Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2016 Mar 25;351(6280):aad6253.
doi: 10.1126/science.aad6253.

Design and synthesis of a minimal bacterial genome

Clyde A Hutchison 3rd  1 , Ray-Yuan Chuang  1 , Vladimir N Noskov  1 , Nacyra Assad-Garcia  1 , Thomas J Deerinck  2 , Mark H Ellisman  2 , John Gill  3 , Krishna Kannan  3 , Bogumil J Karas  1 , Li Ma  1 , James F Pelletier  4 , Zhi-Qing Qi  3 , R Alexander Richter  1 , Elizabeth A Strychalski  4 , Lijie Sun  1 , Yo Suzuki  1 , Billyana Tsvetanova  3 , Kim S Wise  1 , Hamilton O Smith  5 , John I Glass  1 , Chuck Merryman  1 , Daniel G Gibson  5 , J Craig Venter  5
Affiliations

Design and synthesis of a minimal bacterial genome

Clyde A Hutchison 3rd et al. Science. .

Erratum in

Abstract

We used whole-genome design and complete chemical synthesis to minimize the 1079-kilobase pair synthetic genome of Mycoplasma mycoides JCVI-syn1.0. An initial design, based on collective knowledge of molecular biology combined with limited transposon mutagenesis data, failed to produce a viable cell. Improved transposon mutagenesis methods revealed a class of quasi-essential genes that are needed for robust growth, explaining the failure of our initial design. Three cycles of design, synthesis, and testing, with retention of quasi-essential genes, produced JCVI-syn3.0 (531 kilobase pairs, 473 genes), which has a genome smaller than that of any autonomously replicating cell found in nature. JCVI-syn3.0 retains almost all genes involved in the synthesis and processing of macromolecules. Unexpectedly, it also contains 149 genes with unknown biological functions. JCVI-syn3.0 is a versatile platform for investigating the core functions of life and for exploring whole-genome design.

PubMed Disclaimer

Comment in

  • The minimal genome comes of age.
    Vickers CE. Vickers CE. Nat Biotechnol. 2016 Jun 9;34(6):623-4. doi: 10.1038/nbt.3593. Nat Biotechnol. 2016. PMID: 27281422 No abstract available.

Publication types