Bacteria Flip Gene Segments to Alter Proteins Surprisingly Often, with Implications for Human Health

Posted onOctober 17th, 2024byDr. Monica M. Bertagnolli

Proteins are vital to our bodies. They serve as structural building blocks for our tissues and organs and are responsible for their functioning in both health and disease. Genes, like recipes, contain instructions for making proteins. Usually, each essential protein is produced from a single gene. Now, new research shows that some bacteria can actually produce two or more proteins from a single gene by flipping underlying stretches of DNA.

While scientists have long known that DNA inversions can occur in bacteria, this study is the first to describe these inversions, or invertons, within individual genes. Whats more, the findings, from research supported by NIH and reported in the journalNature, suggest that this flipping happens more often than scientists suspected.