It almost sounds like the plot of a real life Jurassic World movie, but in newly published research genetic chemist Steven Benner and his team at the Foundation for Applied Molecular Genetics are proposing rewriting life’s genetic code by synthetically adding two new artificial letters. DNA in nature relies on a four-letter DNA code, represented by the letter pairs A and T, and G and C. Benner’s new code adds the letter pair P and Z.
They are not the first to introduce artificial letters into DNA, but what is different about their approach is that these new letters, P and Z, “fit seamlessly into DNA’s helical structure, maintaining the natural shape of DNA”. This means that it can be added into normal DNA and undergo evolution in living organisms.
Benner emphasizes the advantages. These new letters allow for vastly more amino acids to be created by living cells. Currently cells only produce 20 different amino acids, but theoretically up to 216 amino acids could be made using the new letters he and his team have introduced. Furthermore, he and his team claim that they have already evolved a DNA segment that binds better to liver cancer cells than natural DNA. These synthetic DNA segments may also be useful in other areas such as HIV diagnosis.
However, it is also possible, and indeed likely that there may be unforeseen effects, and potential disadvantages to living systems which use these new DNA additions. For now whether these new letters will spell technological boom or doom will require much more research to discover.
