Professor Gyoo Yeol Jung (CE), Dr. Sang Woo Seo (IBIO), and Jina Yang (CE Ph.D candidate) developed arti-ficial “Ribo-switch” that ma-kes microorga-nisms evolve artificially. Terrestial life forms have had “Riboswitch” that could make them adjust to the surroundings by sensing specific compounds and controlling gene expression.
In addition, the research team announced the evolutive technology that makes selective exaptation possible to produce desired materials. This technology could be applied to medicine and medical supplies, biofuels, biomaterials, and petrochemicals.
Prof. Jung emphasized, “as this technology controls the evolution of microorganisms artificially, scientists can develop advanced strains that cannot be obtained using existing technologies.”
The paper, named “Synthetic RNA devices to expedite the evolution of metabolite-producing microbes,”was published by Nature Communications on Jan. 29.