Researchers discover DNA shift never before seen in nature

A team of MIT researchers and others has discovered that **bacteria** employ a type of **DNA modification** never before seen in nature. The researchers, led by Peter Dedon, professor of biological engineering, and Zixin Deng at Shanghai Jiaotong University in China, published their results in the November issue of **Nature Chemical Biology**. For several decades, researchers have known that it is possible to modify synthetic oligonucleotides (short strands of DNA) by adding sulfur to the sugar-phosphate DNA backbone as a phosphorothioate. Researchers often use such modifications in the laboratory to make DNA resistant to nucleases (enzymes that snip DNA in certain locations) as a step toward gene and antisense therapies of human diseases. Whole article on "physorg":[ http://www.physorg.com/news115914209.html]

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