You thought yeast was just for making bread rise, didn't you? Yet yeast can be used for far more than that. Scientists have now created a new synthetic yeast chromosome that could lead to dramatic advances in molecular biology. In fact, it could eventually help create bio-factories that are capable of quickly manufacturing chemicals that include medicine and fuel.
The synthetic yeast chromosome consists of 272,872 base pairs, and represents about 2.5 percent of the 12-million-base pair, according to The Business Standard. The researchers made over 500 changes to the code, and found that these changes had dramatic results. While you wouldn't think that yeast is overly complicated, it is. It's a eukaryote, which means it's part of a category that includes humans and other animals; in addition, brewer's yeast has a very complex genome. This type of yeast is also being examined as the basis of new biofuels.
"The complete design and synthesis of [this gene]...establishes [brewer's yeast] as the basis for designer eukaryotic genome biology," the researchers wrote, according to Tech Times.
This latest effort actually paves the way for a new era of biology based on the redesign of genomes. The scientists hope to create a synthetic version of the full yeast genome within five years, according to The Business Standard.
"This is a pretty impressive demonstration of not just DNA synthesis, but redesign of an entire eukaryotic chromosome," said Farren Isaacs, a bioengineer at Yale University, in an interview with The Business Standard.
The new findings were published in the journal Science.
