designer’ chromosome of yeast built
- First man-made chromosome was created by a team led by Jef Boeke for a complex-celled organism which could lead the way to acquire ability to redesign plants or animals.
- A modified yeast chromosome created from scratch. They successfully synthesized the first functional chromosome in yeast that could help produce novel medicines, including vaccine for hepatitis B, and efficient biofuels.
- It was aided by 60 undergrads who pieced together short snippets of the synthetic DNA into stretches of 750 to 1,000 base pairs or more as part of the ‘Build a Genome’ project.
- This is the first ever report of an entire eukaryotic chromosome built from scratch
- Using scrambling technique, researchers can easily develop more synthetic strains of yeast that can be used in the manufacture of rare medicines, like artemisinin for malaria or certain vaccines, including hepatitis B vaccines derived from yeast.
- Synthetic yeast can also be used to bolster development for efficient biofuels, like alcohol, butanol and biodiesel.
- This, being the most extensively altered chromosome, is remarkably normal in yeast cells carrying them & behave identically to wild yeast cells with new capabilities and can do things that wild yeast cannot.
Exams Perspective:
- ‘Build a Genome’ project
- Eukaryotic cells
- Synthetic yeast
- Designer Chromosome
