A unique approach in genetic engineering could aid in the making of fuel producing bacteria which will ultimately be one step closer to artificial life. Today, microbes like yeast and E. coli can perform complex task or produce materials more efficiently. However, microbes of industrial interest are less hackable like the photosynthetic microbes which scientists hope can be engineered to efficiently turn light into fuel.
The researchers from Venter Institute generated a synthetic genome used to control or reboot a recipient cell. In order to build a synthetic organism, the researchers have to transplant the synthetic genome cell and have it successfully reboot the cell, which is the most problematic step. The new technique is a workaround by growing an entire bacterial genome in yeast and chemically altering the bacterial genetic material. The current aim is to test the technique on other bacteria
Reference: Technology Review
No comments:
Post a Comment