[Vince]

BBC News - 'Artificial life' breakthrough announced by scientists

'Artificial life' breakthrough announced by scientists

The researchers copied an existing bacterial genome. They sequenced its genetic code and then used "synthesis machines" to chemically construct a copy.

Dr Venter told BBC News: "We've now been able to take our synthetic chromosome and transplant it into a recipient cell - a different organism.

"As soon as this new software goes into the cell, the cell reads [it] and converts into the species specified in that genetic code."

The new bacteria replicated over a billion times, producing copies that contained and were controlled by the constructed, synthetic DNA.

"This is the first time any synthetic DNA has been in complete control of a cell," said Dr Venter.

wow!

 

[Josh]

Wow. Think of the medical applications!

 

[stealthtastic]

That's crazy, can't wait to see this implemented!

 

[Naren]

Reminds me of the Andromeda Strain, The Stand, or some kinda horror story like that. :lol:

 

[loktide]

:lol: this is so ridiculously overblown

genetically engineered 'synthetic genes' have been used to over the past >20 years in bacteria, plants, insects, mammalian cells and even genetically engineered animals. there is no innovation in this. they're just trying to sell the whole thing as a new discovery by introducing (redundant) new terminologies. the only new portion about this is that they're not introducing or modifying one or a handful genes out of the native bacetrial genome, but rather building up the whole chromosome (also with techniques invented DECADES ago) and inserting it into a new cell (again rudimentary biotechnology cloning techniques).

this is a good example of businessmen/salesmen in a scientist's disguise

</rant> :lol:

 

[loktide]

double post fail

 

[Vince]

:lol: this is so ridiculously overblown

DON'T PISS IN MY CORNFLAKES!!! :scream:

This is going to cure cancer, aids, alzheimers, republicans, and Jose Canseco. YOU KNOW IT.

 

[146]

:lol: this is so ridiculously overblown

genetically engineered 'synthetic genes' have been used to over the past >20 years in bacteria, plants, insects, mammalian cells and even genetically engineered animals. there is no innovation in this. they're just trying to sell the whole thing as a new discovery by introducing (redundant) new terminologies. the only new portion about this is that they're not introducing or modifying one or a handful genes out of the native bacetrial genome, but rather building up the whole chromosome (also with techniques invented DECADES ago) and inserting it into a new cell (again rudimentary biotechnology cloning techniques).

this is a good example of businessmen/salesmen in a scientist's disguise

</rant> :lol:

Yeah, they've probably just copied the whole DNA of the bacteria with a PCR (polymerase chain reaction), and then put the copy-DNA in a different bacterial cell instead of the original DNA. (PCR can copy a single DNA fragment billions of times in a short period of time, and it was invented in 1993)

I guess the news here is that the organisms were able to reproduce, which I guess hasn't been done before with "synthetic DNA".

Edit: didn't notice that they've implanted the DNA into a different type of bacteria. Still, I doubt it will be anything revolutionary. It's natural that the inserted genome modifies the organism in which it is implanted, as it is what encodes all the synthesis of proteins etc. in the cell. And genetically modified cells work in the same way.

 

[Leon]

DON'T PISS IN MY CORNFLAKES!!! :scream:

This is going to cure cancer, aids, alzheimers, republicans, and Jose Canseco. YOU KNOW IT.

:lol:

But seriously, Fuck :yesway:

 

[E Lucevan Le Stelle]

:lol: this is so ridiculously overblown

genetically engineered 'synthetic genes' have been used to over the past >20 years in bacteria, plants, insects, mammalian cells and even genetically engineered animals. there is no innovation in this. they're just trying to sell the whole thing as a new discovery by introducing (redundant) new terminologies. the only new portion about this is that they're not introducing or modifying one or a handful genes out of the native bacetrial genome, but rather building up the whole chromosome (also with techniques invented DECADES ago) and inserting it into a new cell (again rudimentary biotechnology cloning techniques).

this is a good example of businessmen/salesmen in a scientist's disguise

</rant> :lol:

Yep, pretty much.

It's an impressive achievement in accuracy in lab gene synthesis though, with regards to getting the error rate down low enough that you can synthesise a whole bacterial chromosome and have it viable. It's a bit of a fiddly task, even with modern automatic synthesis machines.

It's nothing more than a technical achievement, though. Call me when you can design a viable genome from scratch :nono:

 

[Regor]

Call me when you can design a viable genome from scratch :nono:

That's exactly it too. They copied an 'existing' genome. Well, obviously it already works, so the fact that they just replicated it on its own and put it in, isn't all that groundbreaking. The fact that they then reproduced is somewhat.... but the fact is, they didn't make their own brand new life... frankly, that could be just an impossibility.