Microbes with artificial genetic material (DNA) were created by scientists in the US for the first time in history. But they didn't stop there. While natural DNA contains only four letters of the "alphabet of life" (nucleotides), the artificial one contains six, allowing it to make much more complex proteins, which are the building blocks of life. This development means that we will soon have new types of antibiotics, vaccines, cancer drugs, and materials that do not even exist as an idea today. International financial analysts are quick to declare to the "Wall Street Journal" that, with a rough calculation, the new drug market that will be created based on proteins and biological agents will have exceeded 165 billion dollars in turnover in four years!
According to the study published yesterday in the scientific journal “Nature”, the scientists state that they created the genetic material with two additional nucleotides compared to natural DNA. The introduction of the artificial, expanded DNA was not an easy task, as it had to be integrated into the microbial cell using a special process, which also had some pathogenic effects on the cell. “Eventually the microbial cell recognized it as natural material,” says biochemist Floyd Romesberg, head of the research team from the Scripps Research Institute at the University of California, La Jolla.
“Most people thought what we did was impossible,” says biochemist Steven Benner of the Institute for Applied Molecular Evolution in Gainesville, Florida. That’s because most scientists were confident that a normal cell would reject a modification to its genetic material. “In this case, it not only got into the nucleus of the cell, but it started working normally. It was a shock to us. We didn’t know there was such a high chance of success,” explains Dr. Benner.
Genetic instructions, that is, whether someone will be born blonde, with blue eyes, whether they will be predisposed to a certain disease and everything else we call hereditary, are written in detail in our DNA, which is located in the nucleus of each cell. This code is written with four chemicals (nucleotides) which are also called the "alphabet of life". They are Adenine (A) which has a chemical bond with thymine (T) and Guanine (G), which has a bond with cytosine (C). The combination of these pairs creates the molecular "recipes" for the creation of amino acids and proteins that are necessary for life to exist.
With the ever-increasing knowledge and the improvement of computers, scientists can now intervene in the natural storage and information system of life that is not so well locked inside each cell.
Today, they can easily cut and glue together normal DNA or parts of it to modify plants, bacteria and animals. In addition, they have already used this extremely small DNA storage unit to encode everything from books and poems to music, and they have programmed DNA to perform calculations that a personal computer does!
So, in the hope of further exploiting the potential of DNA, scientists are focusing on a relatively new field called synthetic biology. Thus, they are conducting continuous research to perfect an even more expanded genetic code that will include 12 biological letters, something that has not been possible in a living organism that can reproduce.
THE NEW METHOD. In the new achievement, the experts searched for molecules that would have the properties to be incorporated into the DNA molecule, specifically in the place of natural bases. These molecules should be able to form pairs with each other, just as natural bases do in the molecules of the DNA double helix.
After thousands of tests in the laboratory, they found two molecules, called d5SICS and dNaM, that met these requirements. Thus, they created synthetic DNA molecules (plasmids) that contained the natural and artificial bases and introduced them into the bacterium E. coli. However, the bacterium would have to acquire the ability to create copies of these DNA molecules, a process that requires raw materials and special enzymes. The raw materials (nucleotides with the d5SICS and dNaM molecules) were added as catalysts to the nutrient medium where the bacteria were growing. The experts also found that a protein derived from a single-celled organism could transport these nucleotides to the DNA replication machinery so that the enzymes could be placed in the correct position and the project could be successfully completed.
