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Synthetic biology

Construction of a yeast chromosome

Nature volume 509, pages 168–169 (2014)Cite this article

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One aim of synthetic biology is to generate complex synthetic organisms. Now, a stage in this process has been achieved in yeast cells — an entire yeast chromosome has been converted to a synthetic sequence in a stepwise manner.

A biological cell is much like a computer — the genome can be thought of as the software that encodes the cell's instructions, and the cellular machinery as the hardware that interprets and runs the software. Advances in DNA technology have made it possible for scientists to act as biological 'software engineers', programming new biological 'operating systems' into cells. Indeed, in 2010, the entire genome of the bacterium Mycoplasma mycoides was replaced with a rewritten synthetic genome, generating the first synthetic cell1. Now, in a paper published in Science, Annaluru et al.2 describe how they have begun rewriting the genome of a more complex organism, that of the yeast species Saccharomyces cerevisiae. The researchers report the design and generation of a functional, synthetic chromosome in this yeast, a milestone that they have had in their sights for almost ten years.

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Figure 1: Building synthetic genomes.

References

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Daniel G. Gibson and J. Craig Venter are at the J. Craig Venter Institute, La Jolla, California 92037, USA, and at Synthetic Genomics, La Jolla.,

    Daniel G. Gibson & J. Craig Venter

Authors
  1. Daniel G. Gibson
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  2. J. Craig Venter
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Correspondence to Daniel G. Gibson.

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Gibson, D., Venter, J. Construction of a yeast chromosome. Nature 509, 168–169 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1038/509168a

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