Summary
A bacterial enzyme reads RNA as a template to make completely new genes written in DNA. These genes are then transcribed back into RNA, which is translated into protective proteins when a bacterium is infected by a virus. ‘This is crazy molecular biology,’ says bioinformatician Aude Bernheim.
The discovery has even left Sternberg in awe: “It should change the way we look at the genome” “Their findings were astonishing,” says Nicolás Toro García, a molecular biologist. “This I am burning to know”
