06-15-2014, 09:55 PM
The New Yeast Artificial Chromosome - SynIII
Scientists have managed to synthesize completely new chromosome from one of yeast’s 16 chromosomes. Namely, the team from the Langone Medical Centre at New York, led by Jef Boeke, has used yeast’s chromosome III and made the new one synIII (synthetic III).
The new chromosome had a lot of stuff removed. These were the things scientists thought are not necessary for the proper functioning of yeast. They are mostly some non-coding DNA (also called junk DNA or introns), some jumping genes (transposons) and some repetitive sequences (like subtelomeric repeats).
Boeke and his team have also managed to insert some new sequences as well. They were able to introduce a new function into the chromosome named “chemical switch”. It basically simplifies further genetic modifications by allowing scientists to get different variations of the same chromosome through the genome scrambling. This is important since it allows them “to generate millions of variant daughter genomes, and screen them for interesting properties,” as the leader of the project Jef Boeke said.
They have achieved this by first synthesizing shorter sequences of the DNA and then merging them together. The end result was astonishing. The original chromosome had more than 315 kb, while the new one has around 270 kb, which is around 45 kb less, or around 15% less of genetic material. Even so, the new yeast cells were able to perform all the regular activities like grow and divide, ferment sugar, etc.
This whole project is very important since it moves us one step closer to modifying our human genomes. Yeast cells are eukaryotic, and they are much more similar to ours than bacterial cells are, even though our genome is a lot larger and more complicated. Once we improve our technology in this field even more, we could do all sorts of things. For example, we could improve our immune system, fight cancer easier, slow down the effects of aging, etc. But we could also do something more fancy, like boost our memory or add the ability to see ultraviolet light. The possibilities are endless…
Scientists have managed to synthesize completely new chromosome from one of yeast’s 16 chromosomes. Namely, the team from the Langone Medical Centre at New York, led by Jef Boeke, has used yeast’s chromosome III and made the new one synIII (synthetic III).
The new chromosome had a lot of stuff removed. These were the things scientists thought are not necessary for the proper functioning of yeast. They are mostly some non-coding DNA (also called junk DNA or introns), some jumping genes (transposons) and some repetitive sequences (like subtelomeric repeats).
Boeke and his team have also managed to insert some new sequences as well. They were able to introduce a new function into the chromosome named “chemical switch”. It basically simplifies further genetic modifications by allowing scientists to get different variations of the same chromosome through the genome scrambling. This is important since it allows them “to generate millions of variant daughter genomes, and screen them for interesting properties,” as the leader of the project Jef Boeke said.
They have achieved this by first synthesizing shorter sequences of the DNA and then merging them together. The end result was astonishing. The original chromosome had more than 315 kb, while the new one has around 270 kb, which is around 45 kb less, or around 15% less of genetic material. Even so, the new yeast cells were able to perform all the regular activities like grow and divide, ferment sugar, etc.
This whole project is very important since it moves us one step closer to modifying our human genomes. Yeast cells are eukaryotic, and they are much more similar to ours than bacterial cells are, even though our genome is a lot larger and more complicated. Once we improve our technology in this field even more, we could do all sorts of things. For example, we could improve our immune system, fight cancer easier, slow down the effects of aging, etc. But we could also do something more fancy, like boost our memory or add the ability to see ultraviolet light. The possibilities are endless…
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