Anders wrote:
> The rub is of course that to do this we need to modify
> the tRNA and ribosomes as well as recompile the genome,
> which is rather tricky.
Actually, you need to modify the aminoacyl-tRNA synthetase
enzymes that ligate the amino acids to the tRNA. The
ribosoome might or might not require some modification
to be more/less accepting of what it views as "improper"
tRNA-amino-acid inputs.
Bottom line (IMO) -- given sufficently robust software
for the design of tRNA's & aminoacyl-tRNA synthetases --
you can change the genetic code hither, thither and yon.
The blueprint for life aint cast in bronze me boys,
its a song riding on the wind -- written in both
the flexible yet fickle tones ye find in the tune
a woman sings to 'er mate. Rewriting the song
is clearly problematic but retuning the piano
while it is being played may go unnoticed.
R.
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Fri Oct 12 2001 - 14:39:55 MDT