The molecular building blocks (DNA, RNA, protein) that enable our existence has a certain orientation. Our DNA twists one way, not the other. Proteins are composed of so-called L-amino acids, not D-amino acids. This orientation is more formally defined as chirality and is a property of molecules that have non-superimposable mirror image versions. So why did life evolve with one orientation and would a mirror-image world of biology ever exist? And are there advantages manifested in the mirror-world that we could exploit for therapeutic applications or for DNA data storage?
Well, a study has just come out in Nature Biotechnology that has synthesised a mirror-image DNA polymerase and used it for DNA information storage, which for fun they showed could be used for steganography – a way to hide secret messages in plain sight. A mirror image form of life has not been discovered – why because it would require all enzymes involved in the replicating, binding and chirally inverted versions of substrates involved in the central dogma of molecular biology. SO you need mirror-DNA, mirror enzymes to transcribe, and then mirror machinery for translation to generate mirror....
TIMESTAMPS
Intro - 00:00
Mirror-image biology & chirality - 01:42
Central dogma - 04:00
Making mirror-image proteins - 07:00
DNA data storage - 10:30
Steganography (did you spot it?) - 12:50
Challenges ahead - 14:30
REFERENCES:
Fan, C., Deng, Q. & Zhu, T.F. Bioorthogonal information storage in L-DNA with a high-fidelity mirror-image Pfu DNA polymerase. Nat Biotechnol (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41587-021-00969-6
A Conversation with Ting Zhu ACS Cent. Sci. 2018, 4, 7, 783–784
Publication Date:July 16, 2018
https://doi.org/10.1021/acscentsci.8b00432
Icons in intro; "https://www.freepik.com/free-photos-vectors/background"Background vector created by freepik - www.freepik.com
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