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.
nature.com
· 2026-10-12
Scientists report that molluscum contagiosum virus (MCV), which infects human skin cells, contains a copy of BC200, a noncoding RNA gene unique to humans and related primates that is believed to have been acquired from ancestral genomes roughly 100,000 years ago. BC200 is normally abundant in neurons and is thought to help regulate protein production, but it is also a 'jumping gene' capable of inserting itself elsewhere in the genome, and researchers say MCV appears to be the only known virus to carry it.
science.slashdot.org
· 2026-10-04
GoKawiil