The boss molecule
An experiment shows that DNA controls the cell.
Swapping the instructions
Suppose you remove a cell’s own DNA and put in different DNA made in a laboratory.
If DNA controls the cell, what will the cell do?
What this lesson covers
The idea
DNA controls the structure and activities of a cell: a cell grows and divides following the instructions of the DNA it contains.
Swapping the instructions
Suppose you remove a cell’s own DNA and put in different DNA made in a laboratory.
If DNA controls the cell, what will the cell do?
- Follow the instructions of the new DNA
- Ignore the DNA completely
- Die at once for no reason
The 2010 experiment
Press + to follow the steps.
DNA is in control
DNA controls the structure and activities of a cell: a cell grows and divides following the instructions of the DNA it contains. In 2010 scientists made synthetic DNA, put it into a cell whose DNA was removed, and the cell grew and divided following the synthetic DNA. But they did not create a completely new cell: only the DNA was synthetic.
The rest of the cell, such as the cytoplasm and membrane, came from an already existing living cell.
- Step | What happened
- 1 | DNA code of Mycoplasma mycoides read by computer
- 2 | exact copy made chemically
- 3 | DNA removed from a related bacterium; rest of the cell kept
- 4 | synthetic DNA inserted
- 5 | cell grew and divided following the new DNA
Notes
DNA controls a cell’s structure and activities. A cell grows and divides following the instructions of its DNA. (In the 2010 experiment, only the DNA was synthetic.)
Check yourself
What did the experiment show?
Which part of the new cell was synthetic?
Did scientists create a completely new cell from scratch?
After the synthetic DNA was inserted, the cell…
- DNA controls the structure and activities of a cell — correct. Yes.
- Cells can be made from nothing. The other parts came from an existing cell.
- Cells do not need DNA. The cell followed the DNA put into it.
- Only the DNA — correct. Yes.
- The whole cell. The cytoplasm and membrane came from a living cell.
- The cell membrane. It was kept from the existing cell.
- No. Only the DNA was synthetic — correct. Yes.
- Yes, every part. They used an existing cell’s other parts.
- Yes, but it did not divide. It grew and divided.
- grew and divided following its instructions — correct. Yes.
- turned into a plant cell. It stayed a bacterium.
- stopped working. It grew and divided.