Researchers have assembled the entire genome of a living organism - a bacteria - in what they hope is an important step to creating artificial life.
Their work is reported in today's issue of the journal
Science
"We consider this the second in significant steps of a three-step process in our attempts to make the first synthetic organism," says the controversial celebrity US scientist Dr Craig Venter
The bacteria Mycoplasma genitalium has the smallest known genome of any truly living organism, with 485 working genes. Viruses are smaller, but they are not considered completely alive as they cannot replicate by themselves.
M. genitalium has a fairly simple structure - all its DNA is carried on a single chromosome.
Venter's team began by chemically making DNA fragments in the lab.
"This entire process started with four bottles of chemicals," he says.
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