An E. coli Enzyme Reads an Eight-Letter DNA Alphabet, but Only in a Test Tube
Nature World News | 16.09.2026 08:45
Researchers at the University of California San Diego have shown that a bacterial enzyme central to gene expression can accurately read a genetic alphabet of eight letters rather than the four used by every organism on Earth. The work was published in Nature Communications on Sept. 2 and was led by Dong Wang of the UC San Diego Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences. It combined transcription assays with four cryo-electron microscopy structures at resolutions between 2.42 and 2.75 angstroms to show how Escherichia coli RNA polymerase handles synthetic base pairs.
