Triple Helix — Designing a New Molecule of Life

Anti-Globalism sends in this quote from Scientific American about attempts to synthesize molecules that function as well or better than the natural building blocks of life: "A molecule that some researchers study in pursuit of this vision is peptide nucleic acid (PNA), which mimics the information-storing features of DNA and RNA but is built on a proteinlike backbone that is simpler and sturdier than their sugar-phosphate backbones. ... Many studies have demonstrated PNA's suitability for modifying gene expression, mostly in molecular test-tube experiments and in cell cultures. Studies in animals have begun, as has research on ways to transform PNA into drugs that can readily enter a person's cells from the bloodstream. ... Some scientists have suggested that PNAs or a very similar molecule may have formed the basis of an early kind of life at a time before proteins, DNA and RNA had evolved. Perhaps rather than creating novel life, artificial-life researchers will be re-creating our earliest ancestors."

Comments

PNA Too stable?

[crow]

Perhaps PNA is too stable, so that life forms based on it couldn't evolve through mutations quickly enough to adapt to changes.

Re:Binding Affinity

[spud603]

Out of curiosity, does that make PNA kind of dangerous in quantity for all of us DNA-based lifeforms?
That is, do DNA-based cells exposed to PNA stop being able to reproduce themselves? (DNA unzips, PNA wiggles in and binds, everything shuts down)

Re:Er.

[someone1234]

PNA might function better than DNA/RNA, but its cost (resources, time to create) is higher and couldn't be afforded by the first organisms.

By your logic humans who wouldn't survive a nuclear war are less efficient than roaches that would survive it.
Just, roaches will never start a nuclear war in the first place.