Synthetic reversed sequences reveal default genomic states. (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38448583/)

These scientists wanted to understand if the activity happening in our DNA is important or just random noise. They did this by creating a special piece of DNA, like a puzzle piece, and putting it into the DNA of yeast and mice. This special DNA was made to be like a part of a human gene but without the important information that makes it work.

When they put this special DNA into yeast, they saw that it became active and did things even though it didn't have the right instructions for yeast. But when they put the same special DNA into mouse cells, it didn't do anything at all and instead looked like it was being told to stay quiet.

They found that the difference in how the special DNA acted in yeast and mouse cells shows that these cells have different ways of handling DNA activity. This helps scientists understand more about how cells work and how new genes might be born.

Camellato BR., Brosh R., Ashe HJ., Maurano MT., Boeke JD. Synthetic reversed sequences reveal default genomic states. Nature. 2024 Mar 6. doi: 10.1038/s41586-024-07128-2.