Biological sciences articles within Nature Communications

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  • Article |

    Cholesterol indirectly regulates intracellular signalling by modulating the physical properties of lipid membranes. Sheng et al.now show that many PDZ domains contain a functional cholesterol-binding motif, revealing that cholesterol can also control the localization and function of signalling proteins directly.

    • Ren Sheng
    • , Yong Chen
    •  & Wonhwa Cho

  • Article |

    The amount of data supplied by next-generation sequencing technologies presents a challenge for traditional algorithms to detect single-nucleotide polymorphisms. Xu et al.develop an efficient detection program and demonstrate its utility by identifying polymorphisms in cancer genomes and human populations.

    • Feng Xu
    • , Weixin Wang
    •  & Junwen Wang

  • Article |

    Species coexistence can be explained by the competition–colonization trade-off theory. Here, Livingston et al. illustrate this theory in a metacommunity experiment using two bacterial strains, finding a negative correlation between diversity and productivity when scaled to full metacommunities.

    • George Livingston
    • , Miguel Matias
    •  & Nicolas Mouquet

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Abnormal human embryo development is implicated in the embryo arrest observed during in vitrofertilization. Chavez and colleagues perform time-lapse imaging on human embryos and find that chromosomally abnormal embryos exhibit diverse cell cycle parameters that may contribute to arrest.

    • Shawn L. Chavez
    • , Kevin E. Loewke
    •  & Renee A. Reijo Pera

  • Article |

    PGC-1α regulates mitochondrial biogenesis and adaptive thermogenesis. Cheng and colleagues alter the expression of PGC-1α in primary neuronal cultures and in the adult mouse brain, and find that it regulates dendritic spine formation and maintenance by mediating the synaptogenic actions of BDNF and CREB.

    • Aiwu Cheng
    • , Ruiqian Wan
    •  & Mark P. Mattson

  • Article |

    Enzymes are traditionally viewed as being highly specific for their substrates. Tokuriki et al.follow the accumulation of mutations during the laboratory evolution of a phosphotriesterase into an arylesterase, and postulate that many naturally occurring enzymes may not be optimal for their substrates.

    • Nobuhiko Tokuriki
    • , Colin J. Jackson
    •  & Dan S. Tawfik

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Despite the central importance of NADP+ in mitochondrial energy metabolism, no NAD kinase has been found in human mitochondria to synthesize NADP+. These authors show C5orf33, a protein specific to animals and protists, to be the missing NAD kinase and demonstrate its mitochondrial localization and activity.

    • Kazuto Ohashi
    • , Shigeyuki Kawai
    •  & Kousaku Murata

  • Article |

    Polycystic kidney disease family proteins form heteromeric complexes with transient receptor potential channel subunits of the TRPP subfamily. Yu and colleagues find that the polycystic kidney disease protein, PKD1L3, is an ion channel pore-forming subunit in the acid-sensing PKD1L3/TRPP3 complex.

    • Yong Yu
    • , Maximilian H. Ulbrich
    •  & Jian Yang

  • Article |

    The plasma membrane is thought to comprise a patchwork of ordered and disordered microdomains; however, direct evidence for this in intact cells remains elusive. Using unmixing of fluorescence lifetime decays, Owen et al. show that ordered domains occupy a majority of the plasma membrane surface in living cells.

    • Dylan M. Owen
    • , David J. Williamson
    •  & Katharina Gaus

  • Article |

    Dysfunctional or aggregated proteins in cells are degraded by autophagy. Wong et al.study aggregates of the protein synphilin-1 and show that ubiquitination alters their dynamic properties, which determines whether the aggregates are degraded via basal or inducible forms of autophagy.

    • Esther Wong
    • , Eloy Bejarano
    •  & Ana Maria Cuervo

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The gut microbiota has emerged as an environmental factor that can influence the development of obesity and diabetes. Here, Karlsson et al. report compositional and functional alterations of the gut metagenome in patients with symptomatic atherosclerosis.

    • Fredrik H. Karlsson
    • , Frida Fåk
    •  & Jens Nielsen

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Malaria can persist at levels that escape detection by standard microscopy, but can be detected by PCR. Okell et al.now show that rates of submicroscopic infection can be predicted using more widely available microscopy data, and are most epidemiologically significant in areas with low malaria transmission.

    • Lucy C. Okell
    • , Teun Bousema
    •  & Chris J. Drakeley

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Alternative splicing at the Drosophila Down syndrome cell adhesion molecule gene generates 38,016 isoforms, and underlies self-avoidance of growing neurons. Wang et al. identify a structure in the DSCAM mRNA that ensures mutually exclusive splicing and observe expansion of the structure with increasing number of exons during arthropod evolution.

    • Xuebin Wang
    • , Guoli Li
    •  & Yongfeng Jin

  • Article |

    Synaptic tagging and capture describes thein vitro protein synthesis-dependent neuronal process where short-lasting forms of response potentiation are stabilised into long-lasting forms. Shires and colleagues find that this phenomenon also occurs in vivoin intact, living animals.

    • K.L. Shires
    • , B.M. Da Silva
    •  & S.J. Martin

  • Article |

    The division of the immune system into innate and adaptive arms has become blurred in recent years. Kuka et al.identify a novel population of αβ-T-cell receptor-expressing cells in mice and humans that both presents and responds to antigen and produces interleukin-12, thus exhibiting core properties of both dendritic cells and T cells.

    • Mirela Kuka
    • , Ivana Munitic
    •  & Jonathan D. Ashwell

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The great increase in flowering angiosperm plants during the Cretaceous began the change towards modern biodiversity. This study shows that rapid angiosperm evolution was possible once the leaf interior transport path length for water became shorter than the leaf interior transport path length for carbon dioxide.

    • Hugo Jan de Boer
    • , Maarten B. Eppinga
    •  & Stefan C. Dekker

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Multiple sclerosis is characterized by the activation of microglia cells. Davalos et al. investigate the early stages of neuroinflammation in mice and reveal that the plasma protein fibrinogen induces microglial clustering around the brain vasculature, which facilitates lesion formation and focal axonal damage.

    • Dimitrios Davalos
    • , Jae Kyu Ryu
    •  & Katerina Akassoglou

  • Article |

    Microbes appear to play an important role in carbon sequestration. Here, the composition of microbial residues in a California grassland with elevated carbon dioxide, warming and nitrogen deposition reveals that warming and nitrogen deposition can both alter the fraction of carbon derived from microbes in soils.

    • Chao Liang
    •  & Teri C. Balser

  • Article |

    Working memory is vital for individuals to carry out everyday activities. Fougnie and colleagues ask subjects to perform memory tasks and find that the precision of working memory varies independently across trials and items, which is inconsistent with the assumptions of standard models of memory.

    • Daryl Fougnie
    • , Jordan W. Suchow
    •  & George A. Alvarez

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Vascular endothelial-cadherin is a junctional protein implicated in the control of vascular permeability. Orsenigo et al.find that vascular endothelial-cadherin is phosphorylated in veins but not in arteries of mice, and that this sensitizes vessels to rapid changes in permeability in response to inflammatory mediators.

    • Fabrizio Orsenigo
    • , Costanza Giampietro
    •  & Elisabetta Dejana

  • Article |

    Humans tend to adopt one of a limited number of different bacterial community structures in the gut, known as enterotypes. Moeller et al.now show that these microbial fingerprints are conserved in chimpanzees, and that individuals can switch between enterotypes over periods of several years.

    • Andrew H. Moeller
    • , Patrick H. Degnan
    •  & Howard Ochman

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Autophagy is a cellular process that controls protein and organelle turnover. Jimenez-Sanchez and colleagues demonstrate in cultured mammalian cells and in fruit fly larvae that autophagy is regulated by Hedgehoc signalling, a pathway that is important for early embryonic development.

    • Maria Jimenez-Sanchez
    • , Fiona M. Menzies
    •  & David C. Rubinsztein

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Camels are essential means of transport in deserts, but we know little about the biology of these extraordinary mammals. This study reports the genome sequences of the wild and domestic bactrian camel, offering a glimpse into the camels’ genetic adaptation to harsh environments.

    • Jirimutu
    • , Zhen Wang
    •  & He Meng

  • Article |

    Large-scale sequencing techniques have helped to understand the genetic diversity of little-known microbial communities. These authors demonstrate a cheaper alternative to direct sequencing—the construction of virtual metagenomes using gel electrophoresis and related genome sequences.

    • Shujiro Okuda
    • , Yuki Tsuchiya
    •  & Hisao Morisaki

  • Article |

    The temporal opening and closing of cell–cell junctions at the blood–testis barrier allows the passage of immature germ cells during spermatogenesis. Su and colleagues identify a peptide fragment of the laminin-γ3 chain that disrupts the blood–testis barrier and reversibly impairs spermatogenesis in rats.

    • Linlin Su
    • , Dolores D. Mruk
    •  & C. Yan Cheng

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Some social aphids have evolved to live inside completely closed galls, which presents a waste disposal problem of the honeydew that collects inside the gall. Here, Kutsukake et al.show that the gall inner surface is specialized for absorbing water, removing honeydew via the plant vascular system.

    • Mayako Kutsukake
    • , Xian-Ying Meng
    •  & Takema Fukatsu

  • Article |

    Multifunctional S100 proteins are upregulated in brain injury, but their role in neurodegeneration is not clear. Dmytriyeva and colleagues study in vivomodels of brain trauma and find that the S100A4 protein and its peptide mimetics protect neurons via the interleukin-10 receptor and the Janus kinase (JAK)/STAT pathway.

    • Oksana Dmytriyeva
    • , Stanislava Pankratova
    •  & Darya Kiryushko

  • Article |

    Fluorescent proteins are widely used to image cellular structures. Here, Shemiakina and colleagues develop an enhanced version of a red fluorescent protein that is monomeric and less cytotoxic, thereby improving the quality of images that can be obtained in the red part of the visible spectrum.

    • I.I. Shemiakina
    • , G.V. Ermakova
    •  & D. Shcherbo

  • Article |

    Dopaminergic circuits are implicated in exploratory motor behaviour and are modulated by acetylcholine. Using transgenic mouse models, Patelet al. find that loss of forebrain acetylcholine results in exaggerated dopamine efflux and hyperactivity, whereas loss of brainstem acetylcholine leads to hypoactivity.

    • Jyoti C. Patel
    • , Elsa Rossignol
    •  & Robert P. Machold

  • Article |

    The ras family of oncogenes consists of H-ras, K-ras and N-ras, and usually only one of these genes is mutated in a given tumour type. In this study, K-ras is found to promote the activation of wild-type H-ras and N-ras in a manner dependent on the Ras guanine nucleotide exchange factor Son of sevenless.

    • Hao-Hsuan Jeng
    • , Laura J Taylor
    •  & Dafna Bar-Sagi

  • Article |

    Our understanding of the evolutionary sequence of tetrapod characters is hindered by a limited fossil record of primitive finned tetrapods. This study reports a new stem-tetrapod from ~409 million years ago, which displays morphological features shared by tetrapods and lungfishes, and extends the earliest record of tetrapods by ~10 million years.

    • Jing Lu
    • , Min Zhu
    •  & Tuo Qiao

  • Article |

    The sulfation of protein tyrosine residues is a common post-translational modification in eukaryotes. Here, Han et al.show that the protein RaxST, produced by a plant bacterium, has tyrosine sulfotransferase activity, demonstrating for the first time tyrosine sulfation in prokaryotes.

    • Sang-Wook Han
    • , Sang-Won Lee
    •  & Pamela C. Ronald

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Although horizontal gene transfer is prevalent in microorganisms, such sharing of genetic information is thought to be rare in land plants. Focusing on the sequenced moss species,Physcomitrella patens, these authors report genes acquired from microorganisms, which might have facilitated early evolution of land plants.

    • Jipei Yue
    • , Xiangyang Hu
    •  & Jinling Huang

  • Article |

    Sequence-specific DNA endonucleases have found numerous applications in biology, but similar manipulations of RNA have been limited by the lack of suitable enzymes. These authors combine a cleavage domain with a designable binding domain and demonstrate the resulting RNA endonuclease's utilityin vitroand in cells.

    • Rajarshi Choudhury
    • , Yihsuan S. Tsai
    •  & Zefeng Wang

  • Article |

    Rapid synaptic transmission requires efficient recycling of synaptic vesicle membrane proteins. Sochackiet al.use live cell, electron and super-resolution microscopy to visualize exocytosis of vesicular transporters and their rapid recapture in clathrin-rich microdomains in the plasma membrane.

    • Kem A. Sochacki
    • , Ben T. Larson
    •  & Justin W. Taraska

  • Article |

    The Bolwig’s organ of Drosophilalarvae consists of 12 photoreceptors and is assumed to have very limited image-resolving properties. Justice and colleagues report that these larvae can recognize the motion of other larvae and that this can be replicated using a computer screen displaying images of larvae.

    • Elizabeth Daubert Justice
    • , Nicholas James Macedonia
    •  & Barry Condron

  • Article
    | Open Access

    miRNAs simultaneously regulate a range of genes, making them potential master players in evolution. Huet al.identify a human-specific miRNA called miR-941, whose copy number remains polymorphic in modern humans, and show that miR-941 is expressed in the brain and could regulate important signalling pathways.

    • Hai Yang Hu
    • , Liu He
    •  & Philipp Khaitovich

  • Article |

    Human influence on an ecosystem generates a predictable pattern in biodiversity. In a study of boreal plant communities, Mayoret al.show that the species richness of native vascular plants fits the predicted hump-shaped relationship to human disturbance, reaching a maximum when half of the landscape is disturbed.

    • S.J. Mayor
    • , J.F. Cahill Jr
    •  & S. Boutin

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