Now, a Caltech team has bred bacteria that can make boron-carbon bonds, which were previously only possible in the lab. That new ability opens up the range of chemical compounds that bacteria could create, paving the way for easier and more environmentally-friendly production of drugs and other chemicals.

The researchers built on work from last year, where they engineered bacteria that were able to produce silicon-carbon compounds – another bond that's normally impossible in nature. They used a process called directed evolution, where enzymes are carefully evolved to serve a specific function. In this case, creating boron-carbon bonds.