At Nature: “Dogma-defying bacteria package DNA in unusual ways”

We learn, “A startling discovery in bacteria suggests that some species have a bizarre way of packaging chromosomes and regulating gene expression — using proteins that, until recently, weren’t thought to exist in bacteria at all.” (February 3, 2023)

Dogma? Defying dogma? “Bizarre”? These bacteria are just going about their usual business, unconscious of the dogmas some have chosen to promulgate about them. They were never obliged by any power in this world or any other to do only what the dogmatists insist they do.

For now, researchers can only speculate as to what the histones might be doing, and how their unusual mode of action might help the bacteria survive. For B. bacteriovorus, the histones could be protecting the DNA from picking up stray pieces of the fragmented genomes of its prey, says Warnecke.

There’s a thought: Dogmatize less and research more.

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