• NEWS

Weird viral DNA spills secrets to biologists

Bacteria-infecting viruses have specialized enzymes to make genes with alternative nucleobase.
By
  1. Ewen Callaway
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed  Google Scholar

Access through your institution
Buy or subscribe

‘Alien’ genomes can be found on Earth. Some viruses that infect bacteria use an alternative genetic alphabet that’s distinct from the code used by nearly all other organisms — and, now, two teams have spelt out how the system works.

Access options

Access through your institution

Rent or buy this article

Prices vary by article type

from$1.95

to$39.95

Learn more

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Nature 593, 181 (2021)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-021-01157-x

References

  1. Zhou, Y. et al. Science 372, 512–516 (2021).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  2. Sleiman, D. et al. Science 372, 516–520 (2021).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  3. Pezo, V. et al. Science 372, 520–524 (2021).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  4. Kirnos, M. D., Khudyakov, I. Y., Alexandrushkina, N. I. & Vanyushin, B. F. Nature 270, 369–370 (1977).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  5. Fernández-Sierra, M., Shao, Q., Fountain, C., Finzi, L. & Dunlap, D. J. Mol. Biol. 427, 2305–2318 (2015).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  6. Hoshika, S. et al. Science 363, 884–887 (2019).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

Download references

Subjects

Latest on:

Nature Careers

Jobs

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing