Volume 555 Issue 7698



News Features

News & Views

A trio of ion channels takes the heat p.591

Of the various temperature-sensitive ion channels identified previously, three have now been found to act in concert to detect painful heat and initiate protective reflexes.

doi: 10.1038/d41586-018-02663-1

Oceans on Mars formed early p.592

The geometry of putative ancient shorelines on Mars suggests that these features were deformed by the growth of a massive volcanic region — a finding that has implications for the climate, geology and hydrology of early Mars.

doi: 10.1038/d41586-018-03415-x

AI designs organic syntheses p.592

Software that devises effective schemes for synthetic chemistry has depended on the input of rules from researchers. A system is now reported in which an artificial-intelligence program learns the rules for itself.

doi: 10.1038/d41586-018-03774-5

Wing origami p.594

Conventional origami-based techniques for structural design have a limited range of folding patterns. An approach inspired by the wings of earwigs produces structures that were not possible using previous methods.

doi: 10.1038/d41586-018-03775-4

Killer T cells show their kinder side p.594

The immune system protects the body by responding to invading organisms. But how is an attack on useful resident microbes prevented? A pathway has now been identified that allows immune cells to sense and respond to beneficial bacteria.

doi: 10.1038/d41586-018-03510-z

The healthy diabetic cavefish conundrum p.595

Some Mexican cavefish have a mutation in an insulin receptor protein that affects blood-glucose regulation. The same mutation causes diabetes and health problems in humans, but the diabetic cavefish thrive.

doi: 10.1038/d41586-018-03242-0

The tornadoes of sudden cardiac arrest p.597

A clever combination of techniques has enabled, for the first time, simultaneous visualization of the 3D waves of electrical and mechanical activity that are responsible for many cases of sudden cardiac death.

doi: 10.1038/d41586-018-01950-1



A galaxy lacking dark matter p.629

Galaxies normally have far more dark matter than normal matter, but the dynamics of objects within the ultra-diffuse galaxy NGC1052–DF2 suggest that it has a very little dark matter component.

doi: 10.1038/nature25767

Reconstructing the genetic history of late Neanderthals p.652

Genetic similarity among late Neanderthals is predicted well by their geographical location, and although some of these Neanderthals were contemporaneous with early modern humans, their genomes show no evidence of recent gene flow from modern humans.

doi: 10.1038/nature26151

A TRP channel trio mediates acute noxious heat sensing p.662

Three transient receptor potential channels (TRPA1, TRPV1 and TRPM3) mediate sensitivity to acute noxious heat in mice in a redundant system; mice lacking all three show severe deficits in heat sensing, whereas double-knockout mice do not.

doi: 10.1038/nature26137

Electromechanical vortex filaments during cardiac fibrillation p.667

Using optical mapping and 3D ultrasound, the dynamics and interactions between electrical and mechanical phase singularities were analysed by simultaneously measuring the membrane potential, intracellular calcium concentration and mechanical contractions of the heart during normal rhythm and fibrillation.

doi: 10.1038/nature26001

Hepatocyte-secreted DPP4 in obesity promotes adipose inflammation and insulin resistance p.673

Obesity-induced metabolic disease involves functional integration among several organs via circulating factors, but little is known about crosstalk between liver and visceral adipose tissue (VAT). In obesity, VAT becomes populated with inflammatory adipose tissue macrophages (ATMs). In obese humans, there is a close correlation between adipose tissue inflammation and insulin resistance, and in obese mice, blocking systemic or ATM inflammation improves insulin sensitivity. However, processes that promote pathological adipose tissue inflammation in obesity are incompletely understood. Here we show that obesity in mice stimulates hepatocytes to synthesize and secrete dipeptidyl peptidase 4 (DPP4), which acts with plasma factor Xa to inflame ATMs. Silencing expression of DPP4 in hepatocytes suppresses inflammation of VAT and insulin resistance; however, a similar effect is not seen with the orally administered DPP4 inhibitor sitagliptin. Inflammation and insulin resistance are also suppressed by silencing expression of caveolin-1 or PAR2 in ATMs; these proteins mediate the actions of DPP4 and factor Xa, respectively. Thus, hepatocyte DPP4 promotes VAT inflammation and insulin resistance in obesity, and targeting this pathway may have metabolic benefits that are distinct from those observed with oral DPP4 inhibitors.

doi: 10.1038/nature26138