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Nature press release 30 May issue

May 30, 2002

[1] LIFELINES: SNOT, SWEAT AND TEARS BREAK BIOFILMS (pp552-555)

A component of bodily secretions stops bacteria forming antibiotic-resistant sheets, shows a report in this week`s Nature. The protein could help prevent the chronic infections that force medical implants to be removed and that prove lethal in the lungs of cystic fibrosis patients.
Lactoferrin, a protein abundant in secretions including tears, mucus and human milk, stops bacterium Pseudomonas aeruginosa clustering into biofilms, Pradeep of The University of Iowa in Iowa City Singh, and colleagues have shown.
Lactoferrin takes up iron and deprives the bacteria of an essential nutrient. This may trigger them to search for a better place to settle: lactoferrin makes the bacteria scurry around. Why cystic fibrosis lungs remain vulnerable to infection remains unclear, however.
Lactoferrin or a drug that mops up iron could be sprayed on medical implants or wounds to prevent biofilms forming, suggests Singh.
CONTACT:
Pradeep K. Singh tel +1 319 335 7608, e-mail pradeep-singh@uiowa.edu

[2] BRAIN: PEPTIDE PROMOTES NERVE REGROWTH (pp547-551)

A protein fragment called NEP1-40, or similar molecules, could allow damaged nerves to grow back after spinal injuries, stroke, multiple sclerosis or brain trauma.
The peptide blocks another, called Nogo-66, which stops that recovery. So, in rats at least, NEP1-40 promotes significant regrowth in cells of injured spine and cortex, report Stephen M. Strittmatter and colleagues of the Yale University School of Medicine in New Haven, Connecticut, in this week's Nature.
CONTACT:
Stephen M. Strittmatter tel +1 203 785 4878, e-mail stephen.strittmatter@yale.edu


[3] PHENOMENA: SPORTS RECORDS BROKEN BY CHANCE (p506)

Most athletics records are being broken by chance rather than by stamina or skill, researchers suggest in a Brief Communication to this week`s Nature.
In two-thirds of track and field events - including 200 metre, 1,500 metres and marathon - small advances in records are no better than those predicted by chance, says Daniel Gembris of the Research Centre Juelich, Germany, and his team.
They collected the best athletics results of worldwide track and field events from 1980-89. Using these, they predicted future results based only on random variations in performance - caused by uncontrolled factors like wind, climate or altitude - rather than on better training or a wider range of competitors. The predictions fitted well with the actual results between 1990 and 1999.
CONTACT:
Daniel Gembris tel +49 24 6161 6327, e-mail d.gembris@fz-juelich.de


[4] CHEMISTRY: PREMIUM BONDS (pp507-514)

Paraffins, properly called alkanes or saturated hydrocarbons, are major constituents of natural gas and petroleum, but their conversion into petrochemical feedstocks is inefficient and costly because of the inertness of the C-H bond. This makes it difficult to convert them in a controlled manner to more valuable products.
But during the past 20 years, chemists have developed many ways to activate the C-H bond, some proceeding under surprisingly mild conditions. In this week`s Nature Jay A. Labinger and John E. Bercaw of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena review recent progress in the field of catalytic alkane conversion and show that it may soon lead to more efficient and less polluting ways of using Earth`s valuable alkane resources.
CONTACT:
Jay A. Labinger tel +1 626 395 6520, e-mail jal@its.caltech.edu


[5] ECOLOGY: ENGAGE NEUTRAL (pp480-481)

Some ecologists argue that there is no need to invoke adaptation to explain biodiversity. The 'neutrality theory', rather than focusing on how differences between species allow them to coexist, assumes that trees in the rainforest, or corals on a tropical reef, are basically all the same.
Neutrality is, to say the least, controversial. But it has been surprisingly successful in explaining aspects of the living world. A News Feature in this week`s Nature investigates.


[6] LIFELINES: ANOTHER CHANNEL OPEN FOR BUSINESS (pp515-522 and 523-526; N&V)

Roderick MacKinnon's team at Rockefeller University have worked out the shape of a potassium channel (that opens in response to intracellular calcium) when it is bound to Ca2+ and hence open. As they explain in two articles in this week`s Nature, the crystal structure reveals that the channel opens because the free energy of Ca2+ binding drives the protein`s conformational change.
Ion channels are central to a wide range of cellular processes, including volume regulation, movement and electrical signal generation. The team`s work on how ions flow selectively through the potassium pore and how it opens in response to the appropriate stimulus will help us to understand healthy and defective ion channels in general.
These two articles are the latest in a "series of stunning papers over the past four years, taking advantage of the ability to obtain large quantities of purified ion-channel proteins from bacteria", write Maria Schmacher and John P. Adelman of the Oregon Health and Sciences University, Portland, in an accompanying News and Views article. Roderick Mackinnon is widely tipped to win a Nobel Prize for his pioneering work.
CONTACT:
Roderick Mackinnon tel +1 212 327 7288/7, e-mail mackinn@rockvax.rockefeller.edu
John P. Adelman tel +1 503 494 5450, e-mail adelman@ohsu.edu


[7] SPACE: MAGNETAR PULSATIONS? (pp527-529)

In this week`s Nature researchers report the detection of optical pulsations from an anomalous X-ray pulsar, 4U0142+61. The finding lends support to the theory that these slow-spinning pulsars are in fact magnetars, neutron stars with an extremely strong magnetic field, up to 1014 gauss, high enough to disrupt atoms and generate quantum mechanical effects.
"Although this establishes a direct relationship between anomalous X-ray pulsars and the soft gamma-ray repeaters, the evolutionary connection between these and radio pulsars remains controversial," say the authors B. Kern and C. Martin of the California Institute of Technology, in Pasadena.
CONTACT:
B. Kern tel +1 626 395 3040, e-mail bdk@srl.caltech.edu


[8] PHYSICS: CONDENSATE OF MOLECULES? (pp529-533; N&V)

Scientists have come tantalizingly close to creating a Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) of molecules. A BEC is the extraordinary quantum phase of matter, in which all constituents are in the same quantum state. Such a condensate could help researchers explore the physics of zero-temperature chemical reactions, or even quantum computing.
Neil R. Claussen and colleagues at the University of Colorado and the National Institute of Standards and Technology in Boulder converted rubidium atoms in a condensate into molecules. They used a magnetic field to tune the energy of two colliding atoms so that the pair formed a quasi-bound, long-lived molecular state.
They then detected coherent oscillations between pairs of rubidium atoms and rubidium molecules in the BEC. This is just a small step short of the final proof that the molecules formed have the coherence properties expected of a molecular condensate.
"A proof will no doubt be given once the technical tools for direct imaging molecular clouds are in place," says Peter Zoller of the University of Innsbruck in an accompanying News and Views article. "We are entering a new phasea laboratory is now open to explore what has so far been only theory in condensed-matter physics."
CONTACT:
Neil R. Claussen tel +1 303 492 4718, e-mail nclausse@jilau1.colorado.edu
Peter Zoller (currently at the University of Hannover) e-mail peter.zoller@uibk.ac.at


[9] RELICS: COMMON GROUND (pp538-540; N&V)

Having high-crowned teeth - hypsodonty - is associated with the evolution of grazing in mammals, especially during the late Miocene when increasing aridity opened up habitats. Now an analysis of fossils from 209 locations in western Europe shows that, from 18 to 5 million years ago, mammals showing the greatest increase in hypsodonty also tended to be the ones that were most common.
This indicates that increasingly hypsodont mammals were probably more successful at expanding their range as climate changed, suggest researchers Jukka Jernvall and Mikael Fortelius of the University of Helsinki, Finland, in this week`s Nature.
The study also illustrates the evolutionary insights provided by large-scale palaeontological data sets. "Aspects of Jernvall and Fortelius's approach will influence future work on evolutionary trends," says Jessica M. Theodor of the Illinois State Museum, Springfield, in an accompanying News and Views article.
CONTACT:
Jukka Jernvall tel +358 40 740 3478, e-mail jvakudaret@aol.com
Jessica M. Theodor tel +1 217 785 4844, e-mail jtheodor@museum.state.il.us


[10] EARTH: IMAGE OF SOFT ROCK (pp536-538; N&V)

When an oceanic tectonic plate on the Earth plunges beneath another plate, volatiles such as water are released from the descending oceanic crust in the subduction zone and infiltrate the overlying mantle wedge. These volatiles reduce the melting point of the overlying mantle and, in regions that are sufficiently hot, produce melt that feeds the overlying volcanoes, such as the so-called arc volcanoes that form the 'Ring of Fire' along the Pacific Rim. But in the corner of the wedge, which is cooler, it is less clear what happens.
In this week`s Nature, M. G. Bostock of the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, and colleagues report that they have used a new technique to make an exceptional image of the mantle wedge in the southern Cascadia subduction zone. It appears that the corner of the wedge has been `serpentinized` - turned into a water-bearing mineral of very low strength.
The presence of this low-strength rock may constrain the rupture depth of large subduction-zone earthquakes, explains George Zandt of the University of Arizona, Tucson, in an accompanying News and Views article.
CONTACT:
M. G. Bostock tel +1 604 822 2082, e-mail bostock@geop.ubc.ca
George Zandt tel +1 520 621 2273, e-mail zandt@geo.arizona.edu


[11] BRAIN: SOUND SOURCED (pp543-547; N&V)

A paper in this week`s Nature deals a blow to a long-standing model of how animals locate the source of sounds: the model seems not to apply to mammals.
The localization of low-frequency sounds relies on a neural computation of differences in the time it takes for a sound to reach each ear. Incredibly, we can detect differences of only a few microseconds, allowing us to distinguish between sounds separated by only a few degrees in space.
The current model of how the auditory nervous system processes these differences and how it represents them was proposed in the 1940s. Now Benedikt Grothe of the Max Planck Institute of Neurobiology, Martinsried, Germany, and colleagues provide evidence from a study of gerbils for a very different model. They show that the timing of neuronal inhibition shapes the processing and representation of interaural time differences in previously unsuspected ways. Neuronal inhibition is not accounted for in the existing model.
Why mammals and birds have different mechanisms for localizing sounds, and whether large mammals use the same mechanism as gerbils, remain to be seen. "The study will no doubt generate considerable discussion about mechanisms that many had thought were already solved," says George D. Pollak of the Department of Neurobiology, University of Texas, Austin, in an accompanying New and Views article.
CONTACT:
Benedikt Grothe tel +49 89 8578 3728, e-mail bgrothe@neuro.mpg.de
George D. Pollak tel +1 512 471 4352, e-mail gpollak@mail.utexas.edu


[12] AND FINALLY: CHEMICAL WEAPON TRIGGERS CIVIL WAR (pp505-506)

Researchers have identified the chemicals that a parasitic wasp uses to cause infighting among ants. The wasp triggers this civil war so that it can reach its victim, a caterpillar that lives in ant nests.
Caterpillars of the endangered blue butterfly Maculinea rebeli fool ants into adopting and protecting them for the last stage of their larval lives. But the wasp Ichneumon eumerus - also endangered - subverts this bodyguard with chemical warfare, shows a Brief Communication in this week's Nature.
The chemicals attract then repel the ants, and drive them into an aggressive frenzy against their nest mates, Jeremy Thomas of the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, Dorchester, UK, and colleagues have discovered. In the confusion, the wasp nips in and lays its fatal egg on the caterpillar.
The chemicals seem to be related to the ants` own alarm pheromones, but are more powerful and persistent. They could possibly be exploited as an environmentally friendly method for controlling ants.
CONTACT:
Dr G W Elmes (co-author) tel +44 1305 213500, e-mail gwe@ceh.ac.uk


ALSO IN THIS ISSUE

[13]Quantum control of energy flow in light harvesting (pp533-535)

[14]Single-species models for many-species food webs (pp541-543)

[15]Single and multiple vesicle fusion induce different rates of endocytosis at a central synapse (pp555-559)

[16]Transcription coactivator TRAP220is required for PPARγ2-stimlulated adipogenesis (pp563-567)

[17]Functional relationship of cytochrome c6 and plastocyanin in Arabidopsis in photosynthesis (pp567-571)


GEOGRAPHICAL LISTING OF AUTHORS

The following list of places refers to the whereabouts of authors on the papers numbered in this release. The listing may be for an author`s main affiliation, or for a place where they are working temporarily. Please see the PDF of the paper for full details.

CANADA
Alberta
Calgary: 14
British Columbia
Sidney: 10
Vancouver: 10
Victoria: 10

FINLAND
Helsinki: 9

GERMAY
Dortmund: 3
Garching: 13
Juelich: 3
Martinsried: 11

JAPAN
Tsukuba: 12

THE NETHERLANDS
Amsterdam: 13

UNITED KINGDOM
Dorchester: 12
Glasgow: 13
London: 3, 11
Southampton: 12

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
Arizona
Tempe: 10
California
Berkeley: 14, 17
Pasadena: 4, 7
Santa Barbara: 14
Colorado
Boulder: 8
Connecticut
New Haven: 2
Delaware
Wilmington: 16
Illinois
Evanston: 1
Iowa
Iowa City: 1
Massachusetts
Boston: 16
Missouri
St. Louis: 15
New York State
New York: 6, 16
Rhode Island
Providence: 10

Nature Publishing Group Reference