Creation of a Bacterial Cell Controlled by a Chemically Synthesized Genome

By D. G. Gibson, John I. Glass, C. Lartigue, V. Noskov, R. Chuang, Mikkel A. Algire, G. A. Benders, Michael G. Montague, Li Ma, Monzia M. Moodie and 14 more. Science, 2010

2,487 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Let There Be Life The DNA sequence information from thousands of genomes is stored digitally as ones and zeros in computer memory. Now, Gibson et al. (p. 52, published online 20 May; see the cover; see the Policy Forum by Cho and Relman) have brought together technologies from the past 15 years to start from digital information on the genome of Mycoplasma mycoides to chemically synthesize the genomic DNA as segments that could then be assembled in yeast and transplanted into the cytoplasm of another organism. A number of methods were also incorporated to facilitate testing and error correction of the synthetic genome segments. The transplanted genome became established in the recipient cell, replacing the recipient genome, which was lost from the cell. The reconstituted cells were able to replicate and form colonies, providing a proof-of-principle for future developments in synthetic biology. A synthetic Mycoplasma mycoides genome transplanted into M. capricolum was able to control the host cell. We report the design, synthesis, and assembly of the 1.08–mega–base pair Mycoplasma mycoides JCVI-syn1.0 genome starting from digitized genome sequence information and its transplantation into a M. capricolum recipient cell to create new M. 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.

Subfields: Ecology, Genetics, Molecular Biology

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/016c7900bd7df12064044647cdbf5bbce4979996

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Citations in the corpus

Fast track assembly of multigene constructs using Golden Gate cloning and the MoClo system (2012, background): “The field of synthetic biology is progressing at a rapid pace, with the recent generation of organisms containing synthetic genomes.(1) While assembling complete genomes and rebooting cells with these is now possible, designing gene networks that encode new biological functions is still very challen”
The Human Sciences in a Biological Age (2013, background): “…cell from another (Wilmut and Highfield, 2006) and Craig Venter’s creation of Synthia – a bacterial cell controlled by a chemically synthesized genome (Gibson et al., 2010) – have led some to suggest that nothing is biologically impossible, and only our own imagination – and our own ethical and…”
The Anthropocene: From Global Change to Planetary Stewardship (2011, background): “Humanity has now come very close to synthesizing life with the construction in 2010 of a genome from its chemical constituents, which was then implanted successfully into a bacterium where it replaced the original DNA (Gibson et al. 2010).”