The first synthetic yeast chromosome has been created by an international team of scientists. While previous experiments have been able to successfully synthesize DNA of organisms like bacteria, this is the first time that a life form with cells that have a nucleus have been created in a lab.
The first synthetic yeast chromosome has been created by an international team of scientists.
While previous experiments have been able to successfully synthesize DNA of organisms like bacteria, this is the first time that a life form with cells that have a nucleus have been created in a lab.
Yeast is more closely related to plants and animals, and it shares some 2 thousand genes with humans.
To synthesize it, scientists altered one out of the 16 the yeast chromosomes, taking out repeating sections of DNA, and creating a yeast with different properties than the one they started with.
The new kind of yeast has been named SynIII.
Jef Boeke from New York University's Langone Medical Center, who worked on the study, is quoted as saying: “We have shown that yeast cells carrying this synthetic chromosome are remarkably normal. They behave almost identically to wild yeast cells, only they now possess new capabilities and can do things that wild yeast cannot.”
This is a step towards being able to synthesize other kinds of living cells for use in rare medication that is derived from yeast, or to produce an antibiotic that can turn agricultural waste into biofuel like alcohol, butane and biodiesel.
