Amelia Cervera 🧬Jan 13, 2025
RNA control of reverse transcription in a diversity-generating retroelement.
#Transposons #TEs #DGRs #ReverseTranscriptase
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-024-08405-w
RNA control of reverse transcription in a diversity-generating retroelement - Nature

This study presents cryogenic electron microscopy structural analysis of a diversity-generating retroelement (DGR) reverse transcription system from Bordetella bacteriophage, with results indicating that RNA surrounding the template controls reverse transcription through mechanisms that are conserved across distant taxa.

Nature
Charles PlessyOct 4, 2024
When infected by a #virus, some #bacteria use a #reversetranscriptase to convert a small #noncoding #RNA to a long #DNA concatemer, called “nearly endless ORF” (neo) which is transcribed and then translated into a repetitive protein that shutdowns the cellular processes. Nice discovery published in the #Science journal by two American teams from #NewYork and #Cambridge. Link to the perspective article in the same issue: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.ads3638