How bacterial cells have been engineered to produce virus-resistant synthetic polymers by Benedette Cuffari, M.Sc. (Jun 3 2021)

Synthetic E. coli is resistant to viral infections

The article principally investigates the utilization of engineered Escherichia coli (E. Coli) to make polymers that can resist viruses and thus useful in various medical applications. The author reports that in a 2019 Nature study, biologists were able to synthetically produce a variant of E. Coli through a novel process involving four megabases. The process encompassed the replacement of TCA and TCG codons with AGT and AGC equivalents. Further, every "stop" codon of TAG, which is utilized to show end of the interpretation interaction for the current protein, was subbed with its equivalent of TAA (Cuffari, 2021). Interestingly, the synthetic E. coli had the capacity of forming proteins to help its development and existence despite lacking its unique TCA, TGA, and TCG sequence.

In the spirit of advancing the exploration, the MRC researchers assessed what might happen to the Escherichia coli after the exclusion of the exchange ribonucleic corrosive (tRNA) (Cuffari, 2021). As indicated by Cuffari (2021), the role of these tRNAs is primarily to decode a messenger RNA (mRNA) arrangement that typically perceives the TCA and TCG seqence into proteins. Cuffari (2021) reports that through a systemic adaptation of the synthetic E. coli to various types of viruses, the bacterial demonstrated unique resistance capabilities against viral infections. Further, in a control test where the bacteria was not modified through the tRNA exchange, all the bacteria died immediately

Application of the modified E. coli 

The finding that their engineered Escherichia coli didn't require different sequences promote growth and sustain its own development and build protection against viral infection motivated the researchers to seek to adapt the bacterial into the manufacture of polymers. Cuffari reports that the methodology adopted was to combine tRNAs with synthetic organic singular molecules that are meant to adopt, not the original sequence but the engineered TAG and TCG codons (Cuffari, 2021). It was thus possible to implant the TAG and TCG codon strings in to the DNA of the ‘suprior’ synthetic Escherichia coli, that were then decoded as modified tRNAs. Through this methodology, the author claims the synthesis of eight different types of polymers that are novel in nature. The synthesised polymer molecules were then joined in to macro-cycles, which are important elements in the manufacture of several drugs including the widely-used antibiotics. The application of this modified bacteria is possible because many drugs such as vaccines and insulin are produced through cell culturing and therefore the novel bacterial can be used to introduce viral resistance.

Why E. coli is always in the news and its importance to proteins

Known to many people as fundamental model microbe and model organism, Escherichia coli is always in the news because it is the cornerstone or basis of several important findings in molecular biology, as well as other fields of cell physiology (Idalia & Bernardo, 2017). Escherichia coli is so important to proteins because it is always used for protein production. For instance, Schumann and Ferreira (2004) explore the production of recombinant proteins in Escherichia coli. On the other hand, proteins are important to Escherichia coli because as Idalia and Bernardo (2017) put it, the building blocks of E. Coli consist of about 55 percent protein.