Scientists have created a whole new kind of DNA that could support life

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There are four types of nitrogenous bases in DNA. Adenine (A) and guanine (G) are double-ringed purines, and cytosine © and thymine (T) are smaller single-ringed pyrimidines. All these four molecules provide the codes for life on our planet.

In a new study, scientists have doubled the number of life’s building blocks. For the first time ever, they have created a new kind of DNA into its elegant double-helix structure and found it had properties that could support life. This eight-letter genetic language seems to store and transcribe information just like natural DNA.

Floyd Romesberg, a chemical biologist at the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, California said, “It’s a real landmark. The study implies that there is nothing particularly “magic” or special about those four chemicals that evolved on Earth. That’s a conceptual breakthrough.”

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