IN 1776, philosopher Adam Smith described how the Industrial
Revolution’s factories had turned the manufacture of pins into 18 distinct jobs.
Now Sydney’s Macquarie University has marked the advent of another industrial age by being appointed to make one-sixteenth of an artificial organism.
Macquarie will today be named as part of an international
consortium aiming to synthesise yeast from scratch. The project could generate
new strains of a vital ingredient in goods from vaccines to
vegemite.Now Sydney’s Macquarie University has marked the advent of another industrial age by being appointed to make one-sixteenth of an artificial organism.
Macquarie research chief Sakkie Pretorius,above, who will oversee the university’s part in the project, said yeast was an “industrial workhorse”. It has been used for centuries in baking, brewing and winemaking and now in producing biofuels and pharmaceuticals.
The project is being spearheaded by New York University geneticist Jef Boeke.
In March Professor Boeke’s team reported that it had created a completely synthetic version of one of yeast’s 16 chromosomes, sparking an international mission to recreate the other 15 and generate the world’s first fully synthetic yeast.
Professor Boeke likened the yeast genome to a deck of thousands of cards — one for each of yeast’s 5000-plus genes. Synthesising all 16 chromosomes allowed for “evolution on hyperspeed”, with scientists able to remove and duplicate cards and change their order.
“In one fell swoop one can make millions and millions of different decks, shuffled in different ways,” he said. “Each could represent a winning hand in biofuels, medicines, vaccines or even better beer.”
He said the project was like creating a 16-volume encyclopedia. The already completed volume, chromosome three, is 316,000 characters long.
Macquarie has been given the task of synthesising chromosome 14, which was “up for grabs” when Professor Pretorius emailed to ask about the project. The deadline is 2017.
The project is the latest instalment in the fast-moving field of synthetic biology. In 2010 scientists claimed to have created artificial life after synthesising the genetic code of a bacterium.
But yeast has a far more complex genome, and the project has industrial implications far beyond scientific interest. “It’s a technology with a promise to heal us, feed us and fuel us,” Professor Pretorius said.
By John Ross
With thanks to The Australian
