Design, synthesis, and testing toward a 57-codon genome
Abstract
By recoding bacterial genomes, it is possible to create organisms that can potentially synthesize products not commonly found in nature. By systematic replacement of seven codons with synonymous alternatives for all protein-coding genes, Ostrov et al. recoded the Escherichia coli genome. The number of codons in the E. coli genetic code was reduced from 64 to 57 by removing instances of the UAG stop codon and excising two arginine codons, two leucine codons, and two serine codons. Over 90% functionality was successfully retained. In 10 cases, reconstructed bacteria were not viable, but these few failures offered interesting insights into genome-design challenges and what is needed for a viable genome.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Pub Defense Publication
- Publication Date
- Aug 19, 2016
- Source ID
- 10.1126/science.aaf3639
Entities
People
- Alexandra Gonzales
- Barry L. Wanner
- Benjamin W. Pruitt
- Cameron L. Gardner
- Daniel B. Goodman
- Ellen Shrock
- Gary Tyree
- George M. Church
- Gleb Kuznetsov
- Julie E. Norville
- Jun Teramoto
- Kerry Singh
- Marc Güell
- Marc J. Lajoie
- Mark Moosburner
- Matthieu Landon
- Michael G. Napolitano
- Minerva Zhou
- Natalie Cervantes
- Nicholas Conway
- Nili Ostrov
Organizations
- Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
- Harvard Medical School
- Harvard University
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology
- Mines ParisTech
- National Science Foundation
- Purdue University
- United States Department of Energy
- Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering