Читать книгу Snyder and Champness Molecular Genetics of Bacteria - Tina M. Henkin - Страница 45

More recently, advances in DNA synthesis and DNA recombination have been ushering in a new age of bacterial molecular genetics under the name of synthetic genomics, where massive strands of DNA large enough to comprise entire genomes can be made from the building blocks of DNA. In 2010, a significant milestone was reached with synthetic genomics when a derivative of the entire genome of Mycoplasma mycoides was synthesized from scratch, assembled by recombination, and used to replace the DNA in a related species (see Gibson et al., Suggested Reading). In one of the first demonstrations of the utility of this technique, in 2016, a minimal bacterial genome encoding only 473 genes was designed and synthesized, placing it as the smallest known genome in an autonomously replicating organism (see Hutchison et al., Suggested Reading). Amazingly and humbling, 149 of the 473 genes found necessary to support the growth of this organism are of unknown biological function, indicating that we still have much to learn about the molecular genetics of bacteria. While the ability to design bacteria de novo will likely have to include certain safeguards and greater public understanding, these types of experiments hold great promise for industrial use, as tools in medicine, and for addressing basic scientific questions, such as what is the minimum genetic requirement for life as a free-living organism.

These examples illustrate that bacteria and their phages have been central to the development of molecular genetics and recombinant DNA technology. Contrast the timing of these developments with the timing of comparable major developments in physics (early 1900s) and chemistry (1920s and 1930s), and you can see that molecular genetics is arguably the most recent major conceptual breakthrough in the history of science.