Researchers analysed metagenomic data from 1,618 patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and 791 healthy individuals as controls and identified invertible DNA orientations in Bacteroidales genomes. Of those 311 invertible regions, 147 were markedly different in terms of orientation in patients with IBD.

The inverted regions included, among others, the anti-inflammatory PSA promoter of Bacteroides fragilis, which induces regulatory T (T_reg) cells in the colonic lamina propria of mice. In healthy individuals, the PSA promoter is in its ‘on’ orientation, whereas in patients with IBD, it is in its ‘off’ (inverted) orientation.

研究人员分析了 1,618 名炎症性肠病 (IBD) 患者和 791 名健康对照者的宏基因组数据，并确定了拟杆菌基因组中可逆的 DNA 方向。在这 311 个可反转​​区域中，IBD 患者中有 147 个在方向方面存在显着差异。

反转区域包括脆弱拟杆菌的抗炎 PSA 启动子，该启动子可在小鼠结肠固有层中诱导调节性 T (T _reg ) 细胞。在健康个体中，PSA 启动子处于“开”方向，而在 IBD 患者中，它处于“关”（倒置）方向。