Man could be on the brink of creating the first artificial organism, a landmark development that would provide a profound insight into the origins, workings and essence of life, and vast new opportunities to exploit living organisms. The scientist behind the effort, Dr Craig Venter, wants to synthesise new kinds of bug to clean up the environment, generate biofuels and green energy, even mop up greenhouse gases.
But this pioneering research has inevitably triggered unease about the limits of science, fears about “playing god,” and raises the spectre that this technology could one day be abused.
Today’s work of genetic transmutation underlines how our cells are simply chemical machines, albeit ones of mind blowing complexity.
Scientists have been tinkering with them for years. Since the 1970s, they have moved genes - instructions to make proteins - between the cells of different organisms.
But today’s announcement marks the first time that the entire instruction set, consisting of more than a million “letters” of pure DNA, with no other associated cellular factors, proteins and machinery, has been transplanted, transforming one species of bacterium into another.
Working at the J Craig Venter Institute in Rockville, Maryland, he could draw on a large team that included Carole Lartigue, Clyde Hutchison, the Nobel laureate Ham Smith and John Glass.
Both of these goat bugs have small genomes and lack the cell walls typical of many other bacteria, making the transplant easier in principle.
The naked DNA used for the transplant was wrapped up in the form of a bundle, called a chromosome.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/06/28/nlife228.xml==========================================================
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