February 2013

Research articles

1. 1. Chromosomes and Gene Expression
   2. Genetics and Genomics

   Epigenetic conservation at gene regulatory elements revealed by non-methylated DNA profiling in seven vertebrates

   Hannah K Long, David Sims ... Robert J Klose

   Islands of non-methylated DNA are shown to perform a similar epigenetic role in many different vertebrate species.
2. 1. Neuroscience

   Convergence of pontine and proprioceptive streams onto multimodal cerebellar granule cells

   Cheng-Chiu Huang, Ken Sugino ... Adam W Hantman

   Individual granule cells within the cerebellum-the region of the brain that coordinates movement and supports the learning of new motor skills-receive both sensory and motor input streams: an arrangement that may help the brain to use feedback to fine-tune movement.
3. 1. Cell Biology
   2. Developmental Biology

   Mitotic spindle scaling during Xenopus development by kif2a and importin α

   Jeremy D Wilbur, Rebecca Heald

   An interaction between two proteins enables the spindle—the structure that segregates chromosome pairs during mitosis—to change size as cells divide.
4. 1. Structural Biology and Molecular Biophysics

   Ribosome structures to near-atomic resolution from thirty thousand cryo-EM particles

   Xiao-chen Bai, Israel S Fernandez ... Sjors HW Scheres

   A combination of direct-electron detectors and statistical movie processing allows ribosome cryo-EM structures to be determined to resolutions that were previously only attainable by X-ray crystallography.
5. 1. Structural Biology and Molecular Biophysics
   2. Microbiology and Infectious Disease

   Influenza-virus membrane fusion by cooperative fold-back of stochastically induced hemagglutinin intermediates

   Tijana Ivanovic, Jason L Choi ... Stephen C Harrison

   Long-lived intermediate states formed by glycoprotein catalysts are an essential part of the process used by influenza virus particles to infect cells.
6. 1. Cell Biology
   2. Immunology and Inflammation

   UNC93B1 mediates differential trafficking of endosomal TLRs

   Bettina L Lee, Joanne E Moon ... Gregory M Barton

   A transmembrane protein uses distinct mechanisms to regulate the movement of specific toll-like receptors-key immune system components involved in detecting pathogens-to their final locations inside cells.
7. 1. Immunology and Inflammation

   Dendritic cells loaded with FK506 kill T cells in an antigen-specific manner and prevent autoimmunity in vivo

   Dana E Orange, Nathalie E Blachere ... Robert B Darnell

   By using immune cells called dendritic cells to deliver drugs, it is possible to target and kill specific members of another class of immune cell, known as T cells, and to prevent these cells from attacking the body's own tissues in cases of autoimmune disease.
8. 1. Neuroscience

   Recognition of familiar food activates feeding via an endocrine serotonin signal in Caenorhabditis elegans

   Bo-mi Song, Serge Faumont ... Leon Avery

   The nematode worm C. elegans consumes familiar bacterial species more rapidly than it does novel ones, and this preference for familiarity is mediated by a pair of serotonergic neurons.
9. 1. Neuroscience

   Hierarchical organization of context in the hippocampal episodic code

   Susumu Takahashi

   Neurons in the hippocampus modulate the rates at which they fire, and the locations in which they fire, so as to encode the information that is central to forming memories about personal experiences.
10. 1. Cell Biology

    Time line of redox events in aging postmitotic cells

    Nicolas Brandes, Heather Tienson ... Ursula Jakob

    A sudden fall in the levels of the coenzyme NADPH within cells could have a central role in the process of aging.