New year, new science Nature 469, 7328 (2011). doi:10.1038/469012a Author: Richard Van Noorden, Heidi Ledford & Adam Mann Nature looks at key findings and events that could emerge from the research world in 2011
IceCube completed Nature 469, 7328 (2011).
Preplay of future place cell sequences by hippocampal cellular assemblies Nature 469, 7330 (2011). doi:10.1038/nature09633 Authors: George Dragoi & Susumu Tonegawa During spatial exploration, hippocampal neurons show a sequential firing pattern in which individual neurons fire specifically at particular locations along the animal’s trajectory (place cells). According to the dominant model of hippocampal cell assembly activity, place cell firing order is established for the first time during exploration, to encode the spatial experience, and is subsequently replayed during rest or slow-wave sleep for consolidation of the encoded experience.
Evidence for a spin-aligned neutron–proton paired phase from the level structure of 92Pd Nature 469, 7328 (2011).
Neurotransmitter/sodium symporter orthologue LeuT has a single high-affinity substrate site Nature 468, 7327 (2010). doi:10.1038/nature09581 Authors: Chayne L
Transcriptional activation of polycomb-repressed genes by ZRF1 Nature 468, 7327 (2010). doi:10.1038/nature09574 Authors: Holger Richly, Luciana Rocha-Viegas, Joana Domingues Ribeiro, Santiago Demajo, Gunes Gundem, Nuria Lopez-Bigas, Tekeya Nakagawa, Sabine Rospert, Takashi Ito & Luciano Di Croce Covalent modification of histones is fundamental in orchestrating chromatin dynamics and transcription. One example of such an epigenetic mark is the mono-ubiquitination of histones, which mainly occurs at histone H2A and H2B
S-glutathionylation uncouples eNOS and regulates its cellular and vascular function Nature 468, 7327 (2010). doi:10.1038/nature09599 Authors: Chun-An Chen, Tse-Yao Wang, Saradhadevi Varadharaj, Levy A.
The histone variant macroH2A suppresses melanoma progression through regulation of CDK8 Nature 468, 7327 (2010). doi:10.1038/nature09590 Authors: Avnish Kapoor, Matthew S
mTORC1 controls fasting-induced ketogenesis and its modulation by ageing Nature 468, 7327 (2010). doi:10.1038/nature09584 Authors: Shomit Sengupta, Timothy R
Mantle superplasticity and its self-made demise Nature 468, 7327 (2010). doi:10.1038/nature09685 Authors: Takehiko Hiraga, Tomonori Miyazaki, Miki Tasaka & Hidehiro Yoshida The unusual capability of solid crystalline materials to deform plastically, known as superplasticity, has been found in metals and even in ceramics. Such superplastic behaviour has been speculated for decades to take place in geological materials, ranging from surface ice sheets to the Earth’s lower mantle.