American scientists have created in a lab the smallest viable genome existing in nature with just enough essential genes for an organism to function and reproduce on its own, in a major step towards u
American scientists have created in a lab the smallest viable genome existing in nature with just enough essential genes for an organism to function and reproduce on its own, in a major step towards unlocking the mysteries of how life is created.
The synthetic genome of this bacteria, dubbed JCVI-syn3.0, only carries 473 genes, compared to about 20,000 for a human being. But lead research-ers Craig Venter, the first to sequence the human genome, and Clyde Hutch-inson and their colleagues have not yet determined the functions of 149 of the genes, about a third of the total. “Investigators’ first task is to probe the roles of those genes, which promise new insights into the basic biology of life,” said Chris Voigt, a synthetic biologist at Massachusetts Institute of Technology who did not participate in the research.
ut several potentially homologous genes have been found in other organisms, suggesting they encode universal proteins with functions that for now remain undetermined. Researchers used a design-build-test process to identify quasi-essential genes, which are required for robust growth but not for life. The study was published the journal Science. Through a series of experiments, they obtained a synthetic, reduced genome that was as small as possible beca-use no more genes could be disrupted.
