Synthetic biology: From the first synthetic cell to see its current situation and future development

Zhang, LiuYan; Chang, SuHua; Wang, Jing

(ii) Synthesis of bacterial genome. In comparison to viruses, bacteria usually have bigger genomes and higher complexity. Venter and his team in JCVI spent 15 years in creating the first synthetic cell with the ability of self-replication. In general, there are 3 major technical challenges [60] : (1) De novo chemical synthesis and self-assembly of a complete genome; (2) genome transplantation between cells, prokaryotic or eukaryotic, to make the transplanted genome control the receptor cell; and (3) transplantation of a synthesized genome to a cell and make the donor genome control the receptor cell. Some other challenges also need to be tackled, such as the test of SNPs, quality control of DNA synthesis, DNA methylation, etc. It is estimated that about 40 million U.S. dollars were spent with over a decade efforts from 20 people for creation of such a synthetic cell [61] . Historical events of the synthetic genomic study in JCVI are listed in Table 4 .