The Future of Molecular Biology

1. The Future of Molecular Biology Ryan Emptage & Cole Davis Special Thanks to Dr. Sepeta

2. Introduction • Catalyst: DNA discovery by Watson and Crick • Secrets of DNA still being discovered • DNA synthesis is starting to take off

3. ProtoLife • CEO Norman Packard • Creating brand new living organism from lab chemicals: the “Los Alamos Bug” • Life = mechanism of Darwinian Evolution • Simple approach: cover containment, heredity, metabolism

4. Containment • Oily glob of fatty acid • Hydrophilic heads and hydrophobic tails • Will not require water

5. Heredity • Double-stranded PNA • Same nucleotides as DNA • Uncharged backbone • Temp makes PNA strand separate • Charged exposed nucleotides migrate to surface & replicated using primers • Sink back into fatty acid glob when completed

6. Metabolism • “food” will be “masked” fatty acids • Masks are light-sensitive • When masks are hit by a photon, they remove themselves • Fatty acid now charge and joins others in membrane • When membrane too large, surface tension causes division

7. What the “Bug” could do • Breakdown of toxic chemicals • Produce alternate fuel sources: hydrogen • “Diagnostic” drug • Could evolve to fit into its surroundings • Huge Drawback: Mechanism for evolution shaky

8. The Old Dogma in Genetics • One gene one protein • Rest of DNA is junk • Not true in prokaryotes

9. Intronic RNA is just as vital as the Proteins created from the entronic RNA • It is thought that the intronic RNA plays a pivotal role in the development of the fetus

10. Types of Intronic RNA • RNA interference • siRNA • miRNA • tncRNA

11. Discovery of RNA interference • Jorgensen and Mol • Purple petunias • Injecting purple pigment genes into the flowers to make them more purple • Opposite happened

12. Biocomplexity • Protein encoding genes are not relative to complexity • Rice plants have more genes then humans • Non-proton encoding genes are relative to complexity

13. Precursor to life • Ronald Breaker theorized that the active RNA existed before DNA and proteins. • Increasing the debate about evolution

14. Pseudogenes • Shinji Hirotsune • Mice genetically engineered to carry a fruit fly gene • When injected into a pseudogene that the mice shared with fruit flies the mice died • Pseudogenes were thought to do nothing

15. Anti-sense RNA • Some RNA strands have complementary anti-sense RNA strands that mesh together to interfere with the production of the protein.

16. Introns and Exons • DNA splicing • Before translation, some sequences of nucleotides removed • Classic genetics: all introns removed and trashed • “Wasted” genetic space

17. Splice Up Your Life • New studies have found: there are many different ways of splicing DNA • Keep introns • Splice selected introns • Place exons on both the normal strand and “waste” strand • Old: 1 protein per gene • New: 3-4 proteins per gene

18. Where should we stop? • Eckard Wimmer: synthesized poliovirus from mail-order DNA • Craig Venter: Made bacterial virus in 3 weeks • Bioterrorism? • Why risk it? • Benefits very substantial • Treat diseases, repair cells, fuel sources

19. Reduce the Risk • Research license • Crosschecks on suspicious DNA orders: Blue Heron • “honor code” reporting to government • “self-destruct gene” in all experimental organisms • “Biology is poised to lose its innocence” • George Poste