What if bacteria could recode their own proteins on the fly - without changing their DNA?
In a process called A-to-I RNA editing, bacteria use the enzyme TadA to modify the information encoded in their messenger RNA. This hidden layer of regulation lets individual genes encode multiple protein isoforms across diverse bacterial species.
Our lab combines cutting-edge genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics, and genetic engineering to understand how RNA editing is controlled in bacteria, when it is activated, and how it shapes bacterial physiology and pathogenesis.
We discovered that A-to-I mRNA editing recodes hundreds of proteins across diverse bacterial species. Yet the full landscape of bacterial RNA editing is only beginning to emerge. We aim to determine which species undergo editing, which genes are edited, and how editing patterns vary across bacteria and environments.
We have shown that editing levels are not fixed; they change with growth conditions and vary across genomic sites. What we still do not fully understand is what determines where and when TadA edits, and how precisely it acts. We aim to define the sequence and structural rules, as well as other factors, that govern TadA targeting of mRNA, and to identify the environmental signals and regulatory networks that control editing activity.
RNA editing recodes protein sequences, but what does that mean for bacteria? We have shown that editing can alter protein function, affect disulfide bond formation, and regulate toxin-antitoxin systems, with measurable consequences for bacterial physiology. We aim to characterize the functional impact of individual editing events systematically and to understand how the editing landscape as a whole shapes bacterial fitness and adaptation.
Dan Bar Yaacov, PhD
The Department of Microbiology, Immunology and Genetics
Ben-Gurion University of the Negev
Building 41, Room 203
David Ben-Gurion Blvd 1
Beer Sheva, 8410501, Israel
Email: danbary@bgu.ac.il
Office: +972-74-7795230
