Research supported by the Exobiology Program element of the NASA Astrobiology Program was recently featured in a press release from the American Chemical Society (ACS). The study, “Optimization of Replication, Transcription, and Translation in a Semi-Synthetic Organism,” was published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society (JACS), and outlines efforts to create ‘semi-synthetic’ microorganisms that produce proteins not seen in nature. Synthetic base pairs were added to the DNA of bacteria. The bacteria were able to undergo replication, ultimately using their newly expanded genetic code to produce proteins that contain unconventional amino acids.

Click here to read the full press release from the ACS.

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Information Storage and Retrieval in a Semi-Synthetic Organism