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It's alive! Geneticist Craig Venter creates world's first artificial life

* By Leigh Dayton
* From: The Australian
* May 21, 2010 1:41AM

Dr Craig Venter on a visit to Sydney. He said his creation had "changed his views on the definitions of life" Source: The Australian

First synthetic cell created in US
US scientists have developed the first synthetic cell which could clean up environmental problems.

Dr Venter made the cover of Time for his work in cracking the genome Source: AP

* Scientist keeps vow made 15 years ago
* Builds DNA from scratch in the laboratory
* He has applied for patents on the process

A GENETICIST has delivered on a promise he made 15 years ago: to create the world's first artificial life, a cell controlled by DNA built from scratch in the laboratory.

"This is an important step, we think, both scientifically and philosophically," Dr Venter said. "It's certainly changed my views of the definitions of life and how life works."

The advance - reported in the journal Science - is, literally, living proof that designer microbes can be built for special jobs, such as producing biofuels and pharmaceuticals or removing pollutants from water or air.

"This is the first synthetic cell that's been made and we call it synthetic because the cell is totally derived from a synthetic (gene-bearing) chromosome, made with four bottles of chemicals on a chemical synthesiser, starting with information in a computer," Dr Venter said.

He has applied for patents on the process, assigning them to his company Synthetic Genomics, which helped fund the research.

John Mattick, Australian Research Council Fellow at Queensland University's Institute for Molecular Bioscience in Brisbane, said: "It's a technical tour de force."

Dr Venter and his team had already proved they could synthesise a bacterial genome and, separately, could transplant the genome of one bacterium into another.

Now they have synthesised the genome of a bacterium called Mycoplasma mycoides, transplanted it into another bacterium, M. capricolum, and watched as the artificial genes booted up the recipient cell to produce M. mycoides biochemical products called proteins.

How scientists created the first artifical life

1. Decode DNA from a bacterium (single-celled organism), in this case Mycoplasma mycoides

2. Synthetically create the DNA of the bacterium in the lab and add a "watermark" to distinguish it from real DNA

3. Transplant the artificial DNA into a living bacterium (in this case Mycoplasma capricolum) with its own authentic DNA

4. Allow the bacterium, which now contains artificial and authentic DNA, to divide and create "daughter" bacteria, some of which contain artifical DNA and others that contain authentic DNA

5. Add an antibiotic that kills the bacteria with authentic DNA, but not the bacteria with artificial DNA

6. Allow the artifical bacteria to produce proteins

RESULT: The artificial DNA produce proteins from the original bacterium, the Mycoplasma mycoides, qualifying as the world's first artificial cell

Read the full story at The Australian

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/wo.....5869402429