‘We report the design, synthesis, and assembly of the 1.08-Mbp Mycoplasma mycoides JCVI-syn1.0 genome starting from digitized genome sequence information and its transplantation into a Mycoplasma capricolum recipient cell to create new Mycoplasma mycoides cells that are controlled only by the synthetic chromosome. The only DNA in the cells is the designed synthetic DNA sequence, including “watermark” sequences and other designed gene deletions and polymorphisms, and mutations acquired during the building process. The new cells have expected phenotypic properties and are capable of continuous self-replication.’

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For 15 years, J. Craig Venter has chased a dream: to build a genome from scratch and use it to make synthetic life. Now, he and his team at the J. Craig Venter Institute (JCVI) in Rockville, Maryland, and San Diego, California, say they have realized that dream. In this week’s Science Express (www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/abstract/science.1190719), they describe the stepwise creation of a bacterial chromosome and the successful transfer of it into a bacterium, where it replaced the native DNA. Powered by the synthetic genome, that microbial cell began replicating and making a new set of proteins.

http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/328/5981/958

Genomics: Synthetic Genome Brings New Life to Bacterium
Elizabeth Pennisi

Whether you’re young or old person there is always time to study, especially now when you can do it right online, to learn Biology for instance. Studying biology gives you the opportunity to advance human knowledge and understanding in today’s world, in order to make a difference to tomorrow’s. However I don’t think much of a man who is not wiser today than he was yesterday.

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