TY - JOUR
T1 - Update on designing and building minimal cells
AU - Jewett, Michael C.
AU - Forster, Anthony C.
N1 - Funding Information:
We are grateful to George Church for advice and comments on the manuscript and John Glass, John McCutcheon, and Michael Sismour for comments on the manuscript. This work was supported by the National Institutes of Health and National Academies Keck Futures Initiative (to MCJ and ACF), the National Science Foundation (to MCJ), and the American Cancer Society (to ACF).
PY - 2010/10
Y1 - 2010/10
N2 - Minimal cells comprise only the genes and biomolecular machinery necessary for basic life. Synthesizing minimal and minimized cells will improve understanding of core biology, enhance development of biotechnology strains of bacteria, and enable evolutionary optimization of natural and unnatural biopolymers. Design and construction of minimal cells is proceeding in two different directions: 'top-down' reduction of bacterial genomes in vivo and 'bottom-up' integration of DNA/RNA/protein/membrane syntheses in vitro. Major progress in the past 5 years has occurred in synthetic genomics, minimization of the Escherichia coli genome, sequencing of minimal bacterial endosymbionts, identification of essential genes, and integration of biochemical systems.
AB - Minimal cells comprise only the genes and biomolecular machinery necessary for basic life. Synthesizing minimal and minimized cells will improve understanding of core biology, enhance development of biotechnology strains of bacteria, and enable evolutionary optimization of natural and unnatural biopolymers. Design and construction of minimal cells is proceeding in two different directions: 'top-down' reduction of bacterial genomes in vivo and 'bottom-up' integration of DNA/RNA/protein/membrane syntheses in vitro. Major progress in the past 5 years has occurred in synthetic genomics, minimization of the Escherichia coli genome, sequencing of minimal bacterial endosymbionts, identification of essential genes, and integration of biochemical systems.
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U2 - 10.1016/j.copbio.2010.06.008
DO - 10.1016/j.copbio.2010.06.008
M3 - Review article
C2 - 20638265
AN - SCOPUS:77957345108
VL - 21
SP - 697
EP - 703
JO - Current Opinion in Biotechnology
JF - Current Opinion in Biotechnology
SN - 0958-1669
IS - 5
ER -