Moron 泛益子

转自公众号“varms”

分子生物学常见exon（外显子）和intron（内含子），很少有人见过moron。

噬菌体经常可以携带对宿主有用的基因（增强毒力、提高适应性等），这些有益基因之间的一些基因叫做morons。

【小方框】英文原意

Prophage-encoded genes canprovide a variety of benefits for their bacterial hosts. These beneficial genes are often contained within “moron” elements. Morons, thus termed as the insertion of the DNA encoding them adds “more on” the genome in which they are found, are independent transcriptional units disseminated among phage genomes through horizontal gene transfer. Morons have been identified in the majority of phage genomes and they have been found to play diverse roles in bacterial physiology.

有图有真相

深灰色：保守、功能未知基因

彩色：不同类型的morons，相同颜色表示相同类型

头像照片：

（https://www.legacy.com/obituaries/postgazette/obituary.aspx?pid=187153044）

重大科学贡献：全世界最早完成体外病毒合成的科学家，为病毒的结构解析与生化研究打下坚实的基础。

【参考文献】

Véronique, L, Taylor, et al. The Diverse Impacts of Phage Morons on Bacterial Fitness and Virulence.[J]. Advances in virus research, 2019.