Featured
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Research Highlight |
Killer immune cells pile on the pressure to slay their foes
Immune-system assassins called killer T cells compress target cells, forming a destructive crater.
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Research Highlight |
Ants amputate their nest-mates’ legs to save lives
The location of an injury determines whether ants bite off or preserve a damaged limb.
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News & Views |
Did the diarist who chronicled the Great Fire of London make up a scientific instrument?
The mention of a ‘scotoscope’ in Samuel Pepys’s diary is a subject of scrutiny, and Americans satiate British oyster lovers, in the weekly dip into Nature’s archive.
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Comment |
Neuroscientists must not be afraid to study religion
Scientists interested in the brain have tended to avoid studying religion or spirituality for fear of being seen as unscientific. That needs to change.
- Patrick McNamara
- , William Newsome
- & Jordan Grafman
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News |
What drives mosquitoes’ bloodlust? Their hormones
One hormone seems to boosts the insects’ thirst for a blood meal, while another shuts it off.
- Gemma Conroy
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News |
Bionic leg moves like a natural limb — without conscious thought
Computer interface links signals from the brain to an artificial limb, giving the wearer better balance, flexibility and speed.
- Miryam Naddaf
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News |
Combined COVID-flu vaccines are coming: Moderna jab clears major test
First large trial suggests mRNA drug gives better protection from SARS-CoV-2 and influenza viruses than single-target shots.
- Freda Kreier
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Technology Feature |
No CRISPR: oddball ‘jumping gene’ enzyme edits genomes without breaking DNA
A programmable RNA that bridges a genetic donor and a target could herald a safer and more flexible approach to large-scale chromosome changes.
- Heidi Ledford
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Research Highlight |
Smile! Living skin helps robot make a happy face
Anchors inspired by skin ligaments connect cell-based composite to robotic visage.
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Research Highlight |
Deep-sea creatures survive crushing pressures with just the right fats
Tiny predators called comb jellies have cell-membrane lipids that form curving structures under pressure.
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News |
How blockbuster obesity drugs create a full feeling — even before one bite of food
Scientists identify brain area harbouring two groups of neurons: one for pre-meal sensations of fullness, and one for post-meal satiety.
- Mariana Lenharo
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News |
‘Epigenome editor’ silences gene that causes deadly brain disorders
Prion diseases are caused by misfolded proteins, but a new tool can stop them forming in mice.
- Gemma Conroy
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News |
Ketamine for depression: slow-release pills could make treatment more accessible
A ketamine-containing tablet could be a convenient alternative to intravenous treatments, with fewer unpleasant side effects.
- Helena Kudiabor
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Article |
Mechanism for the initiation of spliceosome disassembly
- Matthias K. Vorländer
- , Patricia Rothe
- & Clemens Plaschka
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Research Highlight |
Aged mice regain youthful muscles thanks to a compound that acts on the genes
A molecule increases levels of a protein that maintains telomeres, the caps on the ends of chromosomes.
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News |
These 3D model brains with cells from several people are first of their kind
Chimeric brain ‘organoids’ promise to help reveal individual variation in brain development and in drug responses.
- Asher Mullard
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News & Views |
Flies use blood cells to take a deep breath
Insect respiration is commonly thought to rely solely on direct gas exchange through air-filled tracheal tubes. The discovery of oxygen-transporting blood cells in fly larvae reveals a previously unknown way to oxygenate fly tissues.
- Stefan Luschnig
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News & Views |
Programmable RNA-guided enzymes for next-generation genome editing
RNA-guided recombinase enzymes have been discovered that herald a new chapter for genome editing — enabling the insertion, inversion or deletion of long DNA sequences at user-specified genome positions.
- Connor J. Tou
- & Benjamin P. Kleinstiver
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News & Views |
Chimeric brain organoids capture human genetic diversity
Models of the human brain’s cortex have been made by combining cells from up to five donors. This approach could enable genetic background to be accounted for in studies of brain development and disease.
- Aparna Bhaduri
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News & Views |
Mini saunas save endangered frogs from fungal disease
Amphibian species around the world are threatened with extinction by the deadly fungal disease chytridiomycosis. A simple, low-cost solution to provide warm conditions enables frogs to clear the infection and remain disease free.
- Brian Gratwicke
- & Anna Savage
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Research Briefing |
Spongy but not glassy: Ediacaran fossil provides insight into early animal evolution
Sea sponges were among the first animals to evolve. But, perplexingly, they left few early fossils despite having dense yet porous bodies. The Ediacaran fossil Helicolocellus cantori is interpreted as having been a glass sponge without biomineralized spicules (little spikes made of glass) to support its body.
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Article
| Open AccessStructural mechanism of bridge RNA-guided recombination
Using cryo-electron microscopy, the structural mechanism by which non-coding bridge RNA confers target and donor DNA specificity to IS110 recombinases for programmable DNA recombination is explored.
- Masahiro Hiraizumi
- , Nicholas T. Perry
- & Hiroshi Nishimasu
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Article
| Open AccessTransposase-assisted target-site integration for efficient plant genome engineering
Fusion of rice Pong transposase to the Cas9 or Cas12a programmable nucleases provides sequence-specific targeted insertion of enhancer elements, an open reading frame and gene expression cassette into the genome of the model plant Arabidopsis and crop soybean.
- Peng Liu
- , Kaushik Panda
- & R. Keith Slotkin
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Article
| Open AccessBridge RNAs direct programmable recombination of target and donor DNA
A bispecific non-coding RNA expressed by the IS110 family of mobile genetic elements forms the basis of a programmable genome-editing system that enables the insertion, excision or inversion of specific target DNA sequences.
- Matthew G. Durrant
- , Nicholas T. Perry
- & Patrick D. Hsu
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Article
| Open AccessDrosophila immune cells transport oxygen through PPO2 protein phase transition
Drosophila haemocytes collaborate with the tracheal system to reserve and transport oxygen through the phase transition of PPO2 crystals, facilitating internal oxygen homeostasis in a process that is comparable to vertebrate respiration.
- Mingyu Shin
- , Eunji Chang
- & Jiwon Shim
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Comment |
The strategy behind one of the most successful labs in the world
One UK institute has produced a dozen Nobel laureates and biomedical breakthroughs across the board. How does Cambridge’s Laboratory of Molecular Biology do it? Our study found out.
- Luka Gebel
- , Chander Velu
- & Antonio Vidal-Puig
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Article |
TnpB homologues exapted from transposons are RNA-guided transcription factors
RNA-guided transcription factors arose repeatedly via the domestication of transposon-encoded tnpB genes, representing a parallel evolutionary path to CRISPR-Cas adaptive immunity.
- Tanner Wiegand
- , Florian T. Hoffmann
- & Samuel H. Sternberg
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Article
| Open AccessCenozoic history of the tropical marine biodiversity hotspot
A reconstruction of Cenozoic marine biodiversity in the Indo-Australian Archipelago reveals decreasing rates of net diversification and identifies the factors that have established it as the richest marine biodiversity hotspot.
- Skye Yunshu Tian
- , Moriaki Yasuhara
- & Tomoki Kase
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Article |
Hotspot shelters stimulate frog resistance to chytridiomycosis
Artificial thermal refugia—sites heated to temperatures higher than that of the surrounding environment—provide a way to protect an endangered Australian frog species from a fungal disease that has caused the extinction of many amphibians.
- Anthony W. Waddle
- , Simon Clulow
- & Richard Shine
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News |
Does Ozempic boost fertility? What the science says
Blockbuster weight-loss drugs have been linked to unexplained pregnancies. Research shows it is plausible, but more data are needed.
- Gillian Dohrn
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News |
Estonians gave their DNA to science — now they’re learning their genetic secrets
Project covering one-fifth of the country’s population is one of the largest-ever efforts to share results on genetic health risks with research participants.
- Ewen Callaway
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Nature Podcast |
Why ‘open source’ AIs could be anything but, the derailment risks of long freight trains, and breeding better wheat
We round up some recent stories from the Nature Briefing.
- Nick Petrić Howe
- , Benjamin Thompson
- & Dan Fox
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Article
| Open AccessMolecular basis for transposase activation by a dedicated AAA+ ATPase
Solution and cryogenic electron microscopy studies using IS21 as a model transposase system show how AAA+ ATPases induce structural changes to prime target DNA and activate their associated transposases.
- Álvaro de la Gándara
- , Mercedes Spínola-Amilibia
- & Ernesto Arias-Palomo
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Article
| Open AccessZinc mediates control of nitrogen fixation via transcription factor filamentation
Zinc acts as a second messenger in root nodules and regulates nitrogen homeostasis by controlling the transition between the active state and the inactive filamentous state of the novel transcriptional regulator FIXATION UNDER NITRATE (FUN).
- Jieshun Lin
- , Peter K. Bjørk
- & Dugald Reid
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Article |
Synaptic architecture of leg and wing premotor control networks in Drosophila
We use connectomics to compare the wiring logic of premotor circuits controlling the Drosophila leg and wing, finding that both premotor networks cluster into modules that link motor neurons innervating muscles with related functions.
- Ellen Lesser
- , Anthony W. Azevedo
- & John C. Tuthill
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Article |
Connectomic reconstruction of a female Drosophila ventral nerve cord
Automated reconstruction of dense neural networks in the ventral nerve cord of the fruit fly provides a resource for investigating the neural control of movement.
- Anthony Azevedo
- , Ellen Lesser
- & John C. Tuthill
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Article
| Open AccessAn intermediate Rb–E2F activity state safeguards proliferation commitment
Cells actively sense external and internal signals to stay quiescent or proliferate, and this trigger relies on being in a reversible primed G1 state of partial retinoblastoma inactivation and E2F activation.
- Yumi Konagaya
- , David Rosenthal
- & Tobias Meyer
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Article |
Brain Chimeroids reveal individual susceptibility to neurotoxic triggers
An analysis in 3D multidonor Chimeroids—a scalable multidonor human brain organoid model—shows that human genetic background may be an important mediator of neurotoxin susceptibility.
- Noelia Antón-Bolaños
- , Irene Faravelli
- & Paola Arlotta
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Article |
Oxylipins and metabolites from pyroptotic cells act as promoters of tissue repair
Defining the composition of the secretome of pyroptotic macrophages reveals the involvement of the component factors in wound healing.
- Parul Mehrotra
- , Sophia Maschalidi
- & Kodi S. Ravichandran
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Correspondence |
AI machine translation tools must be taught cultural differences too
- Helene Tenzer
- , Stefan Feuerriegel
- & Rebecca Piekkari
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News & Views |
Galapagos battles goats and tourists in 1974
Imports threaten the natural environment of Darwin’s favourite islands, and a reader ponders the longevity of carps, in the weekly dip into Nature’s archive.
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News |
You’re not imagining it: extreme wildfires are now more common
For the first time, data show that cataclysmic infernos are increasing in frequency and intensity globally.
- Jeff Tollefson
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Research Highlight |
Autoimmune antibodies tied to lower malaria risk in kids
Findings support one idea about why self-directed immune responses are more common in some populations.
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News |
Gut microbiome discovery provides roadmap for life-saving cancer therapies
The balance between bacterial communities in the gut affects the likelihood of a positive response to drugs called checkpoint inhibitors.
- Giorgia Guglielmi
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Editorial |
Human neuroscience is entering a new era — it mustn’t forget its human dimension
The field is taking a leap forward thanks to innovative technologies, such as artificial intelligence. Researchers must improve consent procedures and public involvement.
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News & Views |
First encounter with SARS-CoV-2: immune portraits of COVID susceptibility
Controlled infection with SARS-CoV-2 of people who hadn’t previously been exposed to the virus reveals how molecular and cellular signatures of the immune response portend effective defence against COVID-19.
- Benjamin Israelow
- & Akiko Iwasaki
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News & Views |
Sex organs sense vibrations through specialized touch neurons
A little-studied sensory structure called the Krause corpuscle is responsible for detecting light touch and is essential for normal sexual behaviour in mice. The findings have interesting implications for human sexual intimacy.
- Anastasia-Maria Zavitsanou
- & Ishmail Abdus-Saboor
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News & Views |
Pressure and particle motion enable fish to sense the direction of sound
Scientists have long sought to explain how fish can sense the direction of sound, given the challenges that hearing underwater poses. An experimental study testing a variety of models now provides some answers.
- Catherine E. Carr
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News |
Spinal cord ‘atlas’ offers unprecedented insights into injuries
A model in mice that charts precisely how different cells respond to damage could aid the development of new treatments for spinal injuries.
- Miryam Naddaf
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