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News Genetics

Scientists build minimum-genome bacterium

Only 473 genes needed to keep organism alive

syn3.0

STRIPPED DOWN  A newly-created bacterium dubbed syn3.0 has the smallest genome needed for free living. It contains just 473 genes. Of those, 149 have unknown functions.

Credit: E. Otwell; Source: Hutchison et al/Science 2016. 

By Tina Hesman Saey

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