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EXPANDED GENETIC ALPHABETS. "The possibility of increasing the number of replicable nucleotides in DNA and RNA (collectively xNA) above the standard four found in natural terran xNA was noted a quarter-century ago. However, only recently has the broader scientific community come to recognize that expanded genetic “alphabets” might also expand the functional potential of nucleic acids." https://lnkd.in/dinaF2C View in LinkedIn

SIGNIFICANCE OF XDNA. "Scientists have created artificial genetic material that can store information and evolve over generations in a similar way to DNA - a feat expected to drive research in medicine and biotechnology, and shed light on how molecules first replicated and assembled into life billions of years ago. Ultimately, the creation of alternatives to DNA could enable scientists to make novel forms of life in the laboratory." https://lnkd.in/dcUY9Jt View in LinkedIn

IMPROVING DNA. "Axiomatically, the density of information stored in DNA, with just four nucleotides (GACT), is higher than in a binary code, but less than it might be if synthetic biologists succeed in adding independently replicating nucleotides to genetic systems." https://lnkd.in/dinaF2C View in LinkedIn

"SYNTHETIC XENO DNA (XDNA, foreign DNA) is made by synthetic biologists from the Cambridge MRC Unit to function like DNA. A host of alternative nucleic acids have been made in labs over the years, but no one has made them work like DNA. Now that has been cracked. It is a twisted ladder with a backbone not of phosphates and sugars but cyclohexane and threose, and they engineered polymerase enzymes to work with XDNA to translate DNA to XDNA and back again as an evolving genetic system. It would also serve as a failsafe for escaped GMOs, and make new life forms." https://lnkd.in/dYQeS-P View in LinkedIn

"GENETIC SELECTION is a potentially general method for evolving the properties of these first-generation molecules." https://lnkd.in/dEx4mGb View in LinkedIn

ARTIFICIAL NEW THIRD BASE PAIR. "What we have now, for the first time, is an organism that stably harbours a third base pair, and it is utterly different to the natural ones," Romesberg said. For now the synthetic DNA does not do anything in the cell. It just sits there. But Romesberg now wants to tweak the organism so that it can put the artificial DNA to good use." https://lnkd.in/eKdazAS View in LinkedIn

LOW YIELDS. "Although it is now possible to create new enzyme active sites with immunological methods or by redesigning existing proteins, the chemical efficiency of these catalysts is typically considerably lower than that of naturally occurring enzymes." https://lnkd.in/dEx4mGb View in LinkedIn

BRIGHT FUTURE FOR SYNTHETIC DNA. "DNA, made up of four nucleotide molecules in a sequence, is a code that can be edited and written — not unlike software. The commercialization of DNA sequencing (the reading of an organism’s code) and synthesis (the writing of that code) has accelerated since the mapping of the human genome was completed in 2003." https://cdn.ampproject.org/c/venturebeat.com/2017/01/26/could-synthetic-dna-be-the-next-tech-breakthrough/amp/ View in LinkedIn

SYNTHETIC DNA. "From the moment life gained a foothold on Earth the diversity of organisms has been written in a DNA code of four letters. The latest study moves life beyond G, T, C and A – the molecules or bases that pair up in the DNA helix – and introduces two new letters of life: X and Y." https://lnkd.in/eKdazAS View in LinkedIn

SYNTHETIC DNA INHERITED. "The first living organism to carry and pass down to future generations an expanded genetic code has been created by American scientists, paving the way for a host of new life forms whose cells carry synthetic DNA that looks nothing like the normal genetic code of natural organisms." https://lnkd.in/eKdazAS View in LinkedIn