WEIRD VIRAL DNA SPILLS SECRETS TO BIOLOGISTS

Abstract

The bond that forms between G and C bases breaks at a higher temperature than does thatjoining A and T, and the phage's DNA behaved as if it was made mainly from G and C. But analysis showed that the phage had replaced A with Z, which forms a stronger bond with T. "It looked like something transgressive," says Philippe Marliere, an inventor and geneticist at the University of Evry in France, who led one of the Science studies. Follow-up studies showed that S-2L's hardier genome was resistant to DNA-chomping enzymes and other anti-phage defences that bacteria wield. [...]in 2015, the team got a hit: a phage that infects aquatic bacteria of the genus Vibrio harboured a gene that matched a stretch of S-2L's genome.