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All life runs on 20 amino acids. These cells run key machinery on just 19

AI-guided redesign of protein alphabet in bacteria could unlock new ways to build synthetic organisms.
By
  1. Elie Dolgin

    1. Elie Dolgin is a science journalist in Somerville, Massachusetts.

All life on Earth depends on the same molecular alphabet: 20 amino acids that cells string together to make proteins. But now, scientists have reengineered bacteria to run a core part of their cellular machinery with just 19 of those amino acids — a feat akin to rewriting one act of a Shakespearean play without a common letter like ‘R’ while keeping the text intelligible. The work is reported today in Science1.

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doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-026-01396-w

References

  1. Liu, L. et al. Science 392, eaeb5171 (2026).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Sanfiorenzo, C. & Wang, K. Science 392, 467–468 (2026).

    Article  Google Scholar 

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