Venter Institute Scientists Create First Synthetic Bacter...(create 25 subassemblies each about 24000...)

The next step involved combining three 24kb fragments together to create 8 assembled blocks, each about 72,000 base pairs. These 1/8th fragments of the whole genome were again cloned into E. coli for DNA production and DNA sequencing. Step three involved combining two 1/8th fragments together to produce large fragments approximately 144,000 base pairs or 1/4th of the whole genome.

At this stage the team could not obtain half genome clones in E. coli, so the team experimented with yeast and found that it tolerated the large foreign DNA molecules well, and that they were able to assemble the fragments together by homologous recombination. This process was used to assemble the last cassettes, from 1/4 genome fragments to the final genome of more than 580,000 base pairs. The final chromosome was again sequenced in order to validate the complete accurate chemical structure.

The synthetic M. genitalium has a molecular weight of 360,110 kilodaltons (kDa). Printed in 10 point font, the letters of the M. genitalium JCVI-1.0 genome span 147 pages.

"This is an exciting advance for our team and the field. However, we continue to work toward the ultimate goal of inserting the synthetic chromosome into a cell and booting it up to create the first synthetic organism," said Dan Gibson, lead author.

The research to create the synthetic M. genitalium JCVI-1.0 was funded by Synthetic Genomics, Inc.

Background/Key Milestones in JCVI's Synthetic Genomics Research

The work described by Gibson et al. has its genesis in research by Dr. Venter and colleagues in the mid-1990s after sequencing M. genitalium and beginning work on the minimal genome project. This area of research, trying to understand the minimal genetic compone
'/>"/>