Synthetic proteins can play a key role in cells

Recently, Michael Hecht, a synthetic biologist from Princeton University, has successfully synthesized a series of proteins, which are formed by completely artificial gene transcription and translation and are about 100 amino acids in size The authors and others have confirmed that at least one of the proteins they synthesized has biological activity, which means that the completely artificial proteins can produce qualitative changes and have an impact on cell life activities Enzyme is the key to all the activities of life The author said: "biology is a systematic biochemical reaction and catalytic reaction, each step needs the participation of enzyme In the presence of enzymes, the speed of each reaction can rise several orders When the authors and others obtained the artificial protein from E.coli for the first time, they began to search for the function They found that when four genes were missing, E coli was difficult to survive, but with synthetic proteins, these bacteria could continue to survive The authors first identified these artificial proteins in 2011, and then spent six years to find the mechanism of action The latest research results were published in the journal Nature Chemical Biology Many experiments are needed to identify the mechanism of these artificial proteins "We have identified four different gene deletion mutations, so we need to find four different enzyme reactions," said Ann Donnelly, the first author of the article After many years of experimental research, the authors found that these proteins play a role in maintaining the survival of bacteria by replacing the original enzyme activity "It's amazing that these synthetic proteins actually have enzymatic activity in the host," the authors said.