The five bases found in nucleic acids define the 'alphabet' used to encode life on Earth. The construction of an organism that stably propagates an unnatural DNA base pair redefines this fundamental feature of life. See Letter p.385
This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution
Relevant articles
Open Access articles citing this article.
-
Multiple Realizability as a design heuristic in biological engineering
European Journal for Philosophy of Science Open Access 12 December 2018
Access options
Subscribe to this journal
Receive 51 print issues and online access
$199.00 per year
only $3.90 per issue
Rent or buy this article
Prices vary by article type
from$1.95
to$39.95
Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout
References
Switzer, C., Moroney, S. E. & Benner, S. A. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 111, 8322–8323 (1989).
Malyshev, D. A. et al. Nature 509, 385–388 (2014).
Rich, A. in Horizons in Biochemistry (eds Kasha, M. & Pullman, B.) 103–126 (Academic, 1962).
Bain, J. D., Switzer, C., Chamberlin, A. R. & Benner, S. A. Nature 356, 537–539 (1992).
Schweitzer, B. A. & Kool, E. T. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 117, 1863–1872 (1995).
Malyshev, D. A. et al. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 109, 12005–12010 (2012).
Yamashige, R. et al. Nucleic Acids Res. 40, 2793–2806 (2012).
Yang, Z., Chen, F., Alvarado, J. B. & Benner, S. A. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 133, 15105–15112 (2011).
Seo, Y. J., Hwang, G. T., Ordoukhanian, P. & Romesberg, F. E. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 131, 3246–3252 (2009).
Lajoie, M. J. et al. Science 342, 357–360 (2013).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Thyer, R., Ellefson, J. New letters for life's alphabet. Nature 509, 291–292 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature13335
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nature13335
This article is cited by
-
Evolution of Artificial Base Pairs with Hydrogen Bond Complementarity
Chemical Research in Chinese Universities (2020)
-
Multiple Realizability as a design heuristic in biological engineering
European Journal for Philosophy of Science (2019)
-
Synthetic biology and the search for alternative genetic systems: Taking how-possibly models seriously
European Journal for Philosophy of Science (2017)