National Center for Biotechnology Information in America has an International database containing genome sequences of all organisms around the world. Recently, the database has an additional entry: Caulobacter thesis-2.0, which is the first fully computer-generated genome of a living organism, has been added to the database.
Scientists at ETH Zurich have made the novel discovery. C. ethensis-2.0 is based upon the genome of a well-studied and harmless freshwater bacterium, Caulobacter crescentus. It does not lead to any diseases. C. crescentus can also be a model organism widely utilized in research labs to examine the life span of germs. 4,000 genes are contained by this bacterium’s genome. Scientists demonstrated that only about 680 of these genes are crucial to the survival of the species in the laboratory. Compounds with this minimal genome are viable under lab conditions.
Beat Christen – Professor of Experimental Systems Biology at ETH Zurich, and his brother, Matthias Christen, a chemist at ETH Zurich set out to synthesize this genome from scratch as a continuous ring-shaped chromosome. The task is regarded as a true tour de force: The bacterial genome presented by the genetics pioneer American genetics Craig Venter was the result of 10 years of work according to media reports. The complete expense of the projects is thought to be 40 million in total.
Venter’s team developed an exact copy of a natural genome, altered their genome utilizing a computer algorithm. Their motivation was twofold: one, to make it simpler to produce genomes, and two to find answers to fundamental questions of biology.
To make a DNA molecule as big as a genome, scientists should proceed step by step. In the case of the Caulobacter genome, the scientists at ETH Zurich synthesized 236 segments, which they pieced together. Matthias Christen stated that- The synthesis of these segments isn’t always simple. Matthias Christen also stated that- DNA molecules not only possess the ability to adhere to other DNA molecules but depending on the sequence, they can also twist themselves into knots and loops, which can hamper the manufacturing process or render manufacturing impossible.