麻豆淫院

Diversity-generating retroelements (DGRs) are found in the genomes of microorganisms across the globe鈥攆rom the arctic permafrost to Yellowstone's hot springs and the human gut. DGRs are able to reverse-transcribe RNA back to DNA in a form of natural gene-editing. This process accelerates the evolution of proteins to help microorganisms adapt to changing environments.

Using cryogenic electron microscopy, Partho Ghosh's lab at UC San Diego has figured out the first steps of this accelerated evolution by visualizing the relevant proteins and RNA. They found that RNA especially controlled accelerated evolution, forming structures that started, maintained and stopped the process at the right place.

These RNA structures, which were identified in the DGRs of many microorganisms, limited accelerated evolution to proteins needed for adaptation while protecting other essential ones from harm. This research deepens our understanding of the evolutionary origin of DGRs and may be applicable to future gene-editing techniques.

The findings are in the journal Nature.