That morning started one morning as a cold November. Nothing could make me imagine the horrors that confront me later, as naively entered the compound housing my usual workplace. Because although many human beings are of knowing the future and their avatars, is far from the hand of man to know the mysteries of the universe, and bold are those who, like me, challenge the cosmic horrors that lurk in seemingly events most insignificant. Would regret my naivete and arrogance later scientific curiosity, but as I say, that morning I went to my lab unconscious and happy, happy as only an ignorant can be.
Once attired with appropriate laboratory clothing (snow-tight gown and gloves), I went to the incubator at 30 ° where a couple of days ago had placed a petri plates, seeded with a new strain yeast. But my serenity was suddenly embarrassed to discover that the yeast had grown, yes, but their color was not expected, between white and ocher was rather a seemingly unnatural pink. Disturbed and surprised, I turned to my companions, who reassured me that this color was normal in this strain. Quieter, yet still refusing to plunge with such ease, such a fact, and tried to inquire about the ultimate reason to explain that color.
Yeasts roses up in solitary, down compared with a strain of color "normal."
Nobody could (or wanted) to explain such an aberration. A yeast changed the color was something that went against everything he knew, and could not rest until the mystery unravel. So I looked into it night after night, looking lost and volumes in libraries banned, among the most arcane knowledge, until we find the solution to the mystery. Among the pages of Googleomicrón discovered that the bodies with which so happily worked many surprises hidden in the genome.
scientist's pride knows no bounds in their zeal to control the development of the organism is subject to their plans, alter the basic patterns of metabolism for more tracks progress of their experiment. It was not enough to eliminate the genetic capacity of yeast to metabolize histidine, tryptophan, leucine or uracil , doing so only grow those included in its genome an exogenous plasmid introduced by the researcher, in addition, they are deletion one of the genes involved in the synthesis of adenine . Adenine, no less! The reader of biology earthling concoedor know that adenine is neither more nor less, one of the constituents of nucleic acids store genetic information and the cornerstone of all terrestrial biology. To make matters worse, it is also the origin molecules such as adenosine triphosphate (ATP) or nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NADH) molecules that exemplify the basic energy currency and reducing power cell, respectively. However, these strains require adenine for growth supplement, they can not synthesize it themselves. But this did not answer my question, why the pinkish color? I had to find out more and more, searching to find the answer. And the answer came to me, apparently for chemical formulas.
Chemical structure of adenine
After arduous My research came to the relationship between gene deletion in yeast and the adenine synthesis pathway, and with it, the answer to my question. The genes encode proteins, and these proteins act in sequence on the substrates regulated chemicals that form the final metabolites. Simple chemicals combine and react with others, through the action of proteins known as enzymes, to give rise to compounds that perform very different from those that may have the original molecules. Adenine in yeast, in particular, is originated from a molecule called phosphocreatine ribosyl pyrophosphate, in a series of reactions catalyzed by at least seven different enzymes.
Before that adenine is formed as such, has the form of phospho-ribosilaminoimidazolcarboxilato (CAIR), and before that, of fosforibosilaminoimidazol (AIR). The protein that catalyzes the passage of AIR to CAIR (encoded by the gene ade2) is missing in strains that troubled my mind. As a result, the road is blocked and accumulates in large quantities AIR. Finally, the ultimate revelation: the middle, when oxidized, produces a pink color. At last! The mystery revealed! Yeasts are pink as a result of the oxidation of an intermediate accumulated in the adenine synthesis pathway, interrupted by human hands. The mechanisms by which the AIR or any of its oxidized forms produces pink, and saturated beyond my mind. But it was enough to glimpse the implications that most basic chemistry might have to influence the genetics of organisms, and finally their external morphology.
The route of adenine in Saccharomyces cerevisiae .
Can the reader imagine the impact such a revelation came upon me and punished psyche. Finally, the most basic chemistry explains the color of an entire organism. I could not believe it. The implications were so big, so scary ... I did not hesitate a moment to apply this knowledge to research on human beings. Because the evidence was clear: the race of people inhabiting the Levantine coastal cities, those beings who hold almost unnatural pinkish, can only be mutants with completely altered their metabolism. Hence my fateful obsession with capturing several of these strange creatures, and my subsequent confinement within these walls padded, where day in and day out trying to make me believe that I'm away from sanity. My colleagues thought crazy, and soon complain to the authorities when they found in my lab notes various sketches, maps of the towns of Benidorm and Gandia, and plans to capture human specimens with which to compare my recent hypothesis. The poor ignorant
are happy, playing with their yeast and other microbes, unaware that driving forces beyond all comprehension, laws dominating not only the microbes, but which govern the biology of entire planets ...
Chemistry has opened the doors. Only fear what awaits me through it.
References:
1. Hogan et al., Molecular and Cellular Biology, February 2010, p. 657-674, Vol 30, No. 3
2. Lovecraft, of course.
This entry participates in the second edition of the Carnival of Chemistry inaugurated by Dani of That pale blue dot and hosted this year by Cendrero in The bust of Pallas.
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