Titre : Expansion of the Genetic Alphabet.
La conférence sera prononcée par le professeur Floyd Romesberg du Département de chimie du Scripps Research Institute. Elle sera donnée en anglais. Attention, elle aura lieu exceptionnellement à 11h30.
Résumé : Expansion of the genetic alphabet to include a third base pair would be a fundamental accomplishment that would not only have immediate utility for a number of biotechnology applications, such as site-specific labeling of DNA and RNA, but would also lay the foundation for a semi-synthetic organism with increased potential for information storage and retrieval. We have developed a class of unnatural base pairs, exemplified by d5SICS-dNaM and dTPT3-dNaM, that form based on packing and hydrophobic interactions rather than complementary H-bonding, but are nonetheless replicated and transcribed with efficiencies and fidelities approaching those of a natural base pair. Structural studies, as well as several practical applications of the unnatural base pairs will be discussed, as will our recent progress towards replicating DNA containing an unnatural base pair within a living cell.