After more than a decade of work, the researchers have reached an important step in their efforts to reorganize laboratory life, assembling the final chromosome in a synthetic yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) genome.
The researchers, led by a team from Macquarie University in Australia, chose yeast as a means of demonstrating the potential for the production of foodstuffs that could survive the rigors of a changing climate or a generalized disease.
It is the first time a synthetic eukaryotic genome was built in full, following successes with Simpler bacteria organisms. This is proof of concept for the way more complex organisms, such as food cultures, could be synthesized by scientists.
“This is a historical moment in synthetic biology,” said Sakkie Pretorius molecular microbiologist, from Macquarie University. “This is the last piece of a puzzle that has occupied researchers in synthetic biology for many years now.”
This does not mean that we can start cultivating completely artificial yeasts from zero, but it means that living yeast cells can potentially be fully recoded – although much more work is necessary to refine and extend this process before This may happen.
And the analogy of the coding is good, because the researchers had to spend a lot of time and efforts to debug the 16th and last synthetic yeast chromosome (called Synxvi) Before the genome works as desired.
A variety of genetic publishing tools, such as the one based on Crisprwere deployed to identify and solve problems in the chromosome. For example, they had to make yeast properly use glycerol as a source of energy at higher temperatures, which scientists might want to improve the resilience of yeasts.
Another problem that the team has overcome genetic markers, used to identify and follow DNA inside the genome. It turns out that the placement of these markers is important, it turns out that evil can interfere with cellular behavior.
“One of our main discoveries was how the positioning of genetic markers could disrupt the expression of essential genes”. said Hugh Goold synthetic biologist, from Macquarie University.
The SC2.0 projectThis research is a part, it is not only the modification of cultures. The same principles could also be applied to sustainable drugs and materials, with possibilities to accelerate their production or make them more difficult.
Our genetic engineering efforts continue to obtain more ambitious And more completeAnd this is another important step in this road. Improvements are partly reduced to progress in technology and techniques, with robotics available at Australian genome foundry crucial in this particular study.
“The synthetic yeast genome represents a quantum jump in our ability to design biology”. said Briardo Llorente synthetic biologist, from Macquarie University. “This achievement opens up exciting possibilities to develop more efficient and lasting bio-fabrication processes, from the production of pharmaceutical products to the creation of new materials.”
Research was published in Nature communications.