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Synthetic Chromosomes Successfully Integrated Into Brewer's Yeast

Posted by Soulskill on from the origin-story-for-superyeast dept.

New submitter dunnomattic writes: "Researchers at New York University School of Medicine have achieved a milestone in synthetic biology. A fully synthetic yeast chromosome, dubbed 'synIII,' has successfully replaced chromosome 3 of multiple living yeast cells. The researchers pieced together over 250,000 nucleotide bases to accomplish this feat. Dr. Jef Boeke, the lead author of the study, says, 'not only can we make designer changes on a computer, but we can make hundreds of changes through a chromosome and we can put that chromosome into yeast and have a yeast that looks, smells and behaves like a regular yeast, but this yeast is endowed with special properties that normal yeasts don't have.' Work is underway (abstract) to synthesize the remaining 15 chromosomes."

8 of 107 comments (clear)

  1. Re:So this ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Wouldn't that just be a relabeled Pabst?

  2. The screams will be forthcoming soon.... by jcochran · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Oh lord, the Luddites are bad enough with "normal" genetically engineered foods. I hate to imagine the kind of outcry they're do for this.

    1. Re:The screams will be forthcoming soon.... by ProzacPatient · · Score: 4, Insightful

      (Yes I do realize that first link is The Onion but its funny because its basically true)

      I don't particularly have ill feelings toward genetic engineering, in fact I believe it can be a good thing, but what I do care about is the profiteering of it that Monsanto has used to hold everyone hostage, though that is more of a symptom of the broken legal system than anything.

      Monsanto has achieved a monopoly status by using the legal system to patent their modifications and then they sell those patented GMO plants that are (supposedly) only immune to Monsanto pesticides and then they go around and sue everyone bankrupt for using unlicensed Monsanto technology because nature did its thing and cross pollinated with some nearby farmer's crops. Monsanto's exploitation of nature to achieve a monopoly is so bad that some countries have completely banned Monsanto and its products. At this point it surprises me Monsanto doesn't have a protection racket going on where you can buy a "subscription" to GMO products that might happen to pollinate with your old fashioned non-GMO plants.

      Oh and I'll just throw it out there that Monsanto were the ones who developed and peddled Agent Orange to the U.S. Government as a cure all for jungle warfare back in the day.

  3. Re:One small step for man by confused+one · · Score: 4, Funny

    Sir, do you not remember what happened last time? Please reference historical files entitled Attack of the Killer Tomatoes

  4. Re:We Can Rebuild It by tlhIngan · · Score: 4, Insightful

    All yeast dies off from alcohol at some level. If this is a serious commercial adjustment to the organism then I would be working on increasing alcohol tolerance. This would give better yields for the distillers and new wine and beer/ale/mead concoctions that will be ass kicking.

    Or, Montsanto will, besides owning the entire food business, also own the entire alcoholic drink business as well.

    Welcome to the new world - where the only thing you can have is specially filtered water. After all, a plain glass of tap or bottled may have Monstanto yeast in it, and you'll need to license that bottle if you want to drink it.

  5. Re:Next goals: by Daniel+Dvorkin · · Score: 4, Informative

    Honestly, I think that fear is overblown. Vertebrate pathogens have had hundreds of millions of years of optimization in the most ruthlessly selective "laboratory" ever known, and while there are obviously some pretty deadly ones out there they haven't managed to wipe us out yet. Nothing we do in a lab is likely to come close, in terms of coming up with something that can spread wildly on its own.

    I used to work between a synthetic bio lab at one end of the hall and an infectious disease lab at the other. Ask which one scared me more.

    --
    The correlation between ignorance of statistics and using "correlation is not causation" as an argument is close to 1.
  6. Re:One small step for man by Jeremiah+Cornelius · · Score: 4, Funny

    I was bitten by radioactive yeast in the biology lab, and now have acquired the super-powers of YEASTMAN.

    --
    "Flyin' in just a sweet place,
    Never been known to fail..."
  7. Re:One small step for man by Jeremiah+Cornelius · · Score: 5, Funny

    Ya know, if you have the power to shoot alcohol from your wrists, we might have to hang out.

    Well, not my wrists, actually...

    --
    "Flyin' in just a sweet place,
    Never been known to fail..."