How to pronounce“hachimoji”in English

Hachimoji DNA isn’t self-sustaining and it can’t exist outside the lab, so it’s not really life.

Which means that hachimoji DNA works!

Because what hachimoji DNA tells us is that there isn’t something perfect and singular about the four bases we use.

The researchers called the new DNA “hachimoji DNA,” from the Japanese words for “eight” and “letter.” In order to show that hachimoji DNA was legit and could really be used as a genetic code, the researchers had to be sure it could do three things:

So, the researchers created three crystal structures of hachimoji DNA with different sequences, and found that the synthetic nucleotides didn’t warp DNA’s famous double helix too much.