Scientists unveil tools for rewriting the code of life. MIT and Harvard researchers have developed technologies that could be used to rewrite the genetic code of a living cell, allowing them to make large-scale edits to the cell’s genome. Such technology could enable scientists to design cells that build proteins not found in nature, or engineer bacteria that are resistant to any type of viral infection. The technology, described in the July 15 issue of Science, can overwrite specific DNA sequences throughout the genome, similar to the find-and-replace function in word-processing programs. Using this approach, the researchers can make hundreds of targeted edits to the genome of E. coli, apparently without disrupting the cells’ function.
“We did get some skepticism from biologists early on,” says Peter Carr, senior research staff at MIT’s Lincoln Laboratory (and formerly of the MIT Media Lab), who is one of the paper’s lead authors. DNA consists of long strings of “letters” that code for specific amino acids. ‘Plug and play’ World's most advanced genetic map created. A consortium led by scientists at the University of Oxford and Harvard Medical School has constructed the world's most detailed genetic map.
A genetic map specifies the precise areas in the genetic material of a sperm or egg where the DNA from the mother and father has been reshuffled in order to produce this single reproductive cell. The biological process whereby this reshuffling occurs is known as "recombination. " While almost every genetic map built so far has been developed from people of European ancestry, this new map is the first constructed from African American recombination genomic data.
"This is the world's most accurate genetic map," said David Reich, professor of genetics at Harvard Medical School, who co-led the study with Simon Myers, a lecturer in the Department of Statistics at the University of Oxford. The researchers were surprised to find that positions where recombination occurs in African Americans are significantly different from non-African populations. Bacterium engineered with DNA in which thymine is replaced by synthetic building block. The genetic information of all living cells is stored in the DNA composed of the four canonical bases adenine (A), cytosine (C), guanine (G) and thymine (T). An international team of researchers has now succeeded in generating a bacterium possessing a DNA in which thymine is replaced by the synthetic building block 5-chlorouracil (c), a substance toxic for other organisms. The project, coordinated by Rupert Mutzel (Institut für Biologie, Freie Universität Berlin) and Philippe Marlière (Heurisko USA Inc.), involved researchers of the French CEA (Commissariat à l'Energie Atomique et aux Energies Alternatives) and of the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (Belgium).
As described in the latest issue of Angewandte Chemie International Edition, the experimental work was based on a unique technology developed by Marlière and Mutzel enabling the directed evolution of organisms under strictly controlled conditions. JournalSeek - A Searchable Database of Online Scholarly Journals. Gene therapy cures monkeys of laziness. Are genes our destiny? Public release date: 16-Sep-2011 [ Print | E-mail Share ] [ Close Window ] Contact: Andy Hoangahoang@salk.edu 619-861-5811Salk Institute LA JOLLA, CA -- A "hidden" code linked to the DNA of plants allows them to develop and pass down new biological traits far more rapidly than previously thought, according to the findings of a groundbreaking study by researchers at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies.
The study, published today in the journal Science, provides the first evidence that an organism's "epigenetic" code - an extra layer of biochemical instructions in DNA - can evolve more quickly than the genetic code and can strongly influence biological traits. While the study was limited to a single plant species called Arabidopsis thaliana, the equivalent of the laboratory rat of the plant world, the findings hint that the traits of other organisms, including humans, might also be dramatically influenced by biological mechanisms that scientists are just beginning to understand.