‘Life goes on’: Scientists describe how ‘zombie’ bacteria keep pumping DNA after death

A team of scientists has discovered that some bacterial species can continue making DNA even after they die. Researchers have also found a way to control the type of DNA produced, a discovery that could someday work as a fuel to develop new biological materials.

Led by Denmark’s Aarhus University researcher Gabriel Antonio Minero and other researchers found that viruses known as bacteriophages, which are generally known for selectively targeting and killing bacteria, play a key role in this bizarre process. These viruses infect bacteria, remain dormant inside dead bacteria, and under certain conditions become active.

For this research, which is published in the chemistry journal Angewandte Chemie International Edition on October 5, 2026, the researchers studied two bacterial species, Shewanella oneidensis and Bacillus subtilis. When they deprived the bacteria of nutrients, some dormant viruses became active and multiplied, eventually bursting out of the bacterial cells.

And when the cells opened, they released “building blocks of DNA and specialized enzymes,” the university said. These enzymes continued making DNA outside the dead cells, within a biofilm, a community of bacteria surrounded by a sticky protective substance.

“In a way, life goes on after the bacterium has died,” said the study's first author, assistant professor Gabriel Antonio Minero from Aarhus University's Department of Biology.

How researchers controlled the DNA production

The researchers then introduced an artificially made ring of DNA into the bacterial cultures to confirm that the bacteria were really producing new DNA and not some genetic material from broken cells.

As per the researchers, they used the ring as a blueprint that the enzymes could copy repeatedly. And with a fluorescent dye, the team identified that the newly produced DNA had a distinct structure.

“Under the microscope, the DNA combined with other substances to form shapes resembling flowers in one bacterial species and long strands in the other,” the university wrote.

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The researchers need to confirm that this zombie-like effect is only happening in those bacteria that have bacteriophages present in them. They used another bacterial strain without the virus, and none could produce that particular DNA.

Gabriel termed the bacteriophages as “nano-architects” because, while they kill some bacteria, they are the actual part of the molecular machinery needed for continued DNA production.

The team said that they could change the DNA blueprint and control what the bacteria had produced. “What matters most to me is that we can hijack the process,” Minero said, in a statement to the university.

What could the discovery mean?

Among other experiments, the researchers with this bacterial machinery produced structures known as G-quadruplexes. As per the scientists, this type of DNA structure can “fold into particular shapes,” and can “bind other molecules and act rather like enzymes,” which eventually can speed up some chemical reactions.

These findings could be a potential game-changer for environmental biotechnology, where researchers are trying to harness bacteria for wastewater treatment and to produce bioenergy.

Although it's safe to say more study is needed to go to that extent, as scientists for now only control which DNA is produced and give it particular chemical properties. The bacterial DNA technology that can totally clean up polluted water or produce bioenergy is still out of reach.

But, the research pointed towards a long unanswered question about bacteria, namely, why do some of them harbor dormant viruses like bacteriophages in their genetic material in the first place that eventually kill them?