Venter Institute Scientists Create First Synthetic Bacterial Genome

A team of researchers has created the largest man-made DNA structure by synthesizing and assembling the 582,970 base pair genome of a bacterium. This work is the second of three key steps toward the team’s goal of creating a fully synthetic organism. In the next step, the team will attempt to create a living bacterial cell based entirely on the synthetically made genome. The team achieved this technical feat by chemically making DNA fragments in the lab and developing new methods for the assembly and reproduction of the DNA segments.