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The cover shows lipid bilayers in crystals of a calcium pump as revealed by X-ray solvent contrast modulation. Conventional X-ray crystallography cannot visualize membrane phospholipids, so structure analyses of membrane proteins usually have to pretend that no lipid bilayer exists. In this issue, Chikashi Toyoshima and colleagues reveal a crystallographic method using solvent contrast modulation that is able to include phospholipid head groups, signalling that future crystallography images no longer have to be fat-free. They deployed their technique on four states of a calcium pump, revealing for the first time how the lipid bilayer actively participates in the successive conformational switches of the pump. They were able to define a belt of tryptophan residues, which functions as a âmembrane floatâ, allowing the whole pump axis to tilt with respect to the membrane bilayer during ion transport, as well as arginine and lysine residues, which act as âmembrane anchorsâ and provide leverage for the helix movements. Credit: Yoshiyuki Norimatsu and Chikashi Toyoshima
Pluripotent stem cells, which give rise to every cell type, can acquire cancer-causing genetic mutations when grown in vitro. This finding has implications for the use of pluripotent cells in basic research and in the clinic. See Letter p.229
The people, economies and agriculture of central Asia and parts of south Asia rely on water from mountains. Modelling suggests that glacier melt, in particular, is a key water source during dry periods in some of these regions. See Article p.169
Previous crystal structures of membrane-spanning enzymes called ATPases have revealed that the enzymes undergo complex movements. The movements, it now emerges, involve rocking in place in the membrane. See Article p.193
A technique for manipulating molecules uses an intermediary atom to query a nearby molecule's energy state and produces 'quantum superpositions' of these states, a prerequisite for extremely high-precision spectroscopy. See Letter p.203
Ultraviolet light can damage DNA, triggering a general shutdown of gene transcription — yet some genes are activated by UV light. An investigation of this counter-intuitive behaviour reveals a surprising gene-regulation mechanism.
Understanding the prevalence and impact of personal attacks in online discussions is challenging. A method that combines crowdsourcing and machine learning provides a way forward, but caveats must be considered.
Glaciers in the high mountains of Asia provide a uniquely drought-resilient source of water, supplying summer meltwater sufficient for the basic needs of 136 million people.
Thalamic neurons show selective persistent activity that predicts movement direction, and their photoinhibition decreases activity in the anterior lateral motor cortex, and vice versa, suggesting that persistent activity requires reciprocal excitation in a thalamocortical loop.
LGR5+ cells in human colorectal cancer tissue xenografted into mice act as cancer stem cells, and differentiated cancer cells can revert to cancer stem cells and express LGR5 after ablation of existing LGR5+ cells.
Solvent contrast modulation reveals how the lipid bilayer actively participates in the conformational switches of Ca2+-ATPase through the actions of tryptophan, arginine and lysine residues, which function as membrane floats and anchors.
Interferometric telescope observations of the Jovian moon Io reveal that the floor of the Loki Patera volcano has been resurfaced in two waves, with different starting times and velocities.
By exploiting a co-trapped Ca+ ion, a single CaH+ ion is prepared in pure quantum states, which are coherently manipulated, using a protocol that could easily be extended to other molecular ion species.
Films of metal halide perovskite are used as the absorber material in solar cells, and light irradiation during their formation is shown to affect their crystallization, morphology and photovoltaic performance.
Starting with alkyl carboxylic acids, a simple olefin synthesis using any substitution pattern or geometry, based on amide-bond synthesis with nickel- or iron-based catalysis, is described.
The mediodorsal nucleus of the thalamus amplifies the functional connectivity of the prefrontal cortex, thereby sustaining cortical representations of rule sets without relaying categorical information.
The authors surveyed whole-exome and RNA-sequencing data from 252 unique pluripotent stem cell lines, some of which are in the pipeline for clinical use, and found that approximately 5% of cell lines had acquired mutations in the TP53 gene that allow mutant cells to rapidly outcompete non-mutant cells, but do not prevent differentiation.
The authors describe water-soluble surrogate Wnt agonists, with specificity towards some frizzled (FZD) receptors, which can maintain human intestinal organoid cultures and have effects on the mouse liver in vivo.
R-spondin and Wnt ligand families act non-redundantly and cooperatively within the same molecular pathway in the intestinal stem-cell niche to maintain stem-cell competency and drive stem-cell expansion.
The molecular mechanism of Goodpasture disease is modelled to mechanistically determine how a human leukocyte antigen (HLA) allele can exert its dominant protective effect in autoimmune disease.
Saudi Arabia’s economy has been heavily reliant on oil for decades, but now the country aims to diversity it’s resources and decrease its dependence on fossil fuels. Scientists gathered at the kingdom’s capital last December suggest biomedical research investment could be the driver behind this bold change.