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Frankenstein has finally arrived. Synthetically created DNA seen as huge advancement

By Catholic Online (NEWS CONSORTIUM)
April 22nd, 2012
Catholic Online (www.catholic.org)

It's something from Dr. Frankenstein's laboratory: DNA-new synthetic compounds called XNAs can also store and copy genetic information, a new study says. Called a "big advancement," these artificial compounds can also be made to evolve in the lab. The discovery has momentous implications about the creation of life.

LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - According to study co-author John Chaput of the Biodesign Institute at Arizona State University, nucleotides, the building blocks of DNA are composed of four bases -- A, G, C, and T. which are attached to the bases of sugars and phosphates.

Researchers first made XNA building blocks to six different genetic systems by replacing the natural sugar component of DNA with one of six different polymers, or synthetic chemical compounds.

Led by Vitor Pinheiro of the U.K.'s Medical Research Council Laboratory of Molecular Biology, the group then evolved enzymes, called polymerases, that can make XNA from DNA, and others that can change XNA back into DNA.

This copying and translating ability allowed for genetic sequences to be copied and passed down again and again and again - in essence, artificial heredity.

Last, the team determined that HNA, one of the six XNA polymers, could respond to selective pressure in a test tube. As would be expected for DNA, the stressed HNA evolved into different forms.

The experiment proved that "beyond heredity, specific XNAs have the capacity for Darwinian evolution.

"Thus, heredity and evolution, two hallmarks of life, are not limited to DNA and RNA."

Furthermore, all of XNA'S actions are "completely controlled by experimentalists-it's 100 percent unnatural," study co-author Chaput noted.

Such control implies that scientists can "use [XNA] to ask very basic questions in biology," such as about the origins of life, Chaput said.

"It's possible that life didn't begin with DNA and proteins like we see today -- it may have begun with something much, much simpler," he said.

A scientist could potentially evolve XNA to discover various functions that would have been important for early life. Overall, he said, the new discovery is "pretty cool . and very powerful."

© 2012, Catholic Online. Distributed by NEWS CONSORTIUM.

Article brought to you by: Catholic Online (www.catholic.org)