RESEARCH
A graphene nanostructure
IN S CIENCE JOURNAL S
NEUROSCIENCE
Neuroplasticity in
learning to read
R
ather than causing
dyslexia, subcortical
changes in the brain
may result from
reduced literacy.
Skeide et al. studied illiterate
adults from rural northern
India. They used brain imag-
ing to see whether learning
to read invoked changes in
the human brain. After 6
months of teaching illiterate
adults to read, the authors
assessed brain responses
compared with those of
controls who were not learn-
ing to read. The new readers
had increased functional
plasticity in the subcortical
computation centers of
the visual system. —PLY
Sci. Adv. 10.1126/
sciadv.1602612 (2017).
GAS GIANT PLANETS
Juno swoops around
giant Jupiter
Jupiter is the largest and most
massive planet in our solar
system. NASA’s Juno spacecraft
arrived at Jupiter on 4 July 2016
and made its first close pass on
27 August 2016. Bolton et al.
present results from Juno’s
flight just above the cloud tops,
including images of weather in
the polar regions and measure-
ments of the magnetic and
gravitational fields. Juno also
used microwaves to peer below
the visible surface, spotting gas
welling up from the deep interior.
816 26 MAY 2017 • VOL 356 ISSUE 6340
Edited by Stella Hurtley
Connerney et al. measured
Jupiter’s aurorae and plasma
environment, both as Juno
approached the planet and dur-
ing its first close orbit. —KTS
Science, this issue p. 821, p. 826
QUANTUM MEASUREMENT
Enhancing
quantum sensing
The quantum properties of the
nitrogen vacancy (NV) defect
in diamond can be used as an
atomic compass needle that
is sensitive to tiny variations in
magnetic field. Schmitt et al.
and Boss et al. successfully
Published by AAAS
captures the Berry phase
Ghahari et al., p. 845
Even in adults, learning to
read changes the brain.
enhanced this sensitivity by
several orders of magnitude (see
the Perspective by Jordan). They
applied a sequence of pulses
to the NV center, the timing of
which was set by and compared
with a highly stable oscillator.
This allowed them to measure
the frequency of an oscillat-
ing magnetic field (megahertz
bandwidth) with submillihertz
resolution. Such enhanced
precision measurement could be
applied, for example, to improve
nuclear magnetic resonance–
based imaging protocols of
single molecules. —ISO
Science, this issue p. 832, p. 837;
see also p. 802
GEOPHYSICS
Sediments tell
a tsunami story
Trying to understand where
Downloaded from http://science.sciencemag.org/ on May 26, 2017
major earthquakes and tsunamis
might occur requires analysis
of the sediments pouring
into a subduction zone. Thick
sediments were expected to limit
earthquake and tsunami size in
the Sumatran megathrust event
in 2004, but the magnitude 9.2
earthquake defied expectations.
Hüpers et al. analyzed sediments
recovered from the Sumatran
megathrust. They found evi-
dence of sediment dehydration,
which increased fault strength
and allowed for the much larger
earthquake to occur. Thus, mod-
els of other subduction zones,
such as the Gulf of Alaska, may
underestimate the maximum
earthquake magnitude and
tsunami risk. —BG
Science, this issue p. 841
CREDITS: (TOP) CHRISTOPHER GUTIÉRREZ/JON WYRICK/CNST/NIST; (BOTTOM) HOWARD DAVIES/GETTY IMAGES
NEUROSCIENCE
Representing
direction in the fly
A population of cells called
compass neurons represents
a fruitfly’s heading direction.
Kim et al. used imaging and
optogenetics in behaving flies
to elucidate the functional
architecture of the underly-
ing neuronal network. They
observed local excitation and
global inhibition between the
compass neurons. The fea-
tures of the network were best
explained by a ring attractor
network model. Until now, this
hypothesized network structure
has been difficult to demon-
strate in a real brain. —PRS
Science, this issue p. 849
sciencemag.org SCIENCE
 SMALL RNA DECAY PROTEIN DYNAMICS

Breaking down miRNAs
Although much work has
examined microRNA (miRNA)
biogenesis, relatively little
is known about miRNA decay.
Elbarbary et al. now identify
Tudor-SN, an endonuclease that
interacts with the RNA-induced
silencing complex. Tudor-SN
targets miRNAs at CA and UA
dinucleotides located more than
five nucleotides from miRNA
ends. Tudor-SN–mediated
miRNA decay removes miRNAs
that silence genes encoding
proteins that are critical for
the G1-to-S phase transition in
Trapping RNA IN OTHER JOURNALS Edited by Caroline Ash
and Jesse Smith
polymerase in the act
The enzyme RNA polymerase
(RNAP) finds promoter elements
in the genome, separates (or
“melts”) the DNA strands, and
transcribes the template DNA
strand to give RNA. A mobile
clamp in RNAP plays a key
role in initiating transcription.
Feklistov et al. locked the clamp
of bacterial RNAP in distinct
conformations by using small
molecules. They then used
fluorescent probes to monitor
binding as the promoter DNA

Downloaded from http://science.sciencemag.org/ on May 26, 2017

the cell cycle. —BAP
Science, this issue p. 859
NEUROSCIENCE
A neuronal circuit
for overeating
Recurrent binge eating is a
common eating disorder. Zhang
and van den Pol investigated an
understudied brain region known
as the zona incerta and found that
PHOTOS: (BOTTOM LEFT) ANTHONY VAN DEN POL; (TOP RIGHT) K. K. YATES ET AL. BIOGEOSCIENCES 14, 1739 (2017) © EUROPEAN GEOSCIENCES UNION
was separated. Unexpectedly,
they found that the clamp
transiently closed to nucleate
DNA melting, opened to load
single-stranded DNA into the
active site, and then closed
around the template strand to
start transcription. —VV
Science, this issue p. 863
CANCER
No safe haven The degradation of coral reefs is deepening their nearshore environments.

it projects inhibitory inputs to the for metastases

paraventricular thalamus, a brain
region involved in suppressing
feeding behavior. In mice, acute
stimulation of this inhibitory pro-
Although targeted therapies for OCEANS
cancer offer great promise, they
are often much less effective Risks of reef erosion
against brain metastases than

jection resulted within seconds
in overeating, especially high-fat
food. Chronic stimulation induced
persistent overeating and weight
gain. —PRS
Science, this issue p. 853
Mice can be stimulated to binge-eat high-fat food.
against peripheral tumors. This
is generally attributed to the
drugs’ difficulty in penetrating
the blood-brain barrier. Kodack
et al. discovered that, at least
in breast cancer that has spread
to the brain, the brain
microenvironment
itself plays a role in
treatment resistance.
In mouse models and
human cancer samples,
human epidermal
growth factor receptor
3 (HER3) expression
increased in breast
cancer–associated
brain lesions. The HER3
facilitated the tumors’
survival in the presence
of targeted treatment.
Thus, inhibiting HER3
could help overcome
tumor resistance to
therapy. —YN
Sci. Transl. Med. 9,
eaal4682 (2017).
C
oral reefs serve as natural barriers that protect coastal
regions from storms and erosion, but climate change,
ocean acidification, and other stressors from human
activities are increasingly causing coral reefs to degrade.
Yates et al. report evidence of seafloor erosion in five
coral reef ecosystems in the Atlantic, Pacific, and Caribbean.
Comparison with historical data shows that over the past few
decades, seafloor elevation has decreased by 0.09 to 0.8 m
at the study sites—far more than expected on the basis of
model predictions. Together with sea level rise from climate
change, the seafloor erosion at these sites results in deeper
water and puts coastal populations at increased risk. —JFU
Biogeosciences 14, 1739 (2017).
NEURODEVELOPMENT and support neurons. García-
González et al. also find that
Roadmaps for building serotonergic axons establish
the neonatal brain neuroblast migratory pathways.
In the postnatal mammalian Knockout of the serotonin
brain, neurons continue to be receptor in transit-amplifying
generated and migrate to their cells and neuroblasts of mice
home stations. Often, these neu- misguided and slowed migration
roblasts travel along pathways of the new cells. The postnatal
defined by the blood vessels neuroblasts travel along the
or the glial cells that surround serotonergic axons and depend

SCIENCE sciencemag.org 26 MAY 2017 • VOL 356 ISSUE 6340 817

Published by AAAS
RESEA RCH
ALSO IN SCIENCE JOURNALS
SYMBIOSIS
Taking a look at plant-
microbe relationships
Ever since plants colonized
land, they have evolved a
range of mutualistic associa-
tions with bacteria and fungi.
Indeed, such associations were
probably required for plants to
grow on harsh, nutrient-poor
surfaces. Martin et al. review
the spectrum of plant-microbe
symbioses and their evolution,
including evidence from the
Rhynie Chert of the Devonian
period and modern associations.
Surprisingly, diverse functional
plant-microbial symbioses have
several common conserved
features, including signaling
pathways, immune evasion, and
root development. —CA
Science, this issue p. 819
PROTEOMICS
Mapping the proteome
Proteins function in the context
of their environment, so an
understanding of cellular
processes requires a knowledge
of protein localization. Thul et
al. used immunofluorescence
microscopy to map 12,003
human proteins at a single-cell
level into 30 cellular compart-
ments and substructures (see
the Perspective by Horwitz and
Johnson). They validated their
results by mass spectroscopy
and used them to model and
refine protein-protein interaction
networks. The cellular proteome
818-B 26 MAY 2017 • VOL 356 ISSUE 6340
Edited by Stella Hurtley
is highly spatiotemporally
regulated. Many proteins localize
to multiple compartments, and
many show cell-to-cell variation
in their expression patterns.
Presented as an interactive
database called the Cell Atlas,
this work provides an important
resource for ongoing efforts to
understand human biology. —VV
Science, this issue p. 820;
see also p. 806
GRAPHENE
Flicking the Berry
phase switch
When an electron completes a
cycle around the Dirac point (a
particular location in graphene’s
electronic structure), the phase
of its wave function changes by
π. This so-called Berry phase is
tricky to observe directly in solid-
state measurements. Ghahari
et al. built a graphene nano-
structure consisting of a central
region doped with positive car-
riers surrounded by a negatively
doped background. Scanning
tunneling spectroscopy revealed
sudden jumps in conductivity
as the external magnetic field
was increased past a thresh-
old value. The jumps occurred
when electron orbits started
encompassing the Dirac point,
reflecting the switch of the Berry
phase from zero to π. The tun-
ability of conductivity by such
minute changes in magnetic field
is promising for future applica-
tions. —JS
Science, this issue p. 845
Published by AAAS
CONSERVATION
Who needs to know where
species live?
Poaching of endangered species
is contributing to the loss of
biodiversity around the world.
In an Essay, Lindenmayer and
Scheele argue that publication
of location data for endangered
or newly discovered species
can increase the threats from
poaching and can accelerate
habitat destruction when nature
enthusiasts travel to the sites.
To avoid unwittingly contribut-
ing to further species decline,
researchers, journal editors, and
data custodians should take
these threats into account when
deciding whether to publish full
location and habitat information
for endangered species. —JFU
Science, this issue p. 800
ECONOMICS
Unintended victims
of fighting corruption
Corruption comes in many
guises, from bribery to false
accounting. But efforts to
combat corruption can have
unintended consequences as
those who benefitted from the
original corruption adapt to and
exploit the new systems. In a
Perspective, Fisman and Golden
highlight two recent studies
that show how such unintended
consequences can arise. In one
study, preventing fraudulent
accounting by shopkeepers
accepting welfare vouchers in
the United States led to higher
prices for all customers for
products covered by the vouch-
ers. In another, preventing
large-scale cheating in high
school exit exams in Romania
led to fewer low-income
students being accepted at
universities. Anticorruption
programs must be designed
to avoid such negative effects,
particularly on low-income
groups. —JFU
Science, this issue p. 803
Downloaded from http://science.sciencemag.org/ on May 26, 2017
CANCER
Creating a weakness
in prostate cancer
Breast cancer cells with BRCA
mutations are selectively vul-
nerable to PARP inhibitors, but
these mutations are less fre-
quent in other types of cancer.
Li et al. found that androgen
receptor inhibition decreased
BRCA1 expression in prostate
cancer cells. In a mouse model
of prostate cancer, treatment
first with the androgen recep-
tor inhibitor, then with a PARP
inhibitor, suppressed tumor
growth better than when either
drug was used alone or when
both drugs were adminis-
tered simultaneously. Thus,
a BRCA-deficient state could
be induced therapeutically to
increase the utility of PARP
inhibitors, not only for prostate
cancer but also for other can-
cers lacking BRCA mutations.
—LKF
Sci. Signal. 10, eaam7479 (2017).
sciencemag.org SCIENCE
 Neuroplasticity in learning to read
Philip Yeagle (May 25, 2017)
Science 356 (6340), 816. [doi: 10.1126/science.356.6340.816-a]

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