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Creating living systems. It is easy to ask questions in biology It is difficult to answer And we try to use words like Conformation Flexibility Evolution complexity. Living System???. More of a paradox!!!!. - PowerPoint PPT Presentation
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Creating living systems
• It is easy to ask questions in biology
• It is difficult to answer
• And we try to use words like
Conformation
Flexibility
Evolution
complexity
Living System???
More of a paradox!!!!
Chemical composition of cell
(Can we design a Cell?)
Paradoxes in Living System
Assumptions!!!
• Can I create a Cell
• Reductionist approach
(Break a cell and see)
Chemical composition of a Cell
Give me my Cell Back!!!!
However Craig Venter was able to think out of the box
1995
Can a complete genetic system be reproduced by chemical synthesis starting
with only the digitized DNA sequence contained in a computer?
Build a cell which contains only essential genes
Mycoplasma genitalium, a bacterium with the smallest complement of genes of any known organism capable of independent growth in the laboratory
Mycoplasma laboratorium or Mycoplasma JCVI-1.0
There is speculation that this line of research could lead to producing bacteria that have been engineered to perform specific reactions, e.g. produce biofuels, make medicines, combat global warming, etc
partially synthetic species of bacterium derived from the genome of Mycoplasma genitalium called Mycoplasma laboratorium. (smallest known free-living bacterium, and the second-smallest bacterium and also considered to be the organism with the smallest genome (482 genes and 582,970 base pair genome ) till 2002
Craig Venter and Nobel laureate Hamilton Smith
MYCOPLASMA MYCOIDES
SYNTHETIC BACTERIA
MYCOPLASMA CAPRIOLUM
SYNTHESIZED DNA IN A TEST TUBE
PUT IT HERE
Mycoplasma mycoides JCVI-syn1.0 - the world's first synthetic
organism
First truly synthetic organism created using four bottles of chemicals and a computer
Creating a synthetic cell
Applications
• You can make cells with some genes for living and the other genes for
• Biofuel
• Biopesticide
• Drugs
Advantages
We can make cells with few genes required for survival and few for making
BiofuelsDrugsBiopesticidesbioplastic
Major risks
• Bioterrorism
The synthetic cell theory again supports the fact that life did not originate in earth but life appeared
from somewhere.
The other theory:
Life originated in earth
RNA was the first genetic material
(RNA world)
MILLER UREY EXPT
RNAPROTEINS
SPONTANEOUSLY
Flow of Genetic Information
Reverse Transcription
RNA
PROTEIN
RNA
DNA
DNA
PROTEIN
RNARNA
PROTEIN
RNA
RNA can act as genetic material
• HIV
RNA acts as Enzymes
“RIBOZYMES”
Life originated in water
O Base
H
OH
HH
H
O
P
CH2
O
P
..
1'
2'3'
4'
5'
CHO
H2COH
OH
OH
OH
H
H
H
1'
2'
3'
4'
5'
D-Ribose(open Chain Str.)
-D-Ribofuranose residue in polynucleotide Chain
:B
Stepping back conceptually from our parochial water-dominated viewpoint, we can immediately see that water is really a noxious, toxic, corrosive and generally lethal environment for life. In fact given the well known properties of water one might almost be tempted to say that it’s a miracle that life ever began in such a solvent!
Explaining the Universe Without a Clue
Jack W. Szostak
Life originated in ammonia