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Pleasant stimulation of skin serves important social functions in mammals, but has received less attention from molecular neurobiologists than the response to noxious stimuli. Now David Anderson and colleagues have used calcium imaging in live mice to show that a small population of sensory neurons in hairy skin � expressing the G-protein-coupled receptor MRGPRB4 � responds specifically to strokes from a small paintbrush intended to simulate natural stroking or grooming, but not to pinching or poking stimuli, which activate a different population of sensory neurons expressing MRGPRD. Pharmacological stimulation of MRGPRB4+ neurons elicits positive reinforcing behavioural effects. The stroke-sensitive� neurons resemble C-tactile afferents, unmyelinated mechanoreceptive neurons found in hairy skin of humans and other mammals. The functional characterization of this novel population of neurons opens the way to identifying molecular transduction mechanisms and neural circuitry associated with a positive affective state � or pleasure. On the cover, monkeys by a river in Angkor, Cambodia (Roberto Westbrook/Blend Images/Corbis).
Dean Keith Simonton fears that surprising originality in the natural sciences is a thing of the past, as vast teams finesse knowledge rather than create disciplines.
Some worker fire ants will tolerate multiple queens in their colony, but others only one. It turns out that this behaviour is governed by a gene cluster on an unusual pair of chromosomes. Two scientists describe what these findings mean to the fields of social evolution, genetics and beyond. See Letter p.664
The Sun's magnetic activity varies cyclically over a period of about 11 years. An analysis of a new, temporally extended proxy record of this activity hints at a possible planetary influence on the amplitude of the cycle.
The spliceosome complex removes intron sequences from RNA transcripts to form messenger RNA. The structure of a spliceosomal protein, Prp8, reveals the complex's active site and casts light on the origin of splicing. See Article p.638
Breakdown of dissolved organic nitrogen in the ocean had been thought to be the preserve of microbes at the surface. The discovery that these microbes are not up to the task calls for a reassessment of the biogeochemistry of this nitrogen pool.
Brush-like polymers with a rigidity similar to that of polymers in living cells have been synthesized and used to build force-responsive materials. The advance opens the door to applications in drug delivery and tissue engineering. See Letter p.651
Physicists have puzzled over a hidden electronic order in a uranium-based material for decades. A new theory attributes it to not just a single but a double breaking of time-reversal symmetry. See Article p.621
The formation of Ising quasiparticles in URu2Si2 results from ‘hastatic’ order, which breaks double time-reversal symmetry, mixing states of integer and half-integer spin, and accounts for the large entropy of condensation and the magnetic anomaly observed in torque magnetometry.
Mutations in mitochondrial DNA cause a wide range of disorders in humans, with a high prevalence; here it is shown that the nucleus of an affected woman’s egg could be inserted into healthy donor egg cytoplasm by spindle transfer, allowing the birth of healthy offspring.
Nuclear genome transfer using unfertilized donor oocytes is performed and shown to be effective in preventing the transmission of mitochondrial DNA mutations; the swapped oocytes can develop to the blastocyst stage, and produce parthenogenetic embryonic stem-cell lines that show normal karyotypes and only mitochondrial DNA from the donor oocyte.
The crystal structure of yeast Prp8 bound to a U5 small nuclear ribonucleoprotein particle assembly factor Aar2 is solved, offering insight into the architecture of the spliceosome active site, and supporting a possible common origin of eukaryotic pre-messenger-RNA splicing and group II intron splicing.
In combination with existing observations and detailed circumstellar models, the detection of hydrogen deuteride emission from the star TW Hydrae implies a circumstellar disk mass of more than 0.05 solar masses, which is enough to form a planetary system like our own.
Thermal transitions of polyisocyanide single molecules to polymer bundles and finally networks lead to hydrogels mimicking the properties of biopolymer intermediate-filament networks; their analysis shows that bundling and chain stiffness are crucial design parameters for hydrogels.
Palaeoproxy evidence shows that the sea-surface-temperature gradient across the tropical Pacific Ocean strengthened during the Medieval Warm Period but weakens in model-projected future warming; this is because solar radiation induces greater precipitation for the same temperature change than greenhouse gases.
Riverine carbon-14 measurements show that anthropogenic disturbance of peat swamp forest in southeast Asia is causing increased release of carbon that has been stored in the peat for thousands of years.
Fire ants (Solenopsis invicta) are socially polymorphic, with some workers tolerating several queens in their colony and others tolerating just one; this study shows that a non-recombining supergene is responsible for this social polymorphism, and the operation of this genomic region is remarkably similar to that of sex chromosomes.
Calcium imaging in live mice shows that a rare population of unmyelinated sensory neurons—expressing the G-protein-coupled receptor MRGPRB4—responds specifically to massage-like stroking of hairy skin, with positive reinforcing behavioural effects.
Lymphocyte migration in the spleen is visualized live in mice using a real-time two-photon laser-scanning microscopy approach revealing that marginal zone and follicular B cells are highly motile and can shuttle between compartments, and integrin adhesion is the key to cellular retention in the marginal zone.
Evidence for a link between cellular senescence and metabolic regulation is provided, through the observation that p53 represses the expression of malic enzymes, thereby regulating NADPH, lipid and glutamine metabolism; in turn, this repression further activates p53, promoting cellular senescence.
To identify comprehensively factors involved in RNAi and microRNA-mediated gene expression regulation, this study performed a phylogenetic analysis of 86 eukaryotic species; the candidates this approach highlighted were subjected to Bayesian analysis with transcriptional and proteomic interaction data, identifying protein orthologues of already known RNAi silencing factors, as well as other hits involved in splicing, suggesting a connection between the two processes.
The structures of three distinct human transcription factor IID (TFIID) protein assemblies are solved using cryo-electron microscopy; by incorporating TAF8 and TAF10, the key structural changes that remodel TFIID during assembly are determined, particularly the transition from a symmetric core-TFIID to an asymmetric holo-complex.
Several crystal structures of the rotary motor of bacterial V-ATPase are solved at high resolution, representing different asymmetric structures and enabling the prediction of a model for the rotational mechanism of V1-ATPase.
Better thought-out town planning and interior design can create healthier environments, but how to effectively implement the best designs remains uncertain.
Heart disease causes almost one in three deaths worldwide. While improved diet and lifestyle changes play huge roles in combating the disease, discoveries about the biochemical and cellular mechanisms involved are bringing forth new treatments - from better drugs to surgical procedures.