Word: coli
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...these experiments, researchers would transfer loose strands of DNA--the basic molecular unit of heredity--from warmblooded animals into specimens of E. coli, a commonly-utilized laboratory bacterium, in hopes of producing a new species with heretofore unknown characteristics...
Like Beads. Khorana's creation is a duplicate of one of the thousands of genes in the spiral-staircase structure of the DNA molecule in the common intestinal bacterium E. coli. Unlike human genes, which include millions of chemical "steps" along much larger DNA molecules, this bacterial gene contains only 199 full steps, each a pair of letters in the genetic code. Consisting of chemicals called nucleotides, these letters make up words in the gene's message-in this case, instructions to transfer the amino acid tyrosine to the cell's protein-manufacturing centers...
...connected end to end in proper sequence to duplicate the bacterial gene. In the course of their work, Khorana and his colleagues built not only the basic gene but the hitherto elusive start and stop signals at either end. When the synthetic gene was inserted into an E. coli cell with the help of a carrier virus known as a bacteriophage, it performed perfectly...
What worries many of the townspeople is Harvard's intention to learn more about DNA, the master molecule of heredity, by inserting segments of DNA from other organisms into E. coli, a common intestinal bacterium often used in genetic research. Some scientists fear that fusion of these DNA segments with E. coli's DNA might create new, lethal microbes against which humans have no immunity. To guard against this and other possible threats, the National Institutes of Health recently issued tough rules to govern such research...
...experiments, which involve transferring DNA into specimens of E coli, a commonly used bacterium, are designed to produce a new species, whose characteristics will be unknown and possibly dangerous...