Biological sciences articles within Nature Communications

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  • Article
    | Open Access

    During red blood cell infection, malaria parasites export hundreds of proteins that remodel the host cell surface. Cowman and colleagues identify a putative protein translocator complex spatially associated with exported proteins, revealing the cellular domains involved in protein export.

    • David T. Riglar
    • , Kelly L. Rogers
    •  & Alan F. Cowman

  • Article |

    Microbial fatty acid-derived fuels represent promising alternatives to the traditionally used fossil fuels. Koffas and colleagues report that E. colicentral metabolism can be modified to produce large quantities of fatty acids through a modular pathway engineering strategy.

    • Peng Xu
    • , Qin Gu
    •  & Mattheos A.G. Koffas

  • Article |

    Damaged mitochondria are eliminated from the cell by a form of autophagy called mitophagy. Here the authors show that during mitophagy, specific proteins are rescued from degradation by evacuation from the mitochondria to the endoplasmic reticulum.

    • Shotaro Saita
    • , Michiko Shirane
    •  & Keiichi I. Nakayama

  • Article |

    Free-ranging domestic cats cause wildlife extinctions on islands, but their impact on wildlife in mainland areas is unclear. This study presents an estimate of mortality caused by cats in the United States, suggesting that 1.4–3.7 billion birds and 6.9–20.7 billion mammals are killed annually.

    • Scott R. Loss
    • , Tom Will
    •  & Peter P. Marra

  • Article |

    Trichoplaxis the most primitive multicellular animal on Earth and thus provides insight into the earliest stages of evolution. Delving deep into the proteome, Heck and colleagues observe a burst in tyrosine phosphorylation, confirming the hypothesis that at the onset of this new communication system a surplus of phosphorylation took place.

    • Jeffrey H. Ringrose
    • , Henk W.P. van den Toorn
    •  & Albert J.R. Heck

  • Article |

    Agrobacterium radiobacter strain K84 generates an antibiotic targeting pathogenic strains of Agrobacterium tumefaciens, enabling its use as a biocontrol to prevent infection of crops. Here the authors show that this antibiotic inhibits leucyl-tRNA synthetases via an unusual mechanism that depends on binding of tRNALeu.

    • Shaileja Chopra
    • , Andrés Palencia
    •  & John S. Reader

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Artificially engineered tissues may have many therapeutic applications but complex tissues are hard to create in vitro. Here, Okano and colleagues report the production of functional cardiac tissue sheets with perfusable blood vessels, which increase the thickness and survival of transplanted tissue.

    • Hidekazu Sekine
    • , Tatsuya Shimizu
    •  & Teruo Okano

  • Article |

    The ability to delay gratification in childhood correlates with the ability to exert self-control in adulthood. Berman and colleagues re-examine individuals that were studied 40 years ago and find that the individuals who are able to exert a high level of self-control have more efficient neural networks.

    • Marc G. Berman
    • , Grigori Yourganov
    •  & John Jonides

  • Article |

    A nested pattern of interactions is thought to promote species persistence in mutualistic ecological networks. In this study, Staniczenko et al. introduce a spectral graph measure of nestedness, to show that nestedness is maximally destabilizing and demonstrate that empirical species preferences are not quantitatively nested.

    • Phillip P. A. Staniczenko
    • , Jason C. Kopp
    •  & Stefano Allesina

  • Article |

    Biological invasion varies under different environmental stressors. Here, using a fully controlled system of bacterial communities, De Roy et al. find that community evenness affects the level of invasion, and that the community’s response depends on specific environmental conditions as well as the community evenness.

    • Karen De Roy
    • , Massimo Marzorati
    •  & Nico Boon

  • Article |

    Hydrogen sulphide is a signalling molecule with cytoprotective activity in mammals. Here, Kimura and colleagues identify a new biosynthetic pathway for the production of hydrogen sulphide from D-cysteine, which is shown to protect mouse kidneys from oxidative stress after ischaemia/reperfusion injury.

    • Norihiro Shibuya
    • , Shin Koike
    •  & Hideo Kimura

  • Article |

    Specimens of the Early Cretaceous bird C. sanctuswith ornamental tail feathers are commonly interpreted as male, and those without as female. In this study, in support of this theory, medullary bone—a tissue unique to reproductively active female birds—is found in a specimen without ornamental feathers.

    • Anusuya Chinsamy
    • , Luis M. Chiappe
    •  & Zhang Fengjiao

  • Article |

    Feathered dinosaurs from the Middle-Late Jurassic of north-eastern China have recently been described. Here, a new paravian dinosaur, characterized by less extensive feathers on its limbs and tail, shows that the plumage of theropods was already diversified and adapted to different ecological niches by the Late Jurassic.

    • Pascal Godefroit
    • , Helena Demuynck
    •  & Philippe Claeys

  • Article |

    Sexual dimorphism describes physical differences between males and females of the same species and is partly shaped by the action of hormones. Maekawa and colleagues construct mixed-sex chicken brain chimeras and find that the female reproductive cycle is largely destroyed in female chimeras with male brains.

    • Fumihiko Maekawa
    • , Miyano Sakurai
    •  & Hiroko Ohki-Hamazaki

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Temporal lobe epilepsy in adults does not always respond to treatment. Krook-Magnuson and colleagues use optogenetics to inhibit and activate excitatory and inhibitory neurons, respectively, in a mouse model of temporal lobe epilepsy, and find that they can stop seizures on a moment-to-moment basis.

    • Esther Krook-Magnuson
    • , Caren Armstrong
    •  & Ivan Soltesz

  • Article
    | Open Access

    During rest, the different regions of the human brain still carry out complex interactions. In this study, a pairwise maximum entropy model is used to quantify the complexity of these interactions during rest, showing that the model is able to capture the structure of the resting-state human brain networks.

    • Takamitsu Watanabe
    • , Satoshi Hirose
    •  & Naoki Masuda

  • Article |

    Studies in animals have shown that the inferior colliculus of the auditory pathway is tonotopically organized. This fMRI study in humans reveals a low-to-high frequency gradient in the inferior colliculus that is tonotopically oriented, as well as spectral selectivity based on responses to natural sounds.

    • Federico De Martino
    • , Michelle Moerel
    •  & Elia Formisano

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Plant pathogens encode effector proteins that trigger immunity in plants carrying appropriate resistance genes. Here Qutob et al. show non-Mendelian interactions between naturally occurring Phytophthora sojaealleles that result in transgenerational gene silencing and gain of virulence in soybean plants.

    • Dinah Qutob
    • , B. Patrick Chapman
    •  & Mark Gijzen

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Inorganic polyphosphates have been identified in the central nervous system. Holmström and colleagues examine neuroglial cultures in vitro and cardiorespiratory responses in vivo, and find that inorganic polyphosphates trigger calcium-dependent activation of astrocytes and increase cardiorespiratory activity.

    • Kira M. Holmström
    • , Nephtali Marina
    •  & Andrey Y. Abramov

  • Article
    | Open Access

    In outwardly rectifying potassium channels, depolarization initiates conformational changes in voltage-sensing domains. Goldschen-Ohmet al. find that movement of three specific domains correlates with conductance levels, and rearrangements of a fourth domain results in preinactivation subconductance states.

    • Marcel P. Goldschen-Ohm
    • , Deborah L. Capes
    •  & Baron Chanda

  • Article
    | Open Access

    RNase P is a key enzyme implicated in transfer RNA maturation that removes the 5′-leader sequences from transfer RNA precursors. In this study, a biophysical characterization of a novel protein-only variant of RNase P, known as PRORP (PROteinaceous RNase P), reveals that transfer RNA recognition by PRORP is similar to that by ribonucleoprotein RNase P.

    • Anthony Gobert
    • , Franziska Pinker
    •  & Philippe Giegé

  • Article |

    The antibiotic streptomycin increases errors in protein translation, but it is unclear how streptomycin exerts its effect on the ribosome. Demirci et al. present X-ray crystal structures that reveal conformational changes induced by streptomycin, which may inspire future efforts in antibiotics design.

    • Hasan Demirci
    • , Frank Murphy IV
    •  & Gerwald Jogl

  • Article |

    Natural populations are complex systems where interactions can lead to chaotic dynamics. This study tests how cyclic and chaotic microbial predator–prey communities synchronize, showing different phase-locking responses for cyclic and chaotic systems.

    • Lutz Becks
    •  & Hartmut Arndt

  • Article |

    The human germinal centre-associated lymphoma gene is expressed in germinal centre B-lymphocytes; however, its function is unknown. Here the authors show that human germinal centre-associated lymphoma activates Syk kinase, leading to lymphoid hyperplasia and systemic reactive amyloid A amyloidosis in transgenic mice.

    • Isabel Romero-Camarero
    • , Xiaoyu Jiang
    •  & Izidore S Lossos

  • Article |

    Splicing factors, such as the protein SRSF3, regulate mRNA metabolism but are hard to study in vivobecause genetic kockouts are usually lethal. Here, Sen and colleagues create mice with a hepatocyte-specific knockout of Srsf3 and demonstrate its role in hepatocyte differentiation and liver function.

    • Supriya Sen
    • , Hassan Jumaa
    •  & Nicholas J. G. Webster

  • Article
    | Open Access

    During mitosis, kinesin-5 motors are thought to crosslink microtubules in a muscle-like sliding filament mechanism. By combining electron microscopy with other structural tools, the authors reveal how four kinesin-5 polypeptides are organized into bipolar minifilaments.

    • Seyda Acar
    • , David B. Carlson
    •  & Jonathan M. Scholey

  • Article |

    Lithium is commonly used to treat bipolar disorder, but it exerts side effects at doses close to the therapeutic range. Singh and colleagues screen a collection of clinical compounds and find that ebselen induces lithium-like effects on mouse models of bipolar disorder by inhibiting inositol monophosphatase.

    • Nisha Singh
    • , Amy C. Halliday
    •  & Grant C. Churchill

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Tree diversity is thought to benefit forest ecosystems, but evidence from large-scale studies is scarce. This study of a 400,000 km2forest area shows that higher tree species richness supports higher levels of multiple ecosystem services, and therefore also a more sustainable management of production forests.

    • Lars Gamfeldt
    • , Tord Snäll
    •  & Jan Bengtsson

  • Article |

    In alloparental brood care, individuals help raise the offspring of others and it is thought that high relatedness between the helpers and recipients is needed. In contrast, Zöttlet al. find that, in cooperatively breeding cichlids, unrelated subordinate females provide more alloparental care than related ones.

    • Markus Zöttl
    • , Dik Heg
    •  & Michael Taborsky

  • Article |

    In vitro, retroviruses spread between cells via structures resembling synapses. Sewaldet al. now demonstrate that virological synapses can also be observed in living mice by intravital microscopy, validating this concept in vivo.

    • Xaver Sewald
    • , David G. Gonzalez
    •  & Walther Mothes

  • Article |

    The flow of calcium into the mitochondrial matrix is mediated by the mitochondrial calcium uniporter. Fieniet al. apply patch-clamp techniques to mitoplasts isolated from different mouse and Drosophilatissues and find that the mitochondrial calcium uniporter activity varies depending on the tissue studied.

    • Francesca Fieni
    • , Sung Bae Lee
    •  & Yuriy Kirichok

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