News Headline

Rise of digital DNA raises biopiracy fears

Source
Science Magazine

Publication Date
2016-11-18

It’s possible to forget that genes grow on trees. Chinese wormwood, for instance, holds genes for enzymes needed to assemble the malaria-killing compound artemisinin. But increasingly, the world’s genes also exist as information—free-floating sequences in public databases, no harvest required. Those prized wormwood genes, for example, can now be assembled in a laboratory and inserted into yeast or tobacco to churn out an artemisinin precursor. And when it comes to portioning out the financial spoils of new biotech products, the use of open-access DNA troves might make things complicated.

Content
http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2016/11/rise-digital-dna-raises-biopiracy-fears