The New Genetically Recoded Organisms

Scientists have genetically engineered bacteria that cannot survive outside a highly controlled environment. Usually, genetically engineered bacteria have the potential of growing wild and causing havoc such as environmental damage, or spoiling a batch of drugs.The bacteria will not live without lab-formulated amino acids. The bacteria, which the team of scientists led by George Church, a Harvard Medical School genetics professor, and Farren Isaacs, assistant professor of molecular, cellular and developmental biology at Yale, call genomically recoded organisms or GROs.Genetically altered bacteria, such as the GROs, are used commercially in pharmaceuticals, dairy items and textiles. Genetically modified organisms are used to make things but have faced a lot of criticism that the organisms may proliferate and out-compete natural species. The GRO, on the other hand, can be controlled and do not grow wild.The scientists hope to try this technique to make genetically recoded crops, but it is much harder to alter plant and animal genomes. In the study, published in Nature, the researchers altered the genome of E.coli bacteria so that it required a man-made amino acid biphenylalanine, or bipA, to produce a critical protein.There are 20 amino acids in the natural environment used to produce a wide range of specialized proteins. The recipe for these proteins is encoded in an organism’s genome. They hailed the new class of organisms as not just a new species but an altogether new kingdom.It is possible that the GRO could eventually have a mutation that allows it to do without the man made amino acid. The scientists can ward this off to a degree by creating a necessity for multiple proteins that require man-made amino acids. By genetically recoding, the scientists hope to make organisms that are immune to viruses, even viruses that have not yet been encountered.To contact the writer, email: sonali.raj@gmail.com