Recently, Prof. You Delin’s research team published a research paper Pathological phenotypes and in vivo DNA cleavage by unrestrained activity of a phosphorothioate-based restriction system in Salmonella on Molecular Microbiology in the field of phosphorothioate modification of the DNA backbone. This work is coorperated with Prof. Peter C. Dedon’s team from MIT.

The research team found that the presence of restriction genes in a PT-deficient mutant resulted in several pathological phenotypes rather than lethal, which is not the same with the traditional ones.

The study not only expands our understandings on the physiological significance of phosphorothioate modification of the DNA, but also reveal that this special R-M system is not as same as the traditional ones. These findings will broaden the understanding of the diversity of genome self-defence.