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German researchers teach bacteria new behavior: study

Xinhua, April 20, 2016 Adjust font size:

German researchers could control which proteins a bacterium produces and how it behaves, Ruhr-University Bochum said on Wednesday.

In the study published in the journal Nucleic Acids Research, German biologists caused a bacterium to swim which was previously unable to move around.

Researchers made this possible by combining new different modules from the ribonucleic acid (RNA) of the bacterium.

They used so-called Riboswitches, also called as RNA switches, to see whether a particular metabolite in the cell is present in excess and adjust if necessary the biosynthesis or intake of this substance.

"Regulatory RNA modules are attractive for applications in synthetic biology because they perceive signals from the environment directly and immediately switch other genes on or off," said Johanna Rossmanith, author of the study.

The results showed that RNA modules have great potential in biotechnology to control processes in the bacterial cell specifically, said Franz Narberhaus from the Department of Biology of Microorganisms of the university. Endit