These authors investigated the potential for errors in transcription to result in a heritable phenotypic change. They engineered the Escherichia coli lac repressor lacI to include sequences that result in transcription slippage. They then showed that, although a functional protein is produced, this error is able to result in a switch in the transcriptional circuit that LacI regulates. Furthermore, they show this switch to be heritable through generations. Thus, transcription encodes information that results in a heritable epigenetic change.
References
Gordon, A. J. E. et al. Heritable change caused by transient transcription errors. PLoS Genet. http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgen.1003595 (2013)
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Stower, H. Transient transcription error inheritance. Nat Rev Genet 14, 521 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrg3550
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nrg3550