Using dna, scientists managed to bit for a computer. By means of the change of the ori lwa orientation of dna were individual bits to be made. The mechanism is not yet practically useful.
The method, developed by scientists from Stanford University, works with dna building blocks in two orientations, so reports the BBC. The orientation can be the value for one bit are used, in which two viruses isolated proteins help in the change of the value. The balance of the necessary protein, called integrase and excisionase, it took the scientists years of research. Because the two proteins are each other’s opposites in terms of the change of the orientation, the dna is ‘re-writable’.
For the study were E. coli bacteria, which are easily genetically be manipulated. Adjusting the orientation was all in small bits of dna, where the genetic material directly from the chromosome, the structure that dna holds them together, is to read. The read-out is facilitated by markers that, depending on the oriëntatierichting red or green.
It is not immediately possible, the biological bit for practical applications. The first step for the scientists is the making of one byte, or eight bits, of information. In addition, by means of the adaptation of the dna-orientation, for example, the growth of cancer cells in the monitored, because the oriëntatierichting also persists after cell division.
It is not the first time that dna is used for computers. Previously made, scientists already have an encryption method with dna, and there may also be logic gates with genetic material to be built.