“Designer chromosome” made, as described in Science 10.1126/science.1249252 27, ScienceDaily and BBC News 27 March 2014, and ABC News in Science 28 March 2014. In a report entitled “Total Synthesis of a Functional Designer Eukaryotic Chromosome” an international group of scientists describe how they put together an artificial chromosome, and got it to function in a cell of common baker’s/brewer’s yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae. The new chromosome, named synIII is based on Chromosome III of the yeast, but is not an exact copy.
The scientists modified the Chromosome by removing some repeating segments of DNA as well as some “junk DNA” the scientists considered unnecessary, plus they inserted a DNA sequence known as loxPsym, which is involved in rearranging genes, then they added some extra DNA to “tag” or identify the chromosome. The resulting chromosome has only 273,871 base pairs of DNA, compared with 316,667 pairs in the original chromosome. In spite of these changes the chromosome proved to be functional, as the cell containing it was able to grow and reproduce.
Scientists and engineers in biotechnology industries are hoping this research will lead to the development of strains of yeast which can be used in the manufacture of vaccines, medicines, industrial chemicals or biofuels.
The research team wrote in their report: “The total synthesis of the synIII chromosome represents a major step toward the design and complete synthesis of a novel eukaryotic genome structure using the model S. Cerevisiae as the basis for a synthetic designer genome, Sc2.0”. They went on to say they anticipated “that synthetic chromosome design will become a new means of posing specific evolutionary and mechanistic questions about genome structure and function”.
Editorial Comment: Synthetic Chromosome Prediction:
for years we have been telling students that DNA is an artificial code in which no meaning is derived from any information found in its components, so therefore since the meaning or code is only stored in the non – natural arrangement of the components, it will eventually be possible to manufacture ‘synthetic’ DNA code in which we humans use our outside intelligence to re-arrange the code or make a totally synthetic code which may well lead to our creating new life forms. All of which is directly related to God creating the original DNA as an arbitrary code and making man in His image to possess the ability of creativity. Score zero for the evolutionists naturalistic theory on this one.
As the scientists say in their report, this new chromosome was designed by intelligent scientists, and put together by manipulating an already existing cell to incorporate and use the chromosome. There is no evolution involved. Any new information on the chromosome was created by smart designers who were outside the cell, and were only able to do it because they first read the information that was on the original chromosome III and then, using creative intelligence, worked out how they could modify it. Furthermore, they could only do this because of the intelligent work of many scientists who have gone before them and worked out how to read the code that was already on DNA of all living things, and worked out how cells use it.
We also predict that one day someone will find that the information they deleted from the chromosome was not useless, even if the cell could survive without it.
Finally: If biotechnologists are able to create strains of yeast that produce chemicals, medicines and vaccines, that will only confirm that it takes creative design and engineering to give a living cell a new function. (Ref. design, reproduction, bio-technology, prediction)
Evidence News, vol. 14, No. 6
16 April 2014
Creation Research Australia