Metals articles from across Nature Portfolio

This Review focuses on the potassium switch signalling pathway and its regulation of urinary sodium excretion according to plasma potassium levels. Welling and colleagues examine how this pathway affects the interplay between potassium intake, salt handling in the kidney and blood pressure, and its implications for dietary interventions for blood pressure control.

This study shows that the iron-storage protein ferritin shapes lung injury. Altering macrophage ferritin handling reduces iron-driven cell death and inflammation, improves survival, and reveals ferritin as a regulator, not just a marker, of acute respiratory distress syndrome.

A ratiometric fluorescent probe that maps absolute mitochondrial Na⁺ at single-organelle resolution and works independently of membrane potential has now been developed. The probe called MitRatiNa reveals striking heterogeneity in mitochondrial Na⁺, its dynamic coupling to Ca²⁺ influx, and its alteration in metabolic stress and mitochondrial disease.

Replicating enzyme function with minimal components is a major challenge in abiotic mimicry. Here, the authors show that liquid gallium droplets act as tunable artificial nucleases, cleaving DNA with nucleotide bias via oxide-mediated adsorption and hydroxyl radical-assisted hydrolysis.

Metalloenzymes serve as staple biocatalysts for a broad range of reactions, offering exquisite selectivity and wide-ranging applicability when paired with versatile metals such as nickel. The mechanism behind sulfonamide formation catalysed by a recently discovered Ni-dependent enzyme has now been revealed, opening tractable avenues to biocatalyst-mediated expansion of the sulfonamide chemical space.

In 2012, a study revealed a unique form of cell death, termed ferroptosis, that is dependent on iron and unregulated lipid peroxidation. We revisit how this paper changed the trajectory of ferroptosis research from its origins to its current state.

Cryo-electron microscopy with energy resolution, using the EELS-STEM method, allows researchers to identify the approximate locations of certain heavier atoms within single frozen, hydrated protein particles.

An iron-induced ferroptosis screen revealed PRDX6 as a selenoprotein-synthesis factor. Loss of PRDX6 substantially decreased expression of the selenoprotein GPX4, a master regulator of ferroptosis, and induced ferroptosis. Mechanistically, PRDX6 increases the efficiency of selenium use by acting as a selenium delivery protein.