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A joint bacterial effort to produce vitamin B12
Vitamin B12 consists of two molecular components and has been thought to be synthesized only in full by certain bacteria. It emerges that two bacterial strains that each exclusively produce one building block can complement each other to enable joint synthesis of the vitamin.
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Stronger Gulf Stream during the last ice age
Palaeoceanographic proxy data and climate-model simulations reveal that during the last ice age — about 20,000 years ago — the Gulf Stream was much stronger than it is now because of more-powerful winds across the subtropical North Atlantic Ocean.
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The catalytic asymmetric polyene cyclization of homofarnesol to ambrox
The catalytic asymmetric polyene cyclization of homofarnesol to ambrox is achieved using a highly Brønsted-acidic and confined imidodiphosphorimidate catalyst.
Na Luo, Mathias Turberg, Markus Leutzsch et al.
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Transport and inhibition mechanisms of the human noradrenaline transporter
Cryo-electron microscopy structures of the noradrenaline transporter (NET) reveal binding modes of adrenaline, coordination of sodium and chloride ion binding and the binding sites and mechanisms of inhibition by conotoxin, bupropion and ziprasidone.
Tuo Hu, Zhuoya Yu, Jun Zhao et al.
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Dopamine biases decisions by limiting temporal integration
In Drosophila, dopamine sets motivational state during mating by regulating the integration of competing drives in copulation decision neurons, potentially indicative of a more general role for control over neuronal integration time in the regulation of behavioural decisions.
Aditya K. Gautham, Lauren E. Miner, Marco N. Franco et al.
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Histone serotonylation regulates ependymoma tumorigenesis
Serotonin has a role in ependymoma tumorigenesis through modifying histones and thereby regulating key transcription factors and activating specific oncogenic transcriptional networks in brain cells.
Hsiao-Chi Chen, Peihao He, Malcolm McDonald et al.
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FANCD2–FANCI surveys DNA and recognizes double- to single-stranded junctions
FANCD2–FANCI is a sliding clamp that diffuses on double-stranded DNA but stalls when it reaches a single-stranded gap, providing a unified molecular mechanism that reconciles the roles of FANCD2–FANCI in the recognition and protection of stalled replication forks.
Pablo Alcón, Artur P. Kaczmarczyk, Korak Kumar Ray et al.
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Organ systems of a Cambrian euarthropod larva
Youti yuanshi is a euarthropod species newly described from a fossilized larva from Yunnan Province, China dating approximately to late Atdabanian stage, Cambrian period, and provides insights into the evolution of arthropods.
Martin R. Smith, Emma J. Long, Alavya Dhungana et al.
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Gut microbiota carcinogen metabolism causes distal tissue tumours
A study links environmental nitrosamines to bladder cancer through their metabolism by specific commensal microorganisms occurring in the gastrointestinal tract of humans and mice.
Blanka Roje, Boyao Zhang, Eleonora Mastrorilli et al.
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The development of terrestrial ecosystems emerging after glacier retreat
Across 46 proglacial landscapes worldwide, environmental properties and biodiversity have shown complex patterns of change since glaciers retreated.
Gentile Francesco Ficetola, Silvio Marta, Alessia Guerrieri et al.
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Turbinate-homing IgA-secreting cells originate in the nasal lymphoid tissues
Nasal vaccination induces B cell expansion in the nasal-associated lymphoid tissues, followed by homing to the nasal turbinates and glandular acinar structures.
Jingjing Liu, Liat Stoler-Barak, Hadas Hezroni-Bravyi et al.
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Deep crustal assimilation during the 2021 Fagradalsfjall Fires, Iceland
Using osmium isotopes, the 2021 Fagradalsfjall lavas in Iceland are shown to be both fractionally crystallized and strongly crustally contaminated, probably by mid-ocean-ridge gabbros and older basalts underlying the Reykjanes Peninsula.
James M. D. Day, Savannah Kelly, Valentin R. Troll et al.
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Propofol rescues voltage-dependent gating of HCN1 channel epilepsy mutants
Propofol repairs malfunctioning mutant HCN1 channels associated with epilepsy, and its unusual mechanism of action on these ion channels can potentially be exploited to design precision drugs targeting HCN channelopathies.
Elizabeth D. Kim, Xiaoan Wu, Sangyun Lee et al.
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Immunological memory diversity in the human upper airway
This study of immunological memory diversity in the human upper airway provides new understanding of immune memory at a major mucosal barrier tissue in humans.
Sydney I. Ramirez, Farhoud Faraji, L. Benjamin Hills et al.
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Passive wing deployment and retraction in beetles and flapping microrobots
We find that rhinoceros beetles passively deploy and retract their hindwings without muscular activity, demonstrating this with insect-like microrobots.
Hoang-Vu Phan,
Hoon Cheol Park,
Dario Floreano
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Structural switch in acetylcholine receptors in developing muscle
Structures of fetal and adult muscle acetylcholine receptors reveal a developmental switch that alters channel biophysics and pharmacology to enable neuromuscular junction maturation, uncovering pathogenic mechanisms underlying congenital myasthenic syndromes.
Huanhuan Li,
Jinfeng Teng,
Ryan E. Hibbs
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Rhapsodies in green: the poetry of plant biology
Poems that bring plant biology to life, and remembering the achievements of the physicist Patrick Blackett, in our weekly dip into Nature’s archive.
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Lipids act as structural components of the pore of an ion-channel family
Structural, functional and computational evidence demonstrates that when certain ion channels are activated by mechanical force, they assume an open configuration in which the pore is formed by both protein and lipids.
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Mental maps help monkeys to navigate without sensory input
Cognitive maps are internal representations of the external environment. Evidence from monkeys shows that a cognitive map can support the mental navigation of an array of landmarks without sensory input.
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Spectroscopic confirmation of two luminous galaxies at a redshift of 14
Stefano Carniani, Kevin Hainline, Francesco D’Eugenio et al.
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Sophisticated natural products as antibiotics
This Review examines the diverse strategies utilized by naturally occurring antibiotics and suggests how they have provided, and will in future provide, inspiration for the design of novel antibiotics.
Kim Lewis, Richard E. Lee, Heike Brötz-Oesterhelt et al.
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A hot-Jupiter progenitor on a super-eccentric retrograde orbit
The spectroscopic and photometric observations of a high-mass, transiting warm Jupiter, TIC 241249530 b, with an orbital eccentricity of 0.94, provide evidence that hot Jupiters may have formed by means of a high-eccentricity tidal-migration pathway.
Arvind F. Gupta, Sarah C. Millholland, Haedam Im et al.
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Partial coherence enhances parallelized photonic computing
Two photonic platforms using a convolutional processing system with partially coherent light sources is shown to boost computing parallelism, demonstrated using the classification of gaits of patients with Parkinson’s disease and the MNIST handwritten digits dataset.
Bowei Dong, Frank Brückerhoff-Plückelmann, Lennart Meyer et al.
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Dirac mass induced by optical gain and loss
By using a photonic synthetic lattice, it can be experimentally demonstrated that Dirac masses can be induced by means of non-Hermitian perturbations based on optical gain and loss.
Letian Yu, Haoran Xue, Ruixiang Guo et al.
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A holistic platform for accelerating sorbent-based carbon capture
A framework that integrates materials, process design, techno-economics and life-cycle assessment can be used to accelerate the development of carbon-capture technology as we aim for a net-zero world.
Charithea Charalambous, Elias Moubarak, Johannes Schilling et al.
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Deeper and stronger North Atlantic Gyre during the Last Glacial Maximum
Analysis of benthic foraminiferal δ18O profiles from sediment cores in two depth transects in the Northwest Atlantic suggests that the subtropical gyre was deeper and stronger during the Last Glacial Maximum compared with today.
Jack H. Wharton, Martin Renoult, Geoffrey Gebbie et al.
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Groundwater-dependent ecosystem map exposes global dryland protection needs
Mapping of groundwater-dependent ecosystems, which support biodiversity and rural livelihoods, shows they occur on more than one-third of global drylands analysed, but lack protections to safeguard these critical ecosystems and the societies dependent upon them from groundwater depletion.
Melissa M. Rohde, Christine M. Albano, Xander Huggins et al.
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Middle and Late Pleistocene Denisovan subsistence at Baishiya Karst Cave
Zooarchaeological and proteomic analyses of bones from Baishiya Karst Cave on the Tibetan Plateau identify a hominin rib specimen, and provide insight into the ways Denisovans interacted with their surrounding environment and made use of animal resources.
Huan Xia, Dongju Zhang, Jian Wang et al.
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Repeated plague infections across six generations of Neolithic Farmers
Population-scale ancient genomics are used to infer ancestry, social structure and pathogen infection in 108 Scandinavian Neolithic individuals from eight megalithic graves and a stone cist, showing that Neolithic plague was widespread.
Frederik Valeur Seersholm, Karl-Göran Sjögren, Julia Koelman et al.
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Sources of gene expression variation in a globally diverse human cohort
A new open-access RNA sequencing dataset, MAGE, of 731 individuals across geographically diverse human populations provides a valuable resource to study genetic diversity and evolution and expands the capacity to identify new genetic associations.
Dylan J. Taylor, Surya B. Chhetri, Michael G. Tassia et al.
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Psilocybin desynchronizes the human brain
Healthy adults were tracked before, during and after high doses of psilocybin and methylphenidate to assess how psychedelics can change human brain networks, and psilocybin was found to massively disrupt functional connectivity in cortex and subcortex with some changes persisting for weeks.
Joshua S. Siegel, Subha Subramanian, Demetrius Perry et al.
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Adaptation to photoperiod via dynamic neurotransmitter segregation
Changes in day length, conveyed by the preoptic area, drive axonal neurotransmitter reorganization in median raphe dual serotonin–glutamate neurons to regulate behaviour and sleep timing, highlighting a photoperiod-sensitive brain circuit.
G. Maddaloni, Y. J. Chang, R. A. Senft et al.
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Identification of plant transcriptional activation domains
A high-throughput yeast-based assay is used to identify more than 1,500 activation domains (ADs) in Arabidopsis transcription factors, and a deep learning approach applied to this dataset can predict AD activity on the basis of sequence features.
Nicholas Morffy, Lisa Van den Broeck, Caelan Miller et al.
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An enterococcal phage-derived enzyme suppresses graft-versus-host disease
An analysis of the intestinal microbiome of people who have undergone allogenic haematopoietic cell transplantation shows that an enzyme derived from a bacteriophage has specific antibacterial activity against Enterococcus faecalis, and suppresses E. faecalis-associated graft-versus-host disease.
Kosuke Fujimoto, Tetsuya Hayashi, Mako Yamamoto et al.
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Split intein-mediated protein trans-splicing to express large dystrophins
A method is developed for expressing large dystrophins to enhance muscle function in mouse models of muscular dystrophy, with potential clinical benefits for numerous disorders caused by mutations in large genes that exceed the adeno-associated virus capacity.
Hichem Tasfaout, Christine L. Halbert, Timothy S. McMillen et al.
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Clonal inactivation of TERT impairs stem cell competition
Studies in mice show that telomerase reverse transcriptase (TERT) has a role in enhancing stem cell competition that is independent of its reverse transcriptase activity, and promotes chromatin accessibility and activity of the MYC oncogene.
Kazuteru Hasegawa, Yang Zhao, Alina Garbuzov et al.
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Molecular mechanism of ligand gating and opening of NMDA receptor
Cryo-electron microscopy structures of N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptors in open and apo states reveal the molecular mechanism underlying the dual ligand requirement for its channel gating and opening.
Tsung-Han Chou, Max Epstein, Russell G. Fritzemeier et al.
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