GM silkworms make super-silk

• Autores: Michael Le Page
• Localización: New scientist, ISSN 0262-4079, Nº. 3172, 2018, pág. 10
• Idioma: inglés
• Texto completo no disponible (Saber más ...)
• Resumen

  • Silkworms have had their genetic code hacked, allowing them to create a kind of silk not found in nature. The hacking goes beyond the usual genetic modification, fundamentally altering the nature of the silk the animal makes. And unlike previous attempts at this, it will work on an industrial scale. Hidetoshi Teramoto of the National Agriculture and Food Research Organization in Japan and his team set out to create a silk protein with synthetic components that would act as anchor points for useful molecules, such as growth factors to help organs grow. Teramoto's team has modified silkworms so that the silk proteins they make contain an artificial amino acid called AzPhe in place of a natural one called phenylalanine. The method relies on hacking the silkworms' cells. When a protein is being made, each of the 20 natural amino acids is carried into position by a molecule called transfer RNA. Each amino acid has its own kind of tRNA, which the cell uses to ensure it has the right amino acid at each stage. There is an enzyme that bolts phenylalanine onto its tRNA. Teramoto's team tweaked the gene for this enzyme so it instead adds AzPhe.