Scientists Create 1st Living Organism From Artificial DNA HealthDay May 7, 2014 90 Comments SHARE
By Alan Mozes, HealthDay Reporter DNA-RING.jpg
WEDNESDAY, May 7, 2014 (HealthDay News) -- Move over, Frankenstein! Your 21st-century counterpart has just been announced.
In true sci-fi fashion, a team of researchers from The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) in La Jolla, Calif., has created a brand-new bacteria based on a genetic structure found nowhere on Earth.
According to lead researcher Floyd Romesberg, the feat involved artificially engineering a unique combination of DNA material -- a combination not found in any living creature -- and then successfully inserting it into a living cell that usually contains only natural combinations of DNA.
"Life on Earth in all its diversity is encoded by only two pairs of DNA bases, A-T and C-G," Romesberg explained in an institute news release. "And what we've made is an organism that stably contains those two plus a third, unnatural pair of bases."
Quote: algernonpj wrote in post #1I wonder if they will call it Franken Bacterium.
Scientists Create 1st Living Organism From Artificial DNA
According to lead researcher Floyd Romesberg, the feat involved artificially engineering a unique combination of DNA material -- a combination not found in any living creature -- and then successfully inserting it into a living cell that usually contains only natural combinations of DNA.
..............................................
Now what could possible go wrong ???
What a misleading title. They did not claim to create life. They added material to something already alive.
Quote: algernonpj wrote in post #1I wonder if they will call it Franken Bacterium.
Scientists Create 1st Living Organism From Artificial DNA
According to lead researcher Floyd Romesberg, the feat involved artificially engineering a unique combination of DNA material -- a combination not found in any living creature -- and then successfully inserting it into a living cell that usually contains only natural combinations of DNA.
..............................................
Now what could possible go wrong ???
What a misleading title. They did not claim to create life. They added material to something already alive.
Good point
OTH by changing the DNA of an existing bacteria they changed the instructions that regulate its behavior. To do this they used instructions that are not found in nature.
According to the Fox news article First life forms to pass on artificial DNA engineered by US scientists
ZitatRomesberg found that when the modified bacteria divided they passed on the natural DNA as expected. But they also replicated the synthetic code and passed that on to the next generation. That generation of bugs did the same. http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/ma...a-us-scientists
Edit: my error this is from The Guardian, not Fox.
Quote: algernonpj wrote in post #1I wonder if they will call it Franken Bacterium.
Scientists Create 1st Living Organism From Artificial DNA HealthDay May 7, 2014 90 Comments SHARE
According to lead researcher Floyd Romesberg, the feat involved artificially engineering a unique combination of DNA material -- a combination not found in any living creature -- and then successfully inserting it into a living cell that usually contains only natural combinations of DNA.
"Life on Earth in all its diversity is encoded by only two pairs of DNA bases, A-T and C-G," Romesberg explained in an institute news release. "And what we've made is an organism that stably contains those two plus a third, unnatural pair of bases."
..............................................
Now what could possible go wrong ???
In the field of plant genetics they call these new combinations, GMO's and rail against Monsanto.
But here they hail this new combination as the 1st Living Organism created by scientists.
Never mind, that as Mechanicos mentions, "they added material to something already alive".
Thus all they really managed to accomplish was to create a freak.
. . . . . . . . . Well clearly that's been done before....
Wow, it's pretty strange out there these days.
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