Reports that scientists from Scripps Institute in the USA have engineered the E. coli gut bacterium to have an entirely novel DNA are intriguing (https://www.theguardian.com/science/2017/jan/23/organisms-created-with-synthetic-dna-pave-way-for-entirely-new-life-forms). Regular DNA has a code composed of 4 bases (adenine, cytosine, guanine and thymine, A pairing with T and C with G). Triplets of the bases specify which amino acid should be added to growing polypeptides to make particular proteins (and also when the process should start and stop). The scientists hope to engineer particular cultures of bacteria to produce particular proteins (and other substances?) that would be of utility to humans. One of the concerns has been the possibility of the 'bugs' escaping from the laboratory. What the scientists have done is to create modified bacteria with 2 novel additional bases (X and Y) which do not occur in nature. The claim (and current experience) is that the strains would not be able to persist outside the laboratory (the X and Y presumably constitute a 'suicide' component, preventing a 'Jurassic Park' type event). The other main change is an improved immune responsiveness of the bacterial cultures that augments their viability in the laboratory. Whilst nothing can be entirely safe (bacteria can swap genes or bits of genes), this does appear to be a useful potential development.
No comments:
Post a Comment