http://2013.igem.org/Team:Lethbridge/human_practices
iGEM 2013 Lethbridge
In particular see:
Testing the System
Learning to Be Bad
This year, we focused on the implications our frameshifting project might have on biosecurity. In thinking about the ways our pseudoknots could be used to do new, exciting things in synthetic biology, we came up with a use that is more frightening than exciting. Bioterrorism.
The idea is this: There are guidelines put forward by a number of industry groups on how DNA synthesis orders should be screened to ensure no biohazardous sequences get into the hands of the wrong people. The standard protocol for screening sequences involves taking the submitted DNA sequences and translating all six reading frames, then using BLAST to compare the DNA and amino acid sequences to those of organisms on a list of controlled agents.
Our pseudoknot enables the ribosome to switch frames mid-translation, essentially splitting the entire protein amongst as many reading frames as there are pseudoknots. If someone were to split a protein from the Ebola virus into small fragments distributed across the reading frames, could they bypass this initial automatic screening step?