{"id":457308,"date":"2026-04-28T04:30:12","date_gmt":"2026-04-28T04:30:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/457308\/"},"modified":"2026-04-28T04:30:12","modified_gmt":"2026-04-28T04:30:12","slug":"retron-powered-approach-enables-genome-editing-across-diverse-bacterial-species","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/457308\/","title":{"rendered":"Retron-Powered Approach Enables Genome Editing Across Diverse Bacterial Species"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"3d<\/a>Credit: Olena_T \/ Getty Images<\/p>\n

For decades, the ability to precisely rewrite bacterial genomes has been largely confined to a single workhorse organism: Escherichia coli. That limitation has slowed efforts to study pathogens, engineer sustainable biomanufacturing strains, and probe how microbes influence human health. While genome editing tools have transformed eukaryotic biology, most high\u2011efficiency bacterial editors simply haven\u2019t worked outside E. coli.<\/p>\n

A new study from the Gladstone Institutes aims to change that. In a large, nine\u2011lab collaboration, researchers have translated a retron\u2011based DNA editing system from E. coli into 14 additional bacterial species spanning three major phyla. The work, published in Nature Biotechnology and titled \u201cGenome editing of phylogenetically distinct bacteria using cross-species retron-mediated recombineering<\/a>,\u201d demonstrates that retrons, bacterial immune elements that continuously produce short DNA strands, can be engineered into portable genome editing modules the authors call recombitrons. \u201cRecombitrons\u2014a genome editing tool created by pairing modified, donor-producing bacterial retrons with single-stranded binding and annealing proteins\u2014have increased the efficiency of recombineering to install flexible, precise edits in the prokaryotic chromosome,\u201d the authors wrote.<\/p>\n

Retrons normally function as part of a viral defense system, generating DNA fragments that help bacteria detect and respond to infection. Seth Shipman, PhD, a Gladstone Investigator and senior author of the study, has spent years repurposing this machinery. \u201cWe\u2019ve been easily editing E. coli genomes using retrons for years now, which has substantially increased the pace of our fundamental biology and our molecular technology development,\u201d he said. \u201cBut we kept hearing from the broader field, asking when there would be a version of this technology that could be put to work in other bacterial species that matter for the environment, industrial processes, or human health.\u201d<\/p>\n

Shipman\u2019s lab previously showed that retrons can act as cellular DNA-making factories, generating the donor strands needed for genome editing. In bacteria, the resulting editing tool built by pairing modified retrons with single\u2011stranded DNA\u2013binding and annealing proteins is known as a recombitron. Until now, however, functional recombitrons existed only in E. coli.<\/p>\n

To test whether the architecture could travel, the team designed a panel of 10 retron-based editing systems and partnered with other labs specializing in diverse bacterial species. \u201cWe designed all the molecular parts at Gladstone, then sent them to the collaborators, where they ran the experiment in their labs,\u201d said first author Alejandro Gonz\u00e1lez\u2011Delgado, PhD. Samples were then returned to Gladstone for centralized analysis.<\/p>\n

The results show broad functionality. The recombitrons worked in all 15 species tested, including clinically relevant pathogens such as Klebsiella pneumoniae and Pseudomonas aeruginosa, as well as fast\u2011growing biotechnology strains like Vibrio natriegens and Pseudomonas putida. Editing efficiencies varied widely\u2014from fractions of a percent to more than 90%\u2014but the team demonstrated that modifying retron structure or other system components could boost performance in lower\u2011efficiency hosts.<\/p>\n

\u201cEach retron worked differently in different bacteria,\u201d Gonz\u00e1lez\u2011Delgado noted. \u201cThis reinforces why it\u2019s important to have lots of different retrons, so scientists can choose the ones best suited to their favorite bacterial species.\u201d<\/p>\n

The study provides a roadmap for expanding genome editing into species that have historically been difficult to engineer. Researchers studying microbial pathogenesis, gut ecology, or industrial bioproduction can now match retron systems to their organism of interest.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy lab builds molecular technology, and we want these technologies to be used as broadly as possible to uncover new biology and intervene in disease,\u201d Shipman said. \u201cWe hope it will continue to spread from here.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Credit: Olena_T \/ Getty Images For decades, the ability to precisely rewrite bacterial genomes has been largely confined…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":457309,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[77],"tags":[3286,201262,18,152947,1278,11140,19,201263,17,201264,5,163200,133],"class_list":["post-457308","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-science","tag-dna","tag-dna-sequencing-sequencing","tag-eire","tag-escherichia-coli","tag-gene-editing","tag-genome-editing","tag-ie","tag-industrial-biotechnology","tag-ireland","tag-klebsiella","tag-news","tag-pseudomonas","tag-science"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116480456967549368","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/457308","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=457308"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/457308\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/457309"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=457308"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=457308"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=457308"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}