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The minimal genome comes of age

Nature Biotechnology volume 34, pages 623–624 (2016)Cite this article

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A genome smaller than any known natural or reduced genome has been designed, synthesized and shown capable of sustaining self-replication in a free-living environment.

In 1973, geneticist Wacław Szybalski was asked during a panel discussion what he would like to be doing in the “somewhat non-foreseeable future.” Szybalski's reply: “Up to now we are working on the descriptive phase of molecular biology.... But the real challenge will start when we enter the synthetic phase.... We will then devise new control elements and add these new modules to the existing genomes or build up wholly new genomes ... [and] finally other [synthetic] organisms”1.Szybalski foresaw with remarkable clarity the initiation and progression of synthetic biology, a field that focuses on the design and construction of new biological parts and devices. Synthetic biology encompasses a broad variety of tools, approaches and applications, but its ultimate promise, as Szybalski noted, is in synthetic genomics. One aim of synthetic genomics is to devise a minimal genome—that is, a genome that contains only the genes required to sustain free-living self-replication. A functional minimal genome would help broaden understanding of the requirements for life and demonstrate the ability to build synthetic organisms, and it might lead to biotechnological applications. The latest step in that long road was taken recently with a publication in Science by Hutchison et al.2, which describes a functional, minimal synthetic bacterial genome that is the smallest yet reported.

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Figure 1: The future of synthetic genomics for biotechnological applications.

Marina Corral Spence/Nature Publishing Group

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  1. Claudia E. Vickers is at the Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia.,

    Claudia E Vickers

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  1. Claudia E Vickers
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Correspondence to Claudia E Vickers.

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Vickers, C. The minimal genome comes of age. Nat Biotechnol 34, 623–624 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1038/nbt.3593

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