US researchers created in a laboratory the smallest feasible existing genome in nature.
contains the minimum number of genes necessary for an organism to function and autorreproduzca, a new breakthrough to unravel the mysteries of life.
the synthetic genome of this microbe called Syn 3.0 has only 473 genes. By comparison, a human being has about 20 000 and Japanese flower japonica Paris, with the largest genome known to date: 50 times more than the human genome
The team accomplished this feat it is. led by Craig Venter, a pioneer of DNA sequencing. He also created the first controlled by a synthetic genome in 2010 body.
The researchers who created this genome at least have not yet been able to determine the functions of 149 of these 473 genes, one third of the total , as explained in their published Thursday in the journal Science works.
the creation of this single equipped cell with the genes needed for life to exist in its most basic form may help understand the role of each gene, absolutely essential for life, according to biologists.
“the best way to understand life is to create the simplest genome,” said Craig Venter, in a telephone press conference.
“If you do not understand how to fly a Boeing 777 removed the parts, one by one, until the aircraft can not fly”.
This is the principle that the scientist and his team, which includes Clyde Hutchison were used with the genome of a Mycoplasma bacterium, known to have the smallest genomes of all living cells capable of self-replication.
they created genomes hypothetically minimalist in different segments, to try and identify essential genes and those that are not.
An important step
During this process, the researchers also tried to identify the “most essential” called genes necessary to ensure robust growth of the organism, but are not essential for life.
to test these genes, the scientists inserted foreign gene sequences to disrupt its functions and determine which were necessary for the life of bacteria.
the scientists repeated the experiment until they got the smallest genome able to function.
His work also revealed that some genes -clasificados as’ non-essential ‘- they perform certain functions that are essential and must be maintained in the genome. Almost all the genes necessary for reading and expression of genetic information and the preservation of information and its transmission between generations are also conserved in the genome.
Many of them have been found in other organisms , suggesting that could encode universal proteins whose functions have not yet been defined, according to the researchers.
scientists consider the creation of this minimum artificial genome as a significant advance. “This is an important step in creating a living cell step,” said Chris Voigt, a biologist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, in Cambridge (MIT).
However, the scientist added that it remains to define the role of these 149 genes that remain unknown Syn 3.0 and promise to bring new information on the biological basis of life.
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