“The study, which resulted in the creation of a new bacteria, in General originally had several other goals — we wanted to test to what extent it is possible to reduce the genome of the organism, while maintaining the functionality of the basic systems of life,” says Dr. Craig Venter, the head of the project.
Scientists led by Venter, an experiment was conducted on the bacterium Mycoplasma mycoides, with a genome consisting of 901 gene. Genetics were able to cut back on the number of genes of a microorganism to 437 and thanks to that new bacterium that had not previously existed in nature.
In this case, the destination of about one third of the genes of the new organism, called JCVI-syn3.0, remained unclear. It is only known that the bacterium can not do without them.
“Synthetic organism JCVI-syn3.0 is the brightest proof of the absence of the existence of the mythical “life force” that supposedly breathes life into inanimate matter. Theoretically, you can create any kind of organism, only by manipulating the genes,” says Dr. Venter.
