Story Summary: This modified bacterial chromosome was then isolated from yeast and transplanted into a related species of bacteria, Mycoplasma capricolum, to create a new type of M. mycoidescell. The research published today was made possible by previous breakthroughs at JCVI. In 2008 the same team reported on the construction of the first synthetic bacterial genome by assembling DNA fragments made from the four chemicals of life–ACGT. When the chromosome was isolated direct from the bacterial cells it was likely already methylated and therefore transplantable due to it being protected from the cells restriction enzymes. This is the first time a native bacterial genome has been grown successfully in yeast. Specific methylase enzymes were isolated from M. mycoidesand used to methylate the M. mycoidesgenome isolated from yeast. When the DNA was methylated the chromosome was able to be successfully transplanted into a wild type species of M. capricolum. To prove that the restriction enzymes in the M. capricolumcell were responsible for the destruction of the transplanted genome the team removed the restriction enzyme genes from the M. capricolumgenome. When genome transplantations were performed using the restriction enzyme minus recipient cells, all the genome transplantations worked regardless of if the DNA was methylated or not. The team now has a complete cycle of cloning a bacterial genome in yeast, modifying the bacterial genome as though it were a yeast chromosome and transplanting the genome back into a recipient bacterial cell to create a new bacterial strain. These new methods and knowledge should allow the team to now transplant and boot up the synthetic bacterial genome successfully. The research published August 21 by JCVI researchers was funded by the company Synthetic Genomics Inc. , a company co-founded by Drs. The entire bacterial genome from Mycoplasma mycoides was cloned in a yeast cell by adding yeast centromeric plasmid sequence to the bacterial chromosome and modifying it in yeast using yeast genetic systems….Read the Full Story

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