Scientists have created a strain of bacteria with a genetic code more streamlined – and more meddled with – than any other life on Earth.

Scientists have created a bacteria with a genetic code more streamlined – and more meddled with – than any other life on Earth.

This bacteria, a synthetic Escherichia coli called Syn57, has been engineered to build its body using just 57 of the 64 ‘codons’ that have served all known organisms for billions of years.

The recipe for life is written in a language that uses 64 different codons, each composed of a triplet of nucleotides. It’s the long sentences of ‘three-letter’ codons that make up our DNA and RNA.

  • Nikkii@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
    31·
    16 days ago

    I just watched a Kyle Hill video yesterday about Mirrored life forms, where their DNA spins the opposite direction from ours, and how that would make them exceptionally incompatible and dangerous to us, like nanobot Grey Goo but biological. And how that would potentially wipe out all life on earth, and how we should definitely not be screwing around with engineering weird new forms of life.

    And, while this isn’t that specific thing, here we see science once again getting closer to constructing the Torment Nexus, for profit and memes. Incredible.