Reducing Redundancy of Genetic Code

 A recent genetic discovery made by scientists in Cambridge could allow scientists to significantly cut down the amount of unneeded and repeating code that we often see in a gene. The study focuses in on one of the most studied bacteria in history, E. Coli. and its genetic code. Redundancy in a gene refers to different codons that all code for the same amino acid. For example, there are six different codons that all code for the amino acid Leucine. Because of this, we see hundreds of different combinations in each protein in different parts of the code that all code for the same amino acid. Scientists have begun to investigate this bloat, and are actively looking for ways to reduce it. In E. Coli, they started off by reducing the number of Serine codons from 6 to just 2 without it harming the bacteria. After the success of this experiment, they went even further, attempting to further build upon that reduction. However, doing this would mean they would have to remove or alter over 5 times more codons than what they removed in the original reduction. After a long period of trial and error, in which some changes destroyed the entire bacteria, scientists realized their dream, and Syn57, although extremely weak, was created.

The main benefits highlighted in the article are that Syn57 could potentially help create new drugs, useful molecules, or even combat against genetically engineered microbes released in the environment. The reason Syn57 could be useful in the fight against engineered microbes is due to the unnatural code being unreadable to the microbes, rendering their effects useless. If true, Syn57 can potentially open the door for other treatments of the same kind, thus being able to render any dangerous viruses or microbes ineffective. While still very early in this field, and any kind of real medical impact won't be anytime soon, the potential something like that holds is immeasurable and worth keeping tabs on. If we can find a way to make a gene or bacteria impossible for a foreign danger to read, there could be major positive impacts on our health as a society.

 

Sniper DNA: Targeting Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria

Antibiotic-resistant bacteria are becoming more difficult to prevent due to the overprescription of antibiotics, leading to infection tolerance. Consequently, when antibiotics don’t work, they may die with no other medicine to cure them. For example, E. coli bacteria are resistant to most antibiotics, and even attempting to use “last resort” antibiotics can lead to the bacteria becoming even more resistant than before. E. coli bacteria contain antibiotic resistance from circular DNA called plasmids. In a study, multiple antibiotic-resistant E. coli bacteria were plated with a toxin-containing plasmid, which later killed the antibiotic-resistant bacteria. The article called this plasmid a “precision-guided missile.” Often, the main problem with prescribing antibiotics is that they kill both beneficial and harmful bacteria. However, if these specific missile-like plasmids are utilized, they can work towards killing only the harmful bacteria and save the useful ones. Scientists plan to move forward with the idea of developing precision-based medicines to do precisely this. 

I found this article very interesting because of what we’ve learned about plasmid DNA in class. Future research should explore customizing plasmids to target a broader range of resistant bacteria and the possibility of integrating AI to predict resistance patterns. I hope precision medicine moves beyond theory and into reality before resistance surpasses our ability to respond.