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Related Concept Videos

Synthetic Biology

Synthetic Biology

Synthetic biology is an interdisciplinary science that involves using principles from disciplines such as engineering, molecular biology, cell biology, and systems biology. It involves remodeling existing organisms from nature or constructing completely new synthetic organisms for applications such as protein or enzyme production, bioremediation, value-added macromolecule production, and the addition of desirable traits to crops, to name a few.
Golden rice
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What is Genetic Engineering?

What is Genetic Engineering?

Genome Size and the Evolution of New Genes

Genome Size and the Evolution of New Genes

While every living organism has a genome of some kind (be it RNA, or DNA), there is considerable variation in the sizes of these blueprints. One major factor that impacts genome size is whether the organism is prokaryotic or eukaryotic. In prokaryotes, the genome contains little to no non-coding sequence, such that genes are tightly clustered in groups or operons sequentially along the chromosome. Conversely, the genes in eukaryotes are punctuated by long stretches of non-coding sequence.

The Central Dogma

The Central Dogma

The Central Dogma

The Central Dogma

The central dogma explains the flow of genetic information from DNA nucleotides to the amino acid sequence of proteins.
RNA is the Missing Link Between DNA and Proteins
In the early 1900s, scientists discovered that DNA stores all the information needed for cellular functions and that proteins perform most of these functions. However, the mechanisms of converting genetic information into functional proteins remained unknown for many years. Initially, it was believed that a single gene is...

Transgenic Organisms

Transgenic Organisms

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Related Experiment Video

Updated: May 17, 2026

Automated Robotic Liquid Handling Assembly of Modular DNA Devices

Automated Robotic Liquid Handling Assembly of Modular DNA Devices

Published on: December 1, 2017

Synthetic evolving systems that implement a user-specified genetic code of arbitrary design.

Jonathan T Sczepanski¹, Gerald F Joyce

¹Department of Chemistry, The Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, CA 92037, USA.

Chemistry & Biology

|October 30, 2012

Summary

This summary is machine-generated.

Researchers developed a synthetic genetic system using RNA enzymes to test different genetic codes. This system demonstrated how code properties influence the evolution of molecular function and parasitic relationships within populations.

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Area of Science:

Synthetic biology
Origin of life research
Molecular evolution

Background:

Understanding the relationship between genetic information and molecular function is crucial for synthetic biology and origin of life studies.
Existing genetic codes are highly optimized, making it difficult to study the impact of code variations on evolution.
Cross-replicating RNA enzyme systems offer a controllable platform to explore alternative genetic codes.

Purpose of the Study:

To develop and utilize a synthetic genetic system for evaluating alternative genetic codes.
To investigate how different genetic codes influence the Darwinian evolution of RNA enzyme populations.
To understand the role of genetic code parameters (capacity, fidelity) in shaping evolutionary outcomes.

Main Methods:

Implementation of encoded combinatorial chemistry to create diverse RNA enzyme populations.
Design of a synthetic genetic system based on cross-replicating RNA enzymes.
Application of user-specified genetic codes to link genotype and phenotype at the molecular level.
Observation of self-sustained Darwinian evolution within these engineered populations.

Main Results:

Emergence of advantageous RNA enzyme variants, including highly active enzymes supporting the population and less active parasitic variants.
Demonstration that the evolutionary trajectory was contingent on the information capacity and fidelity of the employed genetic code.
Successful adaptation of the system to explore genotype-phenotype relationships and evolutionary dynamics.

Conclusions:

The synthetic genetic system effectively models the evolution of molecular function under alternative genetic codes.
The information capacity and fidelity of a genetic code are critical determinants of evolutionary outcomes, including the emergence of cooperation and parasitism.
Findings provide insights for designing tailored genetic codes for specific synthetic biology applications.