Synthetic Biology and Personalized Medicine

Jain, K.K.

The J. Craig Venter Institute has reported the design, synthesis and assembly of the genome starting from digitized genome sequence information and its transplantation into a recipient cell to create new bacterial cells that are controlled only by the synthetic DNA [7] . The researchers built up the synthetic genome of Mycoplasma mycoides , a fast-growing bacterium with a 1 million-base genome, by stitching together shorter stretches of DNA, each about 1,000 bases. They then transferred the completed genome into the shell of another bacterium, Mycoplasma capricolum , whose own DNA had been removed. The transplanted genome 'booted up' the host cell and took over its biological machinery. After 30 cell divisions, there were billions of synthetic bacteria in the laboratory dishes -all of them making exclusively the biological molecules associated with M. mycoides . The only DNA in the cells is the designed synthetic DNA sequence, including 'watermark' sequences and other designed gene deletions and polymorphisms, and mutations acquired during the building process. The new cells have expected phenotypic properties and are capable of continuous selfreplication. The synthetic bacteria have 14 'watermark sequences' attached to their genome -inert stretches of DNA added to distinguish them from their natural counterparts. They behaved and divided in laboratory dishes like natural bacteria.