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Anthropic says Claude found a new bacteriophage enzyme system

2026-09-24 · that day's edition

An agent search through a DNA sequence database surfaced a previously uncharacterised system, which Anthropic calls ART.

Anthropic says it gave Claude a prompt to search a massive database of DNA sequences for interesting new examples of reverse transcriptases. After 21 hours spent searching by roughly 950 agents using 210 million tokens, one agent spotted an unusual pattern; Anthropic says that after further analysis and testing in its lab, it recognized the pattern as a previously uncharacterized enzyme system it calls array-associated reverse transcriptases (ART), consisting of a reverse transcriptase gene, a partner gene and a repeat array, found mainly in bacteriophages. Anthropic says it does not yet know the system's function, and has released a pre-print with more detail.

What this rests on

  1. Roughly 950 agents spent 21 hours searching the data using 210 million tokens before one agent spotted the anomalous pattern.

    Claude discovers a novel enzyme system with CRISPR-like repeats · Anthropic · 2026-09-23
    The system it found, ART, is found mainly in bacteriophages and consists of three parts: the RT, a partner gene beside it, and a long array of evenly spaced DNA repeat sequences.

  2. The new enzyme system, ART, is found mainly in bacteriophages and consists of three parts: the RT, a partner gene beside it, and a long array of evenly spaced DNA repeat sequences.

    Claude discovers a novel enzyme system with CRISPR-like repeats · Anthropic · 2026-09-23
    The system it found, ART, is found mainly in bacteriophages and consists of three parts: the RT, a partner gene beside it, and a long array of evenly spaced DNA repeat sequences.

  3. After further analysis and testing in Anthropic's lab, the pattern was recognized as a previously uncharacterized enzyme system that Anthropic calls array-associated reverse transcriptases (ART).

    Claude discovers a novel enzyme system with CRISPR-like repeats · Anthropic · 2026-09-23
    The system it found, ART, is found mainly in bacteriophages and consists of three parts: the RT, a partner gene beside it, and a long array of evenly spaced DNA repeat sequences.

  4. We gave Claude a prompt to search through a massive database of DNA sequences for interesting new examples of RTs.

    Claude discovers a novel enzyme system with CRISPR-like repeats · Anthropic · 2026-09-23
    The system it found, ART, is found mainly in bacteriophages and consists of three parts: the RT, a partner gene beside it, and a long array of evenly spaced DNA repeat sequences.

  5. Although Anthropic does not yet know its function, the system that Claude discovered has a set of characteristics that have only ever been found together in a handful of other systems.

    Claude discovers a novel enzyme system with CRISPR-like repeats · Anthropic · 2026-09-23
    The system it found, ART, is found mainly in bacteriophages and consists of three parts: the RT, a partner gene beside it, and a long array of evenly spaced DNA repeat sequences.

  6. Anthropic says it has released a pre-print that discusses the discovery in more detail.

    Claude discovers a novel enzyme system with CRISPR-like repeats · Anthropic · 2026-09-23
    The system it found, ART, is found mainly in bacteriophages and consists of three parts: the RT, a partner gene beside it, and a long array of evenly spaced DNA repeat sequences.

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