Articles in 2015

Renewables are key for abating climate change, but also potentially vulnerable to it. Here, the authors show that the power supply from a well-developed European fleet of photovoltaic installations may undergo decreases during the 21st century, but with limited changes in amplitude and temporal stability.

The long-term quantification of the Angulas Leakage is difficult due to its highly variable spatio-temporal nature and sparse observations. Here, the authors combine sea surface temperature with a series of ocean and climate model simulations to construct a 145-year long time series of Agulhas leakage.

'Digital' spike-evoked transmission can be facilitated by slow subthreshold 'analogue' depolarisation of the presynaptic neuron. Here, the authors identify a novel, rapid form of digital-analogue facilitation in mammalian neurons whereby presynaptic hyperpolarisation enables de-inactivation of axonal Nav channels.

Programed cell death occurs in a stereotypic fashion duringC. elegansdevelopment, and it is thought that engulfment promotes programmed cell death. Here the authors present evidence that a signaling function of the conserved engulfment pathways, not the process of engulfment itself, promotes apoptotic cell death.

Measurements of biodiversity may differ according to the extent of area sampled, although how this changes across taxa is not well understood. Here, Schuldtet al. find that the diversity of plants, arthropods and microorganisms in a heterogeneous subtropical forest is highly nonlinear across spatial scales.

The protein LAMP2 functions to protect lysosomal membranes from acid proteolysis. In this study, the authors show that malignant cells adapt to the acidic tumour microenvironment by redirecting LAMP2 from lysosomes to the plasma membrane.

Little is known about how the plant-infecting cowpea mosaic virus (CPMV)—an invaluable tool in several biotechnology applications—packages its single-strand RNA genome into the capsid. Here the authors present two high-resolution cryo-EM structures of CPMV and a new model for RNA recognition and capsid assembly.

The cloud radiative effect (CRE) in the Arctic plays an important role in the amount of infrared radiation that reaches the surface. Here, the authors show that interplay between temperature and humidity controls CRE through competing influences in two semi-transparent wavelength ranges.

TANK binding kinase 1 (TBK1) is a non-canonical IκB kinase that regulates immunity via NF-κB. Here Pillai et al. show that TBK1 localizes to centrosomes during mitosis, and regulates microtubule dynamics and spindle formation by phosphorylating the centrosomal protein CEP170 and the mitotic apparatus protein NuMa.

Coordinated epithelial movement during embryogenesis drives complex tissue formation, but how this movement is coordinated to maintain epithelial integrity is not clear. Here the authors show that left-right asymmetry in cell intercalation drives clockwise rotation of epithelia inDrosophilagenital development.

Cellobiohydrolases are promising tools in biofuel production by hydrolysing cellulose into cellobiose. Here the authors use optical tweezers to show that Cellobiohydrolase 1 fromTricodermia reeseifunctions processively against moderate load, and likely uses multiple energy sources to fuel each step along the cellulose fibre.

Glutamate transporters mediate neurotransmitter reuptake at glutamatergic synapses. Here the authors show that CDC42 effector protein CDC42EP4 supports efficient glutamate clearance by promoting the tethering of a glutamate transporter GLAST to perisynaptic clusters of septins in Bergmann glia.

Single-phase high-entropy alloys, such as CrMnFeCoNi, display excellent ductility and fracture toughness. Here, the authors use in situ mechanical loading in an aberration-corrected transmission electron microscope to probe the atomistic to micro-scale mechanisms underlying these properties.

Large-scale, multimodal phenotypic characterisation is a valuable tool to explore brain function. Poldrack et al. collect and relate MRI, psychological, physiological, metabolic and gene expression data from a single human over an 18 month period, providing a rich resource for future studies.

The high polarity of colloidal inorganic-ligand-functionalized nanocrystals can be problematic for their processing, limiting their optoelectronic applications. Here, by complexation with macrocycles, the authors enabled broad amphiphilicity of such nanocrystals and processing from a variety of solvents.

Cancer genetics has benefited from the advent of next generation sequencing, yet a comparison of sequencing and analysis techniques is lacking. Here, the authors sequence a normal-tumour pair and perform data analysis at multiple institutes and highlight some of the pitfalls associated with the different methods.

DNA could find a role in molecular electronics. Here, the authors show that the conductance of DNA can be reversibly changed by an order of magnitude when its conformation is changed from one form to another by controlling its chemical environment.

The linker histone H1 is highly abundant and regulates DNA accessibility by compacting chromatin. Here the authors analyze transcription factor binding to nucleosomes and show that histone H1 suppresses unwrapping but does not directly block the binding of transcription factors.