GoKawiilThese Mycoplasma capricolum bacterial cells have absorbed a genome engineered from a closely related bacterium, Mycoplasma mycoides.Credit: Thomas Deerinck, NCMIR/Science Photo Library
Researchers have resurrected ‘dead’ bacterial cells by replacing their defunct DNA with the working genome of another species.
AI can write genomes — how long until it creates synthetic life?
The feat — reported on the preprint server bioRxiv this month1 — could boost efforts to re-engineer microbial life by moving entire genomes into bacteria to imbue them with useful properties, such as making drugs or biofuels.
Such genome transfers, including the one that gave rise to these ‘zombie cells’, have so far been accomplished only between species within a single bacterial class. But if researchers can routinely make zombies from other bacteria, the approach could be used to test engineered genomes from more commonly studied species, such as the laboratory staple Escherichia coli.
“For me, this paper represents a significant step forward for genome engineering in synthetic biology,” says Olivier Borkowski, a synthetic biologist at the French National Research Institute for Agriculture, Food and Environment (INRAE) and Paris-Saclay University.
Dawn of the dead
More than 15 years ago, researchers chemically synthesized the 1.1-million base-pair genome of the bacterium Mycoplasma mycoides and transplanted it into living cells of the closely related species Mycoplasma capricolum2, creating what they called the first synthetic cell.
‘Minimal’ cell raises stakes in race to harness synthetic life
The team, which included some researchers from the latest study, added a gene to the synthetic M. mycoides genome that imparted resistance to the antibiotic tetracycline. This meant that if the researchers transplanted the genome into M. capricolum and then grew those recipient cells in the presence of tetracycline, the cells would survive only if they had successfully absorbed the synthetic genome — a sign that the test had worked.
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