Wild-type C. elegans hermaphrodite stained to highlight the nuclei of all cellsWIKIMEDIA COMMONS, QUADELL
Once limited to cultured cells and unicellular organisms, researchers have now encoded a synthetic amino acid into the genome of Caenorhabditis elegans. The feat was achieved by designing a new transfer RNA (tRNA) molecule to carry the unnatural amino acid. When its corresponding 3-nucleotide codon appeared in the mRNA transcript, the synthetic amino acid was incorporated into the growing protein. Such rewriting of the genetic code has previously been achieved in E. coli, but this study demonstrated that a similar technique could work in multicellular organisms. Tagging the unnatural amino acid with a dye that glowed red under UV light allowed the team to confirm that the worms had indeed incorporated it into their proteins, ScienceNOW reports. The results were published last week in the ...
