Contents
22 January 2021
Vol 371, Issue 6527
Vol 371, Issue 6527
Contents
This Week in Science
Editorial
Editors' Choice
Products & Materials
- New Products
A weekly roundup of information on newly offered instrumentation, apparatus, and laboratory materials of potential interest to researchers.
In Brief
In Depth
- New mutations raise specter of ‘immune escape’
SARS-CoV-2 variants found in Brazil and South Africa may evade human antibodies.
- Disgraced COVID-19 studies are still routinely cited
Journal mentions of studies based on disputed data from Surgisphere often fail to clearly flag retractions.
- Controversial study says U.S. labs use 111 million mice, rats
Figure is more than seven times some estimates, but critics say analysis is flawed.
- What causes IBS pain? Maybe immune flare-ups
New study suggests certain foods trigger a localized reaction in the gut.
- Global temperatures in 2020 tied record highs
Defying cooling from La Niña, warming planet speeds toward breach of climate targets.
Feature
- Separation anxiety
Phase separation, an idea about how cells organize their contents and functions into dropletlike compartments, has divided biologists.
Working Life
Letters
Books et al.
- Darwin and human evolution
An anniversary appraisal of The Descent of Man probes the naturalist's prescience and prejudices
- A barrier breaker's complicated legacy
Certain of her own exceptional nature, Elizabeth Blackwell dismissed those who aided her
Policy Forum
- Rethinking immigration policies for STEM doctorates
Many Ph.D.'s follow an inefficient path to green cards through visas aimed at entry-level workers
Perspectives
- Drivers of mosquito mating
Light cycle genes and environmental and chemical cues modulate male mosquito swarming
- Snapshots of a light-triggered transition
A new method captures real-space movies of ordered states on ultrafast time scales
- Thermopower and harvesting heat
A metric to compare low-grade heat-to-electricity conversion can be misleading
- A host metabolite promotes Salmonella survival
Succinate is used by Salmonella in different ways when it is in macrophages or the gut
- Racing against unwanted isomerization
Control of relative reaction rates paves the way for (Z)-alkene stereochemical retention
- Sex differences in immune responses
Biological sex differences in immunity potentially underlie male bias for severe COVID-19
Association Affairs
Research Articles
- JARID2 and AEBP2 regulate PRC2 in the presence of H2AK119ub1 and other histone modifications
Cryo-EM analysis reveals polycomb factor activities and cross-talk involved in gene repression.
- Developmental cell programs are co-opted in inflammatory skin disease
Transcriptomes of more than 500,000 skin cells suggest that inflammatory skin diseases reactivate a developmental cell program.
- Regulation of the Dot1 histone H3K79 methyltransferase by histone H4K16 acetylation
Mechanisms that regulate gene transcription and gene silencing to ensure optimal maintenance and propagation of an epigenetic state are elucidated.
- Bifurcation of planetary building blocks during Solar System formation
Migration of the snow line explains how the inner and outer Solar System formed from materials with distinct compositions.
Review
Reports
- Ultrafast nanoimaging of the order parameter in a structural phase transition
Ultrafast, spatially resolved dark-field electron microscopy is used to monitor a transition between the phases of 1T-TaS2.
- Unraveling CO adsorption on model single-atom catalysts
Single metal atoms supported on iron oxides have chemical properties defined by their local coordination environment.
- Iridium-catalyzed Z-retentive asymmetric allylic substitution reactions
An iridium catalyst stabilizes the less-favored olefin intermediate long enough to functionalize an adjacent stereocenter.
- Convergent evolution of pain-inducing defensive venom components in spitting cobras
Spitting snakes shifted venom function from causing death to causing pain.
- Nanoscale localized contacts for high fill factors in polymer-passivated perovskite solar cells
A nanostructured titanium oxide electron transport layer creates local regions of high charge conductivity.
- Transvection regulates the sex-biased expression of a fly X-linked gene
Regulatory interaction silences the expression pattern of an X chromosome–linked gene in female flies.
- Host succinate is an activation signal for Salmonella virulence during intracellular infection
Salmonella co-opt host metabolic reprogramming needed for immune responses to induce virulence during intracellular infection.
- Glycolysis fuels phosphoinositide 3-kinase signaling to bolster T cell immunity
A metabolic positive-feedback loop enables immunological T cell effector function.
- Clock genes and environmental cues coordinate Anopheles pheromone synthesis, swarming, and mating
Circadian coordination of gene expression, light, and temperature regulate pheromone synthesis and mating flight behavior in mosquitoes.
- Ancient balancing selection maintains incompatible versions of the galactose pathway in yeast
Balancing selection maintains two functionally distinct, incompatible versions of the yeast galactose pathway.
About The Cover
COVER Some cobras, such as this Mozambique spitting cobra (Naja mossambica), use venom spitting as an effective long-range defense mechanism. The three origins of venom spitting in snakes coincide with convergent changes to venom composition, allowing venom to serve a defensive function by producing enhanced pain in the recipient. These findings emphasize that evolution can funnel complex adaptations down repeatable pathways. See page 386.
Photo: Guy Edwardes/NPL/Minden Pictures
