Organisation for International Dialogue and Conflict Management, Kaiserstr. 50/6, 1070 Vienna, Austria.
Bioessays. 2010 Apr;32(4):322-31. doi: 10.1002/bies.200900147.
Synthetic biologists try to engineer useful biological systems that do not exist in nature. One of their goals is to design an orthogonal chromosome different from DNA and RNA, termed XNA for xeno nucleic acids. XNA exhibits a variety of structural chemical changes relative to its natural counterparts. These changes make this novel information-storing biopolymer "invisible" to natural biological systems. The lack of cognition to the natural world, however, is seen as an opportunity to implement a genetic firewall that impedes exchange of genetic information with the natural world, which means it could be the ultimate biosafety tool. Here I discuss, why it is necessary to go ahead designing xenobiological systems like XNA and its XNA binding proteins; what the biosafety specifications should look like for this genetic enclave; which steps should be carried out to boot up the first XNA life form; and what it means for the society at large.
合成生物学家试图设计出自然界中不存在的有用生物系统。他们的目标之一是设计一种不同于 DNA 和 RNA 的正交染色体，称为异核酸（XNA）。XNA 相对于其天然对应物表现出多种结构化学变化。这些变化使这种新型信息存储生物聚合物对自然生物系统“不可见”。然而，缺乏对自然世界的认知被视为实施遗传防火墙的机会，这可以阻止遗传信息与自然世界的交换，这意味着它可能是最终的生物安全工具。在这里，我将讨论为什么有必要设计像 XNA 及其 XNA 结合蛋白这样的异种生物系统；这个遗传飞地的生物安全规范应该是什么样子；启动第一个 XNA 生命形式需要采取哪些步骤；以及这对整个社会意味着什么。
