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Scientists Create 'Designer Yeast' In Major Step Toward Synthetic Life (washingtonpost.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Washington Post: In a significant advance toward creating the first "designer" complex cell, scientists say they are one-third of the way to synthesizing the complete genome of baker's yeast. In seven studies published Thursday in the journal Science, the researchers describe how they built six of the 16 chromosomes required for the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae, altering the genetic material to edit out some genes and write in new characteristics. The chromosomes generated this time represent the largest amount of genetic material ever synthesized, and the new Sc2.0 cells are substantially different from their natural, or "wild type," relatives. Among the most significant of these new features is a program the scientists called "SCRaMbLE," or "Synthetic Chromosome Recombination and Modification by LoxP-mediated Evolution" (scientists are congenitally disposed toward convoluted acronyms). The program allows scientists to rearrange elements within the genome to generate new and potentially useful permutations. Whereas many of Boeke's peers labor for years in the lab trying to genetically modify organisms, the SCRaMbLE system "lets the yeast do the work and lets the yeast teach us new biology," Jef Boeke, director of New York University Langone's Institute for Systems Genetics and an organizer of the project, said. It's like a version of the lottery in which you can continuously and instantaneously roll new numbers until you get a result you want. Other innovations in the Sc2.0 genome include the removal of duplicate bits of genetic code and the addition of short genetic sequences that distinguish synthetic chromosomes from their natural counterparts. Unlike other synthetic organisms, the engineered yeast is a eukaryote -- a complex cell with diverse internal structures, just like the cells in the human body. It has more genetic material than the bacteria synthesized by the Venter Institute and Harvard projects.
maybe these scientists have a taste for good booze and can make custom yeasts to brew some extra good beers & wines and brandies and some brews that distill better than your average spirits
Politics is Treachery, Religion is Brainwashing
He watched R. Daneel leave, then said to Clousarr, "You're a chemist?" "I'm a zymologist, if you don't mind." "What's the difference?" Clousan looked lofty. "A chemist is a soup-pusher, a stink- operator. A zymologist is a man who helps keep a few billion people alive. I'm a yeast-culture specialist." "All right," said Baley. But Clousarr went on, "This laboratory keeps New York Yeast going. There isn't one day, not one damned hour, that we haven't got cultures of every strain of yeast in the company growing in our kettles. We check and adjust the food factor requirements. We make sure it's breeding true. We twist the genetics, start the new strains and weed them out, sort out their properties and mold them again. "When New Yorkers started getting strawberries out of season a couple of years back, those weren't strawberries, fella. Those were a special high-sugar yeast culture with true-bred color and just a dash of flavor additive. It was developed right here in this room."
...and their designer candida.
I love stacking my barbecues in the shed at the end of summer - you can't beat a bit of grill on grill action.
I for one welcome our new Yeast Overlords.
"It's like a version of the lottery in which you can continuously and instantaneously roll new numbers until you get a result you want."
Or a result you don't want. What could possibly go wrong?
"National Security is the chief cause of national insecurity." - Celine's First Law
There has been a proof-of-concept for synthesizing opioids with genetically modified yeast.
we engineered yeast to produce the selected opioid compounds thebaine and hydrocodone starting from sugar. All work was conducted in a laboratory that is permitted and secured for work with controlled substances. We combined enzyme discovery, enzyme engineering, and pathway and strain optimization to realize full opiate biosynthesis in yeast. The resulting opioid biosynthesis strains required expression of 21 (thebaine) and 23 (hydrocodone) enzyme activities from plants, mammals, bacteria, and yeast itself. This is a proof-of-principle, and major hurdles remain before optimization and scale up could be achieved. Open discussions of options for governing this technology are also needed in order to responsibly realize alternative supplies for these medically relevant compounds.
If implemented successfully on a large scale, what are the consequences for traditional opium farmers from already poor regions?
The problem is not synthesizing a genome but designing it from scratch, which would require understanding how it works. Humanity is far from that. The best term for such awkward attempts is tinkering.
I see the haters are already out, but it looks like we're closer to being the masters of DNA. This is f'ing awesome.
No, that link you posted to a web comic we've all seen a hundred times is not "obligatory."
hardly a creation but a hacked copy.
Scramble Arcade
There was news not that long ago of genetically engineering yeast strains to produce precursor chemicals for drugs. While extremely inefficient I seem to recall proof of concept work that generated minute amounts of opioid precursors with designer yeast and a f*cktonne of sugar.
Biological drugs hmmmmm imagine the kinds of schrooms they create....
by TheSpoom (715771) Uncaring Linux user here. I have nothing to add to this but please continue. *munches popcorn*
NOBODY is CREATING life here. Every single headline in the past 30 years that claimed scientists had "created life" or were on the verge of doing so was bogus. The most these clowns are doing is re-arranging already living things NOT creating life. They do not even know what life IS. They can describe some of life's attributes or effects or prerequisites but they do not know what it actually IS and you cannot intentionally create a thing without first knowing what it is.
I do not call these people "clowns" lightly, nor do I apply the term to all scientists or all biologists etc (a disclaimer I must sadly make in the era of outraged millenials who have low reading comprehension skills). I apply the term to the ones who make outrageous false claims to promote themselves and their work. What they are doing could well be perfectly valid and even productive science on yeast - but it becomes dishonest rubbish when promoted as related to the creation of life. One might sooner claim that experiments on homosexuality in gerbils (which I suppose might be a thing) was paving the way to manned Mars missions.
But how does that help the legal opium farmers who lose their market?
Well, a good yeast for THC, one for each of the age drugs ( diabetes - Metformin, Cholesterol - Simvastatin, Amlodipine - High blood pressure...),
and assortment of meat proteins ( Emu, Chicken, Beef 1, Beef 2, Salmon, Venison, Buffalo, and one at random called Soylent Green...),
one for non-lactose milk... These would be a good start. Yeast strains for desgner drugs would be a second step.
In a slightly different direction is synthetc Cotton ( a sure money maker ), designer leather ( already in progress...), and a few of the major hardwoods
( check out the prices online! defnitely in the range for a competitive synthetic Oak, Maple, Fir, Cedar, Redwood, Teak, Ironwood and a bunch of others).
I had considered Kudzu as a base plane for THC, but went into physics and not plant genetics.
May I suggest that this may be a way to keep ahead of evolving bacterial strains by letting an organism and this process evolve the antibiotic producing organism that is capable of producing an antibiotic. Think in terms of the penicillin mold.
E Proelio Veritas.
In other news, a laboratory at the NYU Langone Medical Center was today discovered to have been filled with a randomly created strain of baker's yeast that expresses a profound affinity for human flesh. No sign of any of the Medical Center lab personnel were found, and all are presumed lost.
There will be a memorial bake sale on Sunday.
I've fallen off your lawn, and I can't get up.
You trying to get a rise out of us? Because that was really only half-baked, no matter how you slice it.
Just kidding. I'm only here to butter you up.
I've fallen off your lawn, and I can't get up.
(duck for the cover)
nobody can take a joke