Flippable DNA switches help bacteria resist antibiotics and are more common than thought
Published Date: 1/11/2019
Source: phys.org
Bacteria have a number of well-known tricks available to them to adapt to changing environments, such as mutation and sharing snippets of DNA with each other. Less studied is a mechanism that allows bacteria to hedge their bets against rapid environmental changes by fine tuning their use of particular genes or pathways, a process known as "phase variation."