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Scientists take a big step toward creating custom organisms
Scientists dream of using custom organisms to fight illnesses or even build computers, but there's a problem: it's difficult to make the sweeping genetic changes that would give you exactly the lifeform you need. To that end, researchers have found a way to rewrite "large stretches" of genomes with synthetic DNA. The team modified salmonella bacteria by using step-by-step recombineering (that is, exchanging sequences between similar pieces of DNA) to patch in yeast-grown genes that were "amplified" to boost their quality. The result was salmonella with 1,557 replacements spread across 176 genes -- a huge change for a relatively simple organism.
Human-made bacteria has the tiniest genome ever
Believe it or not, creating artificial life (albeit based on existing species) isn't new. However, scientists have managed a particularly unusual feat: they've built synthetic bacteria that has the smallest known genome of any lifeform... ever. Their modification of Mycoplasma mycoides has just 473 genes, or so few that it likely couldn't survive and reproduce if you shrank the genome further. The trick was to do a better job of determining which genes were essential. Many of those that weren't deemed necessary in the past turned out to be half of a vital pair, giving researchers a good sense of what they could afford to cut.
