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Τρίτη 24 Σεπτεμβρίου 2019

Revealing the metabolic capacity of Streblomastix strix and its bacterial symbionts using single-cell metagenomics [Microbiology]
Lower termites harbor in their hindgut complex microbial communities that are involved in the digestion of cellulose. Among these are protists, which are usually associated with specific bacterial symbionts found on their surface or inside their cells. While these form the foundations of a classic system in symbiosis research, we...
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences current issue
13h
Distinct intraspecies virulence mechanisms regulated by a conserved transcription factor [Microbiology]
Tailoring transcriptional regulation to coordinate the expression of virulence factors in tandem with the core genome is a hallmark of bacterial pathogen evolution. Bacteria encode hundreds of transcription factors forming the base-level control of gene regulation. Moreover, highly homologous regulators are assumed to control conserved genes between members within a...
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences current issue
13h
Hydrologic variability contributes to reduced survival through metamorphosis in a stream salamander [Ecology]
Changes in the amount, intensity, and timing of precipitation are increasing hydrologic variability in many regions, but we have little understanding of how these changes are affecting freshwater species. Stream-breeding amphibians—a diverse group in North America—may be particularly sensitive to hydrologic variability during aquatic larval and metamorphic stages. Here, we...
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences current issue
13h
Evolution of the vomer and its implications for cranial kinesis in Paraves [Evolution]
Most living birds exhibit cranial kinesis—movement between the rostrum and braincase—in which force is transferred through the palatal and jugal bars. The palate alone distinguishes the Paleognathae from the Neognathae, with cranial kinesis more developed in neognaths. Most previous palatal studies were based on 2D data and rarely incorporated data...
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences current issue
13h
Correction for Seo et al., TOX and TOX2 transcription factors cooperate with NR4A transcription factors to impose CD8+ T cell exhaustion [Correction]
IMMUNOLOGY AND INFLAMMATION Correction for “TOX and TOX2 transcription factors cooperate with NR4A transcription factors to impose CD8+ T cell exhaustion,” by Hyungseok Seo, Joyce Chen, Edahí González-Avalos, Daniela Samaniego-Castruita, Arundhoti Das, Yueqiang H. Wang, Isaac F. López-Moyado, Romain O. Georges, Wade Zhang, Atsushi Onodera, Cheng-Jang Wu, Li-Fan Lu, Patrick...
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences current issue
13h
Proteomic analyses of ECM during pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma progression reveal different contributions by tumor and stromal cells [Medical Sciences]
Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) has prominent extracellular matrix (ECM) that compromises treatments yet cannot be nonselectively disrupted without adverse consequences. ECM of PDAC, despite the recognition of its importance, has not been comprehensively studied in patients. In this study, we used quantitative mass spectrometry (MS)-based proteomics to characterize ECM proteins...
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences current issue
13h
Three archetypical classes of macromolecular regulators of protein liquid-liquid phase separation [Biophysics and Computational Biology]
Membraneless organelles, corresponding to the droplet phase upon liquid–liquid phase separation (LLPS) of protein or protein–RNA mixtures, mediate myriad cellular functions. Cells use a variety of biochemical signals such as expression level and posttranslational modification to regulate droplet formation and dissolution, but the physical basis of the regulatory mechanisms remains...
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences current issue
13h
Measuring actual learning versus feeling of learning in response to being actively engaged in the classroom [Psychological and Cognitive Sciences]
We compared students’ self-reported perception of learning with their actual learning under controlled conditions in large-enrollment introductory college physics courses taught using 1) active instruction (following best practices in the discipline) and 2) passive instruction (lectures by experienced and highly rated instructors). Both groups received identical class content and handouts,...
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences current issue
13h
Core Concept: To improve weather and climate models, researchers are chasing atmospheric gravity waves [Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences]
On September 3, 2018, an unpowered experimental sailplane made history by flying into the stratosphere. After leaving from El Calafate, a town near the Southern Patagonian Ice Field in Argentina, glider pilots Jim Payne and Tim Gardner surfed on enormous airborne waves emanating from the Andes Mountains. They achieved a...
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences current issue
13h
Intermediate-scale horizontal isoprene concentrations in the near-canopy forest atmosphere and implications for emission heterogeneity [Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences]
The emissions, deposition, and chemistry of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are thought to be influenced by underlying landscape heterogeneity at intermediate horizontal scales of several hundred meters across different forest subtypes within a tropical forest. Quantitative observations and scientific understanding at these scales, however, remain lacking, in large part due...
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences current issue
13h
Interesting identities involving weighted representations of integers as sums of arbitrarily many squares [Mathematics]
We consider the number of ways to write an integer as a sum of squares, a problem with a long history going back at least to Fermat. The previous studies in this area generally fix the number of squares which may occur and then either use algebraic techniques or connect...
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences current issue
13h
A round Earth for climate models [Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences]
Sunlight drives the Earth’s weather, climate, chemistry, and biosphere. Recent efforts to improve solar heating codes in climate models focused on more accurate treatment of the absorption spectrum or fractional clouds. A mostly forgotten assumption in climate models is that of a flat Earth atmosphere. Spherical atmospheres intercept 2.5 W⋅m−2...
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences current issue
13h
Polymer effects modulate binding affinities in disordered proteins [Biophysics and Computational Biology]
Structural disorder is widespread in regulatory protein networks. Weak and transient interactions render disordered proteins particularly sensitive to fluctuations in solution conditions such as ion and crowder concentrations. How this sensitivity alters folding coupled binding reactions, however, has not been fully understood. Here, we demonstrate that salt jointly modulates polymer...
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences current issue
13h
Take a deep breath: Multiecho fMRI denoising effectively removes head motion artifacts, obviating the need for global signal regression [Biological Sciences]
Power et al. (1) provide convincing evidence that multiecho independent components analysis (ME-ICA) effectively differentiates blood oxygen level-dependent (BOLD) from non-BOLD, or artifactual, signals in functional MRI (fMRI) data. Critically, ME-ICA removes spurious, distance-dependent effects caused by head motion in resting-state functional connectivity (RSFC) analyses, which have confounded many group...
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences current issue
13h
A computational framework for DNA sequencing microscopy [Biophysics and Computational Biology]
We describe a method whereby microscale spatial information such as the relative positions of biomolecules on a surface can be transferred to a sequence-based format and reconstructed into images without conventional optics. Barcoded DNA “polymerase colony” (polony) amplification techniques enable one to distinguish specific locations of a surface by their...
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences current issue
13h
Spatial transcriptome profiling by MERFISH reveals subcellular RNA compartmentalization and cell cycle-dependent gene expression [Biophysics and Computational Biology]
The expression profiles and spatial distributions of RNAs regulate many cellular functions. Image-based transcriptomic approaches provide powerful means to measure both expression and spatial information of RNAs in individual cells within their native environment. Among these approaches, multiplexed error-robust fluorescence in situ hybridization (MERFISH) has achieved spatially resolved RNA quantification...
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences current issue
13h
Revisiting the protomotive vectorial motion of F0-ATPase [Biophysics and Computational Biology]
The elucidation of the detailed mechanism used by F0 to convert proton gradient to torque and rotational motion presents a major puzzle despite significant biophysical and structural progress. Although the conceptual model has advanced our understanding of the working principles of such systems, it is crucial to explore the actual...
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences current issue
13h
Complex dynamics under tension in a high-efficiency frameshift stimulatory structure [Biophysics and Computational Biology]
Specific structures in mRNA can stimulate programmed ribosomal frameshifting (PRF). PRF efficiency can vary enormously between different stimulatory structures, but the features that lead to efficient PRF stimulation remain uncertain. To address this question, we studied the structural dynamics of the frameshift signal from West Nile virus (WNV), which stimulates...
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences current issue
13h
Mechanism of activation of the human cysteine desulfurase complex by frataxin [Biochemistry]
The function of frataxin (FXN) has garnered great scientific interest since its depletion was linked to the incurable neurodegenerative disease Friedreich’s ataxia (FRDA). FXN has been shown to be necessary for iron-sulfur (Fe-S) cluster biosynthesis and proper mitochondrial function. The structural and functional core of the Fe-S cluster assembly complex...
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences current issue
13h
Collective multipole oscillations direct the plasmonic coupling at the nanojunction interfaces [Chemistry]
We present a systematic study of the effect of higher-multipolar order plasmon modes on the spectral response and plasmonic coupling of silver nanoparticle dimers at nanojunction separation and introduce a coupling mechanism. The most prominent plasmonic band within the extinction spectra of coupled resonators is the dipolar coupling band. A...
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences current issue
13h
Spontaneous generation of hydrogen peroxide from aqueous microdroplets [Chemistry]
We show H2O2 is spontaneously produced from pure water by atomizing bulk water into microdroplets (1 μm to 20 µm in diameter). Production of H2O2, as assayed by H2O2-sensitve fluorescence dye peroxyfluor-1, increased with decreasing microdroplet size. Cleavage of 4-carboxyphenylboronic acid and conversion of phenylboronic acid to phenols in microdroplets...
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences current issue
13h
Signaling the trustworthiness of science [Social Sciences]
Trust in science increases when scientists and the outlets certifying their work honor science’s norms. Scientists often fail to signal to other scientists and, perhaps more importantly, the public that these norms are being upheld. They could do so as they generate, certify, and react to each other’s findings: for...
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences current issue
13h
Unbiased atomistic insight in the competing nucleation mechanisms of methane hydrates [Chemistry]
Methane hydrates have important industrial and climate implications, yet their formation via homogeneous nucleation under natural, moderate conditions is poorly understood. Obtaining such understanding could lead to improved control of crystallization, as well as insight into polymorph selection in general, but is hampered by limited experimental resolution. Direct molecular dynamics...
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences current issue
13h
Relief food subsistence revealed by microparticle and proteomic analyses of dental calculus from victims of the Great Irish Famine [Anthropology]
Food and diet were class markers in 19th-century Ireland, which became evident as nearly 1 million people, primarily the poor and destitute, died as a consequence of the notorious Great Famine of 1845 to 1852. Famine took hold after a blight (Phytophthora infestans) destroyed virtually the only means of subsistence—the...
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences current issue
13h
Decadal increase in Arctic dimethylsulfide emission [Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences]
Dimethylsulfide (DMS), a gas produced by marine microbial food webs, promotes aerosol formation in pristine atmospheres, altering cloud radiative forcing and precipitation. Recent studies suggest that DMS controls aerosol formation in the summertime Arctic atmosphere and call for an assessment of pan-Arctic DMS emission (EDMS) in a context of dramatic...
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences current issue
13h
Engineering energetically efficient transport of dicarboxylic acids in yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae [Applied Biological Sciences]
Biobased C4-dicarboxylic acids are attractive sustainable precursors for polymers and other materials. Commercial scale production of these acids at high titers requires efficient secretion by cell factories. In this study, we characterized 7 dicarboxylic acid transporters in Xenopus oocytes and in Saccharomyces cerevisiae engineered for dicarboxylic acid production. Among the...
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences current issue
13h
Phase transitions beyond post-perovskite in NaMgF3 to 160 GPa [Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences]
Neighborite, NaMgF3, is used as a model system for understanding phase transitions in ABX3 systems (e.g., MgSiO3) at high pressures. Here we report diamond anvil cell experiments that identify the following phases in NaMgF3 with compression to 162 GPa: NaMgF3 (perovskite) → NaMgF3 (post-perovskite) → NaMgF3 (Sb2S3-type) → NaF (B2-type)...
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences current issue
13h
Atmosphere-ocean oxygen and productivity dynamics during early animal radiations [Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences]
The proliferation of large, motile animals 540 to 520 Ma has been linked to both rising and declining O2 levels on Earth. To explore this conundrum, we reconstruct the global extent of seafloor oxygenation at approximately submillion-year resolution based on uranium isotope compositions of 187 marine carbonates samples from China,...
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences current issue
13h
Spherical tarball particles form through rapid chemical and physical changes of organic matter in biomass-burning smoke [Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences]
Biomass burning (BB) emits enormous amounts of aerosol particles and gases into the atmosphere and thereby significantly influences regional air quality and global climate. A dominant particle type from BB is spherical organic aerosol particles commonly referred to as tarballs. Currently, tarballs can only be identified, using microscopy, from their...
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences current issue
13h
The composition of a Neandertal social group revealed by the hominin footprints at Le Rozel (Normandy, France) [Anthropology]
Footprints represent a unique snapshot of hominin life. They provide information on the size and composition of groups that differs from osteological and archeological remains, whose contemporaneity is difficult to establish. We report here on the discovery of 257 footprints dated to 80,000 y from the Paleolithic site at Le...
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences current issue
13h
What network motifs tell us about resilience and reliability of complex networks [Engineering]
Network motifs are often called the building blocks of networks. Analysis of motifs has been found to be an indispensable tool for understanding local network structure, in contrast to measures based on node degree distribution and its functions that primarily address a global network topology. As a result, networks that...
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences current issue
13h
Quantifying the contribution of sequence variants with regulatory and evolutionary significance to 34 bovine complex traits [Agricultural Sciences]
Many genome variants shaping mammalian phenotype are hypothesized to regulate gene transcription and/or to be under selection. However, most of the evidence to support this hypothesis comes from human studies. Systematic evidence for regulatory and evolutionary signals contributing to complex traits in a different mammalian model is needed. Sequence variants...
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences current issue
13h
Revealing angular momentum transfer channels and timescales in the ultrafast demagnetization process of ferromagnetic semiconductors [Applied Physical Sciences]
Ultrafast control of magnetic order by light provides a promising realization for spintronic devices beyond Moore’s Law and has stimulated intense research interest in recent years. Yet, despite 2 decades of debates, the key question of how the spin angular momentum flows on the femtosecond timescale remains open. The lack...
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences current issue
13h
A safe and sustainable bacterial cellulose nanofiber separator for lithium rechargeable batteries [Biochemistry]
Bacterial cellulose nanofiber (BCNF) with high thermal stability produced by an ecofriendly process has emerged as a promising solution to realize safe and sustainable materials in the large-scale battery. However, an understanding of the actual thermal behavior of the BCNF in the full-cell battery has been lacking, and the yield...
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences current issue
13h
An unfolding role for ankyrin-G at the axon initial segment [Neuroscience]
The ability of neurons to integrate convergent inputs and generate action potentials, the physiological currency of activity, relies on the axon initial segment (AIS). This specialized segment of the proximal axon is the site of electrogenesis in neurons (1), reflecting its striking enrichment in voltage-gated sodium channels (NaV). The AIS...
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences current issue
13h
Inner Workings: Lyme disease vaccines face familiar challenges, both societal and scientific [Immunology and Inflammation]
Just over 20 years ago, a Lyme disease vaccine called LYMErix was approved for sale in the United States. Researchers designed the vaccine to prevent the transmission of the tick-borne pathogen Borellia burgdorferi, which spurs a bacterial infection that can cause fever, headaches, and joint pain if left untreated. The...
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences current issue
13h
The first day of the Cenozoic [Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences]
Highly expanded Cretaceous–Paleogene (K-Pg) boundary section from the Chicxulub peak ring, recovered by International Ocean Discovery Program (IODP)–International Continental Scientific Drilling Program (ICDP) Expedition 364, provides an unprecedented window into the immediate aftermath of the impact. Site M0077 includes ∼130 m of impact melt rock and suevite deposited the first...
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences current issue
13h

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