Chemists have been using molecular simulation and screening tools to design enzymes for decades now. The big breakthrough here seems to be that the system can work backwards from the structure to the sequence. That sounds useful, but chemistry is full of surprises as this report shows. I'll call it a great new tool, but it's far from magic. Evolution has had billions of years to come up with something better than rubisco for splitting carbon off of carbon dioxide, and rubisco is slow, imprecise and obviously suboptimal. It's also the basis for photosynthesis on this planet. Chemistry is hard, and not just for scientists.
I'm not surprised funghi can do some impressive biochemistry. Many of them have a specialized genetic like code for producing toxins and likely other chemicals. It uses DNA and RNA, but the translation uses a number of other components along with some amino acids. This lets funghi build some really weird and potent stuff. It's also beyond the scope of existing software. The real breakthrough would involve coming up with an appropriate engine like this as needed. So far, no signs of funghi coming up with something better than rubisco, though.
