Year in review: ‘Minimal genome’ makes its debut
Synthetic cell may reveal what is necessary for life
MOST MINUSCULE Named syn3.0, engineered bacteria developed at the J. Craig Venter Institute can survive and function with just 473 genes.
Mark Ellisman/National Center for Imaging and Microscopy Research
One of biology’s biggest achievements of 2016 was intentionally as small as possible: building a bacterium with only 473 genes. That pint-size genetic blueprint, the smallest for any known free-living cell, is a milestone in a decades-long effort to create an organism containing just the bare essentials necessary to exist and reproduce. Such “minimal genome” cells might eventually serve as templates for lab-made organisms that pump out medicines, make innovative chemicals for industry and agriculture, or churn out other molecules not yet imagined. The project also identified genes crucial for the microbe’s survival yet largely unfamiliar to science,
