Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

Synthetic biology

Designs for life

Nature volume 448, pages 32–33 (2007)Cite this article

The genome of one bacterium has been successfully replaced with that of a different bacterium, transforming one species into another. This development is a harbinger of whole-genome engineering for practical ends.

If your computer doesn't do the things you want, give it a new operating system. As they describe in Science1, Carole Lartigue and colleagues at the J. Craig Venter Institute in Rockville, Maryland, have now demonstrated that the same idea will work for living cellsFootnote 1.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Relevant articles

Open Access articles citing this article.

Access options

Rent or buy this article

Get just this article for as long as you need it

$39.95

Learn more

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Figure 1: Genome swap.

J. CRAIG VENTER INST.

Notes

  1. *This article was published online on 1 July 2007.

References

  1. Lartigue, C. et al. Science doi:10.1126/1144622 (2007).

  2. Fraser, C. M. et al. Science 270, 397–403 (1995).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  3. Itaya, M. et al. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 102, 15971–15976 (2005).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  4. Kavli Futures Symposium The Merging of Bio and Nano: Towards Cyborg Cells 11–15 June 2007, Ilulissat, Greenland.

  5. Nature 447, 1031–1032 (2007).

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Philip Ball is a consultant editor for Nature. p.ball@nature.com,

    Philip Ball

Authors
  1. Philip Ball
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Rights and permissions

Reprints and Permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Ball, P. Designs for life. Nature 448, 32–33 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1038/448032a

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/448032a

This article is cited by

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing