Researchers at the J. Craig Venter Institute have been aiming for some time to sequence a full, bacterial genome with the aid of machines. The goals are to make a living, artificial microbe and to dramatically expand a field called synthetic biology. News of an essential landmark along that path – assembly of the genome – is in today’s issue of Science. Propelled by a teleconference, with Venter joining from Davos, Switzerland, it is getting media notice around the world. Venter says his team has achieved a “technological marvel,” but has not yet created artificial life.

The team leader says, in a easy-to-grasp computer metaphor widely picked up by reporters too, that the next step is putting the genome into a cell and “booting it up to create the first synthetic organism.”

The process in many ways parallels cloning by nuclear transfer. But rather than plucking a nucleus from another organism’s cell, this transfers a naked genome made by first, laboriously making subassemblies or casettes (ordered off the shelf from vendors) of portions of the geneme from raw chemicals. Then comes stitching them together (with the help of yeast cell seamstresses) into an exact copy of the small, plasmid genome found in a naturally evolved microbe, M. genitalium. The copied organism is attractive as it has one of the world’s smallest known genomes. Hence, this is a genome made from scratch – but not at all designed from scratch. Applications with more complex synthetic organisms are potentially myriad. Of some interest that the first specific one mentioned by Venter’s company is production of biofuels via specially tailored, bespoke genomes.

Most accounts call this a step toward artificial life, with various cautions up high.

Time Magazine‘s Alice Park shows little such restraint as she makes the latest news a pillar of a long profile she has of Venter and his ambitions. Her story tries perhaps to get ahead of itself, while not quite saying anything clearly untrue. She writes “he may have created life.” That “may” provides wiggle room. But even Venter is not saying he did that yet. Park’s story is most commendable for leading readers by the hand, in clear vigorous prose, through a good deal of the biochemistry, microbiology, and molecular biology behind the news, and behind Venter’s ambitions.

Other stories:

AP , apparently unimpressed at the absence of much that is fundamentally new here, wrote it short with no byline. The approach makes sense – a living synthetic microbe will be time for a full takeout ;

Baltimore Sun Dennis O’Brien , in harmony with talk of booting up microbes, explains synthetic biology’s aim is to “manipulate DNA like computer code” and cites Venter as saying the manuscript was run past the Nat’l Academy of Sciences and the White House for comment (nobody, apparently, urged any big changes or deletions) ; New York Times Andrew Pollack, in accord with the press release, uses biofuels as the examplar of potential payoffs – and also has a ref. to potential synthetic microbes that could run amok ; Los Angeles Times Karen Kaplan has it under a hed with a vivid natural evolution parallel: “A step closer to creating life out of chemical soup” ; The Economist (which never uses bylines) compares Venter to a striptease artist in a long and thoughtful review of the news ; SF Chronicle Sabin Russell in a long, detailed analysis calls it a “giant step” (note – this morning, Russell’s piece seems to have, online at this post’s link, a second copy of the story pasted on its bottom. Gotta watch what we click, boys and girls) ; Washington Post Rick Weiss also employs rich computer analogies, and cites a Canadian-based group, ETC, for a list of misgivings about such research (see press release in Grist below) ; Bloomberg Tom Randall, Bob Drummond ; Wall Street Journal Gutam Naik ; USA Today Elizabeth Weise ; Chicago Tribune Jeremy Manier says the task went “like cooks whipping up a recipe from scratch” ; Toronto Globe and Mail Carolyn Abraham writes forget any thoughts that life’s design requires a divine power (but actually, the design in this case is lifted straight from nature), and raises the issue of patents that might monopolize application of synthetic organisms ;

Guardian (UK) Alok Jha gets it a little spooky, writing that science now is leapt a major hurdle toward “the world’s first artificial life form” ; Independent Steve Connor has “Playing God” up in the hed ; Times (UK) Mark Henderson ;

Grist for the Mill:

J. Craig Venter Institute Press Release ; ETC Group Press Release ;

PIc source , M. Genitalium genome (with explanation for why all the biofuel talk)

-CP

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