Nature Communications - 14 August 2013

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Latest content: Articles Journal homepage Recommend to library Web feed   Advertisement nature.com webcasts Macmillan Science Communication, presents a custom webcast on: Using microfluidics for real-time imaging of in vitro cell models  Register for free and listen on demand  Sponsored by:       Latest Articles View all Articles     Repopulation of decellularized mouse heart with human induced pluripotent stem cell-derived cardiovascular progenitor cells Tung-Ying Lu, Bo Lin, Jong Kim, Mara Sullivan, Kimimasa Tobita, Guy Salama and Lei Yang Artificial heart tissue may find application in novel therapies of cardiac disease in the future. Here, Lu et al. take a step towards the creation of personalized heart tissue by repopulating decellularized mouse hearts with cells derived from human induced pluripotent stem cells. 13 August 2013 | doi: 10.1038/ncomms3307 Biological Sciences  Medical research  Forecasting flowering phenology under climate warming by modelling the regulatory dynamics of flowering-time genes Akiko Satake, Tetsuhiro Kawagoe, Yukari Saburi, Yukako Chiba, Gen Sakurai and Hiroshi Kudoh Climate change and increasing temperature have an impact on the flowering time of plants but models predicting these effects are lacking. Satake et al. provide a model based on differential gene expression to predict the response of plants to warmer temperatures and find that the flowering period is shortened. 13 August 2013 | doi: 10.1038/ncomms3303 Biological Sciences  Climate science  Ecology  Plant sciences  Doping of polycrystalline CdTe for high-efficiency solar cells on flexible metal foil Lukas Kranz, Christina Gretener, Julian Perrenoud, Rafael Schmitt, Fabian Pianezzi, Fabio La Mattina, Patrick Blösch, Erik Cheah, Adrian Chirilă, Carolin M. Fella, Harald Hagendorfer, Timo Jäger, Shiro Nishiwaki, Alexander R. Uhl, Stephan Buecheler and Ayodhya N. Tiwari Flexible CdTe solar cells on metal foil substrates are promising for low-cost roll-to-roll fabrication, but their efficiency is usually low because of their inverted structure. By controlling the doping of the CdTe layer with copper, Kranz et al. show that efficiencies up to 13.6% can be obtained. 13 August 2013 | doi: 10.1038/ncomms3306 Physical Sciences  Applied physics  Materials science  Optical physics  Human-relevant levels of added sugar consumption increase female mortality and lower male fitness in mice James S. Ruff, Amanda K. Suchy, Sara A. Hugentobler, Mirtha M. Sosa, Bradley L. Schwartz, Linda C. Morrison, Sin H. Gieng, Mark K. Shigenaga and Wayne K. Potts Animal experiments to study the detrimental health effects of sugar usually involve far higher doses than those consumed by humans. Here, Ruff et al. show that house mice consuming comparatively low amounts of added sugar are impaired in their ability to compete for territories, reproduce and survive in a seminatural environment. 13 August 2013 | doi: 10.1038/ncomms3245 Biological Sciences  Ecology  Medical research  Carbon nanotube membranes with ultrahigh specific adsorption capacity for water desalination and purification Hui Ying Yang, Zhao Jun Han, Siu Fung Yu, Kin Leong Pey, Kostya Ostrikov and Rohit Karnik Absorption-based water purification technologies are simple to use but can be hindered by their low salt removal capacity. Here, the authors report ultralong carbon nanotubes modified by plasma treatment, capable of salt adsorption two orders of magnitude higher than state-of-the-art carbon-based systems. 13 August 2013 | doi: 10.1038/ncomms3220 Chemical Sciences  Materials science  Nanotechnology  Visualizing short-range charge transfer at the interfaces between ferromagnetic and superconducting oxides Te Yu Chien, Lena F. Kourkoutis, Jak Chakhalian, Benjamin Gray, Michael Kareev, Nathan P. Guisinger, David A. Muller and John W. Freeland Interesting proximity effects can occur at the interface of superconducting and ferromagnetic oxides, but they are poorly understood. Here, the authors use scanning tunnelling and electron microscopy techniques to investigate such an interface, showing that the charge transfer has an upper limit of 1 nm. 13 August 2013 | doi: 10.1038/ncomms3336 Physical Sciences  Applied physics  Condensed matter  Fine-scale niche structure of Neotropical forests reflects a legacy of the Great American Biotic Interchange Brian E. Sedio, John R. Paul, Charlotte M. Taylor and Christopher W. Dick Niche conservatism may link community assembly to biogeographic history. Seido et al. find that the geographic origins of locally co-occurring trees explain 50% of the variation in species' hydraulic niches, linking local community structure to species distributions millions of years before dispersal. 13 August 2013 | doi: 10.1038/ncomms3317 Biological Sciences  Ecology  Evolution  Glycogen shortage during fasting triggers liver–brain–adipose neurocircuitry to facilitate fat utilization OPEN Yoshihiko Izumida, Naoya Yahagi, Yoshinori Takeuchi, Makiko Nishi, Akito Shikama, Ayako Takarada, Yukari Masuda, Midori Kubota, Takashi Matsuzaka, Yoshimi Nakagawa, Yoko Iizuka, Keiji Itaka, Kazunori Kataoka, Seiji Shioda, Akira Niijima, Tetsuya Yamada, Hideki Katagiri, Ryozo Nagai, Nobuhiro Yamada, Takashi Kadowaki et al. During fasting, animals shift their energy source from carbohydrates to triglycerides. Here, Izumida et al. report that glycogen shortage in the liver activates a liver–brain–adipose-tissue neurocircuit that signals the switch in fuel source from liver glycogen to triglycerides in fat cells. 13 August 2013 | doi: 10.1038/ncomms3316 Biological Sciences  Medical research  Neuroscience  Overexpression of Atg5 in mice activates autophagy and extends lifespan OPEN Jong-Ok Pyo, Seung-Min Yoo, Hye-Hyun Ahn, Jihoon Nah, Se-Hoon Hong, Tae-In Kam, Sunmin Jung and Yong-Keun Jung Changes in autophagy have been shown to modulate lifespan in lower organisms. Here, Pyo et al. show that mice globally overexpressing the autophagy protein Atg5 live longer and are leaner than normal mice, providing the first evidence that increased autophagy extends lifespan in mammals. 13 August 2013 | doi: 10.1038/ncomms3300 Biological Sciences  Cell biology  Medical research  Identification and design principles of low hole effective mass p-type transparent conducting oxides OPEN Geoffroy Hautier, Anna Miglio, Gerbrand Ceder, Gian-Marco Rignanese and Xavier Gonze More efficient solar cell designs require transparent conducting oxides with higher carrier mobility. Hautier et al. report a high-throughput computational search for p-type oxides with wide band gap and low hole effective masses, and identify two promising compounds out of thousands of candidates. 13 August 2013 | doi: 10.1038/ncomms3292 Physical Sciences  Condensed matter  Materials science  Theoretical physics  Srs2 prevents Rad51 filament formation by repetitive motion on DNA Yupeng Qiu, Edwin Antony, Sultan Doganay, Hye Ran Koh, Timothy M. Lohman and Sua Myong Srs2 is a DNA helicase and single-stranded DNA translocase that prevents homologous recombination by dismantling Rad51 filaments. Qiu et al. use single-molecule techniques to describe Rad51 filament formation and show that Srs2 displays repetitive activity on single-stranded DNA, which prevents re-formation of Rad51 filaments after dismantling. 13 August 2013 | doi: 10.1038/ncomms3281 Biological Sciences  Biochemistry  Molecular biology  Observation of higher stiffness in nanopolycrystal diamond than monocrystal diamond Kenichi Tanigaki, Hirotsugu Ogi, Hitoshi Sumiya, Koichi Kusakabe, Nobutomo Nakamura, Masahiko Hirao and Hassel Ledbetter Monocrystalline diamond is the stiffest and hardest material known to man. Here, the authors reveal that polycrystalline diamond synthesized by a direct-conversion method from graphite displays higher elastic constants than its monocrystalline counterpart. 12 August 2013 | doi: 10.1038/ncomms3343 Physical Sciences  Materials science  In vivo time-gated fluorescence imaging with biodegradable luminescent porous silicon nanoparticles Luo Gu, David J. Hall, Zhengtao Qin, Emily Anglin, Jinmyoung Joo, David J. Mooney, Stephen B. Howell and Michael J. Sailor Tissue autofluorescence can lead to considerable noise in fluorescence imaging of biological tissues. Here, Gu et al. demonstrate that the use of photoluminescent silicon nanoparticles with long emission lifetimes enable a late time-gated imaging technique where autofluorescence effects are avoided. 12 August 2013 | doi: 10.1038/ncomms3326 Chemical Sciences  Medicinal chemistry  Nanotechnology  Population structure determines functional differences among species and ecosystem processes Volker H. W. Rudolf and Nick L. Rasmussen Linking biodiversity and ecosystem functioning has been a longstanding challenge in ecology. Here, the authors demonstrate that changes in the demographic structure of populations can fundamentally alter the functional composition of natural communities and alter ecosystem processes long before any species are extirpated. 12 August 2013 | doi: 10.1038/ncomms3318 Biological Sciences  Ecology  Mechanism for full-length RNA processing of Arabidopsis genes containing intragenic heterochromatin Hidetoshi Saze, Junko Kitayama, Kazuya Takashima, Saori Miura, Yoshiko Harukawa, Tasuku Ito and Tetsuji Kakutani Transposable elements found within transcribed regions of genes are often compacted into heterochromatin. Using Arabidopsis as a model, these authors show that the protein, IBM2, is required for correct processing of genes that contain intragenic heterochromatin. 12 August 2013 | doi: 10.1038/ncomms3301 Biological Sciences  Molecular biology  Plant sciences  NF-κB non-cell-autonomously regulates cancer stem cell populations in the basal-like breast cancer subtype Mizuki Yamamoto, Yuu Taguchi, Taku Ito-Kureha, Kentaro Semba, Noritaka Yamaguchi and Jun-ichiro Inoue Aggressive types of breast cancer often exhibit constitutive activation of the pro-inflammatory transcription factor NF-κB. Here, Yamamoto et al. show that, in basal-like breast cancer, NF-κB upregulates the Notch receptor ligand JAG1 in non-cancer stem cells and thereby induces proliferation of breast cancer stem cells. 12 August 2013 | doi: 10.1038/ncomms3299 Biological Sciences  Cancer  Cell biology  Efficient and bright organic light-emitting diodes on single-layer graphene electrodes Ning Li, Satoshi Oida, George S. Tulevski, Shu-Jen Han, James B. Hannon, Devendra K. Sadana and Tze-Chiang Chen Indium tin oxide, the predominant material used as transparent electrodes in organic LEDs, is expensive and brittle. Ning Li and colleagues form transparent electrodes using single-layer graphene to construct organic LEDs with unprecedented performance that are suitable for both displays and lighting. 12 August 2013 | doi: 10.1038/ncomms3294 Physical Sciences  Applied physics  Materials science  Selective contacts drive charge extraction in quantum dot solids via asymmetry in carrier transfer kinetics Ivan Mora-Sero, Luca Bertoluzzi, Victoria Gonzalez-Pedro, Sixto Gimenez, Francisco Fabregat-Santiago, Kyle W. Kemp, Edward H. Sargent and Juan Bisquert Colloidal quantum dot solar cells represent a rapidly advancing class of photovoltaic devices, but their underlying physics remains to be fully elucidated. Mora-Sero et al. characterize the charge diffusion at various contacts and propose a hopping mechanism of charge carriers between quantum dots. 12 August 2013 | doi: 10.1038/ncomms3272 Physical Sciences  Applied physics  Condensed matter  Micropatterned substrates coated with neuronal adhesion molecules for high-content study of synapse formation Katalin Czöndör, Mikael Garcia, Amélie Argento, Audrey Constals, Christelle Breillat, Béatrice Tessier and Olivier Thoumine Synapse formation and function studies are routinely carried out with suboptimal assays. Czöndör et al. describe a method that allows spatial control of synaptic differentiation by culturing neurons on micropatterned substrates comprising arrays of individual microdots coated with different proteins. 12 August 2013 | doi: 10.1038/ncomms3252 Biological Sciences  Neuroscience  Root-derived CLE glycopeptides control nodulation by direct binding to HAR1 receptor kinase Satoru Okamoto, Hidefumi Shinohara, Tomoko Mori, Yoshikatsu Matsubayashi and Masayoshi Kawaguchi Symbiotic bacteria form nodules with plant roots and this is controlled by CLE-RS genes found in the plant. In this study, the CLE-RS2 gene product is shown to be a glycopeptide that can travel from the roots to the shoot of plants and binds to the receptor kinase HAR1. 12 August 2013 | doi: 10.1038/ncomms3191 Biological Sciences  Chemical biology  Plant sciences  Polymeric pseudo-crown ether for cation recognition via cation template-assisted cyclopolymerization Takaya Terashima, Minami Kawabe, Yuichiro Miyabara, Hiroaki Yoda and Mitsuo Sawamoto Cyclopolymers have potentially interesting molecular recognition properties due to their in-chain multiple rings. Here, the authors report cation-templated, controlled radical cyclopolymerization of poly(ethylene glycol) dimethacrylates, yielding polymeric pseudo-crown ethers with large in-chain cavities. 09 August 2013 | doi: 10.1038/ncomms3321 Chemical Sciences  Inorganic chemistry  Organic chemistry  Reversibility of anodic lithium in rechargeable lithium–oxygen batteries Jiang-Lan Shui, John S. Okasinski, Peter Kenesei, Howard A. Dobbs, Dan Zhao, Jonathan D. Almer and Di-Jia Liu Lithium–oxygen batteries are expected to have high-energy density, assuming that anodic lithium is fully reversible upon cycling. Shui et al. disprove this assumption by monitoring the changes of anode composition and morphology, and reveal the loss mechanism and transport paths of lithium ions. 09 August 2013 | doi: 10.1038/ncomms3255 Chemical Sciences  Materials science  Physical chemistry  A reconfigurable plasmofluidic lens Chenglong Zhao, Yongmin Liu, Yanhui Zhao, Nicholas Fang and Tony Jun Huang Plasmonics offers sub-diffraction limit optical devices, but multiple functionalities are difficult to build in the solid state. By combining it with fluidics, Zhao et al. present a tunable and reconfigurable plasmonic lens using laser-controllable bubble formation in a microfluidic environment. 09 August 2013 | doi: 10.1038/ncomms3305 Physical Sciences  Applied physics  Fluids and plasma physics  Optical physics  The TFEB orthologue HLH-30 regulates autophagy and modulates longevity in Caenorhabditis elegans Louis R. Lapierre, C. Daniel De Magalhaes Filho, Philip R. McQuary, Chu-Chiao Chu, Orane Visvikis, Jessica T. Chang, Sara Gelino, Binnan Ong, Andrew E. Davis, Javier E. Irazoqui, Andrew Dillin and Malene Hansen The mammalian protein TFEB is a key regulator of autophagy, a cellular process implicated in organismal ageing. Here, Lapierre et al. show that the TFEB orthologue HLH-30 is required for lifespan extension in six different long-lived Caenorhabditis elegans strains. 08 August 2013 | doi: 10.1038/ncomms3267 Biological Sciences  Cell biology  Tubular endocytosis drives remodelling of the apical surface during epithelial morphogenesis in Drosophila OPEN Piotr Fabrowski, Aleksandar S. Necakov, Simone Mumbauer, Eva Loeser, Alessandra Reversi, Sebastian Streichan, John A. G. Briggs and Stefano De Renzis During epithelial morphogenesis in Drosophila, the villous apical cell surface is flattened. Fabrowski et al. show that this flattening depends on a dramatic increase in endocytosis associated with the formation of tubular invaginations, revealing a role for membrane trafficking in morphological remodelling. 07 August 2013 | doi: 10.1038/ncomms3244 Biological Sciences  Cell biology  Developmental biology  The unusual dynamics of parasite actin result from isodesmic polymerization Kristen M. Skillman, Christopher I. Ma, Daved H. Fremont, Karthikeyan Diraviyam, John A. Cooper, David Sept and L. David Sibley Actin normally polymerizes into filaments in a cooperative manner, with nucleation and elongation phases. Skillman et al. show that actin from the protozoan parasite Toxoplasma gondii polymerizes in an isodesmic manner, without any evidence of nucleation, resulting in filaments that are very short and unstable. 07 August 2013 | doi: 10.1038/ncomms3285 Biological Sciences  Biochemistry  Cell biology  Microbiology  Topological defect formation and spontaneous symmetry breaking in ion Coulomb crystals K. Pyka, J. Keller, H. L. Partner, R. Nigmatullin, T. Burgermeister, D. M. Meier, K. Kuhlmann, A Retzker, M. B. Plenio, W. H. Zurek, A. del Campo and T. E. Mehlstäubler The Kibble–Zurek mechanism describes the formation of topological defects in systems undergoing continuous phase transitions, and predicts a power law for their density. Pyka et al. create defects in ion coulomb crystals and observe their scaling behaviour in the context of the Kibble–Zurek theory. 07 August 2013 | doi: 10.1038/ncomms3291 Physical Sciences  Atomic and molecular physics  Observation of the Kibble–Zurek scaling law for defect formation in ion crystals S. Ulm, J. Roßnagel, G. Jacob, C. Degünther, S. T. Dawkins, U. G. Poschinger, R. Nigmatullin, A. Retzker, M. B. Plenio, F. Schmidt-Kaler and K. Singer The formation of defects in numerous systems is believed to follow universal scaling laws arising from the Kibble–Zurek mechanism. Ulm et al. measure this scaling law for defects created in ion Coulomb crystals, confirming the predicted behaviour for a system of 16 ions. 07 August 2013 | doi: 10.1038/ncomms3290 Physical Sciences  Atomic and molecular physics  Disk-cylinder and disk-sphere nanoparticles via a block copolymer blend solution construction Jiahua Zhu, Shiyi Zhang, Ke Zhang, Xiaojun Wang, Jimmy W. Mays, Karen L. Wooley and Darrin J. Pochan Compositionally and geometrically complex nano-objects are an important goal in medicinal, photonic and electronic materials research. Here, the authors fabricate disk-sphere and disk-cylinder nanoparticles with defined multicompartments from binary mixtures of block copolymers. 07 August 2013 | doi: 10.1038/ncomms3297 Chemical Sciences  Materials science  Nanotechnology  Structure–dynamics relationship in coherent transport through disordered systems Stefano Mostarda, Federico Levi, Diego Prada-Gracia, Florian Mintert and Francesco Rao The quantum transport properties of disordered systems like light-harvesting complexes or atomic clouds strongly depend on the system's geometry. Combining complex network analysis with quantum dynamics, the authors identify structural motifs that exhibit particularly robust quantum transport. 07 August 2013 | doi: 10.1038/ncomms3296 Physical Sciences  Theoretical physics    Nature Communications JOBS of the week Postdoctoral Fellow University of Michigan - Ann Arbor PhD studentship Karlsruhe Institute of Kechnology (Campus North) Postdoctoral Research Assistant University of Oxford (Department of Pharmacology) Project Manager Imperial College London 8 PhD Fellowships Cologne Cardiovascular Research Center/University Hospital of Cologne Research Associate UCL Institute of Neurology Postdoctoral Fellow University of Cincinnati Cancer Research PhD Position Medical University Vienna / SERD Tenure Track Researcher Tokai University Postdoctoral Researcher University of Pittsburgh More Science jobs from Nature Communications EVENT Next Generation Sequencing 13.04.14 Cambridge, UK More science events from     Advertisement Naturejobs presents the: Naturejobs Career Expo September 19, 2013 The Business Design Centre, London, UK  Click here for more information or to register for this conference today!   Natureevents is a fully searchable, multi-disciplinary database designed to maximise exposure for events organisers. 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