Nature: First life with 'alien' DNA

An engineered bacterium is able to copy DNA that contains unnatural genetic letters.



I don't exactly understand how momentous this is, but Huffington Post has picked up on it quite quickly. This is where our resident experts will hopefully offer their opinions and explanations for us laymen.

Quote:

For billions of years, the history of life has been written with just four letters — A, T, C and G, the labels given to the DNA subunits contained in all organisms. That alphabet has just grown longer, researchers announce, with the creation of a living cell that has two 'foreign' DNA building blocks in its genome. Hailed as a breakthrough by other scientists, the work is a step towards the synthesis of cells able to churn out drugs and other useful molecules. It also raises the possibility that cells could one day be engineered without any of the four DNA bases used by all organisms on Earth.

via JREF Forum http://ift.tt/Rt49wi