Work

The Expanded Genetic Alphabet

Year: 2015

Type: review

Abstract: All biological information, since the last common ancestor of all life on Earth, has been encoded by a genetic alphabet consisting of only four nucleotides that form two base pairs. Long-standing efforts to develop two synthetic nucleotides that form a third, unnatural base pair (UBP) have recently yielded three promising candidates, one based on alternative hydrogen bonding, and two based on hydrophobic and packing forces. All three of these UBPs are replicated and transcribed with remarkable efficiency and fidelity, and the latter two thus demonstrate that hydrogen bonding is not unique in its ability to underlie the storage and retrieval of genetic information. This Review highlights these recent developments as well as the applications enabled by the UBPs, including the expansion of the evolution process to include new functionality and the creation of semi-synthetic life that stores increased information.

Source: Angewandte Chemie International Edition

DOI: 10.1002/anie.201502890

Authors: Denis A. Malyshev, Floyd E. Romesberg

Institution: Scripps Research Institute

Language: English

Topic: DNA and Nucleic Acid Chemistry

Subfield: Molecular Biology

Field: Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology

Domain: Life Sciences

Open Access status: green

Funder: National Institute of General Medical Sciences

Award: Expanding the Genetic Alphabet by Design and Selection