif in C. elegansPSR-1 that binds phosphatidylserine, and show that this motif is required for its phagocytic function.

Aldehydes are common intermediates in enzymatic pathways, but their high reactivity can make them difficult to observe. Here, the authors study the mechanism of aldehyde deactivation in a dehydrogenase, showing a key E/Zisomerization and observing a thiohemiacetal intermediate by crystal structure analysis.