Craig Venter�s Synthetic Genome 3.0 Evokes Classic Experiments

J. Craig Venter and his colleagues at Synthetic Genomics Inc update their efforts to create a �hypothetical minimal genome" in Science .

�JCVI-syn3.0,� or syn3.0 for short, is about 531,000 DNA base pairs organized into 473 genes, serially transplanted into cells of the tiny and fast-replicating Mycoplasma mycoides and M. capricolum. The first iteration of the smallest synthetic genome, JVCI-syn1.0, has just over a million base pairs, and the intermediate JCVI-syn2.0 has 576,000.

While syn3.0 will serve as a foundation for future synthetic biology, it reminds me of two favorite experiments from more than half a century ago.