FROM amoebas to people, living species make proteins from the same repertoire
of 20 amino acids. But now researchers in Japan have persuaded the
protein-building machinery of an E. coli bug to include two amino acids
that don’t occur naturally.
Masahiko Sisido and his colleagues at Okayama University achieved this feat
by artificially expanding the genetic code. Their technique could be used to
study how proteins change shape as they carry out their tasks, or even to create
new proteins that trap sunlight and convert it into a usable fuel.
When cells make proteins, they first copy genes to make…
