September 2, 2024

Snika Gupta  

10th Grade

Brooklyn Technical High School 

Imagine a world where new genes can be created. Well, it’s here now. Ongoing research is developing new bases for DNA, meaning new proteins that build up in our bodies. We are close to being able to make and write DNA that can undergo the process of protein synthesis. Protein synthesis is the process of creating proteins. The two processes that make up protein synthesis are transcription and translation. 

Transcription transfers the instructions in DNA to mRNA. The RNA is meant to be a messenger that completes each strand of DNA. It begins as the enzyme RNA polymerase binds to the area of the gene called the promoter sequence, which notifies the DNA to unwind. When the DNA unwinds, the enzyme can analyze the bases of DNA. When the RNA decides on the strand, it will begin on the template or antisense strand. It moves along the DNA, creating nucleotides for the mRNA strand. Once the mRNA strand is complete, it lets go of the DNA. It must go through more processes to become mature mRNA before leaving the nucleus. These may be editing, splicing, and polyadenylation. These alterations allow one gene to create a large amount of proteins. 

Translation is the second process in reading mRNA to create a protein. After mRNA leaves the nucleus, it moves to a ribosome made up of rRNA and proteins. The ribosome sees the sequence in the mRNA and uses molecules of tRNA to deliver amino acids to the ribosome in the correct order. There are three stages to translation: initiation, elongation, and termination. First, the mRNA leaves the nucleus and enters the cytoplasm. Units of the ribosome bind to the mRNA starting at the resection of the start codon and methylated cap. Then, TRNA containing anticodons matches the start codon. This is called the initiation complex. tRNa continues and moves into the ribosome; its amino acid is transferred to the polypeptide, and the transfer is complete. The tRNA leaves, the ribosome moves a codon down, and new tRNA enters with its amino acid that matches. This is elongation. Finally, at the end of the mRNA is the stop codon, which requires a protein called the release factor, which will allow all the pieces to break apart. 

Recent research at UCSD has shown that by isolating RNA polymerase enzymes and applying them to tests on interactions with synthesis base pairs, the base pairs create a geometric structure that resembles natural base pairs. The result is that the enzymes that transcribe DNA in protein synthesis are unable to differentiate between synthetic base pairs and natural base pairs. There is also a possibility to add new letters to the “alphabet” of DNA. 

There was also research for new base pairs, X and Y, compared to base pairs, A, T, C, and G. They used yeast cell machinery that read the new base pairs X and Y the same way it reads natural base pairs. It gets translated into RNA and then could be translated into proteins. The proteins are the base on which life is formed. Yeast is in the same class of life as animals, and plants are eukaryotes. It was a way of seeing how eukaryotic cells behave with the synthetic base pairs. 

These new base pairs and new letters create an incredible amount of possible new proteins. The arrangement of the four base pairs that make up humans and new unnatural base pairs opens up a new world of genes. It vastly expands the creations a cell can make. While this research has been done, there is incredible room for improvement, meaning that the implications of these results could change our lives. New ways to combat diseases and bacteria can be created in cells.