Mirror image DNA polymerase has been engineered | Hacker News Reader

Mirror image DNA polymerase has been engineered

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I feel like this should link to the original tweet [1] or even the article behind it. Had to navigate through three layers of retweets to get there.

edit: Okay, I guess it's about the additional discussion below that particular tweet.

[1] https://mobile.twitter.com/NatureBiotech/status/142079563395...

>>but because the cocoa plant uses enzymes to make cocaine in a specific 3D way all of the cocaine in its leaves is "bioactive", ie when you take a line off a strippers ass 100% of it will match up with various 3D receptors in your brain

Well that wasn't exactly what I was expecting, but interesting.

Effective science communication has many forms! :)

That is called chirality, and many compounds found in nature are chiral

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mirror_life

Also a possible problem if you grow mirror algae, which can kill regular zooplankton and so out-compete regular algae.

Will it outcompete algae? Even for a total autotroph, salvage pathways are a thing, especially in times of environmental stress,and a mirror algae would not be able to so easily utilize scrap from it's environment.

Also why would it kill zooplankton?

The wrong chirality form can sometimes be deadly[1], but at best eating it can lead to starvation. Assuming some sustained effort to introduce these organisms to the ecosystem.

[1] - https://sites.science.oregonstate.edu/~gablek/CH334/Chapter5...

I imagine that many of its natural predators (especially viruses) would be rendered ineffective against it, allowing it to outcompete the rest of the ecosystem.

Yeah. This is approximately as bad as Ice-9. They really should stop before someone continues to an organism that can reproduce.

I posted this here previously: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27999035

Thanks for linking to the actual paper.

FWIW, the economist just published an article explaining DNA replication that makes this topic much more approachable and understandable for those without background in molecular biology. Dense and worth the read. https://www.economist.com/schools-brief/2021/07/31/biology-b...

If you're intrigued by the possibilities they're explored in Harvard professor George M Church's wonderful book Regenesis

https://www.harvard.com/book/regenesis_how_synthetic_biology...

This stuff is probably ridiculously toxic / dangerous.

I predict it is used to create artificial sweeteners and fat, and sold with inadequate safety testing.

Not a biologist, but could you engineer this stuff to coat objects that you can use INSIDE the human body, and because its not biodegradable within our body, it wont break down or be attacked by our immune system?

The body can attack foreign stuff, like metals, even if they are not biodegradable.

Which is why for example only a few materials are biocompatible.

"Biocompatibility", as a material property, is largely a mirage.

Certain materials, in certain specific forms, don't provoke a reaction, but the identical material in a different shape is as bad as anything else.

Canonical example is PTFE, which I have heard described as "biologically inert". A perfectly smooth surface of PTFE might be ignored by the immune system, but a fiber of it poking this or that membrane usually will not be; and once scratched, it has numerous sharp bits.

Mirror proteins doesn't mean they cannot be metabolized or get into reactions. It just means they will not work correctly within a normal organism.

Wrong. You do directed evolution targetting mirror substrates on the normal protein (since we have the facilities to replicate and evolve normal proteins) then synthesize the mirror equivalent, which will then act on the mirror of the mirror substrates, aka the real substrate.

It won't break down so easily (natural proteases/Xnases probably won't work), but it might still cause an immune reaction. Actually it might cause a worse immune reaction, since it never goes away.

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