Genetics of Animal Design

read. Very recently we used this design to create new proteins that recognize a desired part of a gene; we have thus succeeded in switching off a deleterious (cancer) gene in a cell line [2]. This work therefore encompasses a technological application of a concept derived from a living form. References 1. I recently wrote an article entitled “Macromolecular Order in Biology,”Phil. Trans. R.SOC.Lond. A 348 (1994) pp. 167-178, which summarizes my work of 30 years and covers one of the themes of the LVMH Science for Art Prize. 2. Yen Choo, Isidro Sanchez-Garcia and Aaron Mug, Nature372 (1994) pp. 642-645. GENETICS OF ANIMAL DESIGN Peter Lawrence, MRC Laboratory Molecular Biology, Hills Road, Cambridge CB2 2QH, United Kingdom. E-mail: . The ruorlz reported in this Abstract ruas aruarded a 1996 LVMH Vinci o f Excellence Prize. The synthetic chemist is usually highly interested in the aesthetics of the molecule he or she wants to assemble. In fact, the search for aesthetically attractive molecules has been a goal since the very origin of chemistry. The aesthetic aspect of any object is usually connected to its shape in Euclidean geometry However,another interesting facet of beauty rests in the topologicalproperties of the object. The latter can be deformed as much as desired , provided edges and lines that constitute the object are not cleaved. Among the most topologically fascinating objects, interlncerl d e s i p and lrnots (such as the archetypical treJil Itnot) occupy a special position. Representing continuity and eternity in early religious symbolism, they illuminate the art of the most ancient civilizations. Developed by Egyptians, Persians and Greeks, A cU B u D Fig. 3.Jean-Pierre Sauvage.Template synthesisof catenanes (one metal, represented by a black circle) or a trefoil knot (two metal centers). Each thread is a molecular fragment, incorporating various chemical functions not represented here. For instance, in the bottom line, the two threads of A can react with two metals (copper atoms) to generate a doublestranded helical molecule (B). In this process, the two metals gather and interlace the two strings of A in such a way that a double helix is formed. From the precursor B, the trefoil knot C is obtained by specific chemical reactions, their overall effect being that of producing a knotted ring (“cyclization”process). The two metals utilized to construct and maintain the molecular edifice B in the appropriate geometry during this procedure are still present in the closed molecule C. They can be removed by appropriate chemical reagents to afford the trefoil knot D. It is interesting to note that the cyclic strand of C is identical to D. Fig. 4. Jean-Pierre Sauvage. Shownhere is the molecule represented as C in Fig. 3. The chemical formula is indicated on the left. The real shape of the molecule was determined by X-ray diffraction and is represented on the right: one can recognize the two copper atoms (white circles in the median part of the drawing) and the general analogy between both geometries (chemical formula and real shape). Interestingly, the length of the trefoil knot represented here is one-thousandth of a micron . This givesan idea of the scale at which molecular chemists construct their edifices. In a normal preparation of the knot, one obtains about 70 milligramsof the molecule (equivalent to the size of a peppercorn). This is not much, but such a sample contains 20 billion billion individual knots. Again, this shows how small the molecular world is. 276 LVMH Alistracts ...