ALBERT

Description: 〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Witze, Alexandra -- England -- Nature. 2016 Jan 7;529(7584):12. doi: 10.1038/529012a.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26738576" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: Eukaryotic cells restrict protein synthesis under various stress conditions, by inhibiting the eukaryotic translation initiation factor 2B (eIF2B). eIF2B is the guanine nucleotide exchange factor for eIF2, a heterotrimeric G protein consisting of alpha-, beta- and gamma-subunits. eIF2B exchanges GDP for GTP on the gamma-subunit of eIF2 (eIF2gamma), and is inhibited by stress-induced phosphorylation of eIF2alpha. eIF2B is a heterodecameric complex of two copies each of the alpha-, beta-, gamma-, delta- and epsilon-subunits; its alpha-, beta- and delta-subunits constitute the regulatory subcomplex, while the gamma- and epsilon-subunits form the catalytic subcomplex. The three-dimensional structure of the entire eIF2B complex has not been determined. Here we present the crystal structure of Schizosaccharomyces pombe eIF2B with an unprecedented subunit arrangement, in which the alpha2beta2delta2 hexameric regulatory subcomplex binds two gammaepsilon dimeric catalytic subcomplexes on its opposite sides. A structure-based in vitro analysis by a surface-scanning site-directed photo-cross-linking method identified the eIF2alpha-binding and eIF2gamma-binding interfaces, located far apart on the regulatory and catalytic subcomplexes, respectively. The eIF2gamma-binding interface is located close to the conserved 'NF motif', which is important for nucleotide exchange. A structural model was constructed for the complex of eIF2B with phosphorylated eIF2alpha, which binds to eIF2B more strongly than the unphosphorylated form. These results indicate that the eIF2alpha phosphorylation generates the 'nonproductive' eIF2-eIF2B complex, which prevents nucleotide exchange on eIF2gamma, and thus provide a structural framework for the eIF2B-mediated mechanism of stress-induced translational control.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Kashiwagi, Kazuhiro -- Takahashi, Mari -- Nishimoto, Madoka -- Hiyama, Takuya B -- Higo, Toshiaki -- Umehara, Takashi -- Sakamoto, Kensaku -- Ito, Takuhiro -- Yokoyama, Shigeyuki -- England -- Nature. 2016 Mar 3;531(7592):122-5. doi: 10.1038/nature16991. Epub 2016 Feb 22.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Graduate School of Science, The University of Tokyo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-0033, Japan. ; RIKEN Systems and Structural Biology Center, Tsurumi-ku, Yokohama 230-0045, Japan. ; RIKEN Center for Life Science Technologies, Tsurumi-ku, Yokohama 230-0045, Japan. ; RIKEN Structural Biology Laboratory, Tsurumi-ku, Yokohama 230-0045, Japan.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26901872" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: The palaeobiological record of 12 million to 7 million years ago (Ma) is crucial to the elucidation of African ape and human origins, but few fossil assemblages of this period have been reported from sub-Saharan Africa. Since the 1970s, the Chorora Formation, Ethiopia, has been widely considered to contain ~10.5 million year (Myr) old mammalian fossils. More recently, Chororapithecus abyssinicus, a probable primitive member of the gorilla clade, was discovered from the formation. Here we report new field observations and geochemical, magnetostratigraphic and radioisotopic results that securely place the Chorora Formation sediments to between ~9 and ~7 Ma. The C. abyssinicus fossils are ~8.0 Myr old, forming a revised age constraint of the human-gorilla split. Other Chorora fossils range in age from ~8.5 to 7 Ma and comprise the first sub-Saharan mammalian assemblage that spans this period. These fossils suggest indigenous African evolution of multiple mammalian lineages/groups between 10 and 7 Ma, including a possible ancestral-descendent relationship between the ~9.8 Myr old Nakalipithecus nakayamai and C. abyssinicus. The new chronology and fossils suggest that faunal provinciality between eastern Africa and Eurasia had intensified by ~9 Ma, with decreased faunal interchange thereafter. The Chorora evidence supports the hypothesis of in situ African evolution of the Gorilla-Pan-human clade, and is concordant with the deeper divergence estimates of humans and great apes based on lower mutation rates of ~0.5 x 10(-9) per site per year (refs 13 - 15).〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Katoh, Shigehiro -- Beyene, Yonas -- Itaya, Tetsumaru -- Hyodo, Hironobu -- Hyodo, Masayuki -- Yagi, Koshi -- Gouzu, Chitaro -- WoldeGabriel, Giday -- Hart, William K -- Ambrose, Stanley H -- Nakaya, Hideo -- Bernor, Raymond L -- Boisserie, Jean-Renaud -- Bibi, Faysal -- Saegusa, Haruo -- Sasaki, Tomohiko -- Sano, Katsuhiro -- Asfaw, Berhane -- Suwa, Gen -- England -- Nature. 2016 Feb 11;530(7589):215-8. doi: 10.1038/nature16510.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Division of Natural History, Hyogo Museum of Nature and Human Activities, Sanda 669-1546, Japan. ; Association for Conservation of Culture Awassa, PO Box 6686, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. ; Centre francais des etudes ethiopiennes (CFEE), USR CNRS 3137, French Ministry for Foreign Affairs, PO Box 5554, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. ; Research Institute of Natural Sciences, Okayama University of Science, Okayama 700-0005, Japan. ; Research Center for Inland Seas, Kobe University, Kobe 657-8501, Japan. ; Hiruzen Institute for Geology and Chronology, Okayama 703-8252, Japan. ; EES-14/MS D462, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, New Mexico 87545, USA. ; Department of Geology and Environmental Earth Science, Miami University, 133 Culler Hall, Oxford, Ohio 45056, USA. ; Department of Anthropology, University of Illinois, Urbana, Illinois 61801, USA. ; Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Kagoshima University, Kagoshima 890-0065, Japan. ; Department of Anatomy, Howard University, Washington DC 20059, USA. ; Institut de Paleoprimatologie, Paleontologie Humaine : Evolution et Paleoenvironnements (IPHEP), UMR CNRS 7262, Universite de Poitiers, 86022 Poitiers, France. ; Museum fur Naturkunde - Leibniz Institute for Evolution and Biodiversity Science, Invalidenstrasse 43, 10115 Berlin, Germany. ; Institute of Natural and Environmental Sciences, University of Hyogo, Sanda 669-1546, Japan. ; The University Museum, The University of Tokyo, Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-0033, Japan. ; Rift Valley Research Service, PO Box 5717, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26863981" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: 〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Bender, Eric -- England -- Nature. 2016 May 11;533(7602):S62-4. doi: 10.1038/533S62a.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27167394" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: Catalysis in biology is restricted to RNA (ribozymes) and protein enzymes, but synthetic biomolecular catalysts can also be made of DNA (deoxyribozymes) or synthetic genetic polymers. In vitro selection from synthetic random DNA libraries identified DNA catalysts for various chemical reactions beyond RNA backbone cleavage. DNA-catalysed reactions include RNA and DNA ligation in various topologies, hydrolytic cleavage and photorepair of DNA, as well as reactions of peptides and small molecules. In spite of comprehensive biochemical studies of DNA catalysts for two decades, fundamental mechanistic understanding of their function is lacking in the absence of three-dimensional models at atomic resolution. Early attempts to solve the crystal structure of an RNA-cleaving deoxyribozyme resulted in a catalytically irrelevant nucleic acid fold. Here we report the crystal structure of the RNA-ligating deoxyribozyme 9DB1 (ref. 14) at 2.8 A resolution. The structure captures the ligation reaction in the post-catalytic state, revealing a compact folding unit stabilized by numerous tertiary interactions, and an unanticipated organization of the catalytic centre. Structure-guided mutagenesis provided insights into the basis for regioselectivity of the ligation reaction and allowed remarkable manipulation of substrate recognition and reaction rate. Moreover, the structure highlights how the specific properties of deoxyribose are reflected in the backbone conformation of the DNA catalyst, in support of its intricate three-dimensional organization. The structural principles underlying the catalytic ability of DNA elucidate differences and similarities in DNA versus RNA catalysts, which is relevant for comprehending the privileged position of folded RNA in the prebiotic world and in current organisms.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Ponce-Salvatierra, Almudena -- Wawrzyniak-Turek, Katarzyna -- Steuerwald, Ulrich -- Hobartner, Claudia -- Pena, Vladimir -- England -- Nature. 2016 Jan 14;529(7585):231-4. doi: 10.1038/nature16471. Epub 2016 Jan 6.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Max Planck Research Group Nucleic Acid Chemistry, Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry, Am Fassberg 11, 37077 Gottingen, Germany. ; Research Group Macromolecular Crystallography, Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry, Am Fassberg 11, 37077 Gottingen, Germany. ; Institute for Organic and Biomolecular Chemistry, Georg-August-University Gottingen, Tammannstr. 2, 37077 Gottingen, Germany.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26735012" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: RNA polymerase (Pol) II produces messenger RNA during transcription of protein-coding genes in all eukaryotic cells. The Pol II structure is known at high resolution from X-ray crystallography for two yeast species. Structural studies of mammalian Pol II, however, remain limited to low-resolution electron microscopy analysis of human Pol II and its complexes with various proteins. Here we report the 3.4 A resolution cryo-electron microscopy structure of mammalian Pol II in the form of a transcribing complex comprising DNA template and RNA transcript. We use bovine Pol II, which is identical to the human enzyme except for seven amino-acid residues. The obtained atomic model closely resembles its yeast counterpart, but also reveals unknown features. Binding of nucleic acids to the polymerase involves 'induced fit' of the mobile Pol II clamp and active centre region. DNA downstream of the transcription bubble contacts a conserved 'TPSA motif' in the jaw domain of the Pol II subunit RPB5, an interaction that is apparently already established during transcription initiation. Upstream DNA emanates from the active centre cleft at an angle of approximately 105 degrees with respect to downstream DNA. This position of upstream DNA allows for binding of the general transcription elongation factor DSIF (SPT4-SPT5) that we localize over the active centre cleft in a conserved position on the clamp domain of Pol II. Our results define the structure of mammalian Pol II in its functional state, indicate that previous crystallographic analysis of yeast Pol II is relevant for understanding gene transcription in all eukaryotes, and provide a starting point for a mechanistic analysis of human transcription.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Bernecky, Carrie -- Herzog, Franz -- Baumeister, Wolfgang -- Plitzko, Jurgen M -- Cramer, Patrick -- England -- Nature. 2016 Jan 28;529(7587):551-4. doi: 10.1038/nature16482. Epub 2016 Jan 20.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry, Department of Molecular Biology, Am Fassberg 11, 37077 Gottingen, Germany. ; Gene Center Munich, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitat Munchen, Feodor-Lynen-Strasse 25, 81377 Munich, Germany. ; Max Planck Institute for Biochemistry, Department of Molecular Structural Biology, Am Klopferspitz 18, 82152 Martinsried, Germany.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26789250" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: Sex and recombination are pervasive throughout nature despite their substantial costs. Understanding the evolutionary forces that maintain these phenomena is a central challenge in biology. One longstanding hypothesis argues that sex is beneficial because recombination speeds adaptation. Theory has proposed several distinct population genetic mechanisms that could underlie this advantage. For example, sex can promote the fixation of beneficial mutations either by alleviating interference competition (the Fisher-Muller effect) or by separating them from deleterious load (the ruby in the rubbish effect). Previous experiments confirm that sex can increase the rate of adaptation, but these studies did not observe the evolutionary dynamics that drive this effect at the genomic level. Here we present the first, to our knowledge, comparison between the sequence-level dynamics of adaptation in experimental sexual and asexual Saccharomyces cerevisiae populations, which allows us to identify the specific mechanisms by which sex speeds adaptation. We find that sex alters the molecular signatures of evolution by changing the spectrum of mutations that fix, and confirm theoretical predictions that it does so by alleviating clonal interference. We also show that substantially deleterious mutations hitchhike to fixation in adapting asexual populations. In contrast, recombination prevents such mutations from fixing. Our results demonstrate that sex both speeds adaptation and alters its molecular signature by allowing natural selection to more efficiently sort beneficial from deleterious mutations.〈br /〉〈br /〉〈a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4855304/" target="_blank"〉〈img src="https://static.pubmed.gov/portal/portal3rc.fcgi/4089621/img/3977009" border="0"〉〈/a〉   〈a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4855304/" target="_blank"〉This paper as free author manuscript - peer-reviewed and accepted for publication〈/a〉〈br /〉〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉McDonald, Michael J -- Rice, Daniel P -- Desai, Michael M -- GM104239/GM/NIGMS NIH HHS/ -- R01 GM104239/GM/NIGMS NIH HHS/ -- England -- Nature. 2016 Mar 10;531(7593):233-6. doi: 10.1038/nature17143. Epub 2016 Feb 24.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138, USA. ; FAS Center for Systems Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138, USA. ; Department of Physics, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138, USA.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26909573" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: 〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Tollefson, Jeff -- England -- Nature. 2016 Feb 18;530(7590):266. doi: 10.1038/nature.2016.19336.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26887473" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: 〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Tollefson, Jeff -- England -- Nature. 2016 Mar 31;531(7596):562. doi: 10.1038/531562a.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27029259" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: 〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Tollefson, Jeff -- England -- Nature. 2016 Mar 24;531(7595):425-6. doi: 10.1038/531425a.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27008947" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: 〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Melott, Adrian L -- England -- Nature. 2016 Apr 7;532(7597):40-1. doi: 10.1038/532040a.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas 66045, USA.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27078562" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: All Gram-negative bacteria, mitochondria and chloroplasts have outer membrane proteins (OMPs) that perform many fundamental biological processes. The OMPs in Gram-negative bacteria are inserted and folded into the outer membrane by the beta-barrel assembly machinery (BAM). The mechanism involved is poorly understood, owing to the absence of a structure of the entire BAM complex. Here we report two crystal structures of the Escherichia coli BAM complex in two distinct states: an inward-open state and a lateral-open state. Our structures reveal that the five polypeptide transport-associated domains of BamA form a ring architecture with four associated lipoproteins, BamB-BamE, in the periplasm. Our structural, functional studies and molecular dynamics simulations indicate that these subunits rotate with respect to the integral membrane beta-barrel of BamA to induce movement of the beta-strands of the barrel and promote insertion of the nascent OMP.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Gu, Yinghong -- Li, Huanyu -- Dong, Haohao -- Zeng, Yi -- Zhang, Zhengyu -- Paterson, Neil G -- Stansfeld, Phillip J -- Wang, Zhongshan -- Zhang, Yizheng -- Wang, Wenjian -- Dong, Changjiang -- G1100110/1/Medical Research Council/United Kingdom -- WT106121MA/Wellcome Trust/United Kingdom -- England -- Nature. 2016 Mar 3;531(7592):64-9. doi: 10.1038/nature17199. Epub 2016 Feb 22.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Biomedical Research Centre, Norwich Medical School, University of East Anglia, Norwich Research Park, Norwich NR4 7TJ, UK. ; Diamond Light Source, Harwell Science and Innovation Campus, Didcot, Oxfordshire OX11 0DE, UK. ; Department of Biochemistry, University of Oxford, South Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3QU, UK. ; Jiangsu Province Key Laboratory of Anesthesiology, Xuzhou Medical College, Xuzhou 221004, China. ; Key Laboratory of Bio-resources and Eco-environment, Ministry of Education, Sichuan Key Laboratory of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology, College of Life Sciences, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610064, China. ; Laboratory of Department of Surgery, the First Affiliated Hospital, Sun Yat-sen University, 58 Zhongshan Road II, Guangzhou, Guangdong 510080, China.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26901871" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: HKU1 is a human betacoronavirus that causes mild yet prevalent respiratory disease, and is related to the zoonotic SARS and MERS betacoronaviruses, which have high fatality rates and pandemic potential. Cell tropism and host range is determined in part by the coronavirus spike (S) protein, which binds cellular receptors and mediates membrane fusion. As the largest known class I fusion protein, its size and extensive glycosylation have hindered structural studies of the full ectodomain, thus preventing a molecular understanding of its function and limiting development of effective interventions. Here we present the 4.0 A resolution structure of the trimeric HKU1 S protein determined using single-particle cryo-electron microscopy. In the pre-fusion conformation, the receptor-binding subunits, S1, rest above the fusion-mediating subunits, S2, preventing their conformational rearrangement. Surprisingly, the S1 C-terminal domains are interdigitated and form extensive quaternary interactions that occlude surfaces known in other coronaviruses to bind protein receptors. These features, along with the location of the two protease sites known to be important for coronavirus entry, provide a structural basis to support a model of membrane fusion mediated by progressive S protein destabilization through receptor binding and proteolytic cleavage. These studies should also serve as a foundation for the structure-based design of betacoronavirus vaccine immunogens.〈br /〉〈br /〉〈a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4860016/" target="_blank"〉〈img src="https://static.pubmed.gov/portal/portal3rc.fcgi/4089621/img/3977009" border="0"〉〈/a〉   〈a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4860016/" target="_blank"〉This paper as free author manuscript - peer-reviewed and accepted for publication〈/a〉〈br /〉〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Kirchdoerfer, Robert N -- Cottrell, Christopher A -- Wang, Nianshuang -- Pallesen, Jesper -- Yassine, Hadi M -- Turner, Hannah L -- Corbett, Kizzmekia S -- Graham, Barney S -- McLellan, Jason S -- Ward, Andrew B -- R56 AI118016/AI/NIAID NIH HHS/ -- Intramural NIH HHS/ -- England -- Nature. 2016 Mar 3;531(7592):118-21. doi: 10.1038/nature17200.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Department of Integrative Structural and Computational Biology, The Scripps Research Institute, 10550 North Torrey Pines Road, La Jolla, California 92037, USA. ; Department of Biochemistry, Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth, Hanover, New Hampshire 03755, USA. ; Viral Pathogenesis Laboratory, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Building 40, Room 2502, 40 Convent Drive, Bethesda, Maryland 20892, USA.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26935699" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: Many biopolymers, including polysaccharides, must be translocated across at least one membrane to reach their site of biological function. Cellulose is a linear glucose polymer synthesized and secreted by a membrane-integrated cellulose synthase. Here, in crystallo enzymology with the catalytically active bacterial cellulose synthase BcsA-BcsB complex reveals structural snapshots of a complete cellulose biosynthesis cycle, from substrate binding to polymer translocation. Substrate- and product-bound structures of BcsA provide the basis for substrate recognition and demonstrate the stepwise elongation of cellulose. Furthermore, the structural snapshots show that BcsA translocates cellulose via a ratcheting mechanism involving a 'finger helix' that contacts the polymer's terminal glucose. Cooperating with BcsA's gating loop, the finger helix moves 'up' and 'down' in response to substrate binding and polymer elongation, respectively, thereby pushing the elongated polymer into BcsA's transmembrane channel. This mechanism is validated experimentally by tethering BcsA's finger helix, which inhibits polymer translocation but not elongation.〈br /〉〈br /〉〈a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4843519/" target="_blank"〉〈img src="https://static.pubmed.gov/portal/portal3rc.fcgi/4089621/img/3977009" border="0"〉〈/a〉   〈a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4843519/" target="_blank"〉This paper as free author manuscript - peer-reviewed and accepted for publication〈/a〉〈br /〉〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Morgan, Jacob L W -- McNamara, Joshua T -- Fischer, Michael -- Rich, Jamie -- Chen, Hong-Ming -- Withers, Stephen G -- Zimmer, Jochen -- 1R01GM101001/GM/NIGMS NIH HHS/ -- P41 GM103403/GM/NIGMS NIH HHS/ -- R01 GM101001/GM/NIGMS NIH HHS/ -- S10 RR029205/RR/NCRR NIH HHS/ -- England -- Nature. 2016 Mar 17;531(7594):329-34. doi: 10.1038/nature16966. Epub 2016 Mar 9.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉University of Virginia School of Medicine, Center for Membrane Biology, Molecular Physiology and Biological Physics, 480 Ray C. Hunt Drive, Charlottesville, Virginia 22908, USA. ; Department of Chemistry, University of British Columbia, 2036 Main Mall, Vancouver, British Columbia V6T 1Z1, Canada.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26958837" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: Plant respiration results in an annual flux of carbon dioxide (CO2) to the atmosphere that is six times as large as that due to the emissions from fossil fuel burning, so changes in either will impact future climate. As plant respiration responds positively to temperature, a warming world may result in additional respiratory CO2 release, and hence further atmospheric warming. Plant respiration can acclimate to altered temperatures, however, weakening the positive feedback of plant respiration to rising global air temperature, but a lack of evidence on long-term (weeks to years) acclimation to climate warming in field settings currently hinders realistic predictions of respiratory release of CO2 under future climatic conditions. Here we demonstrate strong acclimation of leaf respiration to both experimental warming and seasonal temperature variation for juveniles of ten North American tree species growing for several years in forest conditions. Plants grown and measured at 3.4 degrees C above ambient temperature increased leaf respiration by an average of 5% compared to plants grown and measured at ambient temperature; without acclimation, these increases would have been 23%. Thus, acclimation eliminated 80% of the expected increase in leaf respiration of non-acclimated plants. Acclimation of leaf respiration per degree temperature change was similar for experimental warming and seasonal temperature variation. Moreover, the observed increase in leaf respiration per degree increase in temperature was less than half as large as the average reported for previous studies, which were conducted largely over shorter time scales in laboratory settings. If such dampening effects of leaf thermal acclimation occur generally, the increase in respiration rates of terrestrial plants in response to climate warming may be less than predicted, and thus may not raise atmospheric CO2 concentrations as much as anticipated.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Reich, Peter B -- Sendall, Kerrie M -- Stefanski, Artur -- Wei, Xiaorong -- Rich, Roy L -- Montgomery, Rebecca A -- England -- Nature. 2016 Mar 31;531(7596):633-6. doi: 10.1038/nature17142. Epub 2016 Mar 16.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Department of Forest Resources, University of Minnesota, Minnesota 55108, USA. ; Hawkesbury Institute for the Environment, Western Sydney University, Penrith, New South Wales 2753, Australia. ; State Key Laboratory of Soil Erosion and Dryland Farming on the Loess Plateau, Northwest A&F University, Yangling 712100, China. ; Smithsonian Environmental Research Center, Edgewater, Maryland 20137, USA.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26982730" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: Nonribosomal peptide synthetases (NRPSs) are very large proteins that produce small peptide molecules with wide-ranging biological activities, including environmentally friendly chemicals and many widely used therapeutics. NRPSs are macromolecular machines, with modular assembly-line logic, a complex catalytic cycle, moving parts and many active sites. In addition to the core domains required to link the substrates, they often include specialized tailoring domains, which introduce chemical modifications and allow the product to access a large expanse of chemical space. It is still unknown how the NRPS tailoring domains are structurally accommodated into megaenzymes or how they have adapted to function in nonribosomal peptide synthesis. Here we present a series of crystal structures of the initiation module of an antibiotic-producing NRPS, linear gramicidin synthetase. This module includes the specialized tailoring formylation domain, and states are captured that represent every major step of the assembly-line synthesis in the initiation module. The transitions between conformations are large in scale, with both the peptidyl carrier protein domain and the adenylation subdomain undergoing huge movements to transport substrate between distal active sites. The structures highlight the great versatility of NRPSs, as small domains repurpose and recycle their limited interfaces to interact with their various binding partners. Understanding tailoring domains is important if NRPSs are to be utilized in the production of novel therapeutics.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Reimer, Janice M -- Aloise, Martin N -- Harrison, Paul M -- Schmeing, T Martin -- 106615/Canadian Institutes of Health Research/Canada -- England -- Nature. 2016 Jan 14;529(7585):239-42. doi: 10.1038/nature16503.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Department of Biochemistry, McGill University, 3649 Promenade Sir-William-Osler, Montreal, Quebec H3G 0B1, Canada. ; Department of Biology, McGill University, 1205 Dr Penfield Avenue, Montreal, Quebec H3A 1B1, Canada.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26762462" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: 〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Kraus, Robert H S -- England -- Nature. 2016 Mar 24;531(7595):448. doi: 10.1038/531448e.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉University of Konstanz, Germany.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27008959" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: 〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉England -- Nature. 2016 Feb 11;530(7589):129-30. doi: 10.1038/530130a.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26863944" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: 〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉England -- Nature. 2016 Feb 11;530(7589):129. doi: 10.1038/530129a.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26863943" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: The tremendous pandemic potential of coronaviruses was demonstrated twice in the past few decades by two global outbreaks of deadly pneumonia. Entry of coronaviruses into cells is mediated by the transmembrane spike glycoprotein S, which forms a trimer carrying receptor-binding and membrane fusion functions. S also contains the principal antigenic determinants and is the target of neutralizing antibodies. Here we present the structure of a mouse coronavirus S trimer ectodomain determined at 4.0 A resolution by single particle cryo-electron microscopy. It reveals the metastable pre-fusion architecture of S and highlights key interactions stabilizing it. The structure shares a common core with paramyxovirus F proteins, implicating mechanistic similarities and an evolutionary connection between these viral fusion proteins. The accessibility of the highly conserved fusion peptide at the periphery of the trimer indicates potential vaccinology strategies to elicit broadly neutralizing antibodies against coronaviruses. Finally, comparison with crystal structures of human coronavirus S domains allows rationalization of the molecular basis for species specificity based on the use of spatially contiguous but distinct domains.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Walls, Alexandra C -- Tortorici, M Alejandra -- Bosch, Berend-Jan -- Frenz, Brandon -- Rottier, Peter J M -- DiMaio, Frank -- Rey, Felix A -- Veesler, David -- GM103310/GM/NIGMS NIH HHS/ -- T32GM008268/GM/NIGMS NIH HHS/ -- England -- Nature. 2016 Mar 3;531(7592):114-7. doi: 10.1038/nature16988. Epub 2016 Feb 8.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Department of Biochemistry, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington 98195, USA. ; Institut Pasteur, Unite de Virologie Structurale, 75015 Paris, France. ; CNRS UMR 3569 Virologie, 75015 Paris, France. ; Virology Division, Department of Infectious Diseases and Immunology, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Utrecht University, 3584 CL Utrecht, The Netherlands.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26855426" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: 〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Heffernan, Olive -- England -- Nature. 2016 Feb 4;530(7588):20-2. doi: 10.1038/530020a.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26842039" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: 〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Neuberger, David -- England -- Nature. 2016 Mar 3;531(7592):9. doi: 10.1038/531009a.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26935661" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: 〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Laursen, Lucas -- England -- Nature. 2016 May 11;533(7602):S68-9. doi: 10.1038/533S68a.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27167396" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: Polar temperatures over the last several million years have, at times, been slightly warmer than today, yet global mean sea level has been 6-9 metres higher as recently as the Last Interglacial (130,000 to 115,000 years ago) and possibly higher during the Pliocene epoch (about three million years ago). In both cases the Antarctic ice sheet has been implicated as the primary contributor, hinting at its future vulnerability. Here we use a model coupling ice sheet and climate dynamics-including previously underappreciated processes linking atmospheric warming with hydrofracturing of buttressing ice shelves and structural collapse of marine-terminating ice cliffs-that is calibrated against Pliocene and Last Interglacial sea-level estimates and applied to future greenhouse gas emission scenarios. Antarctica has the potential to contribute more than a metre of sea-level rise by 2100 and more than 15 metres by 2500, if emissions continue unabated. In this case atmospheric warming will soon become the dominant driver of ice loss, but prolonged ocean warming will delay its recovery for thousands of years.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉DeConto, Robert M -- Pollard, David -- England -- Nature. 2016 Mar 31;531(7596):591-7. doi: 10.1038/nature17145.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Department of Geosciences, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, Massachusetts 01003, USA. ; Earth and Environmental Systems Institute, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania 16802, USA.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27029274" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: Ubiquitination is a central process affecting all facets of cellular signalling and function. A critical step in ubiquitination is the transfer of ubiquitin from an E2 ubiquitin-conjugating enzyme to a substrate or a growing ubiquitin chain, which is mediated by E3 ubiquitin ligases. RING-type E3 ligases typically facilitate the transfer of ubiquitin from the E2 directly to the substrate. The RING-between-RING (RBR) family of RING-type E3 ligases, however, breaks this paradigm by forming a covalent intermediate with ubiquitin similarly to HECT-type E3 ligases. The RBR family includes Parkin and HOIP, the central catalytic factor of the LUBAC (linear ubiquitin chain assembly complex). While structural insights into the RBR E3 ligases Parkin and HHARI in their overall auto-inhibited forms are available, no structures exist of intact fully active RBR E3 ligases or any of their complexes. Thus, the RBR mechanism of action has remained largely unknown. Here we present the first structure, to our knowledge, of the fully active human HOIP RBR in its transfer complex with an E2~ubiquitin conjugate, which elucidates the intricate nature of RBR E3 ligases. The active HOIP RBR adopts a conformation markedly different from that of auto-inhibited RBRs. HOIP RBR binds the E2~ubiquitin conjugate in an elongated fashion, with the E2 and E3 catalytic centres ideally aligned for ubiquitin transfer, which structurally both requires and enables a HECT-like mechanism. In addition, three distinct helix-IBR-fold motifs inherent to RBRs form ubiquitin-binding regions that engage the activated ubiquitin of the E2~ubiquitin conjugate and, surprisingly, an additional regulatory ubiquitin molecule. The features uncovered reveal critical states of the HOIP RBR E3 ligase cycle, and comparison with Parkin and HHARI suggests a general mechanism for RBR E3 ligases.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Lechtenberg, Bernhard C -- Rajput, Akhil -- Sanishvili, Ruslan -- Dobaczewska, Malgorzata K -- Ware, Carl F -- Mace, Peter D -- Riedl, Stefan J -- P30 CA030199/CA/NCI NIH HHS/ -- P30CA030199/CA/NCI NIH HHS/ -- R01AA017238/AA/NIAAA NIH HHS/ -- England -- Nature. 2016 Jan 28;529(7587):546-50. doi: 10.1038/nature16511. Epub 2016 Jan 20.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉NCI-Designated Cancer Center, Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute, 10901 North Torrey Pines Road, La Jolla, California 92037, USA. ; Infectious and Inflammatory Disease Center, Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute, 10901 North Torrey Pines Road, La Jolla, California 92037, USA. ; X-ray Science Division, Advanced Photon Source, Argonne National Laboratory, 9700 South Cass Avenue, Argonne, Illinois 60439, USA. ; Biochemistry Department, University of Otago, 710 Cumberland Street, Dunedin 9054, New Zealand.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26789245" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: (beta-)Arrestins are important regulators of G-protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs). They bind to active, phosphorylated GPCRs and thereby shut off 'classical' signalling to G proteins, trigger internalization of GPCRs via interaction with the clathrin machinery and mediate signalling via 'non-classical' pathways. In addition to two visual arrestins that bind to rod and cone photoreceptors (termed arrestin1 and arrestin4), there are only two (non-visual) beta-arrestin proteins (beta-arrestin1 and beta-arrestin2, also termed arrestin2 and arrestin3), which regulate hundreds of different (non-visual) GPCRs. Binding of these proteins to GPCRs usually requires the active form of the receptors plus their phosphorylation by G-protein-coupled receptor kinases (GRKs). The binding of receptors or their carboxy terminus as well as certain truncations induce active conformations of (beta-)arrestins that have recently been solved by X-ray crystallography. Here we investigate both the interaction of beta-arrestin with GPCRs, and the beta-arrestin conformational changes in real time and in living human cells, using a series of fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET)-based beta-arrestin2 biosensors. We observe receptor-specific patterns of conformational changes in beta-arrestin2 that occur rapidly after the receptor-beta-arrestin2 interaction. After agonist removal, these changes persist for longer than the direct receptor interaction. Our data indicate a rapid, receptor-type-specific, two-step binding and activation process between GPCRs and beta-arrestins. They further indicate that beta-arrestins remain active after dissociation from receptors, allowing them to remain at the cell surface and presumably signal independently. Thus, GPCRs trigger a rapid, receptor-specific activation/deactivation cycle of beta-arrestins, which permits their active signalling.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Nuber, Susanne -- Zabel, Ulrike -- Lorenz, Kristina -- Nuber, Andreas -- Milligan, Graeme -- Tobin, Andrew B -- Lohse, Martin J -- Hoffmann, Carsten -- 1 R01 DA038882/DA/NIDA NIH HHS/ -- BB/K019864/1/Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council/United Kingdom -- England -- Nature. 2016 Mar 31;531(7596):661-4. doi: 10.1038/nature17198. Epub 2016 Mar 23.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Institute of Pharmacology and Toxicology, University of Wurzburg, Versbacher Str. 9, 97078 Wurzburg, Germany. ; Rudolf Virchow Center, University of Wurzburg, Versbacher Str. 9, 97078 Wurzburg, Germany. ; Comprehensive Heart Failure Center, University of Wurzburg, Versbacher Str. 9, 97078 Wurzburg, Germany. ; Molecular Pharmacology Group, Institute of Molecular, Cell and Systems Biology, College of Medical, Veterinary and Life Sciences, University of Glasgow, Glasgow G12 8QQ, UK. ; MRC Toxicology Unit, University of Leicester, Hodgkin Building, Lancaster Road, Leicester LE1 9HN, UK.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27007855" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: 〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Callaway, Ewen -- England -- Nature. 2016 Mar 17;531(7594):286. doi: 10.1038/531286a.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26983523" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: Many important natural products are produced by multidomain non-ribosomal peptide synthetases (NRPSs). During synthesis, intermediates are covalently bound to integrated carrier domains and transported to neighbouring catalytic domains in an assembly line fashion. Understanding the structural basis for catalysis with non-ribosomal peptide synthetases will facilitate bioengineering to create novel products. Here we describe the structures of two different holo-non-ribosomal peptide synthetase modules, each revealing a distinct step in the catalytic cycle. One structure depicts the carrier domain cofactor bound to the peptide bond-forming condensation domain, whereas a second structure captures the installation of the amino acid onto the cofactor within the adenylation domain. These structures demonstrate that a conformational change within the adenylation domain guides transfer of intermediates between domains. Furthermore, one structure shows that the condensation and adenylation domains simultaneously adopt their catalytic conformations, increasing the overall efficiency in a revised structural cycle. These structures and the single-particle electron microscopy analysis demonstrate a highly dynamic domain architecture and provide the foundation for understanding the structural mechanisms that could enable engineering of novel non-ribosomal peptide synthetases.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Drake, Eric J -- Miller, Bradley R -- Shi, Ce -- Tarrasch, Jeffrey T -- Sundlov, Jesse A -- Allen, C Leigh -- Skiniotis, Georgios -- Aldrich, Courtney C -- Gulick, Andrew M -- GM-068440/GM/NIGMS NIH HHS/ -- GM-115601/GM/NIGMS NIH HHS/ -- R01 GM068440/GM/NIGMS NIH HHS/ -- England -- Nature. 2016 Jan 14;529(7585):235-8. doi: 10.1038/nature16163.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Hauptman-Woodward Medical Research Institute, 700 Ellicott Street, Buffalo, New York 14203, USA. ; Department of Structural Biology, University at Buffalo, Buffalo, New York 14203, USA. ; Center for Drug Design and Department of Medicinal Chemistry, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota 55455, USA. ; Life Sciences Institute and Department of Biological Chemistry, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109, USA.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26762461" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: 〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Scheuermann, Richard H -- England -- Nature. 2016 Mar 10;531(7593):173. doi: 10.1038/531173a.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉J. Craig Venter Institute, La Jolla, California, USA.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26961650" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: The CRISPR-Cas systems, as exemplified by CRISPR-Cas9, are RNA-guided adaptive immune systems used by bacteria and archaea to defend against viral infection. The CRISPR-Cpf1 system, a new class 2 CRISPR-Cas system, mediates robust DNA interference in human cells. Although functionally conserved, Cpf1 and Cas9 differ in many aspects including their guide RNAs and substrate specificity. Here we report the 2.38 A crystal structure of the CRISPR RNA (crRNA)-bound Lachnospiraceae bacterium ND2006 Cpf1 (LbCpf1). LbCpf1 has a triangle-shaped architecture with a large positively charged channel at the centre. Recognized by the oligonucleotide-binding domain of LbCpf1, the crRNA adopts a highly distorted conformation stabilized by extensive intramolecular interactions and the (Mg(H2O)6)(2+) ion. The oligonucleotide-binding domain also harbours a looped-out helical domain that is important for LbCpf1 substrate binding. Binding of crRNA or crRNA lacking the guide sequence induces marked conformational changes but no oligomerization of LbCpf1. Our study reveals the crRNA recognition mechanism and provides insight into crRNA-guided substrate binding of LbCpf1, establishing a framework for engineering LbCpf1 to improve its efficiency and specificity for genome editing.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Dong, De -- Ren, Kuan -- Qiu, Xiaolin -- Zheng, Jianlin -- Guo, Minghui -- Guan, Xiaoyu -- Liu, Hongnan -- Li, Ningning -- Zhang, Bailing -- Yang, Daijun -- Ma, Chuang -- Wang, Shuo -- Wu, Dan -- Ma, Yunfeng -- Fan, Shilong -- Wang, Jiawei -- Gao, Ning -- Huang, Zhiwei -- England -- Nature. 2016 Apr 28;532(7600):522-6. doi: 10.1038/nature17944. Epub 2016 Apr 20.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉School of Life Science and Technology, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin 150080, China. ; Ministry of Education Key Laboratory of Protein Sciences, Center for Structural Biology, School of Life Sciences, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27096363" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: In recent years, several extreme weather disasters have partially or completely damaged regional crop production. While detailed regional accounts of the effects of extreme weather disasters exist, the global scale effects of droughts, floods and extreme temperature on crop production are yet to be quantified. Here we estimate for the first time, to our knowledge, national cereal production losses across the globe resulting from reported extreme weather disasters during 1964-2007. We show that droughts and extreme heat significantly reduced national cereal production by 9-10%, whereas our analysis could not identify an effect from floods and extreme cold in the national data. Analysing the underlying processes, we find that production losses due to droughts were associated with a reduction in both harvested area and yields, whereas extreme heat mainly decreased cereal yields. Furthermore, the results highlight ~7% greater production damage from more recent droughts and 8-11% more damage in developed countries than in developing ones. Our findings may help to guide agricultural priorities in international disaster risk reduction and adaptation efforts.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Lesk, Corey -- Rowhani, Pedram -- Ramankutty, Navin -- England -- Nature. 2016 Jan 7;529(7584):84-7. doi: 10.1038/nature16467.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Department of Geography, McGill University, Montreal H3A 0B9, Canada. ; Department of Geography, University of Sussex, Brighton BN1 9QJ, UK. ; Liu Institute for Global Issues and Institute for Resources, Environment and Sustainability, University of British Columbia, Vancouver V6T 1Z2, Canada.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26738594" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: As climate change unfolds, weather systems in the United States have been shifting in patterns that vary across regions and seasons. Climate science research typically assesses these changes by examining individual weather indicators, such as temperature or precipitation, in isolation, and averaging their values across the spatial surface. As a result, little is known about population exposure to changes in weather and how people experience and evaluate these changes considered together. Here we show that in the United States from 1974 to 2013, the weather conditions experienced by the vast majority of the population improved. Using previous research on how weather affects local population growth to develop an index of people's weather preferences, we find that 80% of Americans live in counties that are experiencing more pleasant weather than they did four decades ago. Virtually all Americans are now experiencing the much milder winters that they typically prefer, and these mild winters have not been offset by markedly more uncomfortable summers or other negative changes. Climate change models predict that this trend is temporary, however, because US summers will eventually warm more than winters. Under a scenario in which greenhouse gas emissions proceed at an unabated rate (Representative Concentration Pathway 8.5), we estimate that 88% of the US public will experience weather at the end of the century that is less preferable than weather in the recent past. Our results have implications for the public's understanding of the climate change problem, which is shaped in part by experiences with local weather. Whereas weather patterns in recent decades have served as a poor source of motivation for Americans to demand a policy response to climate change, public concern may rise once people's everyday experiences of climate change effects start to become less pleasant.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Egan, Patrick J -- Mullin, Megan -- England -- Nature. 2016 Apr 21;532(7599):357-60.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27127821" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: The human sigma1 receptor is an enigmatic endoplasmic-reticulum-resident transmembrane protein implicated in a variety of disorders including depression, drug addiction, and neuropathic pain. Recently, an additional connection to amyotrophic lateral sclerosis has emerged from studies of human genetics and mouse models. Unlike many transmembrane receptors that belong to large, extensively studied families such as G-protein-coupled receptors or ligand-gated ion channels, the sigma1 receptor is an evolutionary isolate with no discernible similarity to any other human protein. Despite its increasingly clear importance in human physiology and disease, the molecular architecture of the sigma1 receptor and its regulation by drug-like compounds remain poorly defined. Here we report crystal structures of the human sigma1 receptor in complex with two chemically divergent ligands, PD144418 and 4-IBP. The structures reveal a trimeric architecture with a single transmembrane domain in each protomer. The carboxy-terminal domain of the receptor shows an extensive flat, hydrophobic membrane-proximal surface, suggesting an intimate association with the cytosolic surface of the endoplasmic reticulum membrane in cells. This domain includes a cupin-like beta-barrel with the ligand-binding site buried at its centre. This large, hydrophobic ligand-binding cavity shows remarkable plasticity in ligand recognition, binding the two ligands in similar positions despite dissimilar chemical structures. Taken together, these results reveal the overall architecture, oligomerization state, and molecular basis for ligand recognition by this important but poorly understood protein.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Schmidt, Hayden R -- Zheng, Sanduo -- Gurpinar, Esin -- Koehl, Antoine -- Manglik, Aashish -- Kruse, Andrew C -- T32GM007226/GM/NIGMS NIH HHS/ -- England -- Nature. 2016 Apr 28;532(7600):527-30. doi: 10.1038/nature17391. Epub 2016 Apr 4.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Department of Biological Chemistry and Molecular Pharmacology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, USA. ; Department of Molecular and Cellular Physiology, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, California 94305, USA.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27042935" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: The identification of properties that contribute to the persistence and resilience of ecosystems despite climate change constitutes a research priority of global relevance. Here we present a novel, empirical approach to assess the relative sensitivity of ecosystems to climate variability, one property of resilience that builds on theoretical modelling work recognizing that systems closer to critical thresholds respond more sensitively to external perturbations. We develop a new metric, the vegetation sensitivity index, that identifies areas sensitive to climate variability over the past 14 years. The metric uses time series data derived from the moderate-resolution imaging spectroradiometer (MODIS) enhanced vegetation index, and three climatic variables that drive vegetation productivity (air temperature, water availability and cloud cover). Underlying the analysis is an autoregressive modelling approach used to identify climate drivers of vegetation productivity on monthly timescales, in addition to regions with memory effects and reduced response rates to external forcing. We find ecologically sensitive regions with amplified responses to climate variability in the Arctic tundra, parts of the boreal forest belt, the tropical rainforest, alpine regions worldwide, steppe and prairie regions of central Asia and North and South America, the Caatinga deciduous forest in eastern South America, and eastern areas of Australia. Our study provides a quantitative methodology for assessing the relative response rate of ecosystems--be they natural or with a strong anthropogenic signature--to environmental variability, which is the first step towards addressing why some regions appear to be more sensitive than others, and what impact this has on the resilience of ecosystem service provision and human well-being.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Seddon, Alistair W R -- Macias-Fauria, Marc -- Long, Peter R -- Benz, David -- Willis, Kathy J -- England -- Nature. 2016 Mar 10;531(7593):229-32. doi: 10.1038/nature16986. Epub 2016 Feb 17.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Department of Biology, University of Bergen, Allegaten 41, N-500 Bergen, Norway. ; School of Geography and the Environment, South Parks Road, University of Oxford, Oxford OX1 3QY, UK. ; Long-Term Ecology Laboratory, Biodiversity Institute, Oxford Martin School, Department of Zoology, South Parks Road, University of Oxford, Oxford OX1 3PS, UK. ; Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, Richmond, Surrey TW9 3AB, UK.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26886790" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: 〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉England -- Nature. 2016 Mar 10;531(7593):139. doi: 10.1038/531139a.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26961619" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: The proteasome is a multi-component protease complex responsible for regulating key processes such as the cell cycle and antigen presentation. Compounds that target the proteasome are potentially valuable tools for the treatment of pathogens that depend on proteasome function for survival and replication. In particular, proteasome inhibitors have been shown to be toxic for the malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum at all stages of its life cycle. Most compounds that have been tested against the parasite also inhibit the mammalian proteasome, resulting in toxicity that precludes their use as therapeutic agents. Therefore, better definition of the substrate specificity and structural properties of the Plasmodium proteasome could enable the development of compounds with sufficient selectivity to allow their use as anti-malarial agents. To accomplish this goal, here we use a substrate profiling method to uncover differences in the specificities of the human and P. falciparum proteasome. We design inhibitors based on amino-acid preferences specific to the parasite proteasome, and find that they preferentially inhibit the beta2-subunit. We determine the structure of the P. falciparum 20S proteasome bound to the inhibitor using cryo-electron microscopy and single-particle analysis, to a resolution of 3.6 A. These data reveal the unusually open P. falciparum beta2 active site and provide valuable information about active-site architecture that can be used to further refine inhibitor design. Furthermore, consistent with the recent finding that the proteasome is important for stress pathways associated with resistance of artemisinin family anti-malarials, we observe growth inhibition synergism with low doses of this beta2-selective inhibitor in artemisinin-sensitive and -resistant parasites. Finally, we demonstrate that a parasite-selective inhibitor could be used to attenuate parasite growth in vivo without appreciable toxicity to the host. Thus, the Plasmodium proteasome is a chemically tractable target that could be exploited by next-generation anti-malarial agents.〈br /〉〈br /〉〈a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4755332/" target="_blank"〉〈img src="https://static.pubmed.gov/portal/portal3rc.fcgi/4089621/img/3977009" border="0"〉〈/a〉   〈a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4755332/" target="_blank"〉This paper as free author manuscript - peer-reviewed and accepted for publication〈/a〉〈br /〉〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Li, Hao -- O'Donoghue, Anthony J -- van der Linden, Wouter A -- Xie, Stanley C -- Yoo, Euna -- Foe, Ian T -- Tilley, Leann -- Craik, Charles S -- da Fonseca, Paula C A -- Bogyo, Matthew -- MC-UP-1201/5/Medical Research Council/United Kingdom -- R01 AI078947/AI/NIAID NIH HHS/ -- R01 AI105106/AI/NIAID NIH HHS/ -- R01AI078947/AI/NIAID NIH HHS/ -- R01EB05011/EB/NIBIB NIH HHS/ -- England -- Nature. 2016 Feb 11;530(7589):233-6. doi: 10.1038/nature16936.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Department of Chemical and Systems Biology, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, California 94305, USA. ; Department of Pathology, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, California 94305, USA. ; Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, California 94158, USA. ; Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Bio21 Institute, University of Melbourne, Melbourne 3010, Victoria, Australia. ; MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Francis Crick Avenue, Cambridge Biomedical Campus, Cambridge CB2 0QH, UK.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26863983" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: Hydrophobic signal sequences target secretory polypeptides to a protein-conducting channel formed by a heterotrimeric membrane protein complex, the prokaryotic SecY or eukaryotic Sec61 complex. How signal sequences are recognized is poorly understood, particularly because they are diverse in sequence and length. Structures of the inactive channel show that the largest subunit, SecY or Sec61alpha, consists of two halves that form an hourglass-shaped pore with a constriction in the middle of the membrane and a lateral gate that faces lipid. The cytoplasmic funnel is empty, while the extracellular funnel is filled with a plug domain. In bacteria, the SecY channel associates with the translating ribosome in co-translational translocation, and with the SecA ATPase in post-translational translocation. How a translocating polypeptide inserts into the channel is uncertain, as cryo-electron microscopy structures of the active channel have a relatively low resolution (~10 A) or are of insufficient quality. Here we report a crystal structure of the active channel, assembled from SecY complex, the SecA ATPase, and a segment of a secretory protein fused into SecA. The translocating protein segment inserts into the channel as a loop, displacing the plug domain. The hydrophobic core of the signal sequence forms a helix that sits in a groove outside the lateral gate, while the following polypeptide segment intercalates into the gate. The carboxy (C)-terminal section of the polypeptide loop is located in the channel, surrounded by residues of the pore ring. Thus, during translocation, the hydrophobic segments of signal sequences, and probably bilayer-spanning domains of nascent membrane proteins, exit the lateral gate and dock at a specific site that faces the lipid phase.〈br /〉〈br /〉〈a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4855518/" target="_blank"〉〈img src="https://static.pubmed.gov/portal/portal3rc.fcgi/4089621/img/3977009" border="0"〉〈/a〉   〈a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4855518/" target="_blank"〉This paper as free author manuscript - peer-reviewed and accepted for publication〈/a〉〈br /〉〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Li, Long -- Park, Eunyong -- Ling, JingJing -- Ingram, Jessica -- Ploegh, Hidde -- Rapoport, Tom A -- GM052586/GM/NIGMS NIH HHS/ -- R01 GM052586/GM/NIGMS NIH HHS/ -- Howard Hughes Medical Institute/ -- England -- Nature. 2016 Mar 17;531(7594):395-9. doi: 10.1038/nature17163. Epub 2016 Mar 7.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Howard Hughes Medical Institute and Harvard Medical School, Department of Cell Biology, 240 Longwood Avenue, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, USA. ; Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research, 9 Cambridge Center, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02142, USA.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26950603" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: 〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Evans Ogden, Lesley -- England -- Nature. 2016 May 5;533(7601):26-8. doi: 10.1038/533026a.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27147016" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: 〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉England -- Nature. 2016 Mar 3;531(7592):7-8. doi: 10.1038/531007b.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26935658" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: 〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Sherkow, Jacob S -- England -- Nature. 2016 Apr 14;532(7598):172-3. doi: 10.1038/532172a.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Innovation Center for Law and Technology, New York Law School, New York, USA.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27075081" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: Circadian clocks are fundamental to the biology of most eukaryotes, coordinating behaviour and physiology to resonate with the environmental cycle of day and night through complex networks of clock-controlled genes. A fundamental knowledge gap exists, however, between circadian gene expression cycles and the biochemical mechanisms that ultimately facilitate circadian regulation of cell biology. Here we report circadian rhythms in the intracellular concentration of magnesium ions, [Mg(2+)]i, which act as a cell-autonomous timekeeping component to determine key clock properties both in a human cell line and in a unicellular alga that diverged from each other more than 1 billion years ago. Given the essential role of Mg(2+) as a cofactor for ATP, a functional consequence of [Mg(2+)]i oscillations is dynamic regulation of cellular energy expenditure over the daily cycle. Mechanistically, we find that these rhythms provide bilateral feedback linking rhythmic metabolism to clock-controlled gene expression. The global regulation of nucleotide triphosphate turnover by intracellular Mg(2+) availability has potential to impact upon many of the cell's more than 600 MgATP-dependent enzymes and every cellular system where MgNTP hydrolysis becomes rate limiting. Indeed, we find that circadian control of translation by mTOR is regulated through [Mg(2+)]i oscillations. It will now be important to identify which additional biological processes are subject to this form of regulation in tissues of multicellular organisms such as plants and humans, in the context of health and disease.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Feeney, Kevin A -- Hansen, Louise L -- Putker, Marrit -- Olivares-Yanez, Consuelo -- Day, Jason -- Eades, Lorna J -- Larrondo, Luis F -- Hoyle, Nathaniel P -- O'Neill, John S -- van Ooijen, Gerben -- 093734/Z/10/Z/Wellcome Trust/United Kingdom -- MC_UP_1201/4/Medical Research Council/United Kingdom -- England -- Nature. 2016 Apr 21;532(7599):375-9. doi: 10.1038/nature17407. Epub 2016 Apr 13.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉MRC Laboratory for Molecular Biology, Francis Crick Avenue, Cambridge Biomedical Campus, Cambridge CB2 0QH, UK. ; School of Biological Sciences, University of Edinburgh, Max Born Crescent, Edinburgh EH9 3BF, UK. ; Millennium Nucleus for Fungal Integrative and Synthetic Biology, Departamento de Genetica Molecular y Microbiologia, Facultad de Ciencias Biologicas, Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile, Casilla 114-D, Santiago, Chile. ; Department of Earth Sciences, University of Cambridge, Downing Street, Cambridge CB2 3EQ, UK. ; School of Chemistry, University of Edinburgh, David Brewster Road, Edinburgh EH9 3FJ, UK.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27074515" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: Lymphoid tissue is a key reservoir established by HIV-1 during acute infection. It is a site associated with viral production, storage of viral particles in immune complexes, and viral persistence. Although combinations of antiretroviral drugs usually suppress viral replication and reduce viral RNA to undetectable levels in blood, it is unclear whether treatment fully suppresses viral replication in lymphoid tissue reservoirs. Here we show that virus evolution and trafficking between tissue compartments continues in patients with undetectable levels of virus in their bloodstream. We present a spatial and dynamic model of persistent viral replication and spread that indicates why the development of drug resistance is not a foregone conclusion under conditions in which drug concentrations are insufficient to completely block virus replication. These data provide new insights into the evolutionary and infection dynamics of the virus population within the host, revealing that HIV-1 can continue to replicate and replenish the viral reservoir despite potent antiretroviral therapy.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Lorenzo-Redondo, Ramon -- Fryer, Helen R -- Bedford, Trevor -- Kim, Eun-Young -- Archer, John -- Kosakovsky Pond, Sergei L -- Chung, Yoon-Seok -- Penugonda, Sudhir -- Chipman, Jeffrey G -- Fletcher, Courtney V -- Schacker, Timothy W -- Malim, Michael H -- Rambaut, Andrew -- Haase, Ashley T -- McLean, Angela R -- Wolinsky, Steven M -- AI1074340/AI/NIAID NIH HHS/ -- DA033773/DA/NIDA NIH HHS/ -- G1000196/Medical Research Council/United Kingdom -- GM110749/GM/NIGMS NIH HHS/ -- R01 DA033773/DA/NIDA NIH HHS/ -- Wellcome Trust/United Kingdom -- England -- Nature. 2016 Feb 4;530(7588):51-6. doi: 10.1038/nature16933. Epub 2016 Jan 27.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Division of Infectious Diseases, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Chicago, Illinois 60011, USA. ; Institute for Emerging Infections, Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, Oxford, OX1 3PS, UK. ; Vaccine and Infectious Disease Division, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle, Washington 98109, USA. ; Centro de Investigacao em Biodiversidade e Recursos Geneticos Universidade do Porto, 4485-661 Vairao, Portugal. ; Department of Medicine, University of California, San Diego, California 92093, USA. ; Division of AIDS, Center for Immunology and Pathology, Korea National Institutes of Health, Chungju-si, Chungcheongbuk-do, 28159, South Korea. ; Department of Surgery, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota 55455, USA. ; Antiviral Pharmacology Laboratory, University of Nebraska Medical Center, College of Pharmacy, Omaha, Nebraska 68198, USA. ; Division of Infectious Diseases, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota 55455, USA. ; Department of Infectious Diseases, King's College London, Guy's Hospital, London SE21 7DN, UK. ; Centre for Immunology, Infection and Evolution, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh EH9 3FL, UK. ; Department of Microbiology, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota 55455, USA.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26814962" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: The general transcription factor IID (TFIID) plays a central role in the initiation of RNA polymerase II (Pol II)-dependent transcription by nucleating pre-initiation complex (PIC) assembly at the core promoter. TFIID comprises the TATA-binding protein (TBP) and 13 TBP-associated factors (TAF1-13), which specifically interact with a variety of core promoter DNA sequences. Here we present the structure of human TFIID in complex with TFIIA and core promoter DNA, determined by single-particle cryo-electron microscopy at sub-nanometre resolution. All core promoter elements are contacted by subunits of TFIID, with TAF1 and TAF2 mediating major interactions with the downstream promoter. TFIIA bridges the TBP-TATA complex with lobe B of TFIID. We also present the cryo-electron microscopy reconstruction of a fully assembled human TAF-less PIC. Superposition of common elements between the two structures provides novel insights into the general role of TFIID in promoter recognition, PIC assembly, and transcription initiation.〈br /〉〈br /〉〈a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4856295/" target="_blank"〉〈img src="https://static.pubmed.gov/portal/portal3rc.fcgi/4089621/img/3977009" border="0"〉〈/a〉   〈a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4856295/" target="_blank"〉This paper as free author manuscript - peer-reviewed and accepted for publication〈/a〉〈br /〉〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Louder, Robert K -- He, Yuan -- Lopez-Blanco, Jose Ramon -- Fang, Jie -- Chacon, Pablo -- Nogales, Eva -- GM008295/GM/NIGMS NIH HHS/ -- GM63072/GM/NIGMS NIH HHS/ -- R01 GM063072/GM/NIGMS NIH HHS/ -- Howard Hughes Medical Institute/ -- England -- Nature. 2016 Mar 31;531(7596):604-9. doi: 10.1038/nature17394. Epub 2016 Mar 23.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Biophysics Graduate Group, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720, USA. ; QB3 Institute, Department of Molecular and Cell Biology, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720, USA. ; Molecular Biophysics and Integrative Bioimaging Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, California 94720, USA. ; Department of Biological Physical Chemistry, Rocasolano Physical Chemistry Institute, CSIC, Serrano 119, Madrid 28006, Spain. ; Howard Hughes Medical Institute, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720, USA.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27007846" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: Targeted, temporally regulated neural modulation is invaluable in determining the physiological roles of specific neural populations or circuits. Here we describe a system for non-invasive, temporal activation or inhibition of neuronal activity in vivo and its use to study central nervous system control of glucose homeostasis and feeding in mice. We are able to induce neuronal activation remotely using radio waves or magnetic fields via Cre-dependent expression of a GFP-tagged ferritin fusion protein tethered to the cation-conducting transient receptor potential vanilloid 1 (TRPV1) by a camelid anti-GFP antibody (anti-GFP-TRPV1). Neuronal inhibition via the same stimuli is achieved by mutating the TRPV1 pore, rendering the channel chloride-permeable. These constructs were targeted to glucose-sensing neurons in the ventromedial hypothalamus in glucokinase-Cre mice, which express Cre in glucose-sensing neurons. Acute activation of glucose-sensing neurons in this region increases plasma glucose and glucagon, lowers insulin levels and stimulates feeding, while inhibition reduces blood glucose, raises insulin levels and suppresses feeding. These results suggest that pancreatic hormones function as an effector mechanism of central nervous system circuits controlling blood glucose and behaviour. The method we employ obviates the need for permanent implants and could potentially be applied to study other neural processes or used to regulate other, even dispersed, cell types.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Stanley, Sarah A -- Kelly, Leah -- Latcha, Kaamashri N -- Schmidt, Sarah F -- Yu, Xiaofei -- Nectow, Alexander R -- Sauer, Jeremy -- Dyke, Jonathan P -- Dordick, Jonathan S -- Friedman, Jeffrey M -- GM067545/GM/NIGMS NIH HHS/ -- GM095654/GM/NIGMS NIH HHS/ -- MH105941/MH/NIMH NIH HHS/ -- U01 MH105941/MH/NIMH NIH HHS/ -- Howard Hughes Medical Institute/ -- England -- Nature. 2016 Mar 31;531(7596):647-50. doi: 10.1038/nature17183. Epub 2016 Mar 23.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Laboratory of Molecular Genetics, Rockefeller University, New York, New York 10065, USA. ; Department of Chemical &Biological Engineering, Center for Biotechnology &Interdisciplinary Studies, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, New York 12180, USA. ; Department of Radiology, Weill Cornell Medical College, New York, New York 10065, USA. ; Howard Hughes Medical Institute, New York, New York 10065, USA.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27007848" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: Despite the success of potent anti-retroviral drugs in controlling human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) infection, little progress has been made in generating an effective HIV-1 vaccine. Although passive transfer of anti-HIV-1 broadly neutralizing antibodies can protect mice or macaques against a single high-dose challenge with HIV or simian/human (SIV/HIV) chimaeric viruses (SHIVs) respectively, the long-term efficacy of a passive antibody transfer approach for HIV-1 has not been examined. Here we show, on the basis of the relatively long-term protection conferred by hepatitis A immune globulin, the efficacy of a single injection (20 mg kg(-1)) of four anti-HIV-1-neutralizing monoclonal antibodies (VRC01, VRC01-LS, 3BNC117, and 10-1074 (refs 9 - 12)) in blocking repeated weekly low-dose virus challenges of the clade B SHIVAD8. Compared with control animals, which required two to six challenges (median = 3) for infection, a single broadly neutralizing antibody infusion prevented virus acquisition for up to 23 weekly challenges. This effect depended on antibody potency and half-life. The highest levels of plasma-neutralizing activity and, correspondingly, the longest protection were found in monkeys administered the more potent antibodies 3BNC117 and 10-1074 (median = 13 and 12.5 weeks, respectively). VRC01, which showed lower plasma-neutralizing activity, protected for a shorter time (median = 8 weeks). The introduction of a mutation that extends antibody half-life into the crystallizable fragment (Fc) domain of VRC01 increased median protection from 8 to 14.5 weeks. If administered to populations at high risk of HIV-1 transmission, such an immunoprophylaxis regimen could have a major impact on virus transmission.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Gautam, Rajeev -- Nishimura, Yoshiaki -- Pegu, Amarendra -- Nason, Martha C -- Klein, Florian -- Gazumyan, Anna -- Golijanin, Jovana -- Buckler-White, Alicia -- Sadjadpour, Reza -- Wang, Keyun -- Mankoff, Zachary -- Schmidt, Stephen D -- Lifson, Jeffrey D -- Mascola, John R -- Nussenzweig, Michel C -- Martin, Malcolm A -- AI-100148/AI/NIAID NIH HHS/ -- HHSN261200800001E/PHS HHS/ -- UM1 AI100663-01/AI/NIAID NIH HHS/ -- Howard Hughes Medical Institute/ -- Intramural NIH HHS/ -- England -- Nature. 2016 May 5;533(7601):105-9. doi: 10.1038/nature17677. Epub 2016 Apr 27.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Laboratory of Molecular Microbiology, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland 20892, USA. ; Vaccine Research Center, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland 20892, USA. ; Biostatistics Research Branch, Division of Clinical Research, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland 20892, USA. ; Laboratory of Molecular Immunology, The Rockefeller University, New York, New York 10065, USA. ; Laboratory of Experimental Immunology, Center for Molecular Medicine Cologne (CMMC), University of Cologne, 50931 Cologne, Germany. ; Department I of Internal Medicine, Center of Integrated Oncology Cologne-Bonn, University Hospital Cologne, 50937 Cologne, Germany. ; AIDS and Cancer Virus Program, Leidos Biomedical Research, Frederick National Laboratory for Cancer Research, Frederick, Maryland 21702, USA. ; Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Chevy Chase, Maryland 20815, USA.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27120156" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: Homo floresiensis, a primitive hominin species discovered in Late Pleistocene sediments at Liang Bua (Flores, Indonesia), has generated wide interest and scientific debate. A major reason this taxon is controversial is because the H. floresiensis-bearing deposits, which include associated stone artefacts and remains of other extinct endemic fauna, were dated to between about 95 and 12 thousand calendar years (kyr) ago. These ages suggested that H. floresiensis survived until long after modern humans reached Australia by ~50 kyr ago. Here we report new stratigraphic and chronological evidence from Liang Bua that does not support the ages inferred previously for the H. floresiensis holotype (LB1), ~18 thousand calibrated radiocarbon years before present (kyr cal. BP), or the time of last appearance of this species (about 17 or 13-11 kyr cal. BP). Instead, the skeletal remains of H. floresiensis and the deposits containing them are dated to between about 100 and 60 kyr ago, whereas stone artefacts attributable to this species range from about 190 to 50 kyr in age. Whether H. floresiensis survived after 50 kyr ago--potentially encountering modern humans on Flores or other hominins dispersing through southeast Asia, such as Denisovans--is an open question.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Sutikna, Thomas -- Tocheri, Matthew W -- Morwood, Michael J -- Saptomo, E Wahyu -- Jatmiko -- Awe, Rokus Due -- Wasisto, Sri -- Westaway, Kira E -- Aubert, Maxime -- Li, Bo -- Zhao, Jian-xin -- Storey, Michael -- Alloway, Brent V -- Morley, Mike W -- Meijer, Hanneke J M -- van den Bergh, Gerrit D -- Grun, Rainer -- Dosseto, Anthony -- Brumm, Adam -- Jungers, William L -- Roberts, Richard G -- England -- Nature. 2016 Apr 21;532(7599):366-9. doi: 10.1038/nature17179. Epub 2016 Mar 30.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Centre for Archaeological Science, School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, New South Wales 2522, Australia. ; Pusat Penelitian Arkeologi Nasional, Jakarta 12510, Indonesia. ; Department of Anthropology, Lakehead University, Thunder Bay, Ontario P7B 5E1, Canada. ; Human Origins Program, Department of Anthropology, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC 20013, USA. ; Traps MQ Luminescence Dating Facility, Department of Environmental Sciences, Macquarie University, Sydney, New South Wales 2109, Australia. ; Research Centre for Human Evolution, Place, Evolution and Rock Art Heritage Unit, Griffith University, Gold Coast, Queensland 4222, Australia. ; School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, New South Wales 2522, Australia. ; School of Earth Sciences, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland 4072, Australia. ; QUADLAB, Section of Earth and Planetary System Science, Natural History Museum of Denmark, 1350 Copenhagen, Denmark. ; School of Geography, Environment and Earth Sciences, Victoria University of Wellington, Wellington 6012, New Zealand. ; Department of Natural History, University Museum of Bergen, University of Bergen, 5007 Bergen, Norway. ; Research Centre for Human Evolution, Environmental Futures Research Institute, Griffith University, Brisbane, Queensland 4111, Australia. ; Research School of Earth Sciences, Australian National University, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory 0200, Australia. ; GeoQuEST Research Centre, School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, New South Wales 2522, Australia. ; Department of Anatomical Sciences, Stony Brook University Medical Center, Stony Brook, New York 11794, USA. ; Association Vahatra, BP 3972, Antananarivo 101, Madagascar.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27027286" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: Retroviral integrase catalyses the integration of viral DNA into host target DNA, which is an essential step in the life cycle of all retroviruses. Previous structural characterization of integrase-viral DNA complexes, or intasomes, from the spumavirus prototype foamy virus revealed a functional integrase tetramer, and it is generally believed that intasomes derived from other retroviral genera use tetrameric integrase. However, the intasomes of orthoretroviruses, which include all known pathogenic species, have not been characterized structurally. Here, using single-particle cryo-electron microscopy and X-ray crystallography, we determine an unexpected octameric integrase architecture for the intasome of the betaretrovirus mouse mammary tumour virus. The structure is composed of two core integrase dimers, which interact with the viral DNA ends and structurally mimic the integrase tetramer of prototype foamy virus, and two flanking integrase dimers that engage the core structure via their integrase carboxy-terminal domains. Contrary to the belief that tetrameric integrase components are sufficient to catalyse integration, the flanking integrase dimers were necessary for mouse mammary tumour virus integrase activity. The integrase octamer solves a conundrum for betaretroviruses as well as alpharetroviruses by providing critical carboxy-terminal domains to the intasome core that cannot be provided in cis because of evolutionarily restrictive catalytic core domain-carboxy-terminal domain linker regions. The octameric architecture of the intasome of mouse mammary tumour virus provides new insight into the structural basis of retroviral DNA integration.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Ballandras-Colas, Allison -- Brown, Monica -- Cook, Nicola J -- Dewdney, Tamaria G -- Demeler, Borries -- Cherepanov, Peter -- Lyumkis, Dmitry -- Engelman, Alan N -- 9 P41 GM103310/GM/NIGMS NIH HHS/ -- P30 AI060354/AI/NIAID NIH HHS/ -- P41 GM103331/GM/NIGMS NIH HHS/ -- P50 GM082251/GM/NIGMS NIH HHS/ -- P50 GM103368/GM/NIGMS NIH HHS/ -- R01 AI070042/AI/NIAID NIH HHS/ -- England -- Nature. 2016 Feb 18;530(7590):358-61. doi: 10.1038/nature16955.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Department of Cancer Immunology and Virology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Department of Medicine, Harvard Medical School, 450 Brookline Avenue, Boston, Massachusetts 02215, USA. ; Laboratory of Genetics and Helmsley Center for Genomic Medicine, The Salk Institute for Biological Studies, 10010 N Torrey Pines Road, La Jolla, California 92037, USA. ; Clare Hall Laboratories, The Francis Crick Institute, Blanche Lane, South Mimms, Potters Bar, Hertfordshire EN6 3LD, UK. ; Department of Biochemistry, The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, 7703 Floyd Curl Drive, San Antonio, Texas 78229, USA. ; Division of Medicine, Imperial College London, St. Mary's Campus, Norfolk Place, London W2 1PG, UK.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26887496" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: 〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Callaway, Ewen -- Powell, Kendall -- England -- Nature. 2016 Feb 18;530(7590):265. doi: 10.1038/530265a.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26887471" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: Cellular immunity against viral infection and tumour cells depends on antigen presentation by major histocompatibility complex class I (MHC I) molecules. Intracellular antigenic peptides are transported into the endoplasmic reticulum by the transporter associated with antigen processing (TAP) and then loaded onto the nascent MHC I molecules, which are exported to the cell surface and present peptides to the immune system. Cytotoxic T lymphocytes recognize non-self peptides and program the infected or malignant cells for apoptosis. Defects in TAP account for immunodeficiency and tumour development. To escape immune surveillance, some viruses have evolved strategies either to downregulate TAP expression or directly inhibit TAP activity. So far, neither the architecture of TAP nor the mechanism of viral inhibition has been elucidated at the structural level. Here we describe the cryo-electron microscopy structure of human TAP in complex with its inhibitor ICP47, a small protein produced by the herpes simplex virus I. Here we show that the 12 transmembrane helices and 2 cytosolic nucleotide-binding domains of the transporter adopt an inward-facing conformation with the two nucleotide-binding domains separated. The viral inhibitor ICP47 forms a long helical hairpin, which plugs the translocation pathway of TAP from the cytoplasmic side. Association of ICP47 precludes substrate binding and prevents nucleotide-binding domain closure necessary for ATP hydrolysis. This work illustrates a striking example of immune evasion by persistent viruses. By blocking viral antigens from entering the endoplasmic reticulum, herpes simplex virus is hidden from cytotoxic T lymphocytes, which may contribute to establishing a lifelong infection in the host.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Oldham, Michael L -- Hite, Richard K -- Steffen, Alanna M -- Damko, Ermelinda -- Li, Zongli -- Walz, Thomas -- Chen, Jue -- Howard Hughes Medical Institute/ -- England -- Nature. 2016 Jan 28;529(7587):537-40. doi: 10.1038/nature16506. Epub 2016 Jan 20.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉The Rockefeller University, 1230 York Avenue, New York, New York 10065, USA. ; Howard Hughes Medical Institute, 4000 Jones Bridge Road, Chevy Chase, Maryland 20815, USA. ; Department of Cell Biology, Harvard Medical School, 240 Longwood Avenue, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, USA.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26789246" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) are physiologically important transmembrane signalling proteins that trigger intracellular responses upon binding of extracellular ligands. Despite recent breakthroughs in GPCR crystallography, the details of ligand-induced signal transduction are not well understood owing to missing dynamical information. In principle, such information can be provided by NMR, but so far only limited data of functional relevance on few side-chain sites of eukaryotic GPCRs have been obtained. Here we show that receptor motions can be followed at virtually any backbone site in a thermostabilized mutant of the turkey beta1-adrenergic receptor (beta1AR). Labelling with [(15)N]valine in a eukaryotic expression system provides over twenty resolved resonances that report on structure and dynamics in six ligand complexes and the apo form. The response to the various ligands is heterogeneous in the vicinity of the binding pocket, but gets transformed into a homogeneous readout at the intracellular side of helix 5 (TM5), which correlates linearly with ligand efficacy for the G protein pathway. The effect of several pertinent, thermostabilizing point mutations was assessed by reverting them to the native sequence. Whereas the response to ligands remains largely unchanged, binding of the G protein mimetic nanobody NB80 and G protein activation are only observed when two conserved tyrosines (Y227 and Y343) are restored. Binding of NB80 leads to very strong spectral changes throughout the receptor, including the extracellular ligand entrance pocket. This indicates that even the fully thermostabilized receptor undergoes activating motions in TM5, but that the fully active state is only reached in presence of Y227 and Y343 by stabilization with a G protein-like partner. The combined analysis of chemical shift changes from the point mutations and ligand responses identifies crucial connections in the allosteric activation pathway, and presents a general experimental method to delineate signal transmission networks at high resolution in GPCRs.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Isogai, Shin -- Deupi, Xavier -- Opitz, Christian -- Heydenreich, Franziska M -- Tsai, Ching-Ju -- Brueckner, Florian -- Schertler, Gebhard F X -- Veprintsev, Dmitry B -- Grzesiek, Stephan -- England -- Nature. 2016 Feb 11;530(7589):237-41. doi: 10.1038/nature16577. Epub 2016 Feb 3.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Focal Area Structural Biology and Biophysics, Biozentrum, University of Basel, CH-4056 Basel, Switzerland. ; Paul Scherrer Institute, CH-5232 Villigen PSI, Switzerland. ; Department of Biology, ETH Zurich, CH-8093 Zurich, Switzerland.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26840483" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: Controlling dropwise condensation is fundamental to water-harvesting systems, desalination, thermal power generation, air conditioning, distillation towers, and numerous other applications. For any of these, it is essential to design surfaces that enable droplets to grow rapidly and to be shed as quickly as possible. However, approaches based on microscale, nanoscale or molecular-scale textures suffer from intrinsic trade-offs that make it difficult to optimize both growth and transport at once. Here we present a conceptually different design approach--based on principles derived from Namib desert beetles, cacti, and pitcher plants--that synergistically combines these aspects of condensation and substantially outperforms other synthetic surfaces. Inspired by an unconventional interpretation of the role of the beetle's bumpy surface geometry in promoting condensation, and using theoretical modelling, we show how to maximize vapour diffusion fluxat the apex of convex millimetric bumps by optimizing the radius of curvature and cross-sectional shape. Integrating this apex geometry with a widening slope, analogous to cactus spines, directly couples facilitated droplet growth with fast directional transport, by creating a free-energy profile that drives the droplet down the slope before its growth rate can decrease. This coupling is further enhanced by a slippery, pitcher-plant-inspired nanocoating that facilitates feedback between coalescence-driven growth and capillary-driven motion on the way down. Bumps that are rationally designed to integrate these mechanisms are able to grow and transport large droplets even against gravity and overcome the effect of an unfavourable temperature gradient. We further observe an unprecedented sixfold-higher exponent of growth rate, faster onset, higher steady-state turnover rate, and a greater volume of water collected compared to other surfaces. We envision that this fundamental understanding and rational design strategy can be applied to a wide range of water-harvesting and phase-change heat-transfer applications.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Park, Kyoo-Chul -- Kim, Philseok -- Grinthal, Alison -- He, Neil -- Fox, David -- Weaver, James C -- Aizenberg, Joanna -- England -- Nature. 2016 Mar 3;531(7592):78-82. doi: 10.1038/nature16956. Epub 2016 Feb 24.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. ; Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. ; Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26909575" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: 〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Witze, Alexandra -- England -- Nature. 2016 Mar 3;531(7592):15-6. doi: 10.1038/531015a.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26935673" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: The cullin-RING ubiquitin E3 ligase (CRL) family comprises over 200 members in humans. The COP9 signalosome complex (CSN) regulates CRLs by removing their ubiquitin-like activator NEDD8. The CUL4A-RBX1-DDB1-DDB2 complex (CRL4A(DDB2)) monitors the genome for ultraviolet-light-induced DNA damage. CRL4A(DBB2) is inactive in the absence of damaged DNA and requires CSN to regulate the repair process. The structural basis of CSN binding to CRL4A(DDB2) and the principles of CSN activation are poorly understood. Here we present cryo-electron microscopy structures for CSN in complex with neddylated CRL4A ligases to 6.4 A resolution. The CSN conformers defined by cryo-electron microscopy and a novel apo-CSN crystal structure indicate an induced-fit mechanism that drives CSN activation by neddylated CRLs. We find that CSN and a substrate cannot bind simultaneously to CRL4A, favouring a deneddylated, inactive state for substrate-free CRL4 complexes. These architectural and regulatory principles appear conserved across CRL families, allowing global regulation by CSN.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Cavadini, Simone -- Fischer, Eric S -- Bunker, Richard D -- Potenza, Alessandro -- Lingaraju, Gondichatnahalli M -- Goldie, Kenneth N -- Mohamed, Weaam I -- Faty, Mahamadou -- Petzold, Georg -- Beckwith, Rohan E J -- Tichkule, Ritesh B -- Hassiepen, Ulrich -- Abdulrahman, Wassim -- Pantelic, Radosav S -- Matsumoto, Syota -- Sugasawa, Kaoru -- Stahlberg, Henning -- Thoma, Nicolas H -- England -- Nature. 2016 Mar 31;531(7596):598-603. doi: 10.1038/nature17416.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Friedrich Miescher Institute for Biomedical Research, Maulbeerstrasse 66, 4058 Basel, Switzerland. ; University of Basel, Petersplatz 10, 4003 Basel, Switzerland. ; Department of Cancer Biology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, LC-4312, 360 Longwood Avenue, Boston, Massachusetts 02215, USA. ; Department of Biological Chemistry and Molecular Pharmacology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts 02215, USA. ; Center for Cellular Imaging and NanoAnalytics, Biozentrum, University of Basel, 4058 Basel, Switzerland. ; Novartis Institutes for Biomedical Research, 250 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, USA. ; Novartis Pharma AG, Institutes for Biomedical Research, Novartis Campus, 4056 Basel, Switzerland. ; Gatan R&D, 5974 W. Las Positas Boulevard, Pleasanton, California 94588, USA. ; Biosignal Research Center, Organization of Advanced Science and Technology, Kobe University, Kobe 657-8501, Japan. ; Graduate School of Science, Kobe University, Kobe, 657-8501, Japan.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27029275" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: 〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Check Hayden, Erika -- England -- Nature. 2016 Feb 11;530(7589):142-3. doi: 10.1038/530142a.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26863963" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: 〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Woolston, Chris -- England -- Nature. 2016 Mar 24;531(7595):539-41.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27014783" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: 〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Karve, Shraddha Madhav -- Mangalam, Madhur -- England -- Nature. 2016 Mar 17;531(7594):305. doi: 10.1038/531305d.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Pune, India. ; University of Georgia, Athens, USA.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26983529" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: Thalidomide and its derivatives, lenalidomide and pomalidomide, are immune modulatory drugs (IMiDs) used in the treatment of haematologic malignancies. IMiDs bind CRBN, the substrate receptor of the CUL4-RBX1-DDB1-CRBN (also known as CRL4(CRBN)) E3 ubiquitin ligase, and inhibit ubiquitination of endogenous CRL4(CRBN) substrates. Unexpectedly, IMiDs also repurpose the ligase to target new proteins for degradation. Lenalidomide induces degradation of the lymphoid transcription factors Ikaros and Aiolos (also known as IKZF1 and IKZF3), and casein kinase 1alpha (CK1alpha), which contributes to its clinical efficacy in the treatment of multiple myeloma and 5q-deletion associated myelodysplastic syndrome (del(5q) MDS), respectively. How lenalidomide alters the specificity of the ligase to degrade these proteins remains elusive. Here we present the 2.45 A crystal structure of DDB1-CRBN bound to lenalidomide and CK1alpha. CRBN and lenalidomide jointly provide the binding interface for a CK1alpha beta-hairpin-loop located in the kinase N-lobe. We show that CK1alpha binding to CRL4(CRBN) is strictly dependent on the presence of an IMiD. Binding of IKZF1 to CRBN similarly requires the compound and both, IKZF1 and CK1alpha, use a related binding mode. Our study provides a mechanistic explanation for the selective efficacy of lenalidomide in del(5q) MDS therapy. We anticipate that high-affinity protein-protein interactions induced by small molecules will provide opportunities for drug development, particularly for targeted protein degradation.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Petzold, Georg -- Fischer, Eric S -- Thoma, Nicolas H -- England -- Nature. 2016 Apr 7;532(7597):127-30. doi: 10.1038/nature16979. Epub 2016 Feb 24.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Friedrich Miescher Institute for Biomedical Research, Maulbeerstrasse 66, CH-4058 Basel, Switzerland. ; University of Basel, Petersplatz 10, CH-4003 Basel, Switzerland.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26909574" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: The p53 pro-apoptotic tumour suppressor is mutated or functionally altered in most cancers. In epithelial tumours induced by 'high-risk' mucosal human papilloma viruses, including human cervical carcinoma and a growing number of head-and-neck cancers, p53 is degraded by the viral oncoprotein E6 (ref. 2). In this process, E6 binds to a short leucine (L)-rich LxxLL consensus sequence within the cellular ubiquitin ligase E6AP. Subsequently, the E6/E6AP heterodimer recruits and degrades p53 (ref. 4). Neither E6 nor E6AP are separately able to recruit p53 (refs 3, 5), and the precise mode of assembly of E6, E6AP and p53 is unknown. Here we solve the crystal structure of a ternary complex comprising full-length human papilloma virus type 16 (HPV-16) E6, the LxxLL motif of E6AP and the core domain of p53. The LxxLL motif of E6AP renders the conformation of E6 competent for interaction with p53 by structuring a p53-binding cleft on E6. Mutagenesis of critical positions at the E6-p53 interface disrupts p53 degradation. The E6-binding site of p53 is distal from previously described DNA- and protein-binding surfaces of the core domain. This suggests that, in principle, E6 may avoid competition with cellular factors by targeting both free and bound p53 molecules. The E6/E6AP/p53 complex represents a prototype of viral hijacking of both the ubiquitin-mediated protein degradation pathway and the p53 tumour suppressor pathway. The present structure provides a framework for the design of inhibitory therapeutic strategies against oncogenesis mediated by human papilloma virus.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Martinez-Zapien, Denise -- Ruiz, Francesc Xavier -- Poirson, Juline -- Mitschler, Andre -- Ramirez, Juan -- Forster, Anne -- Cousido-Siah, Alexandra -- Masson, Murielle -- Vande Pol, Scott -- Podjarny, Alberto -- Trave, Gilles -- Zanier, Katia -- R01CA134737/CA/NCI NIH HHS/ -- England -- Nature. 2016 Jan 28;529(7587):541-5. doi: 10.1038/nature16481. Epub 2016 Jan 20.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Equipe labellisee Ligue, Biotechnologie et signalisation cellulaire UMR 7242, Ecole Superieure de Biotechnologie de Strasbourg, Boulevard Sebastien Brant, BP 10413, F-67412 Illkirch, France. ; Institut de Genetique et de Biologie Moleculaire et Cellulaire (IGBMC)/INSERM U964/CNRS UMR 7104/Universite de Strasbourg, 1 rue Laurent Fries, BP 10142, F-67404 Illkirch, France. ; Department of Pathology, University of Virginia, PO Box 800904, Charlottesville, Virginia 22908-0904, USA.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26789255" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: Muscarinic M1-M5 acetylcholine receptors are G-protein-coupled receptors that regulate many vital functions of the central and peripheral nervous systems. In particular, the M1 and M4 receptor subtypes have emerged as attractive drug targets for treatments of neurological disorders, such as Alzheimer's disease and schizophrenia, but the high conservation of the acetylcholine-binding pocket has spurred current research into targeting allosteric sites on these receptors. Here we report the crystal structures of the M1 and M4 muscarinic receptors bound to the inverse agonist, tiotropium. Comparison of these structures with each other, as well as with the previously reported M2 and M3 receptor structures, reveals differences in the orthosteric and allosteric binding sites that contribute to a role in drug selectivity at this important receptor family. We also report identification of a cluster of residues that form a network linking the orthosteric and allosteric sites of the M4 receptor, which provides new insight into how allosteric modulation may be transmitted between the two spatially distinct domains.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Thal, David M -- Sun, Bingfa -- Feng, Dan -- Nawaratne, Vindhya -- Leach, Katie -- Felder, Christian C -- Bures, Mark G -- Evans, David A -- Weis, William I -- Bachhawat, Priti -- Kobilka, Tong Sun -- Sexton, Patrick M -- Kobilka, Brian K -- Christopoulos, Arthur -- U19 GM106990/GM/NIGMS NIH HHS/ -- Y1-CO-1020/CO/NCI NIH HHS/ -- Y1-GM-1104/GM/NIGMS NIH HHS/ -- England -- Nature. 2016 Mar 17;531(7594):335-40. doi: 10.1038/nature17188. Epub 2016 Mar 9.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Drug Discovery Biology and Department of Pharmacology, Monash Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Monash University, Parkville, 3052, Victoria, Australia. ; ConfometRx, 3070 Kenneth Street, Santa Clara, California 95054, USA. ; Neuroscience, Eli Lilly, Indianapolis, Indiana 46285, USA. ; Computational Chemistry and Chemoinformatics, Eli Lilly, Indianapolis, Indiana 46285, USA. ; Computational Chemistry and Chemoinformatics, Eli Lilly, Sunninghill Road, Windlesham GU20 6PH, UK. ; Department of Molecular and Cellular Physiology, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, California 94305, USA. ; Department of Structural Biology, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, California 94305, USA.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26958838" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: Integration of the reverse-transcribed viral DNA into the host genome is an essential step in the life cycle of retroviruses. Retrovirus integrase catalyses insertions of both ends of the linear viral DNA into a host chromosome. Integrase from HIV-1 and closely related retroviruses share the three-domain organization, consisting of a catalytic core domain flanked by amino- and carboxy-terminal domains essential for the concerted integration reaction. Although structures of the tetrameric integrase-DNA complexes have been reported for integrase from prototype foamy virus featuring an additional DNA-binding domain and longer interdomain linkers, the architecture of a canonical three-domain integrase bound to DNA remained elusive. Here we report a crystal structure of the three-domain integrase from Rous sarcoma virus in complex with viral and target DNAs. The structure shows an octameric assembly of integrase, in which a pair of integrase dimers engage viral DNA ends for catalysis while another pair of non-catalytic integrase dimers bridge between the two viral DNA molecules and help capture target DNA. The individual domains of the eight integrase molecules play varying roles to hold the complex together, making an extensive network of protein-DNA and protein-protein contacts that show both conserved and distinct features compared with those observed for prototype foamy virus integrase. Our work highlights the diversity of retrovirus intasome assembly and provides insights into the mechanisms of integration by HIV-1 and related retroviruses.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Yin, Zhiqi -- Shi, Ke -- Banerjee, Surajit -- Pandey, Krishan K -- Bera, Sibes -- Grandgenett, Duane P -- Aihara, Hideki -- AI087098/AI/NIAID NIH HHS/ -- AI100682/AI/NIAID NIH HHS/ -- GM109770/GM/NIGMS NIH HHS/ -- P41 GM103403/GM/NIGMS NIH HHS/ -- England -- Nature. 2016 Feb 18;530(7590):362-6. doi: 10.1038/nature16950.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Department of Biochemistry, Molecular Biology and Biophysics, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota 55455, USA. ; Institute for Molecular Virology, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota 55455, USA. ; Masonic Cancer Center, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota 55455, USA. ; Northeastern Collaborative Access Team, Cornell University, Advanced Photon Source, Lemont, Illinois 60439, USA. ; Institute for Molecular Virology, St. Louis University Health Sciences Center, St. Louis, Missouri 63104, USA.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26887497" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: Land-use change occurs nowhere more rapidly than in the tropics, where the imbalance between deforestation and forest regrowth has large consequences for the global carbon cycle. However, considerable uncertainty remains about the rate of biomass recovery in secondary forests, and how these rates are influenced by climate, landscape, and prior land use. Here we analyse aboveground biomass recovery during secondary succession in 45 forest sites and about 1,500 forest plots covering the major environmental gradients in the Neotropics. The studied secondary forests are highly productive and resilient. Aboveground biomass recovery after 20 years was on average 122 megagrams per hectare (Mg ha(-1)), corresponding to a net carbon uptake of 3.05 Mg C ha(-1) yr(-1), 11 times the uptake rate of old-growth forests. Aboveground biomass stocks took a median time of 66 years to recover to 90% of old-growth values. Aboveground biomass recovery after 20 years varied 11.3-fold (from 20 to 225 Mg ha(-1)) across sites, and this recovery increased with water availability (higher local rainfall and lower climatic water deficit). We present a biomass recovery map of Latin America, which illustrates geographical and climatic variation in carbon sequestration potential during forest regrowth. The map will support policies to minimize forest loss in areas where biomass resilience is naturally low (such as seasonally dry forest regions) and promote forest regeneration and restoration in humid tropical lowland areas with high biomass resilience.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Poorter, Lourens -- Bongers, Frans -- Aide, T Mitchell -- Almeyda Zambrano, Angelica M -- Balvanera, Patricia -- Becknell, Justin M -- Boukili, Vanessa -- Brancalion, Pedro H S -- Broadbent, Eben N -- Chazdon, Robin L -- Craven, Dylan -- de Almeida-Cortez, Jarcilene S -- Cabral, George A L -- de Jong, Ben H J -- Denslow, Julie S -- Dent, Daisy H -- DeWalt, Saara J -- Dupuy, Juan M -- Duran, Sandra M -- Espirito-Santo, Mario M -- Fandino, Maria C -- Cesar, Ricardo G -- Hall, Jefferson S -- Hernandez-Stefanoni, Jose Luis -- Jakovac, Catarina C -- Junqueira, Andre B -- Kennard, Deborah -- Letcher, Susan G -- Licona, Juan-Carlos -- Lohbeck, Madelon -- Marin-Spiotta, Erika -- Martinez-Ramos, Miguel -- Massoca, Paulo -- Meave, Jorge A -- Mesquita, Rita -- Mora, Francisco -- Munoz, Rodrigo -- Muscarella, Robert -- Nunes, Yule R F -- Ochoa-Gaona, Susana -- de Oliveira, Alexandre A -- Orihuela-Belmonte, Edith -- Pena-Claros, Marielos -- Perez-Garcia, Eduardo A -- Piotto, Daniel -- Powers, Jennifer S -- Rodriguez-Velazquez, Jorge -- Romero-Perez, I Eunice -- Ruiz, Jorge -- Saldarriaga, Juan G -- Sanchez-Azofeifa, Arturo -- Schwartz, Naomi B -- Steininger, Marc K -- Swenson, Nathan G -- Toledo, Marisol -- Uriarte, Maria -- van Breugel, Michiel -- van der Wal, Hans -- Veloso, Maria D M -- Vester, Hans F M -- Vicentini, Alberto -- Vieira, Ima C G -- Bentos, Tony Vizcarra -- Williamson, G Bruce -- Rozendaal, Danae M A -- England -- Nature. 2016 Feb 11;530(7589):211-4. doi: 10.1038/nature16512. Epub 2016 Feb 3.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Forest Ecology and Forest Management Group, Wageningen University, PO Box 47, 6700 AA Wageningen, The Netherlands. ; PO Box 23360, Department of Biology, University of Puerto Rico, San Juan, PR 00931-3360, Puerto Rico. ; Spatial Ecology and Conservation Lab, Department of Geography, University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, Alabama 35487, USA. ; Instituto de Investigaciones en Ecosistemas y Sustentabilidad, Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico, CP58190, Morelia, Michoacan, Mexico. ; Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island 02912, USA. ; Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Connecticut, Storrs, Connecticut 06269, USA. ; Department of Forest Sciences, Luiz de Queiroz College of Agriculture, University of Sao Paulo, Avenida Padua Dias 11, 13418-900, Piracicaba, Sao Paulo, Brazil. ; SI ForestGEO, Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Roosevelt Avenue, Tupper Building - 401, Balboa, Ancon, Panama, Panama ; German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle-Jena-Leipzig, Deutscher Platz 5e, 04103 Leipzig, Germany. ; Institute for Biology, Leipzig University, Johannisallee 21, 04103 Leipzig, Germany. ; Departamento de Botanica, Universidade Federal de Pernambuco, Pernambuco, CEP 50670-901, Brazil. ; Department of Sustainability Science, El Colegio de la Frontera Sur, Unidad Campeche, Av. Rancho Poligono 2A, Parque Industrial Lerma, Campeche, Campeche, CP 24500, Mexico. ; Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Tulane University, New Orleans, Louisiana 70130, USA. ; Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Roosevelt Avenue, Tupper Building - 401, Balboa, Ancon, Panama, Panama ; Biological and Environmental Sciences, University of Stirling, Stirling FK9 4LA, UK. ; Department of Biological Sciences, Clemson University, 132 Long Hall, Clemson, South Carolina 29634, USA. ; Centro de Investigacion Cientifica de Yucatan, AC, Unidad de Recursos Naturales, Calle 43 No. 130, Colonia Chuburna de Hidalgo, CP 97200, Merida, Yucatan, Mexico. ; Earth and Atmospheric Sciences Department, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta T6G 2E3, Canada. ; Departamento de Biologia Geral, Universidade Estadual de Montes Claros, Montes Claros, Minas Gerais, CEP 39401-089, Brazil. ; Fondo Patrimonio Natural para la Biodiversidad y Areas Protegidas, Calle 72 No. 12-65 piso 6, Bogota, Colombia. ; Biological Dynamics of Forest Fragments Project, Environmental Dynamics Research Coordination, Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas da Amazonia, Manaus, Amazonas, CEP 69067-375, Brazil. ; Centre for Crop Systems Analysis, Wageningen University, PO Box 430, 6700 AK Wageningen, The Netherlands. ; Knowledge, Technology and Innovation Group, Wageningen University, PO Box 8130, 6700 EW Wageningen, The Netherlands. ; Coordenacao de Tecnologia e Inovacao, Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas da Amazonia, Avenida Andre Araujo, 2936 - Aleixo, 69060-001 Manaus, Brazil. ; Department of Physical and Environmental Sciences, Colorado Mesa University, 1100 North Avenue, Grand Junction, Colorado 81501, USA. ; Department of Environmental Studies, Purchase College (State University of New York), Purchase, New York 10577, USA. ; Instituto Boliviano de Investigacion Forestal (IBIF), FCA-UAGRM, Casilla 6204, Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia. ; World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF), PO Box 30677 - 00100, Nairobi, Kenya. ; Department of Geography, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 550 North Park Street, Madison, Wisconsin 53706, USA. ; Departamento de Ecologia y Recursos Naturales, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico, Mexico 04510 DF, Mexico. ; Department of Ecology, Evolution and Environmental Biology, Columbia University, New York, New York 10027, USA. ; Section of Ecoinformatics and Biodiversity, Department of Bioscience, Aarhus University, Aarhus 8000, Denmark. ; Departamento de Ecologia, Instituto de Biociencias, Universidade de Sao Paulo, Rua do Matao, travessa 14, No. 321, Sao Paulo, CEP 05508-090, Brazil. ; Universidade Federal do Sul da Bahia, Centro de Formacao em Ciencias Agroflorestais, Itabuna-BA, 45613-204, Brazil. ; Department of Ecology, Evolution, &Behavior, University of Minnesota, Saint Paul, Minnesota 55108, USA. ; Department of Plant Biology, University of Minnesota, Saint Paul, Minnesota 55108, USA. ; School of Social Sciences, Geography Area, Universidad Pedagogica y Tecnologica de Colombia (UPTC), Tunja, Colombia. ; Department of Geography, 4841 Ellison Hall, University of California, Santa Barbara, California 93106, USA. ; Department of Biology, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland 20742, USA. ; Yale-NUS College, 12 College Avenue West, Singapore 138610. ; Department of Biological Sciences, National University of Singapore, 14 Science Drive 4, Singapore 11754. ; Departamento de Agricultura, Sociedad y Ambiente, El Colegio de la Frontera Sur - Unidad Villahermosa, 86280 Centro, Tabasco, Mexico. ; Institute for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Dynamics (IBED), University of Amsterdam, PO Box 94248, 1090 GE Amsterdam, The Netherlands. ; Bonhoeffer College, Bruggertstraat 60, 7545 AX Enschede, The Netherlands. ; Museu Paraense Emilio Goeldi, CP 399, CEP 66040-170, Belem, Brazil. ; Department of Biological Sciences, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, Louisiana 70803-1705, USA. ; Department of Biology, University of Regina, 3737 Wascana Parkway, Regina, Saskatchewan S4S 0A2, Canada.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26840632" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: 〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Powell, Kendall -- England -- Nature. 2016 Feb 11;530(7589):148-51. doi: 10.1038/530148a.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26863966" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: The serotonin transporter (SERT) terminates serotonergic signalling through the sodium- and chloride-dependent reuptake of neurotransmitter into presynaptic neurons. SERT is a target for antidepressant and psychostimulant drugs, which block reuptake and prolong neurotransmitter signalling. Here we report X-ray crystallographic structures of human SERT at 3.15 A resolution bound to the antidepressants (S)-citalopram or paroxetine. Antidepressants lock SERT in an outward-open conformation by lodging in the central binding site, located between transmembrane helices 1, 3, 6, 8 and 10, directly blocking serotonin binding. We further identify the location of an allosteric site in the complex as residing at the periphery of the extracellular vestibule, interposed between extracellular loops 4 and 6 and transmembrane helices 1, 6, 10 and 11. Occupancy of the allosteric site sterically hinders ligand unbinding from the central site, providing an explanation for the action of (S)-citalopram as an allosteric ligand. These structures define the mechanism of antidepressant action in SERT, and provide blueprints for future drug design.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Coleman, Jonathan A -- Green, Evan M -- Gouaux, Eric -- 5R37MH070039/MH/NIMH NIH HHS/ -- R37 MH070039/MH/NIMH NIH HHS/ -- Canadian Institutes of Health Research/Canada -- Howard Hughes Medical Institute/ -- England -- Nature. 2016 Apr 21;532(7599):334-9. doi: 10.1038/nature17629. Epub 2016 Apr 6.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Vollum Institute, Oregon Health &Science University, Portland, Oregon 97239, USA. ; Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Oregon Health &Science University, Portland, Oregon 97239, USA.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27049939" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: Two-pore channels (TPCs) comprise a subfamily (TPC1-3) of eukaryotic voltage- and ligand-gated cation channels with two non-equivalent tandem pore-forming subunits that dimerize to form quasi-tetramers. Found in vacuolar or endolysosomal membranes, they regulate the conductance of sodium and calcium ions, intravesicular pH, trafficking and excitability. TPCs are activated by a decrease in transmembrane potential and an increase in cytosolic calcium concentrations, are inhibited by low luminal pH and calcium, and are regulated by phosphorylation. Here we report the crystal structure of TPC1 from Arabidopsis thaliana at 2.87 A resolution as a basis for understanding ion permeation, channel activation, the location of voltage-sensing domains and regulatory ion-binding sites. We determined sites of phosphorylation in the amino-terminal and carboxy-terminal domains that are positioned to allosterically modulate cytoplasmic Ca(2+) activation. One of the two voltage-sensing domains (VSD2) encodes voltage sensitivity and inhibition by luminal Ca(2+) and adopts a conformation distinct from the activated state observed in structures of other voltage-gated ion channels. The structure shows that potent pharmacophore trans-Ned-19 (ref. 17) acts allosterically by clamping the pore domains to VSD2. In animals, Ned-19 prevents infection by Ebola virus and other filoviruses, presumably by altering their fusion with the endolysosome and delivery of their contents into the cytoplasm.〈br /〉〈br /〉〈a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4863712/" target="_blank"〉〈img src="https://static.pubmed.gov/portal/portal3rc.fcgi/4089621/img/3977009" border="0"〉〈/a〉   〈a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4863712/" target="_blank"〉This paper as free author manuscript - peer-reviewed and accepted for publication〈/a〉〈br /〉〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Kintzer, Alexander F -- Stroud, Robert M -- GM24485/GM/NIGMS NIH HHS/ -- P41-GM103311/GM/NIGMS NIH HHS/ -- P41-RR001614/RR/NCRR NIH HHS/ -- P41GM103393/GM/NIGMS NIH HHS/ -- R37 GM024485/GM/NIGMS NIH HHS/ -- Howard Hughes Medical Institute/ -- England -- Nature. 2016 Mar 10;531(7593):258-62. doi: 10.1038/nature17194.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics, University of California, San Francisco, California 94158, USA.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26961658" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: The Ebola virus disease epidemic in West Africa is the largest on record, responsible for over 28,599 cases and more than 11,299 deaths. Genome sequencing in viral outbreaks is desirable to characterize the infectious agent and determine its evolutionary rate. Genome sequencing also allows the identification of signatures of host adaptation, identification and monitoring of diagnostic targets, and characterization of responses to vaccines and treatments. The Ebola virus (EBOV) genome substitution rate in the Makona strain has been estimated at between 0.87 x 10(-3) and 1.42 x 10(-3) mutations per site per year. This is equivalent to 16-27 mutations in each genome, meaning that sequences diverge rapidly enough to identify distinct sub-lineages during a prolonged epidemic. Genome sequencing provides a high-resolution view of pathogen evolution and is increasingly sought after for outbreak surveillance. Sequence data may be used to guide control measures, but only if the results are generated quickly enough to inform interventions. Genomic surveillance during the epidemic has been sporadic owing to a lack of local sequencing capacity coupled with practical difficulties transporting samples to remote sequencing facilities. To address this problem, here we devise a genomic surveillance system that utilizes a novel nanopore DNA sequencing instrument. In April 2015 this system was transported in standard airline luggage to Guinea and used for real-time genomic surveillance of the ongoing epidemic. We present sequence data and analysis of 142 EBOV samples collected during the period March to October 2015. We were able to generate results less than 24 h after receiving an Ebola-positive sample, with the sequencing process taking as little as 15-60 min. We show that real-time genomic surveillance is possible in resource-limited settings and can be established rapidly to monitor outbreaks.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Quick, Joshua -- Loman, Nicholas J -- Duraffour, Sophie -- Simpson, Jared T -- Severi, Ettore -- Cowley, Lauren -- Bore, Joseph Akoi -- Koundouno, Raymond -- Dudas, Gytis -- Mikhail, Amy -- Ouedraogo, Nobila -- Afrough, Babak -- Bah, Amadou -- Baum, Jonathan H J -- Becker-Ziaja, Beate -- Boettcher, Jan Peter -- Cabeza-Cabrerizo, Mar -- Camino-Sanchez, Alvaro -- Carter, Lisa L -- Doerrbecker, Juliane -- Enkirch, Theresa -- Garcia-Dorival, Isabel -- Hetzelt, Nicole -- Hinzmann, Julia -- Holm, Tobias -- Kafetzopoulou, Liana Eleni -- Koropogui, Michel -- Kosgey, Abigael -- Kuisma, Eeva -- Logue, Christopher H -- Mazzarelli, Antonio -- Meisel, Sarah -- Mertens, Marc -- Michel, Janine -- Ngabo, Didier -- Nitzsche, Katja -- Pallasch, Elisa -- Patrono, Livia Victoria -- Portmann, Jasmine -- Repits, Johanna Gabriella -- Rickett, Natasha Y -- Sachse, Andreas -- Singethan, Katrin -- Vitoriano, Ines -- Yemanaberhan, Rahel L -- Zekeng, Elsa G -- Racine, Trina -- Bello, Alexander -- Sall, Amadou Alpha -- Faye, Ousmane -- Faye, Oumar -- Magassouba, N'Faly -- Williams, Cecelia V -- Amburgey, Victoria -- Winona, Linda -- Davis, Emily -- Gerlach, Jon -- Washington, Frank -- Monteil, Vanessa -- Jourdain, Marine -- Bererd, Marion -- Camara, Alimou -- Somlare, Hermann -- Camara, Abdoulaye -- Gerard, Marianne -- Bado, Guillaume -- Baillet, Bernard -- Delaune, Deborah -- Nebie, Koumpingnin Yacouba -- Diarra, Abdoulaye -- Savane, Yacouba -- Pallawo, Raymond Bernard -- Gutierrez, Giovanna Jaramillo -- Milhano, Natacha -- Roger, Isabelle -- Williams, Christopher J -- Yattara, Facinet -- Lewandowski, Kuiama -- Taylor, James -- Rachwal, Phillip -- Turner, Daniel J -- Pollakis, Georgios -- Hiscox, Julian A -- Matthews, David A -- O'Shea, Matthew K -- Johnston, Andrew McD -- Wilson, Duncan -- Hutley, Emma -- Smit, Erasmus -- Di Caro, Antonino -- Wolfel, Roman -- Stoecker, Kilian -- Fleischmann, Erna -- Gabriel, Martin -- Weller, Simon A -- Koivogui, Lamine -- Diallo, Boubacar -- Keita, Sakoba -- Rambaut, Andrew -- Formenty, Pierre -- Gunther, Stephan -- Carroll, Miles W -- Medical Research Council/United Kingdom -- England -- Nature. 2016 Feb 11;530(7589):228-32. doi: 10.1038/nature16996. Epub 2016 Feb 3.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Institute of Microbiology and Infection, University of Birmingham, Birmingham B15 2TT, UK. ; The European Mobile Laboratory Consortium, Bernhard-Nocht-Institute for Tropical Medicine, D-20359 Hamburg, Germany. ; Bernhard-Nocht-Institute for Tropical Medicine, D-20359 Hamburg, Germany. ; Ontario Institute for Cancer Research, Toronto M5G 0A3, Canada. ; Department of Computer Science, University of Toronto, Toronto M5S 3G4, Canada. ; European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), 171 65 Solna, Sweden. ; National Infection Service, Public Health England, London NW9 5EQ, UK. ; Institute of Evolutionary Biology, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh EH9 2FL, UK. ; Postgraduate Training for Applied Epidemiology (PAE, German FETP), Robert Koch Institute, D-13302 Berlin, Germany. ; National Infection Service, Public Health England, Porton Down, Wiltshire SP4 0JG, UK. ; Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute, 4002 Basel, Switzerland. ; Robert Koch Institute, D-13302 Berlin, Germany. ; University College London, London WC1E 6BT, UK. ; Paul-Ehrlich-Institut, Division of Veterinary Medicine, D-63225 Langen, Germany. ; Institute of Infection and Global Health, University of Liverpool, Liverpool L69 7BE, UK. ; Laboratory for Clinical and Epidemiological Virology, Department of Microbiology and Immunology, KU Leuven, Leuven B-3000, Belgium. ; Ministry of Health Guinea, Conakry BP 585, Guinea. ; Kenya Medical Research Institute, Nairobi P.O. BOX 54840 - 00200, Kenya. ; National Institute for Infectious Diseases L. Spallanzani, 00149 Rome, Italy. ; Friedrich-Loeffler-Institute, D-17493 Greifswald, Germany. ; Federal Office for Civil Protection, Spiez Laboratory, 3700 Spiez, Switzerland. ; Janssen-Cilag, Stockholm, Box 7073 - 19207, Sweden. ; NIHR Health Protection Research Unit in Emerging and Zoonotic Infections, University of Liverpool, Liverpool L69 7BE, UK. ; Institute of Virology, Technische Universitat Munchen, D-81675 Munich, Germany. ; Public Health Agency of Canada, Winnipeg, Manitoba R3E 3R2, Canada. ; Institut Pasteur Dakar, Dakar, DP 220 Senegal. ; Laboratoire de Fievres Hemorragiques de Guinee, Conakry BP 5680, Guinea. ; Sandia National Laboratories, PO Box 5800 MS1363, Albuquerque, New Mexico 87185-1363, USA. ; Ratoma Ebola Diagnostic Center, Conakry, Guinea. ; MRIGlobal, Kansas City, Missouri 64110-2241, USA. ; Expertise France, Laboratoire K-plan de Forecariah en Guinee, 75006 Paris, France. ; Federation des Laboratoires - HIA Begin, 94163 Saint-Mande cedex, France. ; Laboratoire de Biologie - Centre de Traitement des Soignants, Conakry, Guinea. ; World Health Organization, Conakry BP 817, Guinea. ; London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London EC1E 7HT, UK. ; Norwegian Institute of Public Health, PO Box 4404 Nydalen, 0403 Oslo, Norway. ; Public Health Wales, Cardiff CF11 9LJ, UK. ; Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl) Porton Down, Salisbury SP4 0JQ, UK. ; Oxford Nanopore Technologies, Oxford OX4 4GA, UK. ; Department of Cellular and Molecular Medicine, School of Medical Sciences, University of Bristol, Bristol BS8 1TD, UK. ; Academic Department of Military Medicine, Royal Centre for Defence Medicine, Birmingham B15 2TH, UK. ; Centre of Defence Pathology, Royal Centre for Defence Medicine, Birmingham B15 2TH, UK. ; Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Birmingham B12 2TH, UK. ; Bundeswehr Institute of Microbiology, D-80937 Munich, Germany. ; Institut National de Sante Publique, Conakry BP 1147, Guinea. ; Fogarty International Center, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892-2220, USA. ; Centre for Immunology, Infection and Evolution, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh EH9 2FL, UK. ; University of Southampton, South General Hospital, Southampton SO16 6YD, UK. ; NIHR Health Protection Research Unit in Emerging and Zoonotic Infections, PHE Porton Down, UK.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26840485" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: Contractile tails are composed of an inner tube wrapped by an outer sheath assembled in an extended, metastable conformation that stores mechanical energy necessary for its contraction. Contraction is used to propel the rigid inner tube towards target cells for DNA or toxin delivery. Although recent studies have revealed the structure of the contractile sheath of the type VI secretion system, the mechanisms by which its polymerization is controlled and coordinated with the assembly of the inner tube remain unknown. Here we show that the starfish-like TssA dodecameric complex interacts with tube and sheath components. Fluorescence microscopy experiments in enteroaggregative Escherichia coli reveal that TssA binds first to the type VI secretion system membrane core complex and then initiates tail polymerization. TssA remains at the tip of the growing structure and incorporates new tube and sheath blocks. On the basis of these results, we propose that TssA primes and coordinates tail tube and sheath biogenesis.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Zoued, Abdelrahim -- Durand, Eric -- Brunet, Yannick R -- Spinelli, Silvia -- Douzi, Badreddine -- Guzzo, Mathilde -- Flaugnatti, Nicolas -- Legrand, Pierre -- Journet, Laure -- Fronzes, Remi -- Mignot, Tam -- Cambillau, Christian -- Cascales, Eric -- England -- Nature. 2016 Mar 3;531(7592):59-63. doi: 10.1038/nature17182. Epub 2016 Feb 24.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Laboratoire d'Ingenierie des Systemes Macromoleculaires, Institut de Microbiologie de la Mediterranee, CNRS UMR7255, Aix-Marseille Universite, 31 Chemin Joseph Aiguier, 13402 Marseille Cedex 20, France. ; Architecture et Fonction des Macromolecules Biologiques, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, UMR 7257, Campus de Luminy, Case 932, 13288 Marseille Cedex 09, France. ; Architecture et Fonction des Macromolecules Biologiques, Aix-Marseille Universite, UMR 7257, Campus de Luminy, Case 932, 13288 Marseille Cedex 09, France. ; G5 Biologie structurale de la secretion bacterienne, Institut Pasteur, 25-28 rue du Docteur Roux, 75015 Paris, France. ; UMR 3528, CNRS, Institut Pasteur, 25-28 rue du Docteur Roux, 75015 Paris, France. ; Laboratoire de Chimie Bacterienne, Institut de Microbiologie de la Mediterranee, CNRS UMR7283, Aix-Marseille Universite, 31 Chemin Joseph Aiguier, 13402 Marseille Cedex 20, France. ; Synchrotron Soleil, L'Orme des merisiers, Saint-Aubin BP48, 91192 Gif-sur-Yvette Cedex, France.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26909579" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: 〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Reardon, Sara -- England -- Nature. 2016 May 5;533(7601):15-6. doi: 10.1038/533015a.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27147010" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: 〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Reardon, Sara -- England -- Nature. 2016 Mar 31;531(7596):560. doi: 10.1038/531560a.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27029280" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: 〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Mullard, Asher -- England -- Nature. 2016 Feb 18;530(7590):367-9. doi: 10.1038/530367a.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26887498" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: Polyketide synthases (PKSs) are biosynthetic factories that produce natural products with important biological and pharmacological activities. Their exceptional product diversity is encoded in a modular architecture. Modular PKSs (modPKSs) catalyse reactions colinear to the order of modules in an assembly line, whereas iterative PKSs (iPKSs) use a single module iteratively as exemplified by fungal iPKSs (fiPKSs). However, in some cases non-colinear iterative action is also observed for modPKSs modules and is controlled by the assembly line environment. PKSs feature a structural and functional separation into a condensing and a modifying region as observed for fatty acid synthases. Despite the outstanding relevance of PKSs, the detailed organization of PKSs with complete fully reducing modifying regions remains elusive. Here we report a hybrid crystal structure of Mycobacterium smegmatis mycocerosic acid synthase based on structures of its condensing and modifying regions. Mycocerosic acid synthase is a fully reducing iPKS, closely related to modPKSs, and the prototype of mycobacterial mycocerosic acid synthase-like PKSs. It is involved in the biosynthesis of C20-C28 branched-chain fatty acids, which are important virulence factors of mycobacteria. Our structural data reveal a dimeric linker-based organization of the modifying region and visualize dynamics and conformational coupling in PKSs. On the basis of comparative small-angle X-ray scattering, the observed modifying region architecture may be common also in modPKSs. The linker-based organization provides a rationale for the characteristic variability of PKS modules as a main contributor to product diversity. The comprehensive architectural model enables functional dissection and re-engineering of PKSs.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Herbst, Dominik A -- Jakob, Roman P -- Zahringer, Franziska -- Maier, Timm -- England -- Nature. 2016 Mar 24;531(7595):533-7. doi: 10.1038/nature16993. Epub 2016 Mar 14.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Department Biozentrum, University of Basel, Klingelbergstrasse 50/70, 4056 Basel, Switzerland.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26976449" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: U4/U6.U5 tri-snRNP represents a substantial part of the spliceosome before activation. A cryo-electron microscopy structure of Saccharomyces cerevisiae U4/U6.U5 tri-snRNP at 3.7 A resolution led to an essentially complete atomic model comprising 30 proteins plus U4/U6 and U5 small nuclear RNAs (snRNAs). The structure reveals striking interweaving interactions of the protein and RNA components, including extended polypeptides penetrating into subunit interfaces. The invariant ACAGAGA sequence of U6 snRNA, which base-pairs with the 5'-splice site during catalytic activation, forms a hairpin stabilized by Dib1 and Prp8 while the adjacent nucleotides interact with the exon binding loop 1 of U5 snRNA. Snu114 harbours GTP, but its putative catalytic histidine is held away from the gamma-phosphate by hydrogen bonding to a tyrosine in the amino-terminal domain of Prp8. Mutation of this histidine to alanine has no detectable effect on yeast growth. The structure provides important new insights into the spliceosome activation process leading to the formation of the catalytic centre.〈br /〉〈br /〉〈a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4762201/" target="_blank"〉〈img src="https://static.pubmed.gov/portal/portal3rc.fcgi/4089621/img/3977009" border="0"〉〈/a〉   〈a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4762201/" target="_blank"〉This paper as free author manuscript - peer-reviewed and accepted for publication〈/a〉〈br /〉〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Nguyen, Thi Hoang Duong -- Galej, Wojciech P -- Bai, Xiao-chen -- Oubridge, Chris -- Newman, Andrew J -- Scheres, Sjors H W -- Nagai, Kiyoshi -- MC_U105184330/Medical Research Council/United Kingdom -- MC_UP_A025_1013/Medical Research Council/United Kingdom -- England -- Nature. 2016 Feb 18;530(7590):298-302. doi: 10.1038/nature16940. Epub 2016 Feb 1.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Francis Crick Avenue, Cambridge CB2 0QH, UK.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26829225" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: Observing marine mammal (MM) populations continuously in time and space over the immense ocean areas they inhabit is challenging but essential for gathering an unambiguous record of their distribution, as well as understanding their behaviour and interaction with prey species. Here we use passive ocean acoustic waveguide remote sensing (POAWRS) in an important North Atlantic feeding ground to instantaneously detect, localize and classify MM vocalizations from diverse species over an approximately 100,000 km(2) region. More than eight species of vocal MMs are found to spatially converge on fish spawning areas containing massive densely populated herring shoals at night-time and diffuse herring distributions during daytime. We find the vocal MMs divide the enormous fish prey field into species-specific foraging areas with varying degrees of spatial overlap, maintained for at least two weeks of the herring spawning period. The recorded vocalization rates are diel (24 h)-dependent for all MM species, with some significantly more vocal at night and others more vocal during the day. The four key baleen whale species of the region: fin, humpback, blue and minke have vocalization rate trends that are highly correlated to trends in fish shoaling density and to each other over the diel cycle. These results reveal the temporospatial dynamics of combined multi-species MM foraging activities in the vicinity of an extensive fish prey field that forms a massive ecological hotspot, and would be unattainable with conventional methodologies. Understanding MM behaviour and distributions is essential for management of marine ecosystems and for accessing anthropogenic impacts on these protected marine species.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Wang, Delin -- Garcia, Heriberto -- Huang, Wei -- Tran, Duong D -- Jain, Ankita D -- Yi, Dong Hoon -- Gong, Zheng -- Jech, J Michael -- Godo, Olav Rune -- Makris, Nicholas C -- Ratilal, Purnima -- England -- Nature. 2016 Mar 17;531(7594):366-70. doi: 10.1038/nature16960. Epub 2016 Mar 2.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Laboratory for Ocean Acoustics and Ecosystem Sensing, Northeastern University, 360 Huntington Avenue, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, USA. ; Laboratory for Undersea Remote Sensing, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, USA. ; Northeast Fisheries Science Center, 166 Water Street, Woods Hole, Massachusetts 02543, USA. ; Institute of Marine Research, Post Office Box 1870, Nordnes, N-5817 Bergen, Norway.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26934221" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: 〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Nowogrodzki, Anna -- England -- Nature. 2016 Mar 31;531(7596):561. doi: 10.1038/nature.2016.19599.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27029258" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: 〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Ledford, Heidi -- England -- Nature. 2016 Mar 10;531(7593):149. doi: 10.1038/531149a.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26961633" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: USP14 is a major regulator of the proteasome and one of three proteasome-associated deubiquitinating enzymes. Its effects on protein turnover are substrate-specific, for unknown reasons. We report that USP14 shows a marked preference for ubiquitin-cyclin B conjugates that carry more than one ubiquitin modification or chain. This specificity is conserved from yeast to humans and is independent of chain linkage type. USP14 has been thought to cleave single ubiquitin groups from the distal tip of a chain, but we find that it removes chains from cyclin B en bloc, proceeding until a single chain remains. The suppression of degradation by USP14's catalytic activity reflects its capacity to act on a millisecond time scale, before the proteasome can initiate degradation of the substrate. In addition, single-molecule studies showed that the dwell time of ubiquitin conjugates at the proteasome was reduced by USP14-dependent deubiquitination. In summary, the specificity of the proteasome can be regulated by rapid ubiquitin chain removal, which resolves substrates based on a novel aspect of ubiquitin conjugate architecture.〈br /〉〈br /〉〈a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4844788/" target="_blank"〉〈img src="https://static.pubmed.gov/portal/portal3rc.fcgi/4089621/img/3977009" border="0"〉〈/a〉   〈a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4844788/" target="_blank"〉This paper as free author manuscript - peer-reviewed and accepted for publication〈/a〉〈br /〉〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Lee, Byung-Hoon -- Lu, Ying -- Prado, Miguel A -- Shi, Yuan -- Tian, Geng -- Sun, Shuangwu -- Elsasser, Suzanne -- Gygi, Steven P -- King, Randall W -- Finley, Daniel -- 5R01GM039023-26/GM/NIGMS NIH HHS/ -- R01 GM026875/GM/NIGMS NIH HHS/ -- R01 GM066492/GM/NIGMS NIH HHS/ -- R01GM5660052/GM/NIGMS NIH HHS/ -- R01GM66492-9/GM/NIGMS NIH HHS/ -- R37-GM043601/GM/NIGMS NIH HHS/ -- England -- Nature. 2016 Apr 21;532(7599):398-401. doi: 10.1038/nature17433. Epub 2016 Apr 13.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Department of Cell Biology, Harvard Medical School, 240 Longwood Avenue, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, USA. ; Department of Systems Biology, Harvard Medical School, 200 Longwood Avenue, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, USA. ; Life Sciences Institute, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, 310058, China.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27074503" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: 〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Savage, Neil -- England -- Nature. 2016 May 11;533(7602):S56-8. doi: 10.1038/533S56a.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27167391" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: Accurate chromosome segregation requires timely dissolution of chromosome cohesion after chromosomes are properly attached to the mitotic spindle. Separase is absolutely essential for cohesion dissolution in organisms from yeast to man. It cleaves the kleisin subunit of cohesin and opens the cohesin ring to allow chromosome segregation. Cohesin cleavage is spatiotemporally controlled by separase-associated regulatory proteins, including the inhibitory chaperone securin, and by phosphorylation of both the enzyme and substrates. Dysregulation of this process causes chromosome missegregation and aneuploidy, contributing to cancer and birth defects. Despite its essential functions, atomic structures of separase have not been determined. Here we report crystal structures of the separase protease domain from the thermophilic fungus Chaetomium thermophilum, alone or covalently bound to unphosphorylated and phosphorylated inhibitory peptides derived from a cohesin cleavage site. These structures reveal how separase recognizes cohesin and how cohesin phosphorylation by polo-like kinase 1 (Plk1) enhances cleavage. Consistent with a previous cellular study, mutating two securin residues in a conserved motif that partly matches the separase cleavage consensus converts securin from a separase inhibitor to a substrate. Our study establishes atomic mechanisms of substrate cleavage by separase and suggests competitive inhibition by securin.〈br /〉〈br /〉〈a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4847710/" target="_blank"〉〈img src="https://static.pubmed.gov/portal/portal3rc.fcgi/4089621/img/3977009" border="0"〉〈/a〉   〈a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4847710/" target="_blank"〉This paper as free author manuscript - peer-reviewed and accepted for publication〈/a〉〈br /〉〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Lin, Zhonghui -- Luo, Xuelian -- Yu, Hongtao -- GM107415/GM/NIGMS NIH HHS/ -- Howard Hughes Medical Institute/ -- England -- Nature. 2016 Apr 7;532(7597):131-4. doi: 10.1038/nature17402. Epub 2016 Mar 30.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Howard Hughes Medical Institute, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, 6001 Forest Park Road, Dallas, Texas 75390, USA. ; Department of Pharmacology, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, 6001 Forest Park Road, Dallas, Texas 75390, USA. ; Department of Biophysics, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, 6001 Forest Park Road, Dallas, Texas 75390, USA.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27027290" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: The past rapid growth of Northern Hemisphere continental ice sheets, which terminated warm and stable climate periods, is generally attributed to reduced summer insolation in boreal latitudes. Yet such summer insolation is near to its minimum at present, and there are no signs of a new ice age. This challenges our understanding of the mechanisms driving glacial cycles and our ability to predict the next glacial inception. Here we propose a critical functional relationship between boreal summer insolation and global carbon dioxide (CO2) concentration, which explains the beginning of the past eight glacial cycles and might anticipate future periods of glacial inception. Using an ensemble of simulations generated by an Earth system model of intermediate complexity constrained by palaeoclimatic data, we suggest that glacial inception was narrowly missed before the beginning of the Industrial Revolution. The missed inception can be accounted for by the combined effect of relatively high late-Holocene CO2 concentrations and the low orbital eccentricity of the Earth. Additionally, our analysis suggests that even in the absence of human perturbations no substantial build-up of ice sheets would occur within the next several thousand years and that the current interglacial would probably last for another 50,000 years. However, moderate anthropogenic cumulative CO2 emissions of 1,000 to 1,500 gigatonnes of carbon will postpone the next glacial inception by at least 100,000 years. Our simulations demonstrate that under natural conditions alone the Earth system would be expected to remain in the present delicately balanced interglacial climate state, steering clear of both large-scale glaciation of the Northern Hemisphere and its complete deglaciation, for an unusually long time.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Ganopolski, A -- Winkelmann, R -- Schellnhuber, H J -- England -- Nature. 2016 Jan 14;529(7585):200-3. doi: 10.1038/nature16494.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, 14412 Potsdam, Germany. ; Physics Institute, Potsdam University, 14476 Potsdam, Germany. ; Santa Fe Institute, Santa Fe, New Mexico 87501, USA.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26762457" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: The three-dimensional structures of macromolecules and their complexes are mainly elucidated by X-ray protein crystallography. A major limitation of this method is access to high-quality crystals, which is necessary to ensure X-ray diffraction extends to sufficiently large scattering angles and hence yields information of sufficiently high resolution with which to solve the crystal structure. The observation that crystals with reduced unit-cell volumes and tighter macromolecular packing often produce higher-resolution Bragg peaks suggests that crystallographic resolution for some macromolecules may be limited not by their heterogeneity, but by a deviation of strict positional ordering of the crystalline lattice. Such displacements of molecules from the ideal lattice give rise to a continuous diffraction pattern that is equal to the incoherent sum of diffraction from rigid individual molecular complexes aligned along several discrete crystallographic orientations and that, consequently, contains more information than Bragg peaks alone. Although such continuous diffraction patterns have long been observed--and are of interest as a source of information about the dynamics of proteins--they have not been used for structure determination. Here we show for crystals of the integral membrane protein complex photosystem II that lattice disorder increases the information content and the resolution of the diffraction pattern well beyond the 4.5-angstrom limit of measurable Bragg peaks, which allows us to phase the pattern directly. Using the molecular envelope conventionally determined at 4.5 angstroms as a constraint, we obtain a static image of the photosystem II dimer at a resolution of 3.5 angstroms. This result shows that continuous diffraction can be used to overcome what have long been supposed to be the resolution limits of macromolecular crystallography, using a method that exploits commonly encountered imperfect crystals and enables model-free phasing.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Ayyer, Kartik -- Yefanov, Oleksandr M -- Oberthur, Dominik -- Roy-Chowdhury, Shatabdi -- Galli, Lorenzo -- Mariani, Valerio -- Basu, Shibom -- Coe, Jesse -- Conrad, Chelsie E -- Fromme, Raimund -- Schaffer, Alexander -- Dorner, Katerina -- James, Daniel -- Kupitz, Christopher -- Metz, Markus -- Nelson, Garrett -- Xavier, Paulraj Lourdu -- Beyerlein, Kenneth R -- Schmidt, Marius -- Sarrou, Iosifina -- Spence, John C H -- Weierstall, Uwe -- White, Thomas A -- Yang, Jay-How -- Zhao, Yun -- Liang, Mengning -- Aquila, Andrew -- Hunter, Mark S -- Robinson, Joseph S -- Koglin, Jason E -- Boutet, Sebastien -- Fromme, Petra -- Barty, Anton -- Chapman, Henry N -- P41GM103393/GM/NIGMS NIH HHS/ -- P41RR001209/RR/NCRR NIH HHS/ -- R01 GM095583/GM/NIGMS NIH HHS/ -- R01 GM097463/GM/NIGMS NIH HHS/ -- U54 GM094599/GM/NIGMS NIH HHS/ -- England -- Nature. 2016 Feb 11;530(7589):202-6. doi: 10.1038/nature16949.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Center for Free-Electron Laser Science, DESY, 22607 Hamburg, Germany. ; Department of Physics, University of Hamburg, 22761 Hamburg, Germany. ; School of Molecular Sciences, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona 85287, USA. ; Center for Applied Structural Discovery, Biodesign Institute, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona 85287, USA. ; Department of Physics, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona 85287, USA. ; Physics Department, University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, Wisconsin 53211, USA. ; Institute of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology, Foundation for Research and Technology, Hellas, GR-70013 Crete, Greece. ; Linac Coherent Light Source, Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC), National Accelerator Laboratory, 2575 Sand Hill Road, Menlo Park, California 94025, USA. ; Centre for Ultrafast Imaging, 22607 Hamburg, Germany.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26863980" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: Cellular senescence, a stress-induced irreversible growth arrest often characterized by expression of p16(Ink4a) (encoded by the Ink4a/Arf locus, also known as Cdkn2a) and a distinctive secretory phenotype, prevents the proliferation of preneoplastic cells and has beneficial roles in tissue remodelling during embryogenesis and wound healing. Senescent cells accumulate in various tissues and organs over time, and have been speculated to have a role in ageing. To explore the physiological relevance and consequences of naturally occurring senescent cells, here we use a previously established transgene, INK-ATTAC, to induce apoptosis in p16(Ink4a)-expressing cells of wild-type mice by injection of AP20187 twice a week starting at one year of age. We show that compared to vehicle alone, AP20187 treatment extended median lifespan in both male and female mice of two distinct genetic backgrounds. The clearance of p16(Ink4a)-positive cells delayed tumorigenesis and attenuated age-related deterioration of several organs without apparent side effects, including kidney, heart and fat, where clearance preserved the functionality of glomeruli, cardio-protective KATP channels and adipocytes, respectively. Thus, p16(Ink4a)-positive cells that accumulate during adulthood negatively influence lifespan and promote age-dependent changes in several organs, and their therapeutic removal may be an attractive approach to extend healthy lifespan.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Baker, Darren J -- Childs, Bennett G -- Durik, Matej -- Wijers, Melinde E -- Sieben, Cynthia J -- Zhong, Jian -- Saltness, Rachel A -- Jeganathan, Karthik B -- Verzosa, Grace Casaclang -- Pezeshki, Abdulmohammad -- Khazaie, Khashayarsha -- Miller, Jordan D -- van Deursen, Jan M -- AG041122/AG/NIA NIH HHS/ -- HL111121/HL/NHLBI NIH HHS/ -- P01 AG041122/AG/NIA NIH HHS/ -- R01 CA096985/CA/NCI NIH HHS/ -- R01CA96985/CA/NCI NIH HHS/ -- England -- Nature. 2016 Feb 11;530(7589):184-9. doi: 10.1038/nature16932. Epub 2016 Feb 3.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Department of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine, Mayo Clinic College of Medicine, Rochester, Minnesota 55905, USA. ; Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Mayo Clinic College of Medicine, Rochester, Minnesota 55905, USA. ; Division of Cardiovascular Surgery, Mayo Clinic College of Medicine, Rochester, Minnesota 55905, USA. ; Department of Immunology, Mayo Clinic College of Medicine, Rochester, Minnesota 55905, USA.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26840489" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: The process of ageing makes death increasingly likely, involving a random aspect that produces a wide distribution of lifespan even in homogeneous populations. The study of this stochastic behaviour may link molecular mechanisms to the ageing process that determines lifespan. Here, by collecting high-precision mortality statistics from large populations, we observe that interventions as diverse as changes in diet, temperature, exposure to oxidative stress, and disruption of genes including the heat shock factor hsf-1, the hypoxia-inducible factor hif-1, and the insulin/IGF-1 pathway components daf-2, age-1, and daf-16 all alter lifespan distributions by an apparent stretching or shrinking of time. To produce such temporal scaling, each intervention must alter to the same extent throughout adult life all physiological determinants of the risk of death. Organismic ageing in Caenorhabditis elegans therefore appears to involve aspects of physiology that respond in concert to a diverse set of interventions. In this way, temporal scaling identifies a novel state variable, r(t), that governs the risk of death and whose average decay dynamics involves a single effective rate constant of ageing, kr. Interventions that produce temporal scaling influence lifespan exclusively by altering kr. Such interventions, when applied transiently even in early adulthood, temporarily alter kr with an attendant transient increase or decrease in the rate of change in r and a permanent effect on remaining lifespan. The existence of an organismal ageing dynamics that is invariant across genetic and environmental contexts provides the basis for a new, quantitative framework for evaluating the manner and extent to which specific molecular processes contribute to the aspect of ageing that determines lifespan.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Stroustrup, Nicholas -- Anthony, Winston E -- Nash, Zachary M -- Gowda, Vivek -- Gomez, Adam -- Lopez-Moyado, Isaac F -- Apfeld, Javier -- Fontana, Walter -- P40 OD010440/OD/NIH HHS/ -- R01 AG034994/AG/NIA NIH HHS/ -- England -- Nature. 2016 Feb 4;530(7588):103-7. doi: 10.1038/nature16550. Epub 2016 Jan 27.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Department of Systems Biology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, USA.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26814965" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: The current outbreak of Ebola virus in West Africa is unprecedented, causing more cases and fatalities than all previous outbreaks combined, and has yet to be controlled. Several post-exposure interventions have been employed under compassionate use to treat patients repatriated to Europe and the United States. However, the in vivo efficacy of these interventions against the new outbreak strain of Ebola virus is unknown. Here we show that lipid-nanoparticle-encapsulated short interfering RNAs (siRNAs) rapidly adapted to target the Makona outbreak strain of Ebola virus are able to protect 100% of rhesus monkeys against lethal challenge when treatment was initiated at 3 days after exposure while animals were viraemic and clinically ill. Although all infected animals showed evidence of advanced disease including abnormal haematology, blood chemistry and coagulopathy, siRNA-treated animals had milder clinical features and fully recovered, while the untreated control animals succumbed to the disease. These results represent the first, to our knowledge, successful demonstration of therapeutic anti-Ebola virus efficacy against the new outbreak strain in nonhuman primates and highlight the rapid development of lipid-nanoparticle-delivered siRNA as a countermeasure against this highly lethal human disease.〈br /〉〈br /〉〈a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4467030/" target="_blank"〉〈img src="https://static.pubmed.gov/portal/portal3rc.fcgi/4089621/img/3977009" border="0"〉〈/a〉   〈a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4467030/" target="_blank"〉This paper as free author manuscript - peer-reviewed and accepted for publication〈/a〉〈br /〉〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Thi, Emily P -- Mire, Chad E -- Lee, Amy C H -- Geisbert, Joan B -- Zhou, Joy Z -- Agans, Krystle N -- Snead, Nicholas M -- Deer, Daniel J -- Barnard, Trisha R -- Fenton, Karla A -- MacLachlan, Ian -- Geisbert, Thomas W -- U19 AI109711/AI/NIAID NIH HHS/ -- U19AI109711/AI/NIAID NIH HHS/ -- England -- Nature. 2015 May 21;521(7552):362-5. doi: 10.1038/nature14442. Epub 2015 Apr 22.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Tekmira Pharmaceuticals, Burnaby, British Columbia V5J 5J8, Canada. ; 1] Galveston National Laboratory, University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, Texas 77550, USA [2] Department of Microbiology and Immunology, University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, Texas 77550, USA.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25901685" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: Piezo proteins are evolutionarily conserved and functionally diverse mechanosensitive cation channels. However, the overall structural architecture and gating mechanisms of Piezo channels have remained unknown. Here we determine the cryo-electron microscopy structure of the full-length (2,547 amino acids) mouse Piezo1 (Piezo1) at a resolution of 4.8 A. Piezo1 forms a trimeric propeller-like structure (about 900 kilodalton), with the extracellular domains resembling three distal blades and a central cap. The transmembrane region has 14 apparently resolved segments per subunit. These segments form three peripheral wings and a central pore module that encloses a potential ion-conducting pore. The rather flexible extracellular blade domains are connected to the central intracellular domain by three long beam-like structures. This trimeric architecture suggests that Piezo1 may use its peripheral regions as force sensors to gate the central ion-conducting pore.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Ge, Jingpeng -- Li, Wanqiu -- Zhao, Qiancheng -- Li, Ningning -- Chen, Maofei -- Zhi, Peng -- Li, Ruochong -- Gao, Ning -- Xiao, Bailong -- Yang, Maojun -- England -- Nature. 2015 Nov 5;527(7576):64-9. doi: 10.1038/nature15247. Epub 2015 Sep 21.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Tsinghua-Peking Joint Center for Life Sciences, School of Life Sciences or Medicine, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China. ; Ministry of Education, Key Laboratory of Protein Sciences, School of Life Sciences, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China. ; Department of Pharmacology and Pharmaceutical Sciences, School of Medicine, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China. ; IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26390154" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: Bacteria secrete peptides and proteins to communicate, to poison competitors, and to manipulate host cells. Among the various protein-translocation machineries, the peptidase-containing ATP-binding cassette transporters (PCATs) are appealingly simple. Each PCAT contains two peptidase domains that cleave the secretion signal from the substrate, two transmembrane domains that form a translocation pathway, and two nucleotide-binding domains that hydrolyse ATP. In Gram-positive bacteria, PCATs function both as maturation proteases and exporters for quorum-sensing or antimicrobial polypeptides. In Gram-negative bacteria, PCATs interact with two other membrane proteins to form the type 1 secretion system. Here we present crystal structures of PCAT1 from Clostridium thermocellum in two different conformations. These structures, accompanied by biochemical data, show that the translocation pathway is a large alpha-helical barrel sufficient to accommodate small folded proteins. ATP binding alternates access to the transmembrane pathway and also regulates the protease activity, thereby coupling substrate processing to translocation.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Lin, David Yin-wei -- Huang, Shuo -- Chen, Jue -- Howard Hughes Medical Institute/ -- England -- Nature. 2015 Jul 23;523(7561):425-30. doi: 10.1038/nature14623.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉1] Laboratory of Membrane Biology and Biophysics, The Rockefeller University, 1230 York Avenue, New York, New York 10065, USA [2] Howard Hughes Medical Institute, 1230 York Avenue, New York, New York 10065, USA. ; Howard Hughes Medical Institute, 1230 York Avenue, New York, New York 10065, USA.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26201595" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: 〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Geddes, Linda -- England -- Nature. 2015 Nov 5;527(7576):22-5. doi: 10.1038/527022a.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26536940" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: 〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉England -- Nature. 2015 May 28;521(7553):394. doi: 10.1038/521394a.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26017406" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: 〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉de Oliveira, Joao Ricardo Mendes -- England -- Nature. 2015 Oct 22;526(7574):506. doi: 10.1038/526506e.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Federal University of Pernambuco, Recife, Brazil.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26490608" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: Robots have transformed many industries, most notably manufacturing, and have the power to deliver tremendous benefits to society, such as in search and rescue, disaster response, health care and transportation. They are also invaluable tools for scientific exploration in environments inaccessible to humans, from distant planets to deep oceans. A major obstacle to their widespread adoption in more complex environments outside factories is their fragility. Whereas animals can quickly adapt to injuries, current robots cannot 'think outside the box' to find a compensatory behaviour when they are damaged: they are limited to their pre-specified self-sensing abilities, can diagnose only anticipated failure modes, and require a pre-programmed contingency plan for every type of potential damage, an impracticality for complex robots. A promising approach to reducing robot fragility involves having robots learn appropriate behaviours in response to damage, but current techniques are slow even with small, constrained search spaces. Here we introduce an intelligent trial-and-error algorithm that allows robots to adapt to damage in less than two minutes in large search spaces without requiring self-diagnosis or pre-specified contingency plans. Before the robot is deployed, it uses a novel technique to create a detailed map of the space of high-performing behaviours. This map represents the robot's prior knowledge about what behaviours it can perform and their value. When the robot is damaged, it uses this prior knowledge to guide a trial-and-error learning algorithm that conducts intelligent experiments to rapidly discover a behaviour that compensates for the damage. Experiments reveal successful adaptations for a legged robot injured in five different ways, including damaged, broken, and missing legs, and for a robotic arm with joints broken in 14 different ways. This new algorithm will enable more robust, effective, autonomous robots, and may shed light on the principles that animals use to adapt to injury.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Cully, Antoine -- Clune, Jeff -- Tarapore, Danesh -- Mouret, Jean-Baptiste -- England -- Nature. 2015 May 28;521(7553):503-7. doi: 10.1038/nature14422.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉1] Sorbonne Universites, Universite Pierre et Marie Curie (UPMC), Paris 06, UMR 7222, Institut des Systemes Intelligents et de Robotique (ISIR), F-75005, Paris, France [2] CNRS, UMR 7222, Institut des Systemes Intelligents et de Robotique (ISIR), F-75005, Paris, France. ; Department of Computer Science, University of Wyoming, Laramie, Wyoming 82071, USA. ; 1] Sorbonne Universites, Universite Pierre et Marie Curie (UPMC), Paris 06, UMR 7222, Institut des Systemes Intelligents et de Robotique (ISIR), F-75005, Paris, France [2] CNRS, UMR 7222, Institut des Systemes Intelligents et de Robotique (ISIR), F-75005, Paris, France [3] Inria, Team Larsen, Villers-les-Nancy, F-54600, France [4] CNRS, Loria, UMR 7503, Vandoeuvre-les-Nancy, F-54500, France [5] Universite de Lorraine, Loria, UMR 7503, Vandoeuvre-les-Nancy, F-54500, France.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26017452" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: 〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Tollefson, Jeff -- England -- Nature. 2015 Sep 24;525(7570):434-5. doi: 10.1038/525434a.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26399805" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: 〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Jones, Dan -- England -- Nature. 2015 Mar 12;519(7542):148-50. doi: 10.1038/519148a.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25762265" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: 〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Cyranoski, David -- England -- Nature. 2015 Nov 19;527(7578):283-4. doi: 10.1038/527283a.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26581268" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: Rising temperatures and lessening fresh water supplies are threatening agricultural productivity and have motivated efforts to improve plant water use and drought tolerance. During water deficit, plants produce elevated levels of abscisic acid (ABA), which improves water consumption and stress tolerance by controlling guard cell aperture and other protective responses. One attractive strategy for controlling water use is to develop compounds that activate ABA receptors, but agonists approved for use have yet to be developed. In principle, an engineered ABA receptor that can be activated by an existing agrochemical could achieve this goal. Here we describe a variant of the ABA receptor PYRABACTIN RESISTANCE 1 (PYR1) that possesses nanomolar sensitivity to the agrochemical mandipropamid and demonstrate its efficacy for controlling ABA responses and drought tolerance in transgenic plants. Furthermore, crystallographic studies provide a mechanistic basis for its activity and demonstrate the relative ease with which the PYR1 ligand-binding pocket can be altered to accommodate new ligands. Thus, we have successfully repurposed an agrochemical for a new application using receptor engineering. We anticipate that this strategy will be applied to other plant receptors and represents a new avenue for crop improvement.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Park, Sang-Youl -- Peterson, Francis C -- Mosquna, Assaf -- Yao, Jin -- Volkman, Brian F -- Cutler, Sean R -- England -- Nature. 2015 Apr 23;520(7548):545-8. doi: 10.1038/nature14123. Epub 2015 Feb 4.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉1] Center for Plant Cell Biology and Department of Botany and Plant Sciences, University of California, Riverside, California 92521, USA [2] Institute for Integrative Genome Biology, Riverside, California 92521, USA. ; Department of Biochemistry, Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, Wisconsin 53226, USA.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25652827" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: Continuing degradation of coral reef ecosystems has generated substantial interest in how management can support reef resilience. Fishing is the primary source of diminished reef function globally, leading to widespread calls for additional marine reserves to recover fish biomass and restore key ecosystem functions. Yet there are no established baselines for determining when these conservation objectives have been met or whether alternative management strategies provide similar ecosystem benefits. Here we establish empirical conservation benchmarks and fish biomass recovery timelines against which coral reefs can be assessed and managed by studying the recovery potential of more than 800 coral reefs along an exploitation gradient. We show that resident reef fish biomass in the absence of fishing (B0) averages approximately 1,000 kg ha(-1), and that the vast majority (83%) of fished reefs are missing more than half their expected biomass, with severe consequences for key ecosystem functions such as predation. Given protection from fishing, reef fish biomass has the potential to recover within 35 years on average and less than 60 years when heavily depleted. Notably, alternative fisheries restrictions are largely (64%) successful at maintaining biomass above 50% of B0, sustaining key functions such as herbivory. Our results demonstrate that crucial ecosystem functions can be maintained through a range of fisheries restrictions, allowing coral reef managers to develop recovery plans that meet conservation and livelihood objectives in areas where marine reserves are not socially or politically feasible solutions.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉MacNeil, M Aaron -- Graham, Nicholas A J -- Cinner, Joshua E -- Wilson, Shaun K -- Williams, Ivor D -- Maina, Joseph -- Newman, Steven -- Friedlander, Alan M -- Jupiter, Stacy -- Polunin, Nicholas V C -- McClanahan, Tim R -- England -- Nature. 2015 Apr 16;520(7547):341-4. doi: 10.1038/nature14358. Epub 2015 Apr 8.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉1] Australian Institute of Marine Science, PMB 3 Townsville MC, Townsville, Queensland 4810, Australia [2] Department of Mathematics and Statistics, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia B3H 3J5, Canada [3] Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies, James Cook University, Townsville, Queensland 4811, Australia. ; Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies, James Cook University, Townsville, Queensland 4811, Australia. ; 1] Department of Parks and Wildlife, Kensington, Perth, Western Australia 6151, Australia [2] Oceans Institute, University of Western Australia, Crawley, Western Australia 6009, Australia. ; Coral Reef Ecosystems Division, NOAA Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center, Honolulu, Hawaii 96818, USA. ; 1] Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Environmental Decisions (CEED), University of Queensland, Brisbane, St Lucia, Queensland 4074, Australia [2] Wildlife Conservation Society, Marine Programs, Bronx, New York 10460, USA. ; School of Marine Science and Technology, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 7RU, UK. ; 1] Fisheries Ecology Research Lab, Department of Biology, University of Hawaii, Honolulu, Hawaii 96822, USA [2] Pristine Seas-National Geographic, Washington DC 20036, USA. ; Wildlife Conservation Society, Marine Programs, Bronx, New York 10460, USA.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25855298" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: 〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Gong, Zhaohui -- England -- Nature. 2015 Jan 8;517(7533):145. doi: 10.1038/517145c.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Ningbo University School of Medicine, Ningbo, China.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25567273" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉