US scientists create “minimal cell” using only the genes necessary for life – China Radio International

US scientists create “minimal cell” using only the genes necessary for life

US researchers announced Thursday the design and construction of a cell minimal synthetic bacterial containing only the genes necessary for life, an advance that could help better understand the secret of life.

The team genomics pioneer Craig Venter research surprised the world in 2010 by creating the first synthetic cell of the history of mankind. Now the team went further to simplify and reorganize the genome of the cell in order to retain only 473 genes, making it the smallest genome of an organism that can be grown in a laboratory.
 

“The only way to answer basic questions about life would achieve a minimal genome and probably the only way to do this would be trying to synthesize a genome,” Venter told reporters to explain the origin of study, which was published on the US journal Science.
 

His work began 20 years ago, but was briefly interrupted because Venter and his team paused to define the sequence the first human genome at the beginning of the century.
 

Then, in 2010 they synthesized the genome of a bacterium known as Mycoplasma mycoides and transplanted it into the cell of a different species to create the first synthetic bacterial cell with ability to replicate, which they called Syn 1.0 .
 

The innovative research provided proof of principle that genomes can be designed in the computer, chemically made in the laboratory and transplanted into a recipient cell to produce a new cell replication competent only by the synthetic genome .
 

In the new study, researchers at the J. Craig Venter Institute and Synthetic Genomics reduced the genome of a synthetic genes considered essential for cell life.
 

The new minimum synthetic cell, called Syn 3.0, contains 531,560 base pairs and only 473 genes. In contrast, Syn 1.0 has 1,080,000 base pairs and 901 genes.
 

But precise biological functions of 149 genes Syn 3.0 are yet to be discovered.
 

“We are showing how complex life even in its simplest organism,” Venter said.
 

The researchers believe that these cells might be very useful for many industrial applications in biochemistry, food and agriculture or to create medicines or biofuels base.
 

“Our long-term vision has been to design and build synthetic organisms on demand that can add specific functions and which can predict the outcome,” said Daniel Gibson, vice president of DNA technologies Synthetic Genomics. “I think it’s the beginning of a new era, but it will not happen overnight.”
 

(Bin)