Published Online May 20 2010
< Science Express Index
Science DOI: 10.1126/science.1190719
  • Research Article

Creation of a Bacterial Cell Controlled by a Chemically Synthesized Genome

  1. Daniel G. Gibson1,
  2. John I. Glass1,
  3. Carole Lartigue1,
  4. Vladimir N. Noskov1,
  5. Ray-Yuan Chuang1,
  6. Mikkel A. Algire1,
  7. Gwynedd A. Benders2,
  8. Michael G. Montague1,
  9. Li Ma1,
  10. Monzia M. Moodie1,
  11. Chuck Merryman1,
  12. Sanjay Vashee1,
  13. Radha Krishnakumar1,
  14. Nacyra Assad-Garcia1,
  15. Cynthia Andrews-Pfannkoch1,
  16. Evgeniya A. Denisova1,
  17. Lei Young1,
  18. Zhi-Qing Qi1,
  19. Thomas H. Segall-Shapiro1,
  20. Christopher H. Calvey1,
  21. Prashanth P. Parmar1,
  22. Clyde A. Hutchison III2,
  23. Hamilton O. Smith2 and
  24. J. Craig Venter1,2,*
  1. 1The J. Craig Venter Institute, 9704 Medical Center Drive, Rockville, MD 20850, USA.
  2. 2The J. Craig Venter Institute, 10355 Science Center Drive, San Diego, CA 92121, USA.
  1. *To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: jcventer{at}jcvi.org

Abstract

We report the design, synthesis, and assembly of the 1.08-Mbp Mycoplasma mycoides JCVI-syn1.0 genome starting from digitized genome sequence information and its transplantation into a Mycoplasma capricolum recipient cell to create new Mycoplasma mycoides cells that are controlled only by the synthetic chromosome. 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 self-replication.

  • Received for publication 9 April 2010.
  • Accepted for publication 13 May 2010.