Monday, June 25, 2012

SbfI

"For the molecular biologist in you...

These lacy beaded earrings use a variety of glass seed beads and tiny faceted red sapphires (rubies), all woven together to resemble a double helix of DNA. Bugle bead rungs separate the color-coded base pairs of molecules. The colors are earthy autumns, including deep matte brown, greens, wheat, and rich wine red.

The coloring of the base pairs uses the sequence recognized by the enzyme SbfI, which is found in the microorganism Streptomyces sp. BF-61. Streptomyces is the largest antibiotic producing genus of bacteria, producing antibacterial, antifungal, anti-parasitic drugs. The specific base pair sequence shown in each earrings is a palindrome, specifically,
CCTGCAGG
GGACGTCC

The beadwork is stiff yet flexible.

The ear wires were forged from sterling silver wire. These are medium sized earrings that are light for their size.

Earrings are are 13mm (half inch) wide.
Length of earrings from top of ear wire is 46mm (about 1 and 3/4 inches).

All of my jewelry arrives in an origami gift box, hand folded by me out of beautiful printed card stock."

Found at gwenbeads' Etsy shop.

1 comment:

  1. Wow, thanks for sharing my DNA earrings here! Cool blog. You rock!

    ReplyDelete