"Binary" Enzyme Created by Scientists at The Scripps Research
Institute Demonstrates Darwinian Evolution at its Simplest La
Jolla, CA. December 18, 2002 - Two scientists at The Scripps
Research Institute (TSRI), Research Associate John S. Reader,
D.Phil, and Professor Gerald F. Joyce, M.D., Ph.D., both of the
institute's Department of Molecular Biology, have succeeded in
creating an enzyme based on a "binary" genetic code - one
containing only two different subunits. This research, described
in the latest issue of the journal Nature, demonstrates that
Darwinian evolution can occur in a genetic system with only two
bases, and it also supports a theory in the field that an early
form of life on earth may have been restricted to two bases.
"Nobody will ever top this because binary systems are the most
reduced form of information processing," says Joyce. "Two
different subunits are the absolute minimum number you need [for
Darwinian evolution]." Where protein enzymes are polymer strings
made up of 20 building blo