February 2015

Cover articles

    1. Neuroscience

    Theta rhythms and social memory in rats

    Alex Tendler, Shlomo Wagner
    1. Developmental Biology

    A close look at nephron patterning

    Nils O Lindström, Melanie L Lawrence ... Peter Hohenstein
    1. Neuroscience

    Making the most of theta rhythms

    Angus Chadwick, Mark CW van Rossum, Matthew F Nolan
    1. Microbiology and Infectious Disease
    2. Neuroscience

    Shedding new light on prion disease

    Hermann C Altmeppen, Johannes Prox ... Markus Glatzel

Highlights controls:

Research articles

    1. Genetics and Genomics
    2. Plant Biology

    Evidence for suppression of immunity as a driver for genomic introgressions and host range expansion in races of Albugo candida, a generalist parasite

    Mark McMullan, Anastasia Gardiner ... Jonathan DG Jones
    Hybridization and introgression blur species boundaries and broaden genetic diversity available for adaptation; and widespread introgression underpins the evolution of races of the generalist pathogen Albugo candida that specialise on different host plant species.
    1. Neuroscience

    Corelease of acetylcholine and GABA from cholinergic forebrain neurons

    Arpiar Saunders, Adam J Granger, Bernardo L Sabatini
    Neurons of the cholinergic system, which release the excitatory neurotransmitter acetycholine throughout the cortex, also release the inhibitory transmitter GABA, with potential implications for cognitive function.
    1. Neuroscience

    CAPS-1 promotes fusion competence of stationary dense-core vesicles in presynaptic terminals of mammalian neurons

    Margherita Farina, Rhea van de Bospoort ... Ruud F Toonen
    Stationary dense-core vesicles depend on the CAPS-1 protein to fuse with the presynaptic membrane.
    1. Cell Biology
    2. Neuroscience

    The small molecule ISRIB reverses the effects of eIF2α phosphorylation on translation and stress granule assembly

    Carmela Sidrauski, Anna M McGeachy ... Peter Walter
    Building on previous work which showed that the small molecule ISRIB potently blocks the integrated stress response (Sidrauski et al., 2013), we report on ISRIB's remarkable specificity and fast action in vivo, underscoring its proposed direct effect on translation.
    1. Developmental Biology

    Hox genes control vertebrate body elongation by collinear Wnt repression

    Nicolas Denans, Tadahiro Iimura, Olivier Pourquié
    The collinear activation of a subset of posterior Hox genes is responsible for establishing a Wnt/T activity gradient that is required to generate the complete body axis, and hence the full set of segments within a vertebrate embryo.
    1. Developmental Biology

    The transcriptional response to tumorigenic polarity loss in Drosophila

    Brandon D Bunker, Tittu T Nellimoottil ... David Bilder
    Loss of polarity in epithelial cells leads to mitogenic cytokine upregulation, via coincident activation by JNK and atypical protein kinase C (aPKC), and Polycomb derepression.
    1. Cell Biology

    dPob/EMC is essential for biosynthesis of rhodopsin and other multi-pass membrane proteins in Drosophila photoreceptors

    Takunori Satoh, Aya Ohba ... Akiko K Satoh
    A membrane protein complex in the endoplasmic reticulum is a key factor for the biogenesis of multi-pass transmembrane proteins, including Rh1, and its loss causes retinal degeneration.
    1. Structural Biology and Molecular Biophysics

    Graded Ca2+/calmodulin-dependent coupling of voltage-gated CaV1.2 channels

    Rose E Dixon, Claudia M Moreno ... Luis F Santana
    The Ca2+-driven functional coupling of CaV1.2 channels is a mechanism of channel memory that may modulate the amplification of Ca2+ influx.
    1. Developmental Biology

    Angiopoietin-like proteins stimulate HSPC development through interaction with notch receptor signaling

    Michelle I Lin, Emily N Price ... Leonard I Zon
    Angiopoietin-like proteins signal through notch via receptor interaction and can regulate Notch cleavage/activation.
    1. Neuroscience

    Serotonergic neurons signal reward and punishment on multiple timescales

    Jeremiah Y Cohen, Mackenzie W Amoroso, Naoshige Uchida
    Serotonin-releasing neurons show tonic firing-rate changes correlating with global reward value in addition to phasic firing-rate changes correlating with local task events.
    1. Immunology and Inflammation
    2. Microbiology and Infectious Disease

    Blood-stage immunity to Plasmodium chabaudi malaria following chemoprophylaxis and sporozoite immunization

    Wiebke Nahrendorf, Philip J Spence ... Jean Langhorne
    A novel mouse model of immunization against Plasmodium chabaudi involving infectious mosquito bites and drug-treatment elicits protection against blood-stage malaria parasites, and shows that protection is not necessarily life cycle stage-specific.
    1. Evolutionary Biology

    The genetic architecture of gene expression levels in wild baboons

    Jenny Tung, Xiang Zhou ... Yoav Gilad
    RNA sequencing of individuals within a wild baboon population reveals extensive power to detect functional regulatory variation, and suggests that the set of genes affected by such variation may be conserved across species.
    1. Cell Biology
    2. Neuroscience

    Synaptotagmin 1 directs repetitive release by coupling vesicle exocytosis to the Rab3 cycle

    Yunsheng Cheng, Jiaming Wang ... Mei Ding
    Experiments in C. elegans reveal how synaptotagmin and Rab3, the 'yin and yang' of synapses, control whether transmitter vesicles remain docked at the presynaptic membrane or release their contents into the synapse.
    1. Developmental Biology

    Cellular interpretation of the long-range gradient of Four-jointed activity in the Drosophila wing

    Rosalind Hale, Amy L Brittle ... David Strutt
    Opposing gradients of Fat and Dachsous phosphorylation are sufficient to explain the observed pattern of Fat-Dachsous planar polarisation across the Drosophila wing.
    1. Developmental Biology
    2. Neuroscience

    Eye morphogenesis driven by epithelial flow into the optic cup facilitated by modulation of bone morphogenetic protein

    Stephan Heermann, Lucas Schütz ... Joachim Wittbrodt
    The lens-averted domains of the optic vesicle are reservoirs of neuroretinal cells that flow into the developing optic cup in a process that is critically influenced by BMP signaling.
    1. Physics of Living Systems
    2. Cell Biology

    Side-binding proteins modulate actin filament dynamics

    Alvaro H Crevenna, Marcelino Arciniega ... Don C Lamb
    The kinetics of actin polymerization are strongly influenced by the binding of proteins to the lateral filament surface.
    1. Biochemistry and Chemical Biology
    2. Structural Biology and Molecular Biophysics

    Autoinhibition of Bruton's tyrosine kinase (Btk) and activation by soluble inositol hexakisphosphate

    Qi Wang, Erik M Vogan ... John Kuriyan
    A key B-cell tyrosine kinase that adopts an autoinhibited conformation, and can be activated by either membrane recruitment or soluble inositol hexakisphosphates in solution.
    1. Biochemistry and Chemical Biology

    Ribosomes slide on lysine-encoding homopolymeric A stretches

    Kristin S Koutmou, Anthony P Schuller ... Rachel Green
    Ribosomes undergo an unanticipated movement (‘sliding’) while translating homopolymeric A sequences, which provides a biochemical rationale for the observation that iterated AAA codons are under-represented in gene-coding sequences.
    1. Ecology
    2. Epidemiology and Global Health

    Effectiveness of traveller screening for emerging pathogens is shaped by epidemiology and natural history of infection

    Katelyn M Gostic, Adam J Kucharski, James O Lloyd-Smith
    Pathogen natural history, epidemiological knowledge, human behavior and epidemic progression determine whether symptom screening and questionnaires are effective barriers to geographic spread of infection by travelers.
    1. Neuroscience

    Widespread correlation patterns of fMRI signal across visual cortex reflect eccentricity organization

    Michael J Arcaro, Christopher J Honey ... Uri Hasson
    Functional coupling between visual areas reflects supra-areal eccentricity organization distinct from overlapping receptive field connectivity during both rest conditions and naturalistic movie viewing.
    1. Neuroscience

    Role of visual and non-visual cues in constructing a rotation-invariant representation of heading in parietal cortex

    Adhira Sunkara, Gregory C DeAngelis, Dora E Angelaki
    Visual information (optic flow) can be used to discount self-generated rotations and aid in the accurate representation of heading.
    1. Biochemistry and Chemical Biology
    2. Structural Biology and Molecular Biophysics

    Noncanonical binding of BiP ATPase domain to Ire1 and Perk is dissociated by unfolded protein CH1 to initiate ER stress signaling

    Marta Carrara, Filippo Prischi ... Maruf MU Ali
    The chaperone protein BiP forms complexes with Ire1 and Perk that dissociate when unfolded proteins bind to BiP to activate the unfolded protein response in the ER.
    1. Biochemistry and Chemical Biology
    2. Cell Biology

    The stress-responsive kinases MAPKAPK2/MAPKAPK3 activate starvation-induced autophagy through Beclin 1 phosphorylation

    Yongjie Wei, Zhenyi An ... Beth Levine
    Nutrient starvation activates autophagy by a novel signaling mechanism that is blocked by one of the major autophagy inhibitors.
    1. Genetics and Genomics

    Non-allelic gene conversion enables rapid evolutionary change at multiple regulatory sites encoded by transposable elements

    Christopher E Ellison, Doris Bachtrog
    Fully functional regulatory elements can arise rapidly from transposable elements via a novel route where non-allelic gene conversion can act to speed up the evolutionary fine-tuning of regulatory elements.
    1. Cell Biology

    Uni-directional ciliary membrane protein trafficking by a cytoplasmic retrograde IFT motor and ciliary ectosome shedding

    Muqing Cao, Jue Ning ... William J Snell
    During cilium-generated signaling, ciliary membrane protein trafficking is unidirectional and ciliary membrane protein composition is regulated through action in the cytoplasm of the retrograde intraflagelllar transport (IFT) motor and shedding of ciliary ectosomes.
    1. Microbiology and Infectious Disease
    2. Plant Biology

    Viral-inducible Argonaute18 confers broad-spectrum virus resistance in rice by sequestering a host microRNA

    Jianguo Wu, Zhirui Yang ... Yi Li
    The cooperative antiviral activity of two distinct AGO proteins could be exploited to provide a new strategy for controlling viral diseases in rice.
    1. Neuroscience

    Different types of theta rhythmicity are induced by social and fearful stimuli in a network associated with social memory

    Alex Tendler, Shlomo Wagner
    Variations in the frequency of theta brain waves enable a single network of brain regions to generate appropriate responses to stimuli with different kinds of emotional value.
    1. Cancer Biology

    Inhibition of mutant EGFR in lung cancer cells triggers SOX2-FOXO6-dependent survival pathways

    S Michael Rothenberg, Kyle Concannon ... Daniel A Haber
    SOX2 causes resistance to anti-EGFR therapies in EGFR-mutant lung cancer.
    1. Structural Biology and Molecular Biophysics
    2. Cell Biology

    Visualizing the functional architecture of the endocytic machinery

    Andrea Picco, Markus Mund ... Marko Kaksonen
    A combination of light and electron microscopy data provide new insights into the dynamic architecture and the function of the endocytic protein machinery in relation to membrane shape changes in vivo.
    1. Cell Biology
    2. Developmental Biology

    Regions within a single epidermal cell of Drosophila can be planar polarised independently

    Miguel Rovira, Pedro Saavedra ... Peter A Lawrence
    Building on previous work (Saaverda et al., 2014), we show that the Dachsous/Fat system can polarise different parts of a single cell in opposite ways in the Drosophila larva.
    1. Cell Biology

    Intercellular propagation of extracellular signal-regulated kinase activation revealed by in vivo imaging of mouse skin

    Toru Hiratsuka, Yoshihisa Fujita ... Michiyuki Matsuda
    In vivo imaging of extracellular signal-regulated kinase activity reveals radial ERK activation patterns that are associated with cell cycle progression in the mouse epidermis.
    1. Cell Biology

    Two-signal requirement for growth-promoting function of Yap in hepatocytes

    Tian Su, Tanya Bondar ... Ruslan Medzhitov
    The Yap pathway requires two signals to promote organ growth: a cell intrinsic Hippo signal and a signal induced by injury or inflammation.
    1. Physics of Living Systems
    2. Developmental Biology

    Distinct mechanisms regulating mechanical force-induced Ca2+ signals at the plasma membrane and the ER in human MSCs

    Tae-Jin Kim, Chirlmin Joo ... Yingxiao Wang
    Deep penetration and transmission of mechanical force to regulate ER functions depends on not only the passive cytoskeletal support, but also the active actomyosin contractility, which is dispensable for mechanotransduction at the plasma membrane.
    1. Biochemistry and Chemical Biology
    2. Cell Biology

    Spectrin binding motifs regulate Scribble cortical dynamics and polarity function

    Batiste Boëda, Sandrine Etienne-Manneville
    A new protein–protein interaction motif identified in the polarity protein and tumor suppressor Scribble, and other cortical proteins, controls their interaction with spectrins and is crucial for the localization and function of Scribble.
    1. Neuroscience

    Causal manipulation of functional connectivity in a specific neural pathway during behaviour and at rest

    Vanessa M Johnen, Franz-Xaver Neubert ... Matthew F S Rushworth
    Functional connectivity in the human brain reflects changes in synaptic plasticity induced with repeated paired stimulation.
    1. Microbiology and Infectious Disease
    2. Neuroscience

    The sheddase ADAM10 is a potent modulator of prion disease

    Hermann C Altmeppen, Johannes Prox ... Markus Glatzel
    A lack of ADAM10-mediated shedding increases prion protein levels at the plasma membrane and promotes the generation of pathological prion proteins, which accelerates prion disease in mice.
    1. Neuroscience

    Auditory selective attention is enhanced by a task-irrelevant temporally coherent visual stimulus in human listeners

    Ross K Maddox, Huriye Atilgan ... Adrian KC Lee
    Faced with multiple sources of sound, humans can better perceive all of a target sound's features when one of those features changes in time with a visual stimulus.
    1. Neuroscience

    Genomic mosaicism with increased amyloid precursor protein (APP) gene copy number in single neurons from sporadic Alzheimer's disease brains

    Diane M Bushman, Gwendolyn E Kaeser ... Jerold Chun
    Somatically derived genomic mosaicism in the form of increased DNA content and APP copy number in single neurons plausibly has a function in sporadic Alzheimer’s disease and points to functions for single-neuron gene copy number changes.
    1. Developmental Biology

    Drosophila sessile hemocyte clusters are true hematopoietic tissues that regulate larval blood cell differentiation

    Alexandre B Leitão, Élio Sucena
    Blood cell transdifferentiation in Drosophila generates larval crystal cells through Notch-dependent signaling.
    1. Evolutionary Biology

    Rapid diversification associated with a macroevolutionary pulse of developmental plasticity

    Vladislav Susoy, Erik J Ragsdale ... Ralf J Sommer
    Evolutionary novelty is promoted by a macroevolutionary pulse of developmental plasticity, but is enhanced by secondary fixation, which permits developmental character release and further morphological exploration.
    1. Cell Biology

    Regulation of EGFR signal transduction by analogue-to-digital conversion in endosomes

    Roberto Villaseñor, Hidenori Nonaka ... Marino Zerial
    Cells package active receptors in endosomes at fairly constant amounts and can determine different cell-fate decisions by regulating the number and lifetime of receptor packages.
    1. Medicine
    2. Microbiology and Infectious Disease

    Mucosal effects of tenofovir 1% gel

    Florian Hladik, Adam Burgener ... Ian McGowan
    Mucosal application of the anti-retroviral drug tenofovir, which is intended to prevent HIV transmission, has many off-target effects on the mucosa itself.
    1. Epidemiology and Global Health

    Vitamin A supplements, routine immunization, and the subsequent risk of Plasmodium infection among children under 5 years in sub-Saharan Africa

    Maria-Graciela Hollm-Delgado, Frédéric B Piel ... Robert E Black
    An analysis of national survey data shows that vitamin A might protect against malaria infection, an effect potentially modified by seasonality, and that no routine vaccinations were linked to parasitemia, though BCG vaccination was associated with PfHRP-2 antigenemia.
    1. Evolutionary Biology
    2. Microbiology and Infectious Disease

    The evolution of drug resistance in clinical isolates of Candida albicans

    Christopher B Ford, Jason M Funt ... Aviv Regev
    Loss-of-heterozygosity mutations, but not aneuploidies, are linked to the evolution of drug resistance in Candida albicans isolated from immunocompromised patients.
    1. Computational and Systems Biology
    2. Ecology

    Expanding xylose metabolism in yeast for plant cell wall conversion to biofuels

    Xin Li, Vivian Yaci Yu ... Jamie HD Cate
    Parallel pathways of xylose metabolism identified in fungi that grow on plants can be used in yeast to promote hemicellulose conversion to biofuels.
    1. Developmental Biology

    Integrated β-catenin, BMP, PTEN, and Notch signalling patterns the nephron

    Nils O Lindström, Melanie L Lawrence ... Peter Hohenstein
    The patterning of the nephron is driven by a gradient in the activity of β-catenin and further defined by a network of BMP, PTEN and NOTCH signalling.
    1. Cell Biology

    Vascular remodeling is governed by a VEGFR3-dependent fluid shear stress set point

    Nicolas Baeyens, Stefania Nicoli ... Martin A Schwartz
    Flow-dependent remodeling of blood vessels is critical for normal physiology and for recovery from arterial blockage in disease; understanding its cellular mechanisms may lead to the development of treatments for patients that are deficient in this process following myocardial infarction or other vascular diseases.
    1. Biochemistry and Chemical Biology
    2. Structural Biology and Molecular Biophysics

    Cofilin-induced unidirectional cooperative conformational changes in actin filaments revealed by high-speed atomic force microscopy

    Kien Xuan Ngo, Noriyuki Kodera ... Taro QP Uyeda
    A cluster of cofilin along an otherwise bare actin filament induces distinctively asymmetric cooperative conformational changes to the filament on either side of the cluster.
    1. Cell Biology
    2. Developmental Biology

    Synthetic enzyme-substrate tethering obviates the Tolloid-ECM interaction during Drosophila BMP gradient formation

    Jennifer Winstanley, Annick Sawala ... Hilary L Ashe
    The in vivo activity of Tolloid during Drosophila dorsal-ventral patterning is regulated by the differential specificity of its non-catalytic domains in mediating substrate and Collagen IV interaction.
    1. Neuroscience

    Independent theta phase coding accounts for CA1 population sequences and enables flexible remapping

    Angus Chadwick, Mark CW van Rossum, Matthew F Nolan
    Independent coding without synaptic coordination explains complex sequences of population activity observed during theta states and maximizes the number of distinct environments that can be encoded through population theta sequences.
    1. Neuroscience

    The GTPase Rab26 links synaptic vesicles to the autophagy pathway

    Beyenech Binotti, Nathan J Pavlos ... Reinhard Jahn
    Rab26 selectively directs synaptic and secretory vesicles into preautophagosomal structures, suggesting the presence of a novel pathway (vesiculophagy) for degradation of synaptic vesicles.
    1. Microbiology and Infectious Disease

    Kin cell lysis is a danger signal that activates antibacterial pathways of Pseudomonas aeruginosa

    Michele LeRoux, Robin L Kirkpatrick ... Joseph D Mougous
    The death of bacterial kin cells releases a danger signal that activates a posttranscriptional response in surviving cells, resulting in the rapid elaboration of interbacterial competition factors.