For the first time ever, scientists announced last week that they have finally successfully created an entire synthetic genome. Working diligently in the lab, scientists were able to stitch together the DNA of the smallest known free-living bacterium, Mycoplasma genitalium. The research is hailed as a groundbreaking event in genetic manipulation that will one day lead to the "routine" creation of synthetic genomes—possibly including chromosomes in larger animals like mammals.
This accomplishment marks the next big step in creating entire synthetic life forms. The new work is the second step in a three-step process, said research leader Hamilton Smith, a biologist and Nobel laureate at the J. Craig Venter Institute in Rockville, Maryland.
The first step was reported last year also by the same team at Venter's institute, with the successful transplantation of a genome from one species of bacteria into another, which effectively switched the organism’s identity.
About 30 years ago, scientists, physicians, lawyers and journalists attended the historic Asilomar Conference in Pacific Grove, California, which was organized to address the safety issues raised by genetic engineering. The newfound ability to cut, paste and recombine genes brought exciting experimental possibilities but also the potential for misuse. Recombinant DNA technology offered hope for curing and treating genetic disorders, creating useful industrial products, and making hearty crop strains, but it also engendered fears of Frankenstein-like organisms that could cause plagues or escape into the environment to disrupt ecological webs and derail evolution.
Three decades later, synthetic biologists, a new breed of scientists who design and construct novel biological systems using engineering principles, are wrestling with some of the same issues raised at Asilomar.
