Does synthetic dna give life to a dead cell

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The discussion centers on the concept of whether synthetic DNA can revive a dead cell. It is clarified that when genetic material is removed from a cell, the cell ultimately dies due to the loss of metabolic functions and organization, with DNA alone not being sufficient to restore life. The idea that injecting synthetic genomes into dead cells could bring them back to life is challenged, as the cellular environment must also be intact for any potential revival. The conversation touches on regenerative medicine and the possibility of cellular renewal through synthetic methods or biological regeneration, with some participants expressing interest in the latter as a more promising avenue. The role of viruses is also mentioned, highlighting their unique status as entities that do not fit neatly into definitions of life or death, as they rely on host cells for reproduction and do not metabolize independently.
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or can synthetic dna give life to a dead cell.

i.e when scientist removed genetic material of a cell, didn't the cell died. And when this synthetic genome is injected into the nucleus, it survive. Is this what happened.
 
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rajeshmarndi said:
or can synthetic dna give life to a dead cell.

i.e when scientist removed genetic material of a cell, didn't the cell died. And when this synthetic genome is injected into the nucleus, it survive. Is this what happened.

Do you have a specific experiment in mind? If yes could you give a link to the the place where you read about it?

In general though cell death, whether via apoptosis or necrosis (things like necroptosis have also been suggested for some pathways) is not as simple as just the DNA being degraded. DNA is not the magical life giving material (the alleged Vital Principle) that'll grant life to anything in which it is present; in fact such a vital principle doesn't even exist. When a cell dies, it is no longer able to maintain its state of metabolism; all its components stop working and the state of organization in the cell disintegrates. The mess is usually cleaned up by phagocytes or it may also just lie around, sometimes causing damage to nearby cells as well.
 
rajeshmarndi said:
or can synthetic dna give life to a dead cell.

i.e when scientist removed genetic material of a cell, didn't the cell died. And when this synthetic genome is injected into the nucleus, it survive. Is this what happened.

cell death means loss of all biochemical functions or are unsustainable. DNA, synthetic or not does little to change the fate of the cell. However , this not take into account organisms such as viruses.
 
mishrashubham said:
Do you have a specific experiment in mind? If yes could you give a link to the the place where you read about it?
NO.

I just wanted to know does a cell dies if its genetic material are removed.
 
rajeshmarndi said:
NO.

I just wanted to know does a cell dies if its genetic material are removed.

Yes if you remove the nucleus the cell will eventually die, but putting it back into a dead cell will not bring it back to life.
 
mishrashubham said:
Yes if you remove the nucleus the cell will eventually die, but putting it back into a dead cell will not bring it back to life.

If the cell dies on removing the gentic material, if i understand right, then how is it made possible to alive the cell by replacing with synthetic genome.
 
I only know of two directions for the current research of cellular *renewal*; one is the synthetic approach and the other is -(don't know how to name but it looks like to regrow the tail of a lizard without tail or having its tail cut)-. The latter to me looks more promising, I have watched amazing experiments on Italian TV and reports from known universities of it, so I believe it should be a very competitive field.
 
Last edited:
phylotree said:
I only know of two directions for the current research of cellular *renewal*; one is the synthetic approach and the other is -(don't know how to name but it looks like to regrow the tail of a lizard without tail or having its tail cut)-. The latter to me looks more promising, I have watched amazing experiments on Italian TV and reports from known universities of it, so I believe it should be a very competitive field.
Perhaps I'm off the mark here but are you alluding to regenerative medicine?
 
Once the DNA has been reinserted into a new cell they zap it with electricity to make it divide. Frankenstein like. I was looking for why they did this and found this which is very interesting - http://www.sharinghealth.com/pdfs/whyzapwithelectricity.pdf

I think you are asking at what level does life exist at. Viruses are not considered to be alive as they do not metabolise and can't reproduce without infecting another host cell. There is an acronym for all the things they don't do which are seen as required for cell life. They are not considered dead either as they still operate. Some viruses can fix broken cellular machinery and use it for their own use.
 

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