Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain
the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in
Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles
and JavaScript.
Both DNA and RNA molecules have been shown to exhibit catalytic activity, but only the structure of catalytic RNAs has previously been determined; here the structure of an RNA-ligating DNA in the post-catalytic state is solved.
Experiments show that carbonated oceanic crust subducting into the mantle will intersect the melting curve at depths of about 300 to 700 kilometres, creating a barrier to direct carbonate recycling into the deep mantle.
The transcription factor FOXO1 is identified as a crucial checkpoint of vascular growth, coupling the metabolic and proliferative activities of endothelial cells.
Synaptotagmin 7 is shown to be essential for synaptic facilitation at a variety of central synapses, and the results pave the way for future functional studies of short-term synaptic plasticity, a fundamental form of neuronal computation.
Observations of V404 Cygni, an X-ray transient containing a black hole of nine solar masses and a companion star, show that optical oscillations on timescales of 100 seconds to 2.5 hours can occur at mass-accretion rates at least ten times lower than previously thought, suggesting that the accretion rate is not the critical parameter for inducing inner-disk instabilities.
The host protein ANP32A is shown here to be a species barrier to the function of avian influenza virus polymerase in mammalian cells; the mutation E627K in viral protein PB2, which allows mammalian ANP32 family proteins to support the avian virus polymerase, is known to be associated with increased virulence of avian viruses in mammals.
BET inhibitors that target bromodomain chromatin readers such as BRD4 are being explored as potential therapeutics in cancer; here triple-negative breast cancer cell lines are shown to respond to BET inhibitors and resistance seems to be associated with transcriptional changes rather than drug efflux and mutations, opening potential avenues to improve clinical responses to BET inhibitors.
Suppression of dipolar oscillation modes by strong magnetic fields in the cores of intermediate-mass red giant stars reveals that powerful magnetic dynamos were very common in the previously convective cores of these stars.
The age of a young to middle-aged star can be determined from how quickly or slowly it rotates, but the relationship breaks down for old stars; models now show that old stars are rotating much more quickly than expected, perhaps because magnetic winds are weaker and therefore brake the rotation less effectively.
