Writing Genetic Code

An anonymous reader writes "The Globe and Mail is reporting on another group of researchers delving into the field of 'synthetic biology.' The project stemming from the efforts of two biology labs in British Columbia and Maryland is attempting to create the first synthetic life form. From the article: 'The project is being spearheaded by U.S. scientist Craig Venter, who gained fame in his former job as head of Celera Genomics, which completed a privately-owned map of the human genome in 2000. Dr. Venter, 59, has since shifted his focus from determining the chemical sequences that encode life to trying to design and build it: "We're going from reading to writing the genetic code," he said in an interview.'" This is certainly not the first group to venture into this territory.

Not New News, if you've been keeping up

[Maverick TimeSurfer]

The article does not seem to contain mention of just when this all started. The Globe & Mail is a bit behind- Discover magazine reported on the project in 2001: http://www.discover.com/issues/apr-01/features/fea tsimple/ [discover.com]

Re:Unlikely, but exciting if they pull it off

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm pretty sure that most bacteria reproduce Asexually. Therefore they do not mate. Also, I'm not sure that someone with a last name of 'Go[a]uld' has our best interests in mind!

Extremely interesting....

[CupBeEmpty]

This is something that is really, truly interesting. I am curious as to what they will consider a "human crafted" organism. I work in a virology lab and in the field there are often "frankenstein" viruses that are created to preform certain tasks. I know many people do not consider viruses to be living, but you are getting pretty darn close. Also, the viruses that are created (actually quite often) are usually combinations of parts of DNA sequence from a variety of viruses. Literally just last week I created an engineered virus that will insert the DNA that codes the protein USP18 [nih.gov] into human cell cultures (huh-7.5 cells... modified human hepatoma 7 cells). The goal is actually to support or detract from the conclusion of the linked paper. The virus in question is basically a highly modified form of HIV. It has certain elements that are exactly the same as HIV but there are large portions (the parts that make it really pathogenic) that are removed and other things are added (promoters and insertions sites to allow the USP18 -or whatever- to be inserted).

The long and short of it is. These "life forms" are significantly different from their naturally occuring cousins. They are this way by nature of human engineering. This argument can also be extended to bacteria that have been highly modified. There are laboratory strains of almost every bacteria that we know of that are significantly different from wild type bacteria. I am curious as to where they will draw the line. From the article is appears that they are paring down mycoplasma to the barest bones.

The other question is, once you have the DNA how do you kickstart the process. They appear to be inserting it into and E. coli with the nucleus removed. This means that the cellular machinery of the E. coli will be used to translate the DNA into protein and eventually a new synthetic cell. Does this mean that it is human created if we use naturally occuring cellular machinery?

I don't mean to detract from the research in any way because it is highly interesting and will tell us a lot about how life works on the most basic level, BUT there are a lot of questions out there and I hope that people keep them in mind as we see this field develop over the next several years.

Re:Unlikely, but exciting if they pull it off

[alicenextdoor]

Well, they teach it wrong, then. Bacterial 'sex' involves the transfer of extrachromosomal loops of DNA called plasmids, via a sex pillus also coded by a plasmid. Plasmids can carry, amongst other things, a casette of genes for antibiotic resistance, which is one of the reasons why resistance can spread so rapidly. It has little or nothing to do with near death experiences, and no 'offspring' is created; it's just a transfer of genes.