Biology .- The man has something more than 20,000 genes. This is
little compared to what have to offer land, air and water. Most of the
genes it contains comes from microorganisms. This could provide
interesting information for biotechnology.
The geneticist Craig Venter is known as a visionary scientist and
pugnacious, but also as an avid sailor. So he began about ten years to
collect water samples from all oceans of the world around them in a
laboratory to analyze genetically.
"In every millimeter saltwater live more than a million bacteria and
ten million viruses. If you swim in the ocean and swallow some water,
then you have swallowed maybe 100 million of these organisms. Tiny,
invisible creatures."
The interim result was impressive. The microorganisms in the water
samples contained about 17 million previously unknown genes. Thus in
one stroke doubled the number of known genes. Remained unknown,
however, the function of many genes.
Lars wants to determine the Leichert, Associate Professor at the
Ruhr-University Bochum, now. This he does not even Craig Venter water
samples. Hand him the publicly available data. On the computer, he
compares the biological code of the different genes and draws
conclusions about the proteins that arise after the plan of these
genes.
. "It is these genes fall into families, genes that are very similar,
which also means. These protein families all have a similar function,
and our idea is now, in these families is a representative protein
select, and to investigate further. "
The genes that are specific to individual families exist only in the
first computer: A sequence of genetic building blocks, known as
sequence. In order to transform them into living genes, Lars can
Leichert reconstruct them from a company of Regensburg.
The artificial gene, he then inserts into Escherichia coli bacteria.
The bacteria and activate the gene construct, together strictly
according to the code stored thereon, a protein, a protein.
"Then we speak of a sequence, which only exists in the database, made
a real protein. And then we can just take this real protein and can
therefore make functional studies."
A simple functional test Leichert Lars has already developed. He can
tell if it is the gene for a so-called oxidase. He uses E. coli
bacteria without its own oxidase. They are easy to recognize because
they are non-swimmers.
"And now we can take our genes from the ocean, stuck in E. coli into
it. And if E. coli can then swim again, we know that the gene that we
have put into E. coli into an oxidase. "
Oxidases play an important role in the metabolism of many organisms.
But of course even more interesting Lars hopes Leichert enzymes in the
record to find out the world's oceans. Some of these may be of
interest for biotechnology.
"Because we want to investigate particular proteins that are not
homologous to other proteins, so similar, we can imagine that there
are to be found entirely new biocatalysts. Enzymes that catalyze new
reactions or catalyze reactions just already known better already
known as biocatalysts. "
It could be that are found in seawater genes for particularly stable
protein-degrading enzymes. You could do better or more environmentally
friendly detergent. Therefore, many biotechnologists hope for new
ideas from the genes in the sea.
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