[DSRP Evidence](https://dsrpevidence.org/)

# Structural basis of transcription of the hachimoji eight-letter alphabet by E. coli RNA polymerase

Li et al., 2026, Nature Communications — Genetics

Patterns: [Distinctions](https://dsrpevidence.org/pattern/distinctions), [Systems](https://dsrpevidence.org/pattern/systems)

## In short

The presumed boundary between 'natural' and 'synthetic' genetic building blocks collapses at the mechanistic level: the same whole-enzyme recognition architecture, unchanged since it evolved to read four letters, turns out to generalize to an expanded set of parts without needing new machinery.

## What they found (results)

Cryo-electron microscopy structures show E. coli RNA polymerase transcribes a synthetic eight-letter (hachimoji) genetic alphabet using largely the same biochemical and structural recognition signals it uses for the natural four-letter code, rather than requiring new recognition machinery.

These researchers were not testing DSRP. The finding is theirs; the correspondence to DSRP is drawn by this site.

[Source](https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-026-76668-0)