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Scientists in the UK have created synthetic enzymes - vital catalysts needed to support life - from scratch, using genetic material created in the lab. These enzymes don’t contain DNA or RNA, they contain artificial XNA - xeno nucleic acid - and could be used to produce new medical treatments and find life on other planets.
"Our work with XNA shows that there's no fundamental imperative for RNA and DNA to be prerequisites for life,” one of the researchers, Philipp Holliger from the Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, told Andy Coghlan at New Scientist. Strangely enough, that lab happens to be the same one where, in 1953, the structure of DNA was first discovered by Francis Crick and James Watson.
http://www.sciencealert.com/world-first-artificial-enzymes-suggest-life-doesn-t-need-dna-or-rna
Remarkable! 😱
"Our work with XNA shows that there's no fundamental imperative for RNA and DNA to be prerequisites for life,” one of the researchers, Philipp Holliger from the Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, told Andy Coghlan at New Scientist. Strangely enough, that lab happens to be the same one where, in 1953, the structure of DNA was first discovered by Francis Crick and James Watson.
http://www.sciencealert.com/world-first-artificial-enzymes-suggest-life-doesn-t-need-dna-or-rna
Remarkable! 😱