Creation of a Bacterial Cell Controlled by a Chemically Synthesized Genome

• Published in: Science (American Association for the Advancement of Science) Vol. 329; no. 5987; pp. 52 - 56
• Main Authors: Gibson, Daniel G, Glass, John I, Lartigue, Carole, Noskov, Vladimir N, Chuang, Ray-Yuan, Algire, Mikkel A, Benders, Gwynedd A, Montague, Michael G, Ma, Li, Moodie, Monzia M, Merryman, Chuck, Vashee, Sanjay, Krishnakumar, Radha, Assad-Garcia, Nacyra, Andrews-Pfannkoch, Cynthia, Denisova, Evgeniya A, Young, Lei, Qi, Zhi-Qing, Segall-Shapiro, Thomas H, Calvey, Christopher H, Parmar, Prashanth P, Hutchison, Clyde A. III, Smith, Hamilton O, Venter, J. Craig
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Washington, DC American Association for the Advancement of Science 02.07.2010; The American Association for the Advancement of Science; American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)
• Subjects: Artificial cells; Bacteria; Bacterial Proteins - analysis; Base Sequence; Bioengineering; Biological and medical sciences; Biotechnology; Cellular biology; Cloning, Molecular; DNA; DNA, Bacterial - chemical synthesis; DNA, Bacterial - genetics; Escherichia coli - genetics; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Gels; Gene Deletion; Genes, Bacterial; Genetic Engineering; Genetic screening; Genetic technics; Genetic vectors; Genome, Bacterial; Genomes; Genomics; Life Sciences; Methods. Procedures. Technologies; Microbiology; Molecular Sequence Data; Molecules; Mycoplasma capricolum - genetics; Mycoplasma mycoides - genetics; Mycoplasma mycoides - growth & development; Mycoplasma mycoides - physiology; Mycoplasma mycoides - ultrastructure; Phenotype; Plasmids; Polymerase Chain Reaction; Polymorphism, Genetic; RESEARCH ARTICLE; Saccharomyces cerevisiae - genetics; Transformation, Bacterial; Transplantation; Yeasts; Mollicutes; Mycoplasmatales; Mycoplasma mycoides; Bacteria; Mycoplasmataceae; Synthetic genome
• ISSN: 0036-8075; 1095-9203
• DOI: 10.1126/science.1190719

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.