# s-gene-biotech: the first designer minimal cell JCVI-syn3.0

<< "It doesn’t do anything magical rather than live, eat, and self-replicate,” Venter [@JCVenter]  says. But it is, he says, “the first designer organism in history" >>

Matthew Herper. After 20 Year Quest, Biologists Create Synthetic Bacteria With No Extra Genes. Mar 24, 2016 02:00 PM

http://www.forbes.com/sites/matthewherper/2016/03/24/bio-maverick-craig-venter-hacks-bacteria-to-have-tiniest-possible-genetic-code/

<<  JCVI-syn3.0 is a working approximation of a minimal cellular genome, a compromise between small genome size and a workable growth rate for an experimental organism. It retains almost all the genes that are involved in the synthesis and processing of macromolecules. Unexpectedly, it also contains 149 genes with unknown biological functions, suggesting the presence of undiscovered functions that are essential for life. >>

Clyde A. Hutchison III, Ray-Yuan Chuang, et al. Design and synthesis of a minimal bacterial genome. Science  25 Mar 2016: Vol. 351, Issue 6280, DOI: 10.1126/science.aad6253

http://science.sciencemag.org/content/351/6280/aad6253