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Posted: 04 May 2018, 00:33SAN FRANCISCO , May 30 (Xinhua) -- A team of University of Washington (UW) synthetic biology researchers have demonstrated a new method for digital information processing in living cells, analogous to the logic gates used in electric circuits.
Reported in the latest issue of Nature Communications, the researchers built a set of synthetic genes that function in cells like Negated OR gates, or NOR gates, commonly used in electronics, which each take two inputs and only pass on a positive signal if both inputs are negative.
NOR gates are functionally complete , meaning one can assemble them in different arrangements to make any kind of information processing circuit.
In the microchips that run electronic computers, information processing capabilities reduce data to zeros and ones. In living cells, where constantly process information is taking place to keep track of the changing world around them and arrive at an appropriate response, deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA), proteins, lipids and sugars are arranged in complex and compartmentalized structures , as evolution has arrived at a mode of information processing at the cellular level.
The potential of cells as living computers that can respond to disease, efficiently produce biofuels or develop plant-based chemicals is what researchers have been working on and searching for.
The UW researchers built their circuits, the largest ever published to date in eurkaryotic cells, using DNA instead of silicon and solder, and inside yeast cells instead of at an electronics workbench. Eurkaryotic cells, like human cells , contain a nucleus and other structures that enable complex behaviors.
Each cellular NOR gate consists of a gene with three programmable stretches of DNA -- two to act as inputs, and one to be the output. The researchers then took advantage of a relatively new technology known as clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats associated protein 9, or CRISPR-Cas9, to target those specific DNA sequences inside a cell.
The Cas9 protein acts like a molecular gatekeeper in the circuit, sitting on the DNA and determining if a particular gate will be active or not.
If a gate is active, it expresses a signal that directs the Cas9 to deactivate another gate within the circuit , enabling the researchers to "wire" together the gates to create logical programs in the cell.
What sets the new study apart from previous work, the researchers noted, is the scale and complexity of the circuits successfully assembled -- which included up to seven NOR gates assembled in series or parallel.
At this size, circuits can begin to execute useful behaviors by taking in information from different environmental sensors and performing calculations to decide on the correct response. Imagined applications include engineered immune cells that can sense and respond to cancer markers or cellular biosensors that can easily diagnose infectious disease in patient tissue.
Cells could potentially be reprogrammed to undergo new developmental pathways, to regrow organs or to develop entirely new ones. In such developing tissues, cells have to make complex digital decisions about what genes to express and when , and the new technology could be used to control that process.
"While implementing simple programs in cells will never rival the speed or accuracy of computation in silicon, genetic programs can interact with the cell's environment directly," senior author and UW electrical engineering professor Eric Klavins, was quoted as saying in a news release. "For example, reprogrammed cells in a patient could make targeted, therapeutic decisions in the most relevant tissues , obviating the need for complex diagnostics and broad spectrum approaches to treatment."
Dragon boat races held across China to celebrate Duanwu Festival
Farmers harvest rice in S China
Chinese-built railway pushes forward Kenya's modernization drive
Performers demonstrate sword fighting on horseback in Kaifeng
Cheongsam show held at Sanshuiwan scenic spot in Taizhou City
In pics: Amboseli National Park in Kenya
In pics: outdoor cultural performance given by Ulanmuqi in N China
Water park attracts many citizens in SW China's Chongqing
BERLIN, Aug. 18 (Xinhua) -- German crops output this year was hit by unusually long-lasting drought, said the country's farmer association (DBV) on Tuesday.
"The severe drought seen in large parts of Germany since May has left its mark on the grain harvest," said DBV in a statement.
So far this year, German farmers harvested only 46.5 million tons of grain, 11 percent less than the level of last year when 52 million tons of the staple crops were harvested.
DBV President Joachim Rukewied said negative effects of the ongoing drought were expected to last until later this year , and hit "crops still growing such as corn and sugar beets, as well as grass land and forage crops."
Fruits and vegetables were also impacted, according to the association. Asparagus harvest declined 5 percent to 108,000 tons compared to the previous year, while apple harvest was also expected to fall yearly by 21 percent to 885,000 tons in 2015.
DBV said besides the drought , falling prices of agricultural produce also reduced farmers' income.
"The prices declined particularly in pork and dairy produce, as well as in cereals, fruits and vegetables since the start of this year," said the association, adding that German farmers' income loss due to price pressure was expected to be over 3 billion euros (3.3 billion U.S. dollars).
Psoriasis is a condition of the skin that is little understood. The underlying cause appears to be an autoimmune disorder that causes the body to produce new skin cells at an accelerated rate that leads to the inflammation and itching that is characteristic with psoriasis. Normally skin cells take 28 t.
Reported in the latest issue of Nature Communications, the researchers built a set of synthetic genes that function in cells like Negated OR gates, or NOR gates, commonly used in electronics, which each take two inputs and only pass on a positive signal if both inputs are negative.
NOR gates are functionally complete , meaning one can assemble them in different arrangements to make any kind of information processing circuit.
In the microchips that run electronic computers, information processing capabilities reduce data to zeros and ones. In living cells, where constantly process information is taking place to keep track of the changing world around them and arrive at an appropriate response, deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA), proteins, lipids and sugars are arranged in complex and compartmentalized structures , as evolution has arrived at a mode of information processing at the cellular level.
The potential of cells as living computers that can respond to disease, efficiently produce biofuels or develop plant-based chemicals is what researchers have been working on and searching for.
The UW researchers built their circuits, the largest ever published to date in eurkaryotic cells, using DNA instead of silicon and solder, and inside yeast cells instead of at an electronics workbench. Eurkaryotic cells, like human cells , contain a nucleus and other structures that enable complex behaviors.
Each cellular NOR gate consists of a gene with three programmable stretches of DNA -- two to act as inputs, and one to be the output. The researchers then took advantage of a relatively new technology known as clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats associated protein 9, or CRISPR-Cas9, to target those specific DNA sequences inside a cell.
The Cas9 protein acts like a molecular gatekeeper in the circuit, sitting on the DNA and determining if a particular gate will be active or not.
If a gate is active, it expresses a signal that directs the Cas9 to deactivate another gate within the circuit , enabling the researchers to "wire" together the gates to create logical programs in the cell.
What sets the new study apart from previous work, the researchers noted, is the scale and complexity of the circuits successfully assembled -- which included up to seven NOR gates assembled in series or parallel.
At this size, circuits can begin to execute useful behaviors by taking in information from different environmental sensors and performing calculations to decide on the correct response. Imagined applications include engineered immune cells that can sense and respond to cancer markers or cellular biosensors that can easily diagnose infectious disease in patient tissue.
Cells could potentially be reprogrammed to undergo new developmental pathways, to regrow organs or to develop entirely new ones. In such developing tissues, cells have to make complex digital decisions about what genes to express and when , and the new technology could be used to control that process.
"While implementing simple programs in cells will never rival the speed or accuracy of computation in silicon, genetic programs can interact with the cell's environment directly," senior author and UW electrical engineering professor Eric Klavins, was quoted as saying in a news release. "For example, reprogrammed cells in a patient could make targeted, therapeutic decisions in the most relevant tissues , obviating the need for complex diagnostics and broad spectrum approaches to treatment."
Dragon boat races held across China to celebrate Duanwu Festival
Farmers harvest rice in S China
Chinese-built railway pushes forward Kenya's modernization drive
Performers demonstrate sword fighting on horseback in Kaifeng
Cheongsam show held at Sanshuiwan scenic spot in Taizhou City
In pics: Amboseli National Park in Kenya
In pics: outdoor cultural performance given by Ulanmuqi in N China
Water park attracts many citizens in SW China's Chongqing
BERLIN, Aug. 18 (Xinhua) -- German crops output this year was hit by unusually long-lasting drought, said the country's farmer association (DBV) on Tuesday.
"The severe drought seen in large parts of Germany since May has left its mark on the grain harvest," said DBV in a statement.
So far this year, German farmers harvested only 46.5 million tons of grain, 11 percent less than the level of last year when 52 million tons of the staple crops were harvested.
DBV President Joachim Rukewied said negative effects of the ongoing drought were expected to last until later this year , and hit "crops still growing such as corn and sugar beets, as well as grass land and forage crops."
Fruits and vegetables were also impacted, according to the association. Asparagus harvest declined 5 percent to 108,000 tons compared to the previous year, while apple harvest was also expected to fall yearly by 21 percent to 885,000 tons in 2015.
DBV said besides the drought , falling prices of agricultural produce also reduced farmers' income.
"The prices declined particularly in pork and dairy produce, as well as in cereals, fruits and vegetables since the start of this year," said the association, adding that German farmers' income loss due to price pressure was expected to be over 3 billion euros (3.3 billion U.S. dollars).
Psoriasis is a condition of the skin that is little understood. The underlying cause appears to be an autoimmune disorder that causes the body to produce new skin cells at an accelerated rate that leads to the inflammation and itching that is characteristic with psoriasis. Normally skin cells take 28 t.