英国《自然》杂志年度十大杰出论文公布:中国两篇研究入选
英国《自然》杂志网站日前公布了2019年十大杰出论文,接近室温的超导体、精确编辑基因技术、海王星新卫星等纷纷入选。其中,中国研究占到两席,分别是来自复旦大学的亨廷顿舞蹈症新疗法,与中科院上海有机化学研究所的点击化学新成果。
亨廷顿舞蹈病患者通常中年发病,表现为舞蹈样动作,随着病情进展逐渐丧失说话、行动、思考和吞咽的能力,直至走向死亡。复旦大学的科学家们关注到一种可以利用的机制:细胞通过自噬过程来降解突变后的亨廷顿蛋白(mHTT) 引起的,这是一种清理机制,它依靠一种叫做自噬小体的囊泡,来吞噬蛋白质。于是团队假一种化合物可以令突变的亨廷顿蛋白被吞噬,增强清理效果。科学家们做了小分子筛选来找出这样的化合物,最终发现4种化合物能改善亨廷顿舞蹈病患者的病情。而其他涉及多聚谷氨酰胺扩展的疾病,也可能用这种方法打开突破口。 如果反应操作简单、高产,又可以应用于许多化合物,但选择性极高,就是说发生反应的基团只能在彼此之间反应——这样的反应就叫做点击化学。而中科院上海有机所团队发现一种安全、高效合成罕见的硫(VI)氟类无机化合物FSO2N3(氟磺酰基叠氮)的方法。于是,团队造出了一个拥有1224个叠氮化物的库,库里面的化学反应,速度、广泛程度以及效率都达到了点击化学的标准。 还有八篇入选的论文包括: 鱼类体内盛产人体需要的微量元素——科学家们为43个国家和地区,“画”出了367种渔获物当中的养分和这类疾病流行情况之间的关系图; 海王星又有一颗卫星被发现——第七颗内卫星正式出现,被命名为Hippocamp; 接近室温的超导导体——当压强达到100万个地球大气压强的时候,富含氢的氢化镧们能在250K左右时变成超导体,离室温的295K已并不遥远; CRISPR精确编辑基因——过去的在基因编辑工具效率和精度都受到一定限制,而新的CRISPR工具,已经可以精确地编辑基因,几乎完全避免了之前的缺陷。 格陵兰冰盖下甲烷释放——冰川和冰盖下的沉积物蕴藏着碳化合物,在某些条件下可转化为甲烷这种温室气体; 父系线粒体DNA遗传——以往观点认为,线粒体和mtDNA仅从母亲处遗传,但新研究颠覆了这一认知,确定由双亲线粒体遗传引起的mtDNA异质性的三种情况。 可奔跑的机器狗——机器人的步态运动和手动灵活性通常较差,但用数据驱动的方法设计机器人软件,可以提高其运动技能,使一只四足机器狗精确、节能地运动起来。 亚洲发现人类近亲物种——科学家在菲律宾发现了人类的近亲物种,并命名为“吕宋人”,引发大规模争论,使学界重新审视“亚洲人是从非洲迁移到亚洲大陆”的旧观念。 分享到:
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最新评论
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lufan 2019-12-18 00:03《自然》杂志年度十大杰出论文
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redplum 2019-12-18 00:16这才是货真价实的
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likaihit 2019-12-18 00:17真牛逼啊
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tassy 2019-12-18 01:53《自然》杂志年度十大杰出论文真牛
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mang2004 2019-12-18 02:00Micronutrient richness of global fish catches — Daniel Pauly
Fish are a source of micronutrients that help to prevent nutrient-deficiency diseases. For 43 countries, Hicks et al. mapped the relationship between the fish-derived nutrients available from fisheries’ catches and the prevalence of such diseases. Their data demonstrate that catches in some developing countries should be enough to meet the key micronutrient needs of their populations. However, in many developing tropical countries, a substantial proportion of local fish catches are either exported or processed locally to generate fishmeal that is then exported and used to feed farmed fish. Many of the local fisheries (pictured), which had traditionally supplied the regional markets, now instead supply fishmeal plants. This does not reduce the pressure on wild fish. Moreover, it deprives people on low incomes of previously affordable, nutritious local fish. Original research: Nature 574, 95–98 (2019).
Selective clearance of mutant huntingtin protein — Huda Y. Zoghbi
Huntington’s disease is caused by an abnormally long stretch of glutamine amino-acid residues in the huntingtin (HTT) protein. Cells degrade the mutant huntingtin (mHTT) through autophagy — a clearance mechanism that involves engulfment of proteins by a vesicle called the autophagosome. Li et al. hypothesized that compounds that bind to both the mutant polyglutamine tract and the protein LC3B, which resides in the autophagosome, would lead to engulfment and enhanced clearance of mHTT. The authors conducted small-molecule screens to identify candidate compounds, and used wild-type HTT in a counter-screen to rule out compounds that bind to the normal version of the protein. They found encouraging evidence that four compounds could produce functional improvements in models of Huntington’s disease across three species. This therapeutic strategy might also be useful for other diseases involving expanded polyglutamine tracts. Original research: Nature 575, 203–209 (2019).
Picture of Neptune from Voyager 2.
Credit: NASA/JPL
A new moon for Neptune — Anne J. Verbiscer
In 1989, the NASA spacecraft Voyager 2 detected six moons of Neptune that are interior to the orbit of the planet’s largest moon, Triton. Showalter et al. report the discovery of a seventh inner moon, Hippocamp. Originally designated as S/2004 N 1 and Neptune XIV, this moon was found in images taken by NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope in 2004–05 and 2009, and then confirmed in further images captured in 2016. Hippocamp is only 34 kilometres wide, which makes it diminutive compared with its larger siblings, and it orbits Neptune (pictured) just inside the orbit of Proteus — the planet’s second-largest moon. The discovery of Hippocamp is intriguing because of the moon’s relationship to Proteus and the role that both objects might have had in the history of Neptune’s inner system. Original research: Nature 566, 350–353 (2019).
Superconductivity near room temperature — James J. Hamlin
Materials known as superconductors transmit electrical energy with 100% efficiency. They have a wide range of applications, such as magnetic resonance imaging in hospitals. However, these applications have been hampered, largely by the fact that the superconducting state exists only at temperatures well below room temperature (295 kelvin). Drozdov et al. report several key results that confirm that, when compressed to pressures of more than one million times Earth’s atmospheric pressure, lanthanum hydride compounds, which are rich in hydrogen, become superconducting at 250 K. In the next few years, experiments will probably focus on searching for superconductivity in other pressurized hydrogen-rich materials. Given that only a small fraction of possible hydrogen-rich systems have been subjected to experiments at these tremendous pressures, it seems more likely than ever that the dream of room-temperature superconductivity might be realized in the near future. Original research: Nature 569, 528–531 (2019).
CRISPR tool enables precise genome editing — Randall J. Platt
Tremendous progress has been made in developing gene-editing tools. But a seemingly fundamental limit to the efficiency and precision of gene editing had been reached, owing to the tools’ reliance on complex and competing cellular processes. Anzalone et al. now describe ‘search-and-replace’ genome editing, which enables the genome to be altered precisely. In their process, the ‘search’ part of an RNA guide directs a Cas9 protein to a specific sequence in a DNA target, where it cuts one of the two DNA strands. A reverse transcriptase enzyme then produces DNA complementary to the sequence in the ‘replace’ part of the guide, and installs it at one of the cut ends, where it takes the place of the original DNA sequence. DNA repair then produces a fully edited duplex. Imperfect edits are almost entirely avoided. Original research: Nature 576, 149–157 (2019).
Russell Glacier, Greenland on May 5, 2017 shot during an Operation IceBridge flight.
Credit: Lauren Andrews/NASA
Greenland’s subglacial methane released — Lauren C. Andrews
Sediments beneath glaciers and ice sheets harbour carbon reserves that, under certain conditions, can be converted to methane, a potent greenhouse gas. che-Gagnon et al. present direct measurements of dissolved methane in water discharged from a land-terminating glacier of the Greenland Ice Sheet (pictured) during the summer. The water was supersaturated with methane, and the amount of methane released to the atmosphere rivals that from other terrestrial rivers. Subglacial sediments can therefore act as a local source of methane, corroborating the results of other studies. che-Gagnon et al. go further by demonstrating that the continuous flux of methane from the Greenland subglacial environment varies with the efficiency of subglacial meltwater drainage. The study provides an example of how our planet’s icy domains can interact with the surrounding Earth system in unexpected and potentially important ways. Original research: Nature 565, 73–77 (2019).
Fate of a father’s mitochondria — Thomas G. McWilliams and Anu Suomalainen
The DNA of eukaryotic organisms (such as animals, plants and fungi) is stored in two cellular compartments: in the nucleus and in organelles called mitochondria. A healthy individual’s mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) molecules are mostly identical. However, in people with diseases caused by mtDNA mutations, normal and mutant mtDNA molecules typically coexist in a single cell — a situation termed heteroplasmy. Mitochondrial DNA was thought to derive exclusively from maternal egg cells, with no paternal contribution, but Luo et al. challenge this dogma, identifying three families with mtDNA heteroplasmy caused by biparental mitochondrial inheritance. Previous work has shown that mitophagy, the process by which cells ‘eat’ their own mitochondria, has a role in the selective elimination of paternal mitochondria. These rare instances of paternal mtDNA transmission might therefore be attributed to defective mitochondrial turnover. Original research: Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 115, 13039–13044 (2018).
ANYmal B Offshore Running.
Credit: Péter Fankhauser/ANYbotics AG
Robots on the run — Hod Lipson
Young animals gallop across fields, climb trees and immediately find their feet with enviable grace after they fall. And like our primate cousins, humans can deploy opposable thumbs and fine motor skills to complete tasks such as effortlessly peeling a clementine or feeling for the correct key in a dark hallway. Although walking and grasping are easy for many living things, robots have been notoriously poor at gaited locomotion and manual dexterity. Even a robot that performs beautifully in simulation will stumble and fall after a few encounters with seemingly minor physical obstacles. Writing in Science Robotics, Hwangbo et al. report that a data-driven approach to designing robotic software can improve the locomotion skills of robots. They demonstrate their method using the ANYmal robot (pictured) — a medium-dog-sized quadrupedal system. Original research: Sci. Robot. 4, eaau9354 (2019).
Chemical libraries from a double click — Joseph J. Topczewski and En-Chih Liu
A copper-catalysed reaction, known as the CuAAC reaction, is the poster child for click chemistry. A reaction is defined as click chemistry if it is (among other things) operationally simple, high-yielding, applicable to a broad range of compounds, yet exceptionally selective — the chemical groups that undergo the reaction must react only with each other. CuAAC reactions are used in many disciplines, but their applications would be even broader if structurally complex azide compounds (which contain N3 groups) were more widely available to use as reactants. Meng et al. report that fluorosulfuryl azide (FSO2N3) reacts with almost any primary amine (compounds that contain NH2 groups) to achieve a nearly 100% yield of the corresponding azide, and used their reagent to make a library of 1,224 azides. Their reaction meets the speed, breadth and efficiency criteria for click chemistry. Moreover, the prepared azide solutions can be used directly in CuAAC reactions. Original research: Nature 574, 86–89 (2019).
Readers’ choice
We asked readers to vote for a News & Views article to be included as part of our round-up of the year. This is the one they chose.
Unknown human relative found in Asia — Matthew W. Tocheri
Détroit et al. report the remarkable discovery of a human relative that will no doubt ignite plenty of scientific debate. This newly identified species was found in the Philippines and named Homo luzonensis. Rapidly changing knowledge about hominin evolution in Asia is forcing the re-examination of ideas about early hominin dispersals from Africa to Eurasia. Homo luzonensis provides yet more evidence that hints that Homo erectus might not have been the only globe-trotting early hominin. The interesting mix of features observed in H. luzonensis raises questions about the species’ ancestry and its relationships with other human relatives. One thing can be said for certain — our picture of hominin evolution in Asia just got even messier, more complicated and a whole lot more interesting. Original research: Nature 568, 181–186 (2019).
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mang2004 2019-12-18 02:03Huntington’s disease is caused by an abnormally long stretch of glutamine amino-acid residues in the huntingtin (HTT) protein. Cells degrade the mutant huntingtin (mHTT) through autophagy — a clearance mechanism that involves engulfment of proteins by a vesicle called the autophagosome. Li et al. hypothesized that compounds that bind to both the mutant polyglutamine tract and the protein LC3B, which resides in the autophagosome, would lead to engulfment and enhanced clearance of mHTT. The authors conducted small-molecule screens to identify candidate compounds, and used wild-type HTT in a counter-screen to rule out compounds that bind to the normal version of the protein. They found encouraging evidence that four compounds could produce functional improvements in models of Huntington’s disease across three species. This therapeutic strategy might also be useful for other diseases involving expanded polyglutamine tracts. Original research: Nature 575, 203–209 (2019).
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realyan 2019-12-18 07:41厉害👍
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songyang1169 2019-12-18 08:00英国《自然》杂志网站日前公布了2019年十大杰出论文,接近室温的超导体、精确编辑基因技术、海王星新卫星等纷纷入选。其中,中国研究占到两席,分别是来自复旦大学的亨廷顿舞蹈症新疗法,与中科院上海有机化学研究所的点击化学新成果。
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songshaoman 2019-12-18 08:15下边的评论都是什么乱七八糟的
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tomryo 2019-12-18 08:16:英国《自然》杂志年度十大杰出论文公布:中国两篇研究入选