06-15-2014, 07:39 PM
How about the entire genome?
Instead of creating only one artificial chromosome, scientists have actually managed to synthesize the entire genome of bacteria. A team of scientists from the J. Craig Venter Institute (JCVI) led by Craig Venter has accomplished this by combing two already existing techniques to transfer new DNA material into bacterial cells. The first one is actually the synthesis of a new genome, and the second one is its transfer into the cell (using nuclear transfer techniques from in vitro fertilization). In the end, scientists have produced the bacteria with synthetic genome capable of self-replication, which is awesome.
The bacterium used is Mycoplasma mycoides. Venter’s team has used its genome as a base to create the new one. It does not sound that it is synthetic at first, but they have actually added a lot of different DNA sequences into the genome, while some others were deleted, and the transplant worked in the end. Moreover, the whole process was done synthetically because, in the words of Craig Venter: “…the cell is totally derived from a synthetic chromosome, made with four bottles of chemicals on a chemical synthesizer, starting with information in a computer…”. The recipient bacterium used was Mycoplasma capricolum, and the resulting genome was around 1000 kb long.
The idea of building artificial genome has actually started some 15 years before, when the scientists have started developing the strategy to build the synthetic genome of M. genitalium, a bacterium with the smallest complement of genes capable of independent growth. Not only that it contains less than 500 protein-coding genes, but more than 100 of them can actually be removed if disrupted one at a time. They have accomplished this by assembling small 6 kb pieces of DNA into a larger molecule. The process was done both in vitro using enzymes and in vivo in yeast (for recombination).
All of this research is leading to the new era of synthetic biology, that will give rise to new ways of, for example, faster vaccine production, usage of light energy, water cleaning, etc.
Instead of creating only one artificial chromosome, scientists have actually managed to synthesize the entire genome of bacteria. A team of scientists from the J. Craig Venter Institute (JCVI) led by Craig Venter has accomplished this by combing two already existing techniques to transfer new DNA material into bacterial cells. The first one is actually the synthesis of a new genome, and the second one is its transfer into the cell (using nuclear transfer techniques from in vitro fertilization). In the end, scientists have produced the bacteria with synthetic genome capable of self-replication, which is awesome.
The bacterium used is Mycoplasma mycoides. Venter’s team has used its genome as a base to create the new one. It does not sound that it is synthetic at first, but they have actually added a lot of different DNA sequences into the genome, while some others were deleted, and the transplant worked in the end. Moreover, the whole process was done synthetically because, in the words of Craig Venter: “…the cell is totally derived from a synthetic chromosome, made with four bottles of chemicals on a chemical synthesizer, starting with information in a computer…”. The recipient bacterium used was Mycoplasma capricolum, and the resulting genome was around 1000 kb long.
The idea of building artificial genome has actually started some 15 years before, when the scientists have started developing the strategy to build the synthetic genome of M. genitalium, a bacterium with the smallest complement of genes capable of independent growth. Not only that it contains less than 500 protein-coding genes, but more than 100 of them can actually be removed if disrupted one at a time. They have accomplished this by assembling small 6 kb pieces of DNA into a larger molecule. The process was done both in vitro using enzymes and in vivo in yeast (for recombination).
All of this research is leading to the new era of synthetic biology, that will give rise to new ways of, for example, faster vaccine production, usage of light energy, water cleaning, etc.
![[+]](https://www.biotechnologyforums.com/images/netpen-pro/collapse_collapsed.png)