Synthetic Life Now A Fact

EVERYONE grumbles from time to time about doctors “playing God,” but now scientists have finally managed to create a cell that has fully synthetic DNA. In the most literal sense, we are now in the business of creating life.

It used to be the stuff of science fiction (what isn’t these days?), but it’s true, and it’s happening today.

Combining advanced computer modeling techniques with genetic engineering, researchers have managed to recode the DNA of a bacterium, more or less at will. Keep in mind, the bacteria hasn’t been created “from scratch,” rather, the individual DNA sequences were synthesized from a “blueprint” on a computer.

At present, the implementation of the technique is more of a “micro-transplant” than anything else. A DNA synthesizer generates the customized sequences, which are then added to specialized yeast cultures. The yeast’s built-in genetic mechanisms tie together the new sequences in their proper order. After this has been done, the completed genomes are extracted, and then planted into donor cells. The donor cells will then reproduce according to the instructions printed on the synthetic DNA.

So what’s the upshot of all of this technical mumbo-jumbo? Initially, not much. They can encode some junk strands with strings of letters, or inject genes that will cause the cells to produce a specific protein. In the near term, applications are broad, ranging from new types of oil-eating bacteria to improved antibiotics.

In the long term, the implications are staggering. If we can recode the genomes of individual bacterial cells, we’ll soon be able to do the same for more complex creatures, like tardigrades (small animals that can survive in extreme weather), capybaras, or humans. With this technique, we’re a big leap closer to being able to correct genetic conditions, for example. But of course, there’s a catch (in bioscience, there’s always a catch to any new advancement).

If we can inject DNA into bacteria that makes it produce an antibiotic or other useful compound, the same techniques could be used to make an engineered organism more resistant to antibiotics, or better suited to biological warfare.

So, while scientists will herald this and other advancements as a great leap forward, whistleblowers, doomsday theorists and other naysayers will see this as yet another skid down a steep slippery slope. Religious groups will no doubt take offense to humans tinkering with our own genetic blueprints.

My perspective on it – the real breakthrough here is the ability to easily model and design genes. The rest of the technology, as described, is simply a refinement of pre-existing techniques. Ethical concerns aside, these techniques are here to stay, and they’ll only improve with time.

Via : timesleader.com