News: Scientists get closer to creating artificial life
- From: "Robert Karl Stonjek" <rstonjek@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sun, 7 Dec 2008 14:32:04 -0500 (EST)
Scientists get closer to creating artificial life: study
Scientists have discovered a more efficient way of building a synthetic
genome that could one day enable them to create artificial life, according
to a study.
The method is already being used to help develop next generation biofuels
and biochemicals in the labs of controversial celebrity US scientist Craig
Venter.
Venter has hailed artificial life forms as a potential remedy to illness and
global warming, but the prospect is highly controversial and arouses heated
debate over its potential ramifications and the ethics of engineering
artificial life.
Artificially engineered life is one of the Holy Grails of science, but also
stirs deep fears as foreseen in Aldous Huxley's 1932 novel "Brave New World"
in which natural human reproduction is eschewed in favor of babies grown in
laboratories.
The J. Craig Venter Institute succeeded in synthetically reproducing the DNA
of a simple bacteria last year.
The researchers had initially used the bacteria e. coli to build the genome,
but found it was a tedious, multi-stage process and that e. coli had
difficulty reproducing large DNA segments.
They eventually tried using a type of yeast called Saccharomyces cerevisiae.
This enabled them to finish creating the synthetic genome using a method
called homologous recombination, a process that cells naturally use to
repair damage to their chromosomes.
They then began to explore the capacity for DNA assembly in yeast, which
turned out to be a "genetic factory," the Institute said in a statement
Wednesday.
The researchers inserted relatively short segments of DNA fragments into
yeast cells through homologous recombination method.
They found they were able to build the entire genome in one step, according
to the study set to be published in the Proceedings of the National Academy
of Sciences.
"We continue to be amazed by the capacity of yeast to simultaneously take up
so many DNA pieces and assemble them into genome-size molecules," said lead
author Daniel Gibson.
"This capacity begs to be further explored and extended and will help
accelerate progress in applications of synthetic genomics."
Senior author Clyde Hutchison added, "I am astounded by our team's progress
in assembling large DNA molecules. It remains to be seen how far we can push
this yeast assembly platform but the team is hard at work exploring these
methods as we work to boot up the synthetic chromosome."
Venter and his team continue to work towards creating a living bacterial
cell using the synthetic genome sequence of the Mycoplasma genitalium
bacteria.
The bacteria, which causes certain sexually transmitted diseases, has one of
the least complex DNA structures of any life form, composed of just 580
genes.
In contrast, the human genome has some 30,000.
Using the genetic sequence of this bacteria, the Maryland-based team has
created a chromosome known as Mycoplasma laboratorium.
They are working on developing a way to transplant this chromosome into a
living cell and stimulate it to take control and effectively become a new
life form.
© 2008 AFP
http://www.physorg.com/news147698448.html
Posted by
Robert Karl Stonjek
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