CREATION OF A BACTERIAL CELL CONTROLLED BY A CHEMICALLY SYNTHESIZED GENOME [1]


 

Genetics: Life From a Synthetic Genome

In the 20 May 2010 edition of ScienceExpress [2], Gibson et al. report the creation of a bacterial cell controlled by a chemically synthesized genome. A related News story by E. Pennisi [3] highlights the new work, which involved stepwise creation of a bacterial chromosome and the transfer of it into a related bacterium, where it replaced the native DNA.

CREATION OF A BACTERIAL CELL CONTROLLED BY A CHEMICALLY SYNTHESIZED GENOME [2]

Daniel G. Gibson1, John I. Glass1, Carole Lartigue1, Vladimir N. Noskov1, Ray-Yuan Chuang1, Mikkel A. Algire1, Gwynedd A. Benders2, Michael G. Montague1,  Li Ma1, Monzia M. Moodie1, Chuck Merryman1, Sanjay Vashee1, Radha Krishnakumar1, Nacyra Assad-Garcia1, Cynthia Andrews-Pfannkoch1,  Evgeniya A. Denisova1,  Lei Young1, Zhi-Qing Qi1, Thomas H. Segall-Shapiro11, Christopher H. Calvey1, Prashanth P. Parmar, Clyde A. Hutchison III2, Hamilton O. Smith2, and J. Craig Venter1,2*

1 The J. Craig Venter Institute, 9704 Medical Center Drive, Rockville, Maryland 20850
2 The J. Craig Venter Institute, 10355 Science Center Drive, San Diego, California 92121

* To whom correspondence should be addressed

Abstract

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.

[download PDF of research article [4]]