Nature Research News, 18 Sept 2011: from equatorial winds on Saturn to organisms shrinking in size due to climate change and much more
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--- Summaries of newsworthy papers: Climate Change: Shrinking in size Medicine: Fluid imbalance is linked to reproductive failure in humans Genetics: Variants associated with dengue shock syndrome Geoscience: Carbon released from inland waters And finally…Climate Change: Making an action film --- Mention of papers to be published at the same time with the same embargo --- Geographical listing of authors PDFs of all the papers mentioned on this release can be found in the relevant journal’s section of http://press.nature.com. Press contacts for the Nature journals are listed at the end of this release. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [1] Climate Change: Shrinking in size DOI: 10.1038/nclimate1259 Organisms from primary producers to top predators are shrinking in size in response to climate change, according to a Perspective published online this week in Nature Climate Change. It is well established that species are shifting their distributions to higher elevations and latitudes in response to warming, and that key life events such as migration are happening earlier in the year. What is less appreciated is that many species are also becoming smaller, as an ecological and metabolic response to increased temperatures and variability in precipitation. If this trend continues, it could have profound implications for food security and the stability of ecosystems. David Bickford and Jennifer Sheridan look at the evidence from fossil records, experimental and geographic comparisons, and recent studies implicating current climate change in the shrinking size of both warm- and cold-blooded organisms. Highlighting the changes in organism size that are most likely as a result of climate change and increased carbon dioxide levels, they theorize on reasons for the observed patterns of size declines and discuss notable exceptions to the size-reduction trend. Bickford and Sheridan argue that the size reduction trend will become much more pervasive in the future, negatively impacting both the crop plants and protein sources that are important for human nutrition. They say that research should focus on quantifying size trends more broadly, and identifying the drivers of size declines. Author contacts: David Bickford (National University of Singapore, Singapore) Tel: +65 16 6256; E-mail: rokrok@nus.edu.sg Jennifer Sheridan (National University of Singapore, Singapore) Tel +1 858 952 0536; E-mail: jasheridan@gmail.com ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [2] Medicine: Fluid imbalance is linked to reproductive failure in humans DOI: 10.1038/nm.2498 Deregulation of a protein kinase involved in fluid balance in the body is linked to two different forms of reproductive failure in humans, as reported this week in Nature Medicine. As kinases can be targeted by drugs, it is possible that these insights may some day allow for pharmacological prevention of these conditions. Women often suffer from infertility or recurrent pregnancy loss. While these are distinct instances of reproductive failure, Jan Brosens and his colleagues have shown that dysregulated expression of a single kinase, SGK1, in two different cellular compartments of the endometrium—the uterus lining—is linked to these pathologies. They found that SGK1 expression is higher in the luminal epithelia of the endometrium in women who suffer unexplained infertility, while it is lower in the endometrial stroma from women who have suffered recurrent pregnancy loss. The mechanisms linking altered SGK1 expression to these reproductive outcomes appear different. Brosens found that increased SGK1 activity in endometrial surface epithelium selectively disrupts the expression of implantation genes and perturbs the local fluid environment, leading to infertility. Reduced endometrial SGK1 activity during pregnancy, however, leads to a failure to protect against oxidative stress signals generated by the intense tissue remodelling that occurs, thus resulting in fetal loss. Author contact: Jan Brosens (Warwick Medical School, Coventry, UK) Tel: +44 247 696 8704; E-mail: J.J.Brosens@warwick.ac.uk ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [3] Genetics: Variants associated with dengue shock syndrome DOI: 10.1038/ng.960 Genetic variants associated with dengue shock syndrome are reported this week in Nature Genetics. Dengue shock syndrome, found at a higher prevalence in children with dengue fever, is a severe and life-threatening complication of the disease. Martin Hibberd and colleagues report a genome-wide association study for dengue shock syndrome in 2,008 pediatric cases from Vietnam, with replication in an additional 1,737 cases. They identified two genomic loci associated with susceptibility to dengue shock syndrome in children with dengue. One of these is in the MHC—which contains many genes involved in immune system regulation—and suggests a possible role for natural killer and CD8+ T cell activation of the immune response. The second associated locus includes variants within PLCE1, which has also been associated with nephrotic syndrome, a kidney disorder with some shared symptoms. Author contact: Martin Hibberd (Genome Institute of Singapore, Singapore) Tel: +65 647 8 8087; E-mail: hibberdml@gis.a-star.edu.sg ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [4] Geoscience: Carbon released from inland waters DOI: 10.1038/ngeo1294 Streams and rivers in the United States release a total of 97 teragrams of carbon to the atmosphere each year, according to a study published online this week in Nature Geoscience. Until now, a scarcity of direct measurements has led to uncertainty about the role of inland waters in the carbon cycle. David Butman and colleagues used measurements of stream and river water chemistry in the United States, coupled with estimates of surface area, in order to estimate the amount of carbon degassed from these waterways. They found that the release of carbon dioxide is positively correlated with annual precipitation, which they attribute to rainwater-induced flushing of carbon dioxide from soils and the regulation of stream surface area. Author contact David Butman (Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA) Phone: +1 203 432 0106; E-mail: david.butman@yale.edu ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [5] And finally…Climate Change: Making an action film DOI: 10.1038/nclimate1257 Films such as Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth can change the way viewers think and feel about climate change, suggests a Commentary published online this week in Nature Climate Change. In a study measuring psychological changes immediately after viewing clips from An Inconvenient Truth, psychologist Geoffrey Beattie found that "extracts from the film had a significant effect on mood as well as on explicit attitudes, and some clips were much more effective than others". He urges educators, policymakers and others who are trying to communicate climate change to a broad audience to learn from his findings, and employ some of Gore's more successful strategies to good effect. However, he notes, the challenge remains of building effectively on the immediate psychological effects induced by the best bits of the film, so that viewers do actually change their behaviour. Author contact: Geoffrey Beattie (University of Manchester, UK) Tel: +44 161 275 2591; E-mail: geoff.beattie@manchester.ac.uk ************************************************************************************* NATURE [6] Structural basis for a [4Fe-3S] cluster in the oxygentolerant membrane-bound [NiFe]-hydrogenase DOI: 10.1038/nature10504 [7] The crystal structure of an oxygen-tolerant hydrogenase uncovers a novel iron-sulphur centre DOI: 10.1038/nature10505 [8] Temperature-scan cryocrystallography reveals reaction intermediates in bacteriophytochrome DOI: 10.1038/nature10506 [9] ATM controls meiotic double-strand-break formation DOI: 10.1038/nature10508 [10] RNAi promotes heterochromatic silencing through replication-coupled release of RNA Pol II DOI: 10.1038/nature10501 [11] Bidirectional resection of DNA double-strand breaks by Mre11 and Exo1 DOI: 10.1038/nature10515 [12] Non-canonical inflammasome activation targets caspase-11 DOI: 10.1038/nature10558 NATURE BIOTECHNOLOGY [13] Genome sequencing and comparison of two nonhuman primate animal models, the cynomolgus and Chinese rhesus macaques DOI: 10.1038/nbt.1992 NATURE CELL BIOLOGY [14] Autophagy machinery mediates macroendocytic processing and entotic cell death by targeting single membranes DOI: 10.1038/ncb2363 NATURE CHEMICAL BIOLOGY [15] N6-Methyladenosine in nuclear RNA is a major substrate of the obesity-associated FTO DOI: 10.1038/nchembio.687 [16] alpha-ketoglutarate coordinates carbon and nitrogen utilization via Enzyme I inhibition DOI: 10.1038/nchembio.685 [17] Arl2-GTP and Arl3-GTP regulate a GDI-like transport system for farnesylated cargo DOI: 10.1038/nchembio.686 NATURE CHEMISTRY [18] The total synthesis of hyperpapuanone, hyperibone L, epi-clusianone and oblongifolin A DOI: 10.1038/nchem.1170 NATURE CLIMATE CHANGE Show me the money DOI: 10.1038/nclimate1262 Towards an ice-free Arctic DOI: 10.1038/nclimate1274 NATURE GENETICS [19] Genome-wide association study identifies loci influencing concentrations of liver enzymes in plasma DOI: 10.1038/ng.970 [20] Probabilistic modeling of Hi-C contact maps eliminates systematic biases to characterize global chromosomal architecture DOI: 10.1038/ng.947 NATURE GEOSCIENCE [21] Arctic winter warming amplified by the thermal inversion and consequent low infrared cooling to space DOI: 10.1038/ngeo1285 [22] Equatorial winds on Saturn and the stratospheric oscillation DOI: 10.1038/ngeo1292 [23] Protracted storage of biospheric carbon in the Ganges–Brahmaputra basin DOI: 10.1038/ngeo1293 NATURE IMMUNOLOGY [24] Transcription factor c-Maf mediates the TGF-beta-dependent suppression of IL-22 DOI: 10.1038/ni.2134 NATURE MATERIALS [25] Flexoelectric rotation of polarization in ferroelectric thin films DOI: 10.1038/nmat3141 [26] Organic tailored batteries materials using stable open-shell molecules with degenerate frontier orbitals DOI: 10.1038/nmat3142 NATURE MEDICINE [27] VEGF ameliorates the ataxic phenotype in spinocerebellar ataxia type 1 (SCA1) mice DOI: 10.1038/nm.2494 [28] Thyroid hormone receptor repression linked to type I pneumocyte associated respiratory distress syndrome DOI: 10.1038/nm.2450 NATURE METHODS [29] Super-resolution 3D microscopy of live whole cells using structured illumination DOI: 10.1038/nmeth.1734 NATURE NANOTECHNOLOGY [30] Nanochannel electroporation delivers precise amounts of biomolecules into living cells DOI: 10.1038/nnano.2011.164 [31] Dynamic internal gradients control and direct electric currents within nanostructured materials DOI: 10.1038/nnano.2011.165 NATURE NEUROSCIENCE [32] PDZ binding of TARPg-8 controls synaptic transmission, but not synaptic plasticity DOI: 10.1038/nn.2952 NATURE PHOTONICS [33] Plasmonic generation of ultrashort extreme-ultraviolet light pulses DOI: 10.1038/nphoton.2011.258 NATURE PHYSICS [34] Field-induced polarization of Dirac valleys in bismuth DOI: 10.1038/nphys2111 [35] Two-stage orbital order and dynamical spin frustration in KCuF3 DOI: 10.1038/nphys2117 NATURE STRUCTURAL & MOLECULAR BIOLOGY [36] Biogenesis of 2-agmatinylcytidine catalyzed by the dual protein and RNA kinase TiaS DOI: 10.1038/nsmb.212 [37] Initiation factor eIF2g promotes eIF2–GTP–Met-tRNAiMet ternary complex binding to the 40S ribosome DOI: 10.1038/nsmb.2133 [38] Structural basis of tRNA agmatinylation essential for AUA codon decoding DOI: 10.1038/nsmb.2144 [39] Antibody mechanics in a membrane-bound HIV segment essential for GP41-targeted viral neutralization DOI: 10.1038/nsmb.2154 [40] miRNA repression involves GW182-mediated recruitment of CCR4–NOT through conserved W-containing motifs DOI:10.1038/nsmb.2166 [41] miRNA-mediated deadenylation is orchestrated by GW182 through two conserved motifs that interact with CCR4–NOT DOI: 10.1038/nsmb.2149 ************************************************************************************* GEOGRAPHICAL LISTING OF AUTHORS The following list of places refers to the whereabouts of authors on the papers numbered in this release. The listing may be for an author's main affiliation, or for a place where they are working temporarily. Please see the PDF of the paper for full details. AUSTRALIA Brisbane: 19 Melbourne: 10 BELGIUM Ghent: 12 CANADA: Toronto: 19 CHINA Beijing: 13, 15 Chongqing: 19 Guangzhou: 13 Kunming: 13 Ya’an: 13 DENMARK Copenhagen: 13 Tallinn: FINLAND Helsinki: 19 Kuopio: 19 Oulu: 19 FRANCE Evry: 19 Paris: 3, 19, 34 GERMANY Berlin: 7 Dortmund: 17 Dusseldorf: 17 Garching: 33 Goettingen: 19 Greifswald: 19 Heidelberg: 27 Munster: 19 Neuherberg: 19 Stuttgart: 18 Tuebingen: 2 ICELAND Reykjavik: 19 INDIA West Bengal: 35 ISRAEL Rehovot: 20 ITALY Cagliari: 19 JAPAN Fukuoka: 6 Hyogo: 6 Ibaraki: 6, 36, 38 Osaka: 26 Saitama: 6, 36, 38 Sapporo: 10 Shiga: 26 Tokyo: 19, 26, 36, 38 KOREA Daejeon: 33 Seoul: 34 NETHERLANDS Amsterdam: 19 De Bilt: 21 Enschede: 25 Groningen: 19, 25 Leiden: 19 Rotterdam: 19 Wageningen: 21 SINGAPORE Singapore: 1, 3, 13, 35 SPAIN Barcelona: 25 Salamanca: 10 Zaragoza: 25 SWEDEN Stockholm: 21 SWITZERLAND Geneva: 19 Lausanne: 19 Zurich: 23 THAILAND Bangkok: 3 UNITED KINGDOM Birmingham: 19 Brighton: 11 Cardiff: 13 Cambridge: 2, 19 Coventry: 2 Herts: 15 London: 2, 19 Manchester: 2, 5 Middlesex: 19 Oxford: 3, 19, 22 Toulouse: 25 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA Arizona Tucson: 14 California Berkeley: 10 La Jolla: 28 Livermore: 9 San Diego: 28 San Francisco: 12, 24, 29 Connecticut New Haven: 4, 10, 32 Florida Tallahassee: 39 Georgia Athens: 29 Atlanta: 33 Illinois Argonne: 35 Evanston: 31 Chicago: 8, 15, 27 Urbana: 35 Indiana Indianapolis: 32 Maryland Baltimore: 19, 37 Bethesda: 19, 37, 39 College Park: 22 Greenbelt: 22 Massachusetts Boston: 13, 19, 39 Cambridge: 19 Framingham: 19 Woods Hole: 23 Michigan Ann Arbor: 19 Missouri St Louis: 19 New Jersey Piscataway: 10 Princeton: 16 Rahway: 13 New York Ithaca: 22, 35 New York: 9, 10, 14, 19, 22 Stony Brook: 10 North Carolina Chapel Hill: 19 Ohio Cincinnati: 28 Columbus: 30 Pennsylvania King of Prussia: 19 University Park: 31 Rhode Island Providence: 32 Texas Dallas: 9 Houston: 22 Pasadena: 22 Virginia Ashburn: 29 Washington Seattle: 13, 24 THAILAND Bangkok: 19 VIETNAM Cao Lanh City: 3 Ho Chi Minh City: 3 My Tho City: 3 Sa Dec Town: 3 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ PRESS CONTACTS… For media inquiries relating to embargo policy for all the Nature Research Journals: Rachel Twinn (Nature London) Tel: +44 20 7843 4658; E-mail: r.twinn@nature.com Neda Afsarmanesh (Nature New York) Tel: +1 212 726 9231; E-mail: n.afsarmanesh@us.nature.com Ruth Francis (Head of Press, Nature, London) Tel: +44 20 7843 4562; E-mail: r.francis@nature.com For media inquiries relating to editorial content/policy for the Nature Research Journals, please contact the journals individually: Nature Biotechnology (New York) Michael Francisco Tel: +1 212 726 9288; E-mail: biotech@us.nature.com Nature Cell Biology (London) Sowmya Swaminathan Tel: +44 20 7843 4656; E-mail: cellbio@nature.com Nature Chemical Biology (Boston) Elissa Bolt Tel: +1 617 475 9241, E-mail: chembio@us.nature.com Nature Chemistry (London) Stuart Cantrill Tel: +44 20 7014 4018; E-mail: s.cantrill@nature.com Nature Climate Change (London) Olive Heffernan Tel: +44 20 7014 4009; E-mail: nclimate@nature.com Nature Genetics (New York) Myles Axton Tel: +1 212 726 9324; E-mail: natgen@us.nature.com Nature Geoscience (London) Heike Langenberg Tel: +44 20 7843 4042; E-mail: h.langenberg@nature.com Nature Immunology (New York) Laurie Dempsey Tel: +1 212 726 9372; E-mail: immunology@us.nature.com Nature Materials (London) Vincent Dusastre Tel: +44 20 7843 4531; E-mail: materials@nature.com Nature Medicine (New York) Juan Carlos Lopez Tel: +1 212 726 9325; E-mail: medicine@us.nature.com Nature Methods (New York) Hugh Ash Tel: +1 212 726 9627; E-mail: methods@us.nature.com Nature Nanotechnology (London) Peter Rodgers Tel: +44 20 7014 4019; Email: p.rodgers@nature.com Nature Neuroscience (New York) Kalyani Narasimhan Tel: +1 212 726 9319; E-mail: neurosci@us.nature.com Nature Photonics (Tokyo) Oliver Graydon Tel: +81 3 3267 8776; E-mail: o.graydon@natureasia.com Nature Physics (London) Alison Wright Tel: +44 20 7843 4555; E-mail: a.wright@nature.com Nature Structural & Molecular Biology (New York) Sabbi Lall Tel: +1 212 726 9326; E-mail: nsmb@us.nature.com ------------------------------------------------------------------------ PICTURES: To obtain artwork from any of the journals, you must first obtain permission from the copyright holder (if named) or author of the research paper in question (if not). 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