2 Unexpected Proteins May Hold the Key to Creating Artificial Chromosomes

Kendall Roberson

http://www.biologynews.net/archives/2011/04/29/2_unsuspected_proteins_may_hold_the_key_to_creating_artificial_chromosomes.html

Scientists from the Whitehead Institute have discovered that two proteins that used to be thought as only supporting roles, are the leaders of the kinetochore assembly process in human cells. According to some of the scientists from the Whitehead Institute, the kinetochore is a key to the appropriate DNA allotment during mitosis. This new discovery will hopefully help lead to the creation of artifical human chromosomes. Also, this discovery shows to scientists that they may be able to rouse kinetochore assembly in a procedure that could possibly guide to new genetic research tools. The two proteins involved in kinetochore are CENP-C and CENP-T are the major proteins that are associated to creating new artifical chromosomes. This new discovery can help lead to the end of insertions of genes, which can hurt the genes and could even kill cells.

I believe the idea of creating artificial chromosomes is a good idea, but it could have some negative effects also. The idea of creating artificail chromosomes is a great idea because it leads to the end of inserting genes into the cells. If the Whitehead Institute scientists had not discovered this, we could still be killing cells in our body for no reason at all. Also, the dicovery that we only need two out of the three major proteins in kinetochore to produce artifical chromosomes, makes it seem easier to create artificial chromosomes in the long run. This idea is wonderful, let's just hope it can improve without any major flaws!