Biotech Updates

Streamlined Method for Synthetic Genome Construction Has Potential Biofuel Applications

December 12, 2008
http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2008/12/10/0811011106.full.pdf+html (open access article at PNAS website) http://www.jcvi.org/cms/press/press-releases/full-text/article/j-craig-venter-institute-researchers-publish-significant-advance-in-genome-assembly-technology/?tx_ttnews%5BbackPid%5D=67&cHash=37e7fe3794

The J. Craig Venter Institute (JCVI, a leading genome research organization in the United States) recently announced that its scientists have developed a new, single-step method for the assembly of the whole bacterial genome of Mycoplasma genitalium, from 25 fragments of DNA. The assembly method for creating the “synthetic bacterial genome” (from the 25 DNA fragments) uses a natural cellular repair process called “homologous recombination” in the yeast, Saccharomyces cerevisiae. A technical paper describing the method appears in the online early edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) (URL above). The improved method, which harnesses the DNA assembly capability in yeast, streamlines an otherwise tedious method for the construction of the synthetic bacterial genome. According to the JCVI website, this advance will be harnessed for making more efficient next-generation biofuels and biochemicals.

Related information: “Venter Talks about “Synthetic Life” and Its Application for 4th Generation Biofuels” (Crop Biotech Update, 13 June 2008) http://www.isaaa.org/kc/cropbiotechupdate/biofuels/default.asp?Date=6/13/2008#2672  Homologous recombination http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homologous_recombination