University of Chicago researchers reveal mechanism of bacteriophage DNA recombination

Researchers at the University of Chicago have used cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM) to reveal how bacteriophages—viruses that infect bacteria—use specific enzymes to manipulate DNA. The study, published in Molecular Cell, focuses on large serine integrases, which allow phages to insert or remove large stretches of DNA with high precision.

A key finding involves how these enzymes control directionality. While it was known that a partner protein called a recombination directionality factor (RDF) helps the enzyme switch between inserting and removing DNA, the structural mechanism of this molecular switch had remained a mystery.

These enzymes offer significant potential for genome engineering and synthetic biology because they can perform genetic changes without leaving DNA damage or nicked bonds in the host DNA, unlike some other gene-editing methods.