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takyon writes:

NASA-Funded Research Creates DNA-like Molecule to Aid Search for Alien Life

In a research breakthrough funded by NASA, scientists have synthesized a molecular system that, like DNA, can store and transmit information. This unprecedented feat suggests there could be an alternative to DNA-based life, as we know it on Earth – a genetic system for life that may be possible on other worlds.

This new molecular system, which is not a new life form, suggests scientists looking for life beyond Earth may need to rethink what they are looking for. The research appears in Thursday's edition of Science Magazine.

[...] The synthetic DNA includes the four nucleotides present in Earth life – adenine, cytosine, guanine, and thymine – but also four others that mimic the structures of the informational ingredients in regular DNA. The result is a double-helix structure that can store and transfer information.

[Steven] Benner's team, which collaborated with laboratories at the University of Texas in Austin, Indiana University Medical School in Indianapolis, and DNA Software in Ann Arbor, Michigan, dubbed their creation "hachimoji" DNA (from the Japanese "hachi," meaning "eight," and "moji," meaning "letter"). Hachimoji DNA meets all the structural requirements that allow our DNA to store, transmit and evolve information in living systems.

Also at NYT, Discover Magazine, and ScienceAlert.

Hachimoji DNA and RNA: A genetic system with eight building blocks (DOI: 10.1126/science.aat0971) (DX)

Related: Scientists Add Letters X and Y to DNA Alphabet
Scientists Engineer First Semisynthetic Organism With Three-base-pair DNA
How Scientists Are Altering DNA to Genetically Engineer New Forms of Life
Synthetic X and Y Bases Direct the Production of a Protein With "Unnatural" Amino Acids

Original Submission

1. "takyon" - https://soylentnews.org/~takyon/
2. "NASA-Funded Research Creates DNA-like Molecule to Aid Search for Alien Life" - https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-funded-research-creates-dna-like-molecule-to-aid-search-for-alien-life
3. "NYT" - https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/21/science/dna-hachimoji-genetic-alphabet.html
4. "Discover Magazine" - http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/d-brief/2019/02/21/scientists-doubled-the-genetic-alphabet/
5. "ScienceAlert" - https://www.sciencealert.com/scientists-made-synthetic-dna-using-8-letters-and-it-could-help-us-find-aliens
6. "Hachimoji DNA and RNA: A genetic system with eight building blocks" - http://science.sciencemag.org/content/363/6429/884
7. "DX" - https://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.aat0971
8. "Scientists Add Letters X and Y to DNA Alphabet" - https://soylentnews.org/article.pl?sid=14/05/09/0553205
9. "Scientists Engineer First Semisynthetic Organism With Three-base-pair DNA" - https://soylentnews.org/article.pl?sid=17/01/26/0114224
10. "How Scientists Are Altering DNA to Genetically Engineer New Forms of Life" - https://soylentnews.org/article.pl?sid=17/07/12/2126233
11. "Synthetic X and Y Bases Direct the Production of a Protein With "Unnatural" Amino Acids" - https://soylentnews.org/article.pl?sid=17/11/30/2127250
12. "Original Submission" - https://soylentnews.org/submit.pl?op=viewsub&subid=31941

printed from SoylentNews, Researchers Create "Hachimoji" DNA and RNA With Four Additional Bases on 2024-04-16 21:36:11