Create the microbe with the smallest genome of history – Clarín.com

For the first time in the history of mankind an artificial microbe that has the smallest genome of all species were created, and can live independently. It was produced by a group of researchers led by geneticist Craig Venter and entrepreneur in the United States, which included public and private researchers. They were able to show that only 473 genes enough to generate a living organism, but also aroused unknowns. not yet know what roles a third of that number of genes

“JCVI-Syn 3.0″ is the name of the microbe they created, and is a bacteria. It is the result of an investigation that began 20 years ago and suffered several setbacks. Venter worked with researchers from the Institute of Technology of Massachusetts (MIT), the National Institute of Standards and Technology, and the American Type Culture Collection, which is a private organization that preserves samples of different organisms, and published the results in the journal Science of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Why they manufactured a synthetic microbe ?, asked Clarin email microbiologist Clyde Hutchison III, one of the co-authors. “We wanted to understand how living cells function. Therefore, we needed to know what the basic set of genes needed for life, “said the scientist. In 1996, Hutchinson spent a sabbatical year at the research institute Venter, known as TIGR. There, the microbiologist had a conversation with Venter and Hamilton Smith on what would be the minimum number of genes necessary for a cell to survive, and speculated the possibility of synthesizing a genome to test it in a recipient cell. Thus, they would create a synthetic cell. Since then, there were successes and failures, but did not stop. 6 years ago they reached an important achievement. “In 2010, we synthesize a genome that was almost an exact copy of the natural organism, Mycoplasma mycoides. Instead, our new work is the first report of a synthetic genome that is radically different from all those found in nature, “said Dr. Hutchinson Clarin.

The new microbe can play every 180 minutes and should continue to live and reproduce indefinitely (if effectively functions as the authors say). “The new bacterium was created from scientists were deleting genes. If the bacteria was still alive, then it was not an essential gene. However, if the bacteria died, it was a necessary gene and retained. Made the viability test using this approach, but failed and once learned, “he told Clarin biologist Alejandro Nadra, a researcher at CONICET and the Faculty of Natural Sciences of the University of Buenos Aires, who was not involved in the study Venter. “The simplified approach reached, since there pairs of genes whose function is redundant. That is, you can get any of them, but not both simultaneously. Then, leaving one of these genes, scientists maintained viability. And they discovered that some of the quasi-essential genes are also necessary “.

Once American scientists defined what the necessary genes were, they joined the new genome and transplanted to a” shell “of a bacterium to which they had brought him their genetic information. It is “hacked” the bacteria behaves according to the new genetic information. There are 149 genes (473) whose function is still unknown. “While we have a long way to go, we could design a new agency and it should work Nadra- opined. Probably not a single solution as there are genes that function complementing, but it is an excellent approximation to the group of essential functions for life “.