Fix for 3-billion-year-old genetic error could dramatically improve genetic sequencing

[Plazma Inferno!]

For 3 billion years, one of the major carriers of information needed for life, RNA, has had a glitch that creates errors when making copies of genetic information. Researchers at The University of Texas at Austin have developed a fix that allows RNA to accurately proofread for the first time. The new discovery, published in the journal Science, will increase precision in genetic research and could dramatically improve medicine based on a person's genetic makeup.
The new innovation engineered at UT Austin is an enzyme that performs reverse transcription but can also "proofread," or check its work while copying genetic code. The enzyme allows, for the first time, for large amounts of RNA information to be copied with near perfect accuracy.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/06/160623150109.htm

 

[timojin]

For 3 billion years, one of the major carriers of information needed for life, RNA, has had a glitch that creates errors when making copies of genetic information. Researchers at The University of Texas at Austin have developed a fix that allows RNA to accurately proofread for the first time. The new discovery, published in the journal Science, will increase precision in genetic research and could dramatically improve medicine based on a person's genetic makeup.
The new innovation engineered at UT Austin is an enzyme that performs reverse transcription but can also "proofread," or check its work while copying genetic code. The enzyme allows, for the first time, for large amounts of RNA information to be copied with near perfect accuracy.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/06/160623150109.htm

I wonder where did or where do they get the enzyme ?

 

[DaveC426913]

When I read this, I immediately thought of Vonnegut's Ice Nine from Cat's Cradle.

What if this RNA that creates perfect copies "gets loose" and is introduced "into the wild"? What woudl happen if it fluorished in the gene pool?

I could see a fanciful Cautionary Tale written with such a premise.

 

[Fraggle Rocker]

But isn't it those "errors" that cause DNA to slowly change and evolve? If DNA never changed, we'd all still be single-cell organisms.

 

[DaveC426913]

But isn't it those "errors" that cause DNA to slowly change and evolve? If DNA never changed, we'd all still be single-cell organisms.

Exactly.

(My cautionary tale would presume the artifical introduction of this perfectly-copying RNA into current gene pools - effectively freezing evolution in its tracks. Sciency-wise, it's no more fanciful than any of several Star Trek plots.)

 

[timojin]

But isn't it those "errors" that cause DNA to slowly change and evolve? If DNA never changed, we'd all still be single-cell organisms.

Or you would be extinct.