Microorganisms are the most widely distributed and abundant organisms in nature, including bacteria, viruses, fungi, etc. They are one of the oldest forms of life on Earth, the basis of all life, the life within the living.

The cells that make up animals and plants were first evolved from bacteria. Measured by carbon standards, a person is a combination of hundreds of millions of bacteria.

"So it's no longer silicon that's dominating the world, it's carbon. Our genetic engineering research project is called "How to Shape the Way in the Carbon Age". Shen Qi talked about his thoughts.

A human body contains a trillion bacteria weighing up to three kilograms, and they carry many times the total number of genes that are human genes. There are 100 trillion bacteria parasitic in the human gut, which are normal microorganisms in the human body and are beneficial to the human body.

On the other hand, the three billion base pairs of human beings have been sequenced, but only 2% of the content encodes more than 20,000 genes of humans, and the remaining 98% is still a genetic puzzle that has not yet been studied.

Shen Qi asked: "Do you understand what specific work should be done for the first step of basic research in our project?"

"Understood!"

"Got it!"

"Eager to try!"

"Can't wait!"

Everyone took active action and arranged the biological laboratory of Shen Qi Scientific Research Center with enthusiasm.

Biology and chemistry are closely linked, and chemical protective suits, fume hoods, basic medicines, utensils, instruments and equipment can be taken from the inventory of the central chemical laboratory.

Hardware and software for gene sequencing and gene editing need to be purchased separately. With the widespread use of next-generation sequencing software and technologies such as CRISPR, its market price has dropped to a low level.

Han Meng spent a small amount of money to do big things, he used his professional knowledge to bargain with the instrument supplier, and only spent 5 million yuan to buy the genetic engineering exclusive instrument experiment assigned by Shen Qi, saving 100~2 million yuan for the center, Yanda, and the country.

Shen Qi's "Genetic Engineering Research Project" is divided into three steps, and the first basic research stage relies on the theoretical principles of genomics.

The ancient shotgun method is still the mainstream experimental method, and the same is the thermal cycler.

The newly purchased PCR machine from Shen Qi Scientific Research Center has undergone several rounds of upgrading, but its design principle is not fundamentally different from the first generation.

Genomics has advanced by leaps and bounds, thanks to Professor Yang Rui, the inventor of the PCR machine, who is a pioneer in the field of biology in China.

If the Genetic Engineering Research Project is ultimately victorious, remember these six creatures who are willing to give their lives to science:

Shen Qi, Han Meng, Cui Hualin, Du Yuan, Tang Yaxing, Wu Junqiang.

The Six Heroes first performed a PCR operation on themselves, tested and saved their DNA samples.

Then, the six heroes extracted their own skin cells and cultivated them into pluripotent stem cells through biological means to store ammunition for later research.

There are countless scientific heroes in history, such as Australian doctor Marshall who drank Helicobacter pylori to verify whether it is the causative agent of stomach ulcers.

Another example is the Peruvian doctor Criyong, in order to verify whether the two symptoms are the same cause, he cut open the warts on the patient's body, extracted the blood from the warts, and injected them into his body. Unfortunately, he died.

The experimental operation of Shen Qi and the other six people is relatively safe at present, and there is no danger to their lives for the time being.

The first research phase of the "Genetic Engineering Research Project" is divided into two sections: advanced life forms and microorganisms.

Genes are the link between these two sections.

While the genome as a whole is important, scientists are more interested in genes, especially those associated with human disease.

With the completion of the sequencing of all base pairs of the human genome, the pathogenic mechanisms of thousands of common diseases, including cancer, diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, immune disorders, neurological diseases, AIDS, etc., have been revealed, but more and more patients are suffering.

Why is that?

"yes, why is that? to figure out and answer this question and give the public a reasonable solution, that's what we're going to do. ”

Shen Qi and his PhD students interrupted their genomic DNA samples into fragments of 30~100kp in size, and then centrifuged them in a Cs2SO4 density gradient solution containing silver ions.

"Six subsidence zones were observed, and the density from low to high was L1, L2, H1, H2, H3, and H4 (L=Lower, H=Higher). Han Meng skillfully experimented.

"Among them, H3 has the highest G+C ratio, which is 8 times that of H1 and H2, and 16 times that of L1 and L2. Cui Hualin used the H3 component as a probe to hybridize with the human chromosome in situ, and then compared it with the chromosome G-band image, and obtained some basic data.

The initial work in the first research phase of the "Genetic Engineering Research Project" is relatively basic and routine.

The recombination rate of the long arm of human chromosome 21 was 1 cM/Mb, while the short arm was 2 cM/Mb. A similar situation occurs in yeast, although the yeast genome is 200 times smaller than in humans.

The H3 components were mainly distributed in the light coloration region of the G band, and 43% of H3 was located in the proximal telomere region. The sequence analysis conducted by Shen Qi's project team revealed that the single copy ratio of H3 component was 50%-70%, and the number of genes contained in H3, H1+H2 and L1+L2 accounted for 28%, 38% and 34% of the entire genome, respectively.

The initial experimental conclusions of Shen Qi's team seem to be no different from the data published by the international human genome sequencing agency.

With such basic experimental research, it is impossible for five doctoral students to obtain a doctorate degree from Yan University.

The basic experimental research is just a warm-up, and the core experiments are behind.

"As I just said, since we already know the pathogenic mechanisms of thousands of diseases, why are there more and more patients?" Shen Qi asked again.

"During my years in the United States, I specialized in HIV/AIDS. In order to prevent HIV from destroying immune cells and causing carriers to become ill, we can modify the genes of patients through biotechnology, or modify the genes of their offspring so that their offspring are permanently immune to AIDS. However, this gene modification method has not been widely and legally used in clinical practice, I think because some genetic modifications can cause unpredictable new lesions and even direct death. This is also the direction that my mentor and I are focusing on, how to avoid the hidden dangers caused by genetic modification to the greatest extent? Can we make genetic modification absolutely safe and beneficial to human beings in essence? Unfortunately, my mentor was taken away, and I returned to China in a hurry...... "Cui Hualin is good at using AIDS as an example to illustrate his academic thoughts, after all, there is a specialization in the art industry, and he specializes in this direction.

"I think, Director Shen should have a countermeasure, right?" Cui Hualin asked with great interest.