Bottom line: Unless I know what they are working on and why this is a breakthrough for them, I do not see it as a scientific breakthrough.
Briefly, Proteins are made by having DNA transcribed into mRNA (there are 3 kinds of RNA), then the mRNA is translated to become a protein.
DNA, with a minor difference is just like RNA, in that it is made of segments of molecules called bases, which are paired in vivo in DNA unless a cell is undergoing division, then they unpair for the copying process. RNA bases are unpaired. Groups of 3 bases together constitute nucleotides which code for an amino acid. Groups of nucleotides are called oligonucleotides. So, an oligonucleotide codes for a group of amino acids. Amino acids bound together in various ways are proteins.
The idea with genetic manipulation is either to get proteins made that might not be made otherwise. So, one tries to incorporate a DNA segment into a chromosome by various means or one tries to get the protein made by having RNA translated by the native cellular machinery.
Although the classic teaching of molecular biology, known as the "central dogma", is DNA->RNA->protein, retroviruses (such as HIV) convert RNA into DNA and then that DNA-> RNA->protein by the cells being infected or manipulated. Molecular biologists are mimicking the actions of retroviruses by first figuring out the sequence of amino acids in a protein and then "backfiguring" the oligonucleotides
needed to form the mRNA and then the DNA for the chromosomal sequence.
Bottom Line: So they made DNA from RNA. It is not new for the field of molecular biology but is maybe new to them or a specific problem they are working on. If you had more specifics about the problem I might be more help in evaluating this finding.
If there are patent rights involved, I bet they are associated with the specific problem they are working on rather than the molecular bio techniques they are using. I could be wrong, but I doubt it. <g> |
