Scientists crack the genetic code of Escherichia coli

recently, a British research team pointed out that a synthetic E. coli requires only limited protein synthesis instructions to encode all common amino acids. The study paves the way for the design and synthesis of bacteria with beneficial but less common functions. The paper was published online in Nature.
genetic code consists of A, C, G, T 4 different chemical bases (or nucleotides). These nucleotides form a code for each of the three bases in sequence, and each triple "cocoon" represents the insertion of a specific amino acid or the termination signal of a protein synthesis. There are 64 kinds of codex, but only 20 kinds of amino acids, so one amino acid can correspond to a variety of cophers. This suggests that the genetic code itself is redundant.
Jason Chin of the Molecular Biology Laboratory at the Cambridge Medical Research Council and colleagues recoded the entire genome of E. coli, resulting in microbes encoding all common amino acids with just 59 cocoons instead of all 61. In addition, the researchers recoded one of the three termination codes. The study showed that genetic codes can be compressed to keep bacteria alive even if specific codes are missing.
in the future, these missing cryptones, or new sequences that can be replaced with coded non-natural amino acids, could lead to the design of synthetic bacteria that produce non-natural biopolymers
(Source: Tang Erdu, China Science Daily)