An 'Operating System' That Runs on Cells Could Create Whole New Life Forms

Nothing like news about something that has actually been steadily ongoing for decades. Perhaps the UK-lead team has very ambitious plans, but it would be more noteworthy when they have actually achieved their objectives. As it turns out, bacteria have already been used to achieve many of the stated goals. In particular, E. coli has been very commonly used to produced desired recombinant proteins since the early 1970's with the advent of genetic engineering. The use of such terminology such as the creation of "cellular software that would let researchers alter living cells without changing their hardware" and that this would produce a "reprogrammable cell that can act as the in vivo cell equivalent to a computer's operating system" reveals a lack of basic understanding cell biology and what is actually meant by "synthetic biology". I am sure that this is not what the University of Nottingham researchers intended to convey, and some further explanation is warranted.

"Synthetic biology" has more recently become recognized as the ability to replace the entire natural genome of a cell with a genome that is chemically synthesized in the laboratory and that features desired mutations. Scientists have been replacing individual genes and even chromosomes for decades. What sets the recent achievement in 2010 of Craig Venter and his colleagues apart is that the entire DNA of a bacteria with millions of oligonucleotides was successfully produced by chemical synthesis and substituted for the natural DNA in the cell and the modified bacteria remained viable and could divide.

The sequence of oligonucleotides in genes underlies the primary structures of proteins and other oligonucleotide-based macromolecules. This is "hardwired" into the DNA of chromosomes and faithfully reproduced with each cell division, although epigenetic regulation can influence the specific turning on and off of many genes. Through random or human directed mutagenesis, gene sequences can be altered, but this not like reprogramming a computer. The genetic code still applies, and DNA is really nothing more than a storage repository of information for making the various molecular constituents found in cells. Without the actions of proteins, DNA is rather inert.

The interactions of thousands of distinct types of protein components within complicated cell signalling networks actually form the molecular equivalent of a computer's operating system. These proteins sense the external and internal environments of cells and bring about coordinated and appropriate responses. These molecular intelligence systems permit the "reprogramming" of cellular operations with the deployment or withdrawal of the various functions of cells based on environmental inputs. Ultimately, this arises from the complex interplay between proteins with each other and genetic elements such as RNA and DNA.

Bacteria are amongst the most highly evolved single cell organisms on the planet. They are tiny, reproduce rapidly and have tremendous biosynthetic capacity. However, with their compactness, they lack the versatility of cellular regulation and range of genes found within eukaryotic cells. Nevertheless, their immense impact and utility is well recognized and bacteria will continue to be exploited as we learn more about their inner workings.

Although it catches flak from people I doubt these people have truly thought this through. this is a huge advancement that could possibly make things easier to handle.

@D13

Fuck bitchs, get money

Quit thinking so hard about life man, it's not healthy.

Sounds great on paper but in reality we would have ‘live’ machines, hmmm sounds familiar, like a movie or something… (Created to protect us, the machines realized the only way to protect us is to protect us from ourselves. Mmmmhahahahahha)

If they could develop this technology to pull nutrients from currently inedible bio-mass such as grass, leaves, sawdust, etc then the worlds food shortages would be a thing of the past. Why grow food when you can have a bio-mech build it for you? Cut your grass, dump the clippings in a bin and pull oranges, carrots or steak out of the other end!

Even if all you ended up with was a generic food "paste" or wafer (soylent green anyone?) then that would still stop millions dieing each year from starvation. Whoever develops the tech that could do this is gonna be a gazillionaire, hehe :)

Rda
We all have gaps in our knowledge and understanding that includes you D 13. We each have our own perspective, and we are entitled to it. Your post has a decidedly pessimistic slant. It would be sad to go through life prematurely disappointed in the future.
"It is not sad that we die, it is sad what dies within us while we live".

@Deighv: Actually, if the whole world gave up on raising livestock for meat, we'd have enough food to feed an extra 3 or 4 billion people, so we have plenty of food already. But I agree, the more automated and efficient our produce-growing practices, the better.