Scientists Construct Synthetic Proteins That Sustain Life
ScienceDaily (Jan. 7, 2011) — In a groundbreaking achievement that could help scientists "build" new biological systems, Princeton University scientists have constructed for the first time artificial proteins that enable the growth of living cells.
Michael Hecht, a professor of chemistry at Princeton University, has led a team of researchers who have for the first time constructed artificial proteins that enable the growth of living cells. The synthetic proteins were designed from scratch and expressed from artificial genes. He is holding samples of living bacteria containing the synthetic proteins. (Credit: Photo by Brian Wilson)
The team of researchers created genetic sequences never before seen in nature, and the scientists showed that they can produce substances that sustain life in cells almost as readily as proteins produced by nature's own toolkit.
"What we have here are molecular machines that function quite well within a living organism even though they were designed from scratch and expressed from artificial genes," said Michael Hecht, a professor of chemistry at Princeton, who led the research. "This tells us that the molecular parts kit for life need not be limited to parts -- genes and proteins -- that already exist in nature."
The work, Hecht said, represents a significant advance in synthetic biology, an emerging area of research in which scientists work to design and fabricate biological components and systems that do not already exist in the natural world. One of the field's goals is to develop an entirely artificial genome composed of unique patterns of chemicals.
"Our work suggests," Hecht said, "that the construction of artificial genomes capable of sustaining cell life may be within reach."
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De Novo Designed Proteins from a Library of Artificial Sequences Function in Escherichia Coli and Enable Cell Growth
Michael A. Fisher¤a, Kara L. McKinley¤b, Luke H. Bradley¤c,Sara R. Viola¤d, Michael H. Hecht*
Departments of Chemistry and Molecular Biology, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey, United States of America
Abstract
A central challenge of synthetic biology is to enable the growth of living systems using parts that are not derived from nature, but designed and synthesized in the laboratory. As an initial step toward achieving this goal, we probed the ability of a collection of >106 de novo designed proteins to provide biological functions necessary to sustain cell growth. Our collection of proteins was drawn from a combinatorial library of 102-residue sequences, designed by binary patterning of polar and nonpolar residues to fold into stable 4-helix bundles. We probed the capacity of proteins from this library to function in vivo by testing their abilities to rescue 27 different knockout strains of Escherichia coli, each deleted for a conditionally essential gene. Four different strains – ΔserB, ΔgltA, ΔilvA, and Δfes – were rescued by specific sequences from our library. Further experiments demonstrated that a strain simultaneously deleted for all four genes was rescued by co-expression of four novel sequences. Thus, cells deleted for ~0.1% of the E. coli genome (and ~1% of the genes required for growth under nutrient-poor conditions) can be sustained by sequences designed de novo.
Citation: Fisher MA, McKinley KL, Bradley LH, Viola SR, Hecht MH (2011) De Novo Designed Proteins from a Library of Artificial Sequences Function in Escherichia Coli and Enable Cell Growth. PLoS ONE 6(1): e15364. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0015364
Editor: Mark Isalan, Center for Genomic Regulation, Spain
Received: August 26, 2010; Accepted: November 11, 2010; Published: January 4, 2011
Copyright: © 2011 Fisher et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Funding: This work was funded by NSF grant MCB-0817651 (URL: http://www.nsf.gov/div/index.jsp?div=MCB). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.
Competing interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.
* E-mail: hecht@princeton.edu
¤a Current address: Energy Biosciences Institute, University of California, Berkeley, California, United States of America
¤b Current address: Department of Biology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States of America
¤c Current address: Departments of Anatomy and Neurobiology, Molecular and Cellular Biochemistry, University of Kentucky, Lexington, Kentucky, United States of America
¤d Current address: Columbia University Medical Center, New York, New York, United States of America
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NOTA DESTE BLOGGER:
Repare na entrevista e no abstract de Michael A. Fisher et al que eles não conseguem se livrar da linguagem teleológica. Mas somos bombardeados diariamente que Darwin, de uma vez por todas, tinha eliminado a linguagem de design [Argh isso é como cometer um estupro epistêmico seguido de morte] de uma vez por todas em biologia. Ué, mas o Michael A. Fisher não sabia disso? Ele não pode alegar ignorância, pois é professor na Universidade Princeton.
A experiência precisa da linguagem teleológica para detalhar no abstract o que foi feito na pesquisa -- inteligência por detrás na criação de proteínas artificias. QED: Design Inteligente em ação diante de nossos olhos, e com pesquisa realizada na Universidade Princeton (presbiteriana) que de subjetividade teísta tem apenas na ata de sua fundação, a declaração e prática de uma fé religiosa, como a Universidade Presbiteriana Mackenzie - SP, já foi há muito tempo.
Fui, nem sei por que, pensando que, quanto mais a Nomenklatura científica recusa uma plataforma civil e pública para se discutir o caráter científico da TDI, e da Galera dos meninos e meninas de Darwin histericamente afirmar o fato, Fato, FATO da evolução através da seleção natural -- mero acaso e fortuita necessidade, o que temos aqui é o oposto: é Design Inteligente em ação diante de nossos olhos.
Cruz, credo! A Universidade Princeton apoiando pesquisas que fortalecem a teoria do Design Inteligente? Sinais dos tempos??? O tempora, o mores...
