Flipping genes

A study finds bacterial genes can encode more than one protein, altering a core understanding of genetics.

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If a chromosome is like a line of dominoes laid out end to end, flipping a tile 180 degrees is essentially what happens in an inversion: A segment of the tightly wound thread of DNA breaks off and reattaches itself in reverse orientation.

Now, a study of bacteria led by Stanford Medicine scientists has found these flips can occur within a single gene, challenging a central dogma of biology — that one gene can code for only one protein.

The findings were published in September 2024 in Nature.

In the same way that flipping the letters in “dog” could change the meaning of a sentence — “I’m a dog” versus “I’m a god” — within-gene inversion essentially recodes the bacterium’s genetics using the same material. That could result in the activation of a gene, a halt in gene activity or a sequence that codes for the creation of a different protein when inverted.

“I remember seeing the data, and I thought, ‘No way, this can’t be right, because it’s too crazy to be true,’” said Ami Bhatt, PhD, professor of genetics and of medicine. Bhatt is the study’s senior author. Postdoctoral scholar Rachael Chanin, PhD, and former postdoctoral scholar Patrick West, PhD, share lead authorship.

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Hanae Armitage

Hanae Armitage is a science writer in the Office of Communications. Email her at harmitag@stanford.edu.

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