Scientists make first artificial virus
From: habshi (habshi_at_anony.com)
Date: 12/18/04
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Date: Sat, 18 Dec 2004 16:08:38 GMT
Within ten years we are likely to have decoded DNA of most
living things and be able to create any life form by attaching the
bases together . Bring back T Rex NOW !!
Scientists use DNA to make virus
The naturally occurring virus does not infect people
US scientists have produced a wholly artificial virus using a method
they claim could lead to new lifeforms.
These synthetic organisms - on the scale of bacteria - could be
engineered to produce clean energy or mop up pollution, the
researchers say.
It is only the second time a virus has been constructed from scratch
in the lab, but the new effort is said to produce substantially
quicker results.
The work is reported in the Proceedings of the National Academy of
Sciences.
First steps
It was conducted at the Institute of Biological Energy Alternatives in
Rockville, Maryland, by Dr Craig Venter and colleagues.
Dr Venter was the man who led the private effort to decode the human
genome.
He told a news conference on Thursday that being able to make a
synthetic virus was just the start of an exercise that would lead to
completely artificial or engineered bacteria.
"It's an interim step. Now we have the enabling technology to take us
to these next exciting frontiers," Dr Venter said.
For now, "this is basic science at the most basic level with lots of
unknowns".
But he added: "The ability to construct synthetic genomes may lead to
extraordinary advances in our ability to engineer micro-organisms for
many vital energy and environmental purposes".
To make the synthetic virus, Dr Venter's team assembled and spliced
together segments of DNA.
Code errors
The newly constructed microbe is a replica of the phiX virus, which
occurs naturally and infects bacteria - not humans.
PhiX was the first organism to have its genetic code read, in 1978.
Its genome consists of 5,386 units - or base pairs - of DNA arranged
in a small circle.
We have the enabling technology to take us to these next exciting
frontiers
Dr Craig Venter
Other researchers had previously synthesised the poliovirus, which is
slightly bigger, employing enzymes usually found in cells. But this
effort took years to achieve and produced viruses with defects in
their code.
In an effort to improve the speed and accuracy of virus building, Dr
Venter and colleagues adapted a frequently used technique in genomic
science called the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) which is used to
copy DNA segments.
The researchers assembled the phiX genome from oligonucleotides -
small pieces of single-stranded DNA - and then combined these into the
double stands of the complete genome using their new polymerase cycle
assembly (PCA) method.
The whole process of building the synthetic phiX took just 14 days.
Works the same
The artificial bacteriophage behaves just like the "natural" one. It
has the ability to infect and kill bacterial cells and is
indistinguishable from its counterpart.
The scientists say the ability to quickly and accurately synthesise
long segments of DNA could help them understand the function of
particular genes, and may be a stepping stone to manipulating more
complex organisms.
Dr Venter is investigating bacterial organisms to see if they have the
potential to meet some of society's energy needs. These microbes might
pump out hydrogen to drive electric fuel cells or absorb carbon
dioxide to mitigate the effects of global warming.
Scientists envision modifying existing bacteria to improve their
performance or constructing artificial bugs to carry out wholly novel
tasks.
At the news conference, US Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham called the
accomplishment "an extraordinary and exciting development that will
speed up our ability to develop biology-based solutions for some of
our most pressing energy and environmental challenges".
"With this advance it is easier to imagine, in the not-too-distant
future, a colony of specially designed microbes living within the
emission-control system of a coal-fired plant, consuming its pollution
and its carbon dioxide, or employing microbes to radically reduce
water pollution or to reduce the toxic effects of radioactive waste."
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