And some day, why not 5?
So far, Li and his team have only assigned amino acid identity to two of the 265 new codons. However, when integrated into protein comprised of naturally occurring amino acids, the artificial acids bonded to the natural amino acids as if they had come from one of the 64 original codons.
By expanding the vocabulary of DNA, Li and his team also expand the range of possible compounds a cell could produce. Want your genetically engineered bacteria to start churning out new polymers or species drugs? Modifying the size of its amino acid library could allow it to do so at far less trouble and cost.
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