''Mycoplasma laboratorium'' or Synthia
refers to a plan to produce a
synthetic
Synthetic may refer to:
Science
* Synthetic biology
* Synthetic chemical or compound, produced by the process of chemical synthesis
* Synthetic elements, chemical elements that are not naturally found on Earth and therefore have to be created in ...
strain of
bacterium
Bacteria (; : bacterium) are ubiquitous, mostly free-living organisms often consisting of one biological cell. They constitute a large domain of prokaryotic microorganisms. Typically a few micrometres in length, bacteria were among the ...
. The project to build the new bacterium has evolved since its inception. Initially the goal was to identify a minimal set of
gene
In biology, the word gene has two meanings. The Mendelian gene is a basic unit of heredity. The molecular gene is a sequence of nucleotides in DNA that is transcribed to produce a functional RNA. There are two types of molecular genes: protei ...
s that are required to sustain life from the
genome
A genome is all the genetic information of an organism. It consists of nucleotide sequences of DNA (or RNA in RNA viruses). The nuclear genome includes protein-coding genes and non-coding genes, other functional regions of the genome such as ...
of ''
Mycoplasma genitalium
''Mycoplasma genitalium'' (also known as ''MG','' Mgen, or since 2018, ''Mycoplasmoides genitalium'') is a sexually transmitted, small and pathogenic bacterium that lives on the mucous epithelial cells of the urinary and genital tracts in ...
'', and rebuild these genes synthetically to create a "new" organism. ''Mycoplasma genitalium'' was originally chosen as the basis for this project because at the time it had the smallest number of genes of all organisms analyzed. Later, the focus switched to ''
Mycoplasma mycoides
''Mycoplasma mycoides'' is a bacterial species of the genus ''Mycoplasma'' in the class Mollicutes.
This microorganism is a parasite that lives in ruminants. ''Mycoplasma mycoides'' comprises two subspecies, ''Mycoplasma mycoides subsp. mycoides, ...
'' and took a more trial-and-error approach.
To identify the minimal genes required for life, each of the 482 genes of ''M. genitalium'' was individually deleted and the viability of the resulting mutants was tested. This resulted in the identification of a minimal set of 382 genes that theoretically should represent a minimal genome.
[
] In 2008 the full set of ''M. genitalium'' genes was constructed in the laboratory with watermarks added to identify the genes as synthetic.
However ''M. genitalium'' grows extremely slowly and ''M. mycoides'' was chosen as the new focus to accelerate experiments aimed at determining the set of genes actually needed for growth.
In 2010, the complete genome of ''M. mycoides'' subsp. ''capri'' GM12 was successfully synthesized from a computer record and transplanted into an existing cell of ''
Mycoplasma capricolum'' that had had its DNA removed.
It is estimated that the synthetic genome used for this project cost US$40 million and 200
man-years to produce.
The new bacterium was able to grow and was named JCVI-syn1.0, or Synthia. After additional experimentation to identify a smaller set of genes that could produce a functional organism, JCVI-syn3.0 was produced, containing 473 genes.
149 of these genes are of unknown function.
Since the genome of JCVI-syn3.0 is novel, it is considered the first truly synthetic organism.
Minimal genome project
The production of Synthia is an effort in
synthetic biology
Synthetic biology (SynBio) is a multidisciplinary field of science that focuses on living systems and organisms. It applies engineering principles to develop new biological parts, devices, and systems or to redesign existing systems found in nat ...
at the
J. Craig Venter Institute by a team of approximately 20 scientists headed by
Nobel laureate
The Nobel Prizes (, ) are awarded annually by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, the Swedish Academy, the Karolinska Institutet, and the Norwegian Nobel Committee to individuals and organizations who make outstanding contributions in th ...
Hamilton Smith and including
DNA
Deoxyribonucleic acid (; DNA) is a polymer composed of two polynucleotide chains that coil around each other to form a double helix. The polymer carries genetic instructions for the development, functioning, growth and reproduction of al ...
researcher
Craig Venter
John Craig Venter (born October 14, 1946) is an American scientist. He is known for leading one of the first draft sequences of the human genome and led the first team to transfect a cell with a synthetic chromosome. Venter founded Celera Geno ...
and
microbiologist
A microbiologist (from Greek ) is a scientist who studies microscopic life forms and processes. This includes study of the growth, interactions and characteristics of microscopic organisms such as bacteria, algae, fungi, and some types of par ...
Clyde A. Hutchison III. The overall goal is to reduce a living organism to its essentials and thus understand what is required to build a new organism from scratch.
The initial focus was the bacterium ''M. genitalium'', an
obligate intracellular parasite
Intracellular parasites are microparasites that are capable of growing and reproducing inside the cells of a host. They are also called intracellular pathogens.
Types
There are two main types of intracellular parasites: Facultative and Obligate ...
whose
genome
A genome is all the genetic information of an organism. It consists of nucleotide sequences of DNA (or RNA in RNA viruses). The nuclear genome includes protein-coding genes and non-coding genes, other functional regions of the genome such as ...
consists of 482
gene
In biology, the word gene has two meanings. The Mendelian gene is a basic unit of heredity. The molecular gene is a sequence of nucleotides in DNA that is transcribed to produce a functional RNA. There are two types of molecular genes: protei ...
s comprising 582,970
base pairs
A base pair (bp) is a fundamental unit of double-stranded nucleic acids consisting of two nucleobases bound to each other by hydrogen bonds. They form the building blocks of the DNA double helix and contribute to the folded structure of both DNA ...
, arranged on one circular
chromosome
A chromosome is a package of DNA containing part or all of the genetic material of an organism. In most chromosomes, the very long thin DNA fibers are coated with nucleosome-forming packaging proteins; in eukaryotic cells, the most import ...
(at the time the project began, this was the smallest genome of any known natural organism that can be grown in free culture). They used transposon mutagenesis to identify genes that were not essential for the growth of the organism, resulting in a minimal set of 382 genes.
This effort was known as the Minimal Genome Project.
Choice of organism
''Mycoplasma''
''Mycoplasma'' is a genus of
bacteria
Bacteria (; : bacterium) are ubiquitous, mostly free-living organisms often consisting of one Cell (biology), biological cell. They constitute a large domain (biology), domain of Prokaryote, prokaryotic microorganisms. Typically a few micr ...
of the class
Mollicutes
Mollicutes is a class of bacteria distinguished by the absence of a cell wall and its peptidoglycan. The word "Mollicutes" is derived from the Latin ' (meaning "soft" or "pliable"), and ' (meaning "skin"). Individuals are very small, typically on ...
in the division
Mycoplasmatota
Mycoplasmatota is a phylum of bacteria that contains the class Mollicutes. The phylum was originally named "Tenericutes" (''tener cutis'': soft skin). Notable genera include '' Mycoplasma'', '' Spiroplasma'', '' Ureaplasma'', and ''Candidatus'' ...
(formerly Tenericutes), characterised by the lack of a
cell wall
A cell wall is a structural layer that surrounds some Cell type, cell types, found immediately outside the cell membrane. It can be tough, flexible, and sometimes rigid. Primarily, it provides the cell with structural support, shape, protection, ...
(making it
Gram negative
Gram-negative bacteria are bacteria that, unlike gram-positive bacteria, do not retain the crystal violet stain used in the Gram staining method of bacterial differentiation. Their defining characteristic is that their cell envelope consists of ...
) due to its
parasitic
Parasitism is a close relationship between species, where one organism, the parasite, lives (at least some of the time) on or inside another organism, the host, causing it some harm, and is adapted structurally to this way of life. The ent ...
or
commensal
Commensalism is a long-term biological interaction (symbiosis) in which members of one species gain benefits while those of the other species neither benefit nor are harmed. This is in contrast with mutualism, in which both organisms benefit f ...
lifestyle.
In
molecular biology
Molecular biology is a branch of biology that seeks to understand the molecule, molecular basis of biological activity in and between Cell (biology), cells, including biomolecule, biomolecular synthesis, modification, mechanisms, and interactio ...
, the genus has received much attention, both for being a notoriously difficult-to-eradicate contaminant in mammalian
cell culture
Cell culture or tissue culture is the process by which cell (biology), cells are grown under controlled conditions, generally outside of their natural environment. After cells of interest have been Cell isolation, isolated from living tissue, ...
s (it is immune to
beta-lactams and other
antibiotics
An antibiotic is a type of antimicrobial substance active against bacteria. It is the most important type of antibacterial agent for fighting pathogenic bacteria, bacterial infections, and antibiotic medications are widely used in the therapy ...
),
[Young L, Sung J, Stacey G, Masters JR. "Detection of ''Mycoplasma'' in cell cultures". ''Nat Protoc.'' 2010 5(5): 929–34. Epub 2010 Apr 22.] and for its potential uses as a
model organism
A model organism is a non-human species that is extensively studied to understand particular biological phenomena, with the expectation that discoveries made in the model organism will provide insight into the workings of other organisms. Mo ...
due to its small genome size.
In 1996, after comparing ''M. genitalium'' with another small bacterium ''Haemophilus influenzae'', Arcady Mushegian and Eugene Koonin had proposed that there might be a common set of 256 genes which could be a minimal set of genes needed for viability.
The choice of genus for the Synthia project dates to 2000, when Karl Reich coined the phrase ''Mycoplasma laboratorium''.
Other organisms with small genomes
As of 2005, ''
Pelagibacter ubique
"''Candidatus'' Pelagibacter", with the single species "''Ca.'' P. communis", was isolated in 2002 and given a specific name, although it has not yet been described as required by the bacteriological code. It is an abundant member of the SAR11 ...
'' (an
α-proteobacterium of the order
Rickettsiales) has the smallest known genome (1,308,759 base pairs) of any free living organism and is one of the smallest self-replicating cells known. It is possibly the most numerous bacterium in the world (perhaps 10
28 individual cells) and, along with other members of the
SAR11 clade, are estimated to make up between a quarter and a half of all bacterial or
archaea
Archaea ( ) is a Domain (biology), domain of organisms. Traditionally, Archaea only included its Prokaryote, prokaryotic members, but this has since been found to be paraphyletic, as eukaryotes are known to have evolved from archaea. Even thou ...
l cells in the ocean.
It was identified in 2002 by
rRNA sequences and was fully sequenced in 2005.
It is extremely hard to cultivate a species which does not reach a high growth density in lab culture.
Several newly discovered species have fewer genes than ''M. genitalium'', but are not free-living: many essential genes that are missing in ''
Hodgkinia cicadicola'', ''
Sulcia muelleri'', ''
Baumannia cicadellinicola'' (symbionts of
cicada
The cicadas () are a superfamily, the Cicadoidea, of insects in the order Hemiptera (true bugs). They are in the suborder Auchenorrhyncha, along with smaller jumping bugs such as leafhoppers and froghoppers. The superfamily is divided into two ...
s) and ''
Carsonella ruddi'' (symbiote of hackberry petiole gall psyllid, ''
Pachypsylla venusta''
) may be encoded in the host nucleus.
The organism with the smallest known set of genes as of 2013 is ''
Nasuia deltocephalinicola'', an obligate
symbiont
Symbiosis (Ancient Greek : living with, companionship < : together; and ''bíōsis'': living) is any type of a close and long-term biological interaction, between two organisms of different species. The two organisms, termed symbionts, can fo ...
. It has only 137 genes and a genome size of 112 kb.
Techniques
Several laboratory techniques had to be developed or adapted for the project, since it required synthesis and manipulation of very large pieces of DNA.
Bacterial genome transplantation
In 2007, Venter's team reported that they had managed to transfer the chromosome of the species ''Mycoplasma mycoides'' to ''Mycoplasma capricolum'' by:
* isolating the genome of ''M. mycoides'': gentle lysis of cells trapped in agar—molten agar mixed with cells and left to form a gel—followed by
pulse field gel electrophoresis and the band of the correct size (circular 1.25Mbp) being isolated;
* making the recipient cells of ''M. capricolum'' competent: growth in rich media followed starvation in poor media where the nucleotide starvation results in inhibition of DNA replication and change of morphology; and
*
polyethylene glycol
Polyethylene glycol (PEG; ) is a polyether compound derived from petroleum with many applications, from industrial manufacturing to medicine. PEG is also known as polyethylene oxide (PEO) or polyoxyethylene (POE), depending on its molecular wei ...
-mediated transformation of the circular chromosome to the DNA-free cells followed by selection.
The term
transformation is used to refer to insertion of a vector into a bacterial cell (by electroporation or heatshock). Here, transplantation is used akin to
nuclear transplantation.
Bacterial chromosome synthesis
In 2008 Venter's group described the production of a synthetic genome, a copy of ''M. genitalium'' G37 sequenc
L43967 by means of a hierarchical strategy:
*Synthesis → 1kbp: The genome sequence was
synthesized b
Blue Heronin 1,078 1080bp cassettes with 80bp overlap and
NotI restriction sites (inefficient but infrequent cutter).
*Ligation → 10kbp: 109 groups of a series of 10 consecutive cassettes were ligated and cloned in ''E. coli'' on a
plasmid
A plasmid is a small, extrachromosomal DNA molecule within a cell that is physically separated from chromosomal DNA and can replicate independently. They are most commonly found as small circular, double-stranded DNA molecules in bacteria and ...
and the correct permutation checked by sequencing.
*Multiplex PCR → 100kbp: 11 Groups of a series of 10 consecutive 10kbp assemblies (grown in yeast) were joined by multiplex PCR, using a primer pair for each 10kbp assembly.
*Isolation and recombination → secondary assemblies were isolated, joined and transformed into yeast
spheroplast
A spheroplast (or sphaeroplast in British usage) is a microbial cell from which the cell wall has been almost completely removed, as by the action of penicillin or lysozyme. According to some definitions, the term is used to describe Gram-negative ...
s without a vector sequence (present in assembly 811-900).
The genome of this 2008 result, ''M. genitalium'' JCVI-1.0, is published on GenBank a
CP001621.1 It is not to be confused with the later synthetic organisms, labelled JCVI-syn, based on ''M. mycoides''.
Synthetic genome
In 2010 Venter and colleagues created ''Mycoplasma mycoides'' strain JCVI-syn1.0 with a synthetic genome.
Initially the synthetic construct did not work, so to pinpoint the error—which caused a delay of 3 months in the whole project
—a series of semi-synthetic constructs were created. The cause of the failure was a single frameshift mutation in
DnaA, a
replication initiation factor.
The purpose of constructing a cell with a synthetic genome was to test the methodology as a step to creating modified genomes in the future. Using a natural genome as a template minimized the potential sources of failure. 8 segments made in yeast were pieced together to form the genome. Several differences are present in ''Mycoplasma mycoides'' JCVI-syn1.0 relative to the reference genome, notably an ''E.coli'' transposon IS1 (an infection from the 10kb stage) and an 85bp duplication, as well as elements required for propagation in yeast and residues from restriction sites.
There has been controversy over whether JCVI-syn1.0 is a true synthetic organism. While the genome was synthesized chemically in many pieces, it was constructed to match the parent genome closely and transplanted into the cytoplasm of a natural cell. DNA alone cannot create a viable cell: proteins and RNAs are needed to read the DNA, and
lipid membranes are required to compartmentalize the DNA and
cytoplasm
The cytoplasm describes all the material within a eukaryotic or prokaryotic cell, enclosed by the cell membrane, including the organelles and excluding the nucleus in eukaryotic cells. The material inside the nucleus of a eukaryotic cell a ...
. In JCVI-syn1.0 the two species used as donor and recipient are of the same genus, reducing potential problems of mismatches between the proteins in the host cytoplasm and the new genome.
Paul Keim (a molecular geneticist at
Northern Arizona University
Northern Arizona University (NAU) is a public research university based in Flagstaff, Arizona, United States. Founded in 1899, it was the third and final university established in the Arizona Territory.
It is one of the three universities gove ...
in
Flagstaff) noted that "there are great challenges ahead before genetic engineers can mix, match, and fully design an organism's genome from scratch".
Watermarks

A much publicized feature of JCVI-syn1.0 is the presence of watermark sequences. The 4 watermarks (shown in Figure S1 in the supplementary material of the paper
) are coded messages written into the DNA, of length 1246, 1081, 1109 and 1222 base pairs respectively. These messages did not use the
standard genetic code, in which sequences of 3 DNA bases encode amino acids, but a new code invented for this purpose, which readers were challenged to solve.
The content of the watermarks is as follows:
# Watermark 1: an
HTML
Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) is the standard markup language for documents designed to be displayed in a web browser. It defines the content and structure of web content. It is often assisted by technologies such as Cascading Style Sheets ( ...
document which reads in a Web browser as text congratulating the decoder, and instructions on how to email the authors to prove the decoding.
# Watermark 2: a list of authors and a quote from
James Joyce
James Augustine Aloysius Joyce (born James Augusta Joyce; 2 February 1882 – 13 January 1941) was an Irish novelist, poet, and literary critic. He contributed to the modernist avant-garde movement and is regarded as one of the most influentia ...
: "To live, to err, to fall, to triumph, to recreate life out of life".
# Watermark 3: more authors and a quote from
Robert Oppenheimer
J. Robert Oppenheimer (born Julius Robert Oppenheimer ; April 22, 1904 – February 18, 1967) was an American theoretical physicist who served as the director of the Manhattan Project's Los Alamos Laboratory during World War II. He is often ...
(uncredited): "See things not as they are, but as they might be".
# Watermark 4: more authors and a quote from
Richard Feynman
Richard Phillips Feynman (; May 11, 1918 – February 15, 1988) was an American theoretical physicist. He is best known for his work in the path integral formulation of quantum mechanics, the theory of quantum electrodynamics, the physics of t ...
: "What I cannot build, I cannot understand".
Later evolutions
JCVI-syn3.0

In 2016, the Venter Institute used genes from JCVI-syn1.0 to synthesize a smaller genome they call JCVI-syn3.0, that contains 531,560 base pairs and 473 genes.
[First Minimal Synthetic Bacterial Cell](_blank)
''Astrobiology Web''. March 24, 2016. In this new organism, the number of genes can only be pared down to 473, 149 of which have functions that are completely unknown (as of 2016).
To make JCVI-syn3.0, scientists used a strain called JCVI-syn2.0 to study which genes could be safely deleted.
JCVI-syn3A
JCVI-syn3.0 cells were fragile and difficult to manipulate. They also had variable, irregular shapes. To address this issue, a new strain called JCVI-syn3A was constructed in 2017, incorporating 19 additional genes from JCVI-syn1.0 and removing two other genes. Genes added include the cell partitioning proteins FtsZ and SepF and some proteins of unknown function. The resulting bacterium had 493 genes (452 proteins, 38 RNAs) on a 543 kbp genome. A complete computational model of all metabolic pathways in syn3A was published in 2019, representing the first
in silico
In biology and other experimental sciences, an ''in silico'' experiment is one performed on a computer or via computer simulation software. The phrase is pseudo-Latin for 'in silicon' (correct ), referring to silicon in computer chips. It was c ...
model for a living minimal organism. It covered 155 genes carrying out 338 chemical reactions. Future models will cover
ribosome biogenesis and
tRNA biogenesis.
As of 2019, 91 genes in syn3A had an unknown function. 8 of these had an
ortholog
Sequence homology is the biological homology between DNA, RNA, or protein sequences, defined in terms of shared ancestry in the evolutionary history of life. Two segments of DNA can have shared ancestry because of three phenomena: either a speci ...
in
KEGG
KEGG (Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes) is a collection of databases dealing with genomes, biological pathways, diseases, drugs, and chemical substances. KEGG is utilized for bioinformatics research and education, including data analysis ...
, which sheds partial light on a possible function.
[
]
JCVI-syn3B
JCVI-syn3B was first described in a 2021 (published in 2023) article about evolution in this strain. Its genome was published in 2024 as part of an article detailing its use as a model system of interaction between ''M. mycoides'' and mammalian cells. Syn3B was not able to attach to these cells or live within them as an intracellular parasite, but Syn1.0 could. Eight genes in Syn1.0 were found to be necessary for these behavior. When introduced back into Syn3B, the transformed strain could attach but not survive phagocytosis. Syn3B's genome (CP146056) is very similar to that of syn3A, with the exception of a few indels and the addition of a 1186bp stretch of yeast origin also present in Syn3.0.
Efforts to annotate genes of unknown function
Readers are recommended to confer the Introduction section in Bianchi et al. (2022) for efforts to annotate genes of unknown function in JCVI strains. Both wet-laboratory and bioinformatic
Bioinformatics () is an interdisciplinary field of science
Science is a systematic discipline that builds and organises knowledge in the form of testable hypotheses and predictions about the universe. Modern science is typically divi ...
methods have been used to shed light on these genes. The work by Bianchi et al. is itself an attempt at finding homologous proteins via bioinformatics.
Concerns and controversy
Reception
On Oct 6, 2007, Craig Venter announced in an interview with UK's ''The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...
'' newspaper that the same team had synthesized a modified version of the single chromosome
A chromosome is a package of DNA containing part or all of the genetic material of an organism. In most chromosomes, the very long thin DNA fibers are coated with nucleosome-forming packaging proteins; in eukaryotic cells, the most import ...
of ''Mycoplasma genitalium
''Mycoplasma genitalium'' (also known as ''MG','' Mgen, or since 2018, ''Mycoplasmoides genitalium'') is a sexually transmitted, small and pathogenic bacterium that lives on the mucous epithelial cells of the urinary and genital tracts in ...
'' chemically. The synthesized genome had not yet been transplanted into a working cell. The next day the Canadian bioethics
Bioethics is both a field of study and professional practice, interested in ethical issues related to health (primarily focused on the human, but also increasingly includes animal ethics), including those emerging from advances in biology, me ...
group, ETC Group issued a statement through their representative, Pat Mooney, saying Venter's "creation" was "a chassis on which you could build almost anything. It could be a contribution to humanity such as new drugs or a huge threat to humanity such as bio-weapons". Venter commented "We are dealing in big ideas. We are trying to create a new value system for life. When dealing at this scale, you can't expect everybody to be happy."
On May 21, 2010, ''Science'' reported that the Venter group had successfully synthesized the genome of the bacterium ''Mycoplasma mycoides'' from a computer record and transplanted the synthesized genome into the existing cell of a ''Mycoplasma capricolum'' bacterium that had had its DNA removed. The "synthetic" bacterium was viable, i.e. capable of replicating. Venter described it as "the first species.... to have its parents be a computer".
The creation of a new synthetic bacterium, JCVI-3.0 was announced in ''Science'' on March 25, 2016. It has only 473 genes. Venter called it “the first designer organism in history” and argued that the fact that 149 of the genes required have unknown functions means that "the entire field of biology has been missing a third of what is essential to life".
Press coverage
The project received a large amount of coverage from the press due to Venter's showmanship, to the degree that Jay Keasling, a pioneering synthetic biologist and founder of Amyris commented that "The only regulation we need is of my colleague's mouth".
Utility
Venter has argued that synthetic bacteria are a step towards creating organisms to manufacture hydrogen
Hydrogen is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol, symbol H and atomic number 1. It is the lightest and abundance of the chemical elements, most abundant chemical element in the universe, constituting about 75% of all baryon, normal matter ...
and biofuel
Biofuel is a fuel that is produced over a short time span from Biomass (energy), biomass, rather than by the very slow natural processes involved in the formation of fossil fuels such as oil. Biofuel can be produced from plants or from agricu ...
s, and also to absorb carbon dioxide
Carbon dioxide is a chemical compound with the chemical formula . It is made up of molecules that each have one carbon atom covalent bond, covalently double bonded to two oxygen atoms. It is found in a gas state at room temperature and at norma ...
and other greenhouse gas
Greenhouse gases (GHGs) are the gases in the atmosphere that raise the surface temperature of planets such as the Earth. Unlike other gases, greenhouse gases absorb the radiations that a planet emits, resulting in the greenhouse effect. T ...
es. George M. Church, another pioneer in synthetic biology
Synthetic biology (SynBio) is a multidisciplinary field of science that focuses on living systems and organisms. It applies engineering principles to develop new biological parts, devices, and systems or to redesign existing systems found in nat ...
, has expressed the contrasting view that creating a fully synthetic genome is not necessary since ''E. coli
''Escherichia coli'' ( )Wells, J. C. (2000) Longman Pronunciation Dictionary. Harlow ngland Pearson Education Ltd. is a gram-negative, facultative anaerobic, rod-shaped, coliform bacterium of the genus ''Escherichia'' that is commonly foun ...
'' grows more efficiently than ''M. genitalium'' even with all its extra DNA; he commented that synthetic genes have been incorporated into ''E.coli'' to perform some of the above tasks.[Longest Piece of Synthetic DNA Yet](_blank)
''Scientific American News'', 24 January 2008
Intellectual property
The J. Craig Venter Institute filed patents for the ''Mycoplasma laboratorium'' genome (the "minimal bacterial genome") in the U.S. and internationally in 2006.[Artificial life: Patent pending]
, ''The Economist'', June 14, 2007. Retrieved October 7, 2007.[Roger Highfield,]
Man-made microbe 'to create endless biofuel'
, ''Telegraph'', June 8, 2007. Retrieved October 7, 2007.[US Patent Application]
The ETC group, a Canadian bioethics group, protested on the grounds that the patent was too broad in scope.
Similar projects
From 2002 to 2010, a team at the Hungarian Academy of Science created a strain of ''Escherichia coli
''Escherichia coli'' ( )Wells, J. C. (2000) Longman Pronunciation Dictionary. Harlow ngland Pearson Education Ltd. is a gram-negative, facultative anaerobic, rod-shaped, coliform bacterium of the genus '' Escherichia'' that is commonly fo ...
'' called MDS42, which is now sold by Scarab Genomics of Madison, WI under the name of "Clean Genome. E.coli", where 15% of the genome of the parental strain (E. coli K-12 MG1655) were removed to aid in molecular biology efficiency, removing IS elements, pseudogene
Pseudogenes are nonfunctional segments of DNA that resemble functional genes. Pseudogenes can be formed from both protein-coding genes and non-coding genes. In the case of protein-coding genes, most pseudogenes arise as superfluous copies of fun ...
s and phages, resulting in better maintenance of plasmid-encoded toxic genes, which are often inactivated by transposons. Biochemistry and replication machinery were not altered.
References
Primary sources
Popular press
External links
J. Craig Venter Institute: Research Groups
Genomic sequences
NCBI Taxonomy List: Synthetic organisms
– includes 9 synthetic bacteria from this family
{{Bacteria classification, state=collapsed
Artificial life
Synthetic biology
Mycoplasma