First self-replicating synthetic bacterial cell constructed

Friday, May 21, 2010 - 12:44 in Biology & Nature

Researchers at the J. Craig Venter Institute (JCVI) published results today describing the successful construction of the first self-replicating, synthetic bacterial cell. The team synthesised the 1.08 million base pair chromosome of a modified Mycoplasma mycoides genome. The synthetic cell is called Mycoplasma mycoides JCVI-syn1.0 and is the proof of principle that genomes can be designed in the computer, chemically made in the laboratory and transplanted into a recipient cell to produce a new self-replicating cell controlled only by the synthetic genome...

Read the whole article on

More from

Latest Science Newsletter

Get the latest and most popular science news articles of the week in your Inbox! It's free!

Check out our next project, Biology.Net