Clyde A. Hutchison, Ray-Yuan Chuang, Vladimir N. Noskov
Nacyra Assad-Garcia, Thomas J. Deerinck, Mark H. Ellisman, John Gill, Krishna Kannan, Bogumil J. Karas, Li Ma, James F. Pelletier, Zhi-Qing Qi, R. Alexander Richter, Elizabeth A. Strychalski, Lijie Sun, Yo Suzuki, Billyana Tsvetanova, Kim S. Wise, Hamilton O. Smith, John I. Glass, Chuck Merryman, Daniel G. Gibson, J. Craig Venter
2016 · Science
Designing and building a minimal genome A goal in biology is to understand the molecular and biological function of every gene in a cell. One way to approach this is to build a minimal genome that includes only the genes essential for life. In 2010, a 1079-kb genome based on the genome of Mycoplasma mycoides (JCV-syn1.0) was chemically synthesized and supported cell growth when transplanted into cytoplasm. Hutchison III et al. used a design, build, and test cycle to reduce this genome to 531 kb (473 genes). The resulting JCV-syn3.0 retains genes involved in key processes such as transcription and translation, but also contains 149 genes of unknown function. Science , this issue p. 10.1126/science.aad6253
Metadata: Crossref. Abstracts retain their original authors’ rights.
Original HN comments, with labels from simple text rules. A label describes the whole comment and may miss context or irony. Read the discussion to make up your own mind. About the labels
3 selected excerpts · 3 total mentions
So just how small is that minimal genome? Clicking through to the original paper... JCV-syn3.0 has 531 kilobases (kbp) with 473 genes. That's 531 kb, which is about 66 kB, equivalent to a 256x256 8-level greyscale image, or 22 QR codes. https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.aad6253
Yes. The cell was first created in the real world as part of research about the minimal set of genes required for life.[1] It is known as "JCVI-syn3.0" or "Mycoplasma laboratorium".'[2] Still amazing that it can now be fully simulated "in silico". [1] https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.aad6253 [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mycoplasma_laboratorium
Cells are extremely complex self-replicating organisms. They are so small and yet they can pull off this trick of mitosis that no machine made by humans ever achieved. Personally I think that the most interesting and hardest part in the evolution of life was the start of it, where you go from random proteins to self replicating structures (cells). It's easy to think of in-between steps for any post-cellular-life step in the evolutionary process that led to intelligent life but if you have no self-replication you can't have evolution. Most likely at the start proteins just floated around freely in water and did various random things, most of them not really useful. Every…
now and then some, by chance, some protein would do something useful. Now earth is big and before life, proteins could float around freely without being repurposed by bacteria or other organisms as building material. But the best protein that's the result of random processes isn't helpful without the ability to clone it in some way. Proteinbiosynthesis [1] is an extremely complex process that involves multiple substeps each needing complex proteins of their own to facilitate it. It also needs an ample supply of ATP that has to come from somewhere and not be wasted by "useless" proteins. The most simple cell that we can build today has 531 thousand basepairs [2]. [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protein_biosynthesis [2]: https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aad6253
More from the same topics.
Scott Aaronson
Can NP-complete problems be solved efficiently in the physical universe?
Purna Mukherjee, Zachary M. Augur, Mingyi Li +10
AbstractGlioblastoma (GBM) is an aggressive primary human brain tumour that has resisted effective therapy for decades.
Jackson S. Turner, Wooseob Kim, Elizaveta Kalaidina +10
Joel Lehman, Jeff Clune, Dusan Misevic +50
Biological evolution provides a creative fount of complex and subtle adaptations, often surprising the scientists who discover them.