Scientists at the Scripps Research Institute have already created organisms with synthetic DNA letters, but they weren’t ready for the real world when they couldn’t even keep the artificial base pair in their genetic code. However, the team has made a lot of progress since then: they’ve produced the first stable semi-synthetic organism. The bacteria now holds on to its human-created X and Y bases while it grows and divides, much like the natural A, C, G and T bases. The key, researchers say, was to tweak existing techniques.
via Engadget
Image: Madeline McCurry-Schmidt/Scripps Research Institute
