New Scientist
Image: Lucy Reading-Ikkanda
Synthetic biologists have cooked up something new: an entirely synthetic chromosome. The development is being hailed as a milestone for biology. It could lead to microbes that produce exotic materials not found in nature.
The synthetic chromosome is the end product of a seven-year endeavour led by Jef Boeke of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland. It is a version of yeast chromosome III, one of the smallest out of the 16 that yeast contains. Boeke’s team previously made artificial versions of sections from two other yeast chromosomes.
Crucially, the artificial chromosome contains a suite of changes, compared with the naturally occurring variety. “We spent about a year debating what changes we should build into the chromosome so we could really learn something from the experience,” says Boeke. Read more on newscientist.com…
