Synthetically altering the genome and its applications

Abstract

In this paper we will be talking about how synthetically altering the genetic code can directly impact the world around us. The genetic code is the basis of all life; from the tiniest of bacteria all the way up to the largest of animals and plants. All living things have a genome. A genome is defined as the genetic code that holds all of the blueprints for that particular organism. The genetic code is written with proteins, in the form of codons. These codons are made up of amino acids and we have 20 different amino acids that make up the whole world of genomes (Microreviews). All of the amino acids are the same throughout all organisms. This means that we should be able to, in theory, be able to successfully alter the genome of all living things, and this is due to the fact that we all share the same set of amino acids. We do of course have longer genomes than other species that is a different topic. The fact that the worlds of all living things share the same building blocks though, that leads to where being able to synthetically alter genomes would prove to be most advantageous. We will talk about what can be done by genetically altering the code, how it is done, where this is being applied and lastly the advances we have seen using this application of synthetic genomes.