Bacterial defense protein DRT10 makes DNA repeats like telomerase
Researchers identified DRT10, a bacterial antiviral defense system in which a reverse transcriptase binds a noncoding RNA to repeatedly copy a defined RNA template into long tandem-repeat DNA. Cryo-EM structures show two reverse transcriptase molecules attached to opposite sides of the RNA, though only one produces the repeating DNA product, with stem-loop structures marking the boundaries of the copied region.