[通过硫的DNA修饰:机械学见解推动了合成生物技术的发展]

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
Golden rice is a genetically modified...

Sulfur is an essential element in biological systems, contributing to synthesizing key biomolecules, including amino acids such as cysteine and methionine, and cofactors such as coenzyme A and biotin. Microorganisms primarily assimilate sulfur as sulfate (SO₄²⁻) from the environment, which must undergo a series of biochemical transformations before it can be incorporated into cellular components. As sulfate is highly oxidized, it must undergo assimilatory sulfate reduction to...

Microbial communities are dynamic environments where cell lysis releases free DNA into the surroundings. Other cells can take up this extracellular DNA through a process known as transformation.When a cell incorporates this foreign DNA into its genome, resulting in genetic modification, the process is known as transformation. Cells capable of this process are termed competent. Competence can be natural, as observed in certain bacteria and archaea, or artificially induced in the...

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...

Spontaneous mutations arise infrequently during DNA replication due to errors in the process. A key factor behind these errors is tautomeric shifts in nitrogenous bases, where bases transition from keto to enol forms or amino to imino forms. This shift can alter base-pairing rules, leading to mutations. Additionally, reactive oxygen species (ROS) arising from aerobic metabolism can damage DNA, resulting in depurination (loss of a purine base) or depyrimidination (loss of a pyrimidine base).

In order to be passed through generations, genomic DNA must be undamaged and error-free. However, every day, DNA in a cell undergoes several thousand to a million damaging events by natural causes and external factors. Ionizing radiation such as UV rays, free radicals produced during cellular respiration, and hydrolytic damage from metabolic reactions can alter the structure of DNA. Damages caused include single-base alteration, base dimerization, chain breaks, and cross-linkage.
Chemically...