Question

Who first synthesized ‘artificial genes’ in the laboratory?
A. Mendle
B. Khorana
C. Sutton
D. Kornberg

Answer 1

Basic unit of hereditary is gene. All genes are made up of Deoxyribonucleic acid. Some genes help to make molecules known as proteins whereas some genes do not code for proteins. In human beings, genes generally differ in their sizes and can vary from few bases to 200 million bases.

Complete answer:
- Artificial gene synthesis refers to some methods that are used in analytical biology for building and uniting the genes from nucleotides.
- Artificial gene synthesis does not require template DNA.
- It does not allow virtual synthesis of DNA sequence in the laboratory.
- It comprises two main steps:
DNA printing is also known as solid-phase of DNA synthesis.
DNA printings generate oligonucleotide fragments that are made up of 200 base pairs.
- The second step then involves connecting these oligonucleotide fragments using different types of DNA assembly methods.
- Synthesis of the first complete gene, a yeast tRNA, was exhibited by Har Gobind Khorana and his coworkers in 1972.
- DNA printing generally differs from molecular cloning and polymerase chain reaction (PCR) in that the user does not have to begin with pre-existing DNA sequences.

Hence, the correct answer is option (B).

Note: Artificial gene synthesis is the chemical synthesis of a DNA sequence that generally represents one or more genes. Artificial gene synthesis provides a method to effectively produce long stretches of natural and non-natural nucleic acid synthesis, broadening the scope of biological experiment. Sequences that are hard to isolate from the natural sources can be routinely generated in a lab, even entirely non-natural gene sequences can be synthesized.