ERC Starting Grant · 2023
Occurrence, Regulation, and Function of Bacterial mRNA Editing Under Diverse Environments
Bacteria are haploid, having a single copy of each gene. We suggest a paradigm shift in bacterial genetics: bacteria can have two RNA versions of the same gene, encoding protein isoforms at the single-bacterium and population level. These protein isoforms can have altered activity, which could be advantageous under different conditions. Adenosine-to-inosine (A-to-I) mRNA editing can affect the sequence and the function of translated proteins because the ribosome identifies inosine as guanosine. We discovered that A-to-I mRNA editing occurs in bacteria (Escherichia coli), identified the mediating enzyme, and showed that it could affect protein function. Moreover, we discovered that…
From the public funding record at EU CORDIS. Describes the funded project, not the reviews below.