Mais um passo rumo à vida artificial

Um grupo de investigadores norte-americanos anunciou o transplante integral do genoma de uma bactéria para outra. É um passo importante para que se consiga, a curto prazo, criar vida de forma artificial.

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Scientists could create the first new form of artificial life within months after a landmark breakthrough in which they turned one bacterium into another. [Telegraph]

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Scientists at the institute directed by J. Craig Venter, a pioneer in sequencing the human genome, are reporting that they have successfully transplanted the genome of one species of bacteria into another, an achievement they see as a major step toward creating synthetic forms of life. [New York Times]

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“The successful completion of this research is important because it is one of the key proof of principles in synthetic genomics that will allow us to realize the ultimate goal of creating a synthetic organism,” said J. Craig Venter, Ph.D., president and chairman, JCVI. “We are committed to this research as we believe that synthetic genomics holds great promise in helping to solve issues like climate change and in developing new sources of energy.” [press release do J. Craig Venter Institute]

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As a step toward propagation of synthetic genomes, we completely replaced the genome of a bacterial cell with one from another species by transplanting a whole genome as naked DNA. Intact genomic DNA from Mycoplasma mycoides large colony (LC), virtually free of protein, was transplanted into Mycoplasma capricolum cells by polyethylene glycol-mediated transformation. [extracto do artigo publicado na Science]