Artificially Expanded Genetic Information System

Artificially Expanded Genetic Information System (AEGIS) is a synthetic DNA analog experiment that uses some unnatural base pairs from the laboratories of the Foundation for Applied Molecular Evolution in Gainesville, Florida. AEGIS is a NASA-funded project to try to understand how extraterrestrial life may have developed.[1]

The system uses twelve different nucleobases in its genetic code. These include the four canonical nucleobases found in DNA (adenine, cytosine, guanine and thymine) plus eight synthetic nucleobases (S, B, Z, P, V, J, K, and X).[1][2][3][4][5] AEGIS includes S:B, Z:P, V:J and K:X base pairs.[6][7]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ a b Lloyd, Robin (February 14, 2009). "New Artificial DNA Points to Alien Life". LiveScience. Retrieved 5 July 2016.
  2. ^ Yang, Z.; Hutter, D.; Sheng, P.; Sismour, A. M.; Benner, S. A. (29 October 2006). "Artificially expanded genetic information system: a new base pair with an alternative hydrogen bonding pattern". Nucleic Acids Research. 34 (21): 6095–6101. doi:10.1093/nar/gkl633. PMC 1635279. PMID 17074747.
  3. ^ Benner, SA; Hutter, D; Sismour, AM (1 September 2003). "Synthetic biology with artificially expanded genetic information systems. From personalized medicine to extraterrestrial life". Nucleic Acids Research. Supplement. 3 (3): 125–6. doi:10.1093/nass/3.1.125. PMID 14510412.
  4. ^ Benner, Steven A. (December 2010). "Defining Life". Astrobiology. 10 (10): 1021–1030. Bibcode:2010AsBio..10.1021B. doi:10.1089/ast.2010.0524. PMC 3005285. PMID 21162682.
  5. ^ Klotz, Irene (February 27, 2009). "Synthetic life form grows in Florida lab". Science. Archived from the original on January 13, 2016. Retrieved 5 July 2016.
  6. ^ Bradley, K. M.; Benner, S. A. (2014). "OligArch: A software tool to allow artificially expanded genetic information systems (AEGIS) to guide the autonomous self-assembly of long DNA constructs from multiple DNA single strands". Beilstein Journal of Organic Chemistry. 10: 1826–1833. doi:10.3762/bjoc.10.192. PMC 4142867. PMID 25161743.
  7. ^ Jena, N. R.; Shukla, P. K. (2023). "Structure and stability of different triplets involving artificial nucleobases: clues for the formation of semisynthetic triple helical DNA". Scientific Reports. 13: 19246. Bibcode:2023NatSR..1319246J. doi:10.1038/s41598-023-46572-4. PMC 10630353.