Scientists study full protein content of 'baker's yeast'

A scientist at the University of Liverpool will lead a £4 million study to analyse the entire protein content of 'baker's yeast' to further understanding of how living cells function.

Many proteins that have counterparts in the human body, such as cell cycle proteins and signalling proteins, were first discovered through the study of Saccharomyces cerevisiae – a species of budding yeast, thought to have been originally isolated on the skins of grapes. Commonly used in baking and brewing it shares the complex cell structure of both plants and animals and has become a model organism for scientists studying areas such as metabolism, neurodegenerative disease and ageing.

Scientists have worked for many years to catalogue the proteins present in the yeast cell, but have yet to establish precisely how many copies of each protein are present and how they interact with each other. If researchers can quantify cellular proteins they will be able to understand more fully how cells operate and why in some cases they fail to perform their 'normal' function in the body.

Proteins in the body participate in every process of a cell – from the contraction of muscles to immune response – and scientists at the Universities of Liverpool and Manchester are using the yeast cell to understand how proteins perform these complex functions by using new

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New bacteria could make cheaper ethanol

The genetically modified bacteria is more efficient at converting cellulose into ethanol and may help drive down the cost of the fuel (Source: Reuters/Will Burgess)

Genetically engineered bacteria could make cellulosic ethanol cheaper to manufacture, researchers report, in a finding that may unlock more energy from the waste products of farming and forestry.

Ethanol from cellulose is regarded as an environmentally friendly alternative to fossil fuels, with the advantage that it does not use food crops such as corn as raw

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synthetic genome venter

Scientists have discovered a more efficient way of building a synthetic genome that could one day enable them to create artificial life, according to a study.

The method is already being used to help develop next generation biofuels and biochemicals in the labs of controversial celebrity US scientist Craig Venter.

The researchers findings appear in the latest issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science.

Venter has hailed artificial life forms as a potential remedy to illness and global warming, but the prospect is highly controversial and arouses debate over its potential ramifications and the ethics of engineering artificial life.

The J Craig Venter Institute announced earlier this year that they had succeeded in synthetically reproducing the DNA of a simple bacterium.

The researchers had initially used the bacteria E. coli to build the genome, but found it was a tedious, multi-stage process and that E. coli had difficulty reproducing large DNA segments.

Recombining genes

They eventually tried using a type of yeast called Saccharomyces

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