Creating a living cell with a synthetic genome.

At the outset, like a photograph of all the pages of a book, the genome of a bacterium has been fully sequenced. The researchers then synthesized chemically, using machines, pieces of the genome.

Keywords: DNA, synthetic genome, nanobiology, John Craig Venter, Philip Marliere.

Nanobiology This will perhaps obtain bacteria that produce useful molecules to man.

It is one of the first humans whose genome was completely sequenced. And this is no accident. John Craig Venter is a pioneer in genome sequencing. He and his team he founded and runs two research institutes that bear his name, managed to achieve first bacterium they call "synthetic" because the genome is entirely synthetic. It was manufactured chemically from the genome of a bacterium, Mycoplasma mycoides (the agent of bovine pleuropneumonia).
"The work is extremely important," enthuses Philip Marliere of Genopole Evry (Essonne). For us, it's like the invention of the Gutenberg press and the first controlled chain reaction of nuclear fission by Enrico Fermi. "Geneticist, adviser to the director of life sciences at the Atomic Energy Commission , entrepreneur (he founded the company Global Bioenergies), Philippe Marliere invests in synthetic biology and is involved in the forthcoming establishment of a European Centre on the subject at Genopole.
"What is remarkable about this work is both the number of obstacles they have overcome and the method they have developed," says Philippe Marliere. And their work truly resemble the development of a broad genetic puzzle. At the outset, like a photograph of all the pages of a book, a bacterium's genome completely sequenced. The researchers then synthesized chemically, using machines, pieces of the genome. Page by page. This book has a million characters. The first blocks ofDNA 1000 characters have reconstituted and wear what we might call their page numbers. Then they are combined into chapters, 100,000 characters, and then assembled into a book of a million characters of putting it, and there, the kinds of watermarks to differentiate the synthetic genome from the natural.
The reconstituted bacterial chromosome has been reinjected into another mycoplasma (Mycoplasma capricolum, which infects goats) stripped of its own genomes. And the cell thus created has worked, and has shown formed colonies ... In their experiments, researchers have gleaned some insights: they have thus found that such "transplant" chromosome might encounter mechanisms "rejection". It also identified a mutation on a single character, and prevents chromosome replication, and hence that of the bacterium.

A search:
"The industrially useful bacteria have genomes that start at 2 million characters," explains Philippe Marliere. It should not be too difficult from the platform Venter able to extend this work to other micro-organisms. "For the mycoplames have no other interest than to be a tool research. Moreover, we must grow in real broth. It will turn to bacteria capable of living in simpler conditions.
What would it serve? 'This will probably nanobiology help develop synthetic Bacteria capable of producing a particular interesting molecule to man, says Philippe Marliere. And this, in terms of health security, both for humans and the environment, much better today. We can thus think of bacteria which leads to a synthetic genome completely dependent on the microorganism in a nutrient could not find in nature. This would prevent any risk of contamination, diffusion or recombination with other living entities. "This work thus open the way for both creating a new class of controlled species" artificial "and better understanding the still mysterious world of genetics.