A Chinese research team has achieved a significant breakthrough in synthetic biology by precisely synthesizing and assembling large-scale human DNA and successfully transferring it between species.
This achievement not only advances human genome synthesis technology but also opens up new avenues for treating genetic disorders, according to the researchers, as reported by Xinhua.
The study, conducted by the country's top laboratory for synthetic biology at Tianjin University, was recently published in the international journal Nature Methods, under the title "De novo Assembly and Delivery of Synthetic Megabase-Scale Human DNA into Mouse Early Embryos."
Led by Yuan Yingjin, an academician from the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), the team developed a method called SynNICE.
This method involves assembling synthetic human genomic DNA in yeast, then extracting the yeast nucleus with intact chromosomes using a technique called NICE (Nucleus Isolation for Chromosomes Extraction).
The extracted nucleus, which carries synthetic DNA, is then injected into an early mouse embryo.
The researchers concentrated on a specific region of the human genome known as AZFa, which is located on the Y chromosome.
This region is critical for male fertility, and removal of this region can lead to severe infertility with no current clinical solution.
The AZFa region contains a high percentage of repetitive sequences, making it quite difficult to synthesize and assemble. Nevertheless, the team successfully synthesized this region in yeast and transferred it to mouse embryos.
For the first time, the team observed the transcription of synthetic human DNA in mouse embryos. This study not only demonstrates how the cellular environment can reshape synthetic genomes but also holds promise for future biomedical applications.
