> Initially, the engineered bacteria were weak and sickly, and would die soon after they received their new base pair, because they couldn’t hold onto it as they divided.
> Finally, the team used the revolutionary gene-editing tool, CRISPR-Cas9 to engineer E. coli that don’t register the X and Y molecules as a foreign invader.
> "This will blow open what we can do with proteins."
> [The base pairs] can't be read and processed into something of value by the bacteria - it's just a proof-of-concept that we can get a life form to take on 'alien' bases and keep them.
> ...have not been designed to work at all in complex organisms, and seeing as they're like nothing found in nature, there's little chance that this could get wildly out of hand.
To quote Jeff Goldblum, "life, uh... finds a way".
> Finally, the team used the revolutionary gene-editing tool, CRISPR-Cas9 to engineer E. coli that don’t register the X and Y molecules as a foreign invader.
> "This will blow open what we can do with proteins."
> [The base pairs] can't be read and processed into something of value by the bacteria - it's just a proof-of-concept that we can get a life form to take on 'alien' bases and keep them.
> ...have not been designed to work at all in complex organisms, and seeing as they're like nothing found in nature, there's little chance that this could get wildly out of hand.
To quote Jeff Goldblum, "life, uh... finds a way".