A team of Scientists based in the UK, led by experts from the University of Nottingham and Imperial College London, have successfully constructed a synthetic chromosome as part of a significant international project aimed at creating the world’s first synthetic yeast genome.
The completion of one of the 16 chromosomes of the yeast genome by the UK team, which is part of the largest project in synthetic biology, has been published in Cell Genomics. This project, known as “Sc2.0,” has been a 15-year collaboration involving teams from various countries including the UK, US, China, Singapore, France, and Australia. The goal of the project is to create synthetic versions of all the chromosomes in yeast. In addition to this publication, nine other teams have released papers describing their synthetic chromosomes. The final completion of the genome project, which will be the largest synthetic genome ever, is expected in 2024.
This achievement is significant as it is the first time a synthetic genome of a eukaryote, a living organism with a nucleus such as animals, plants, and fungi, has been built. Yeast was chosen as the organism for this project due to its compact genome and its ability to naturally join DNA together, allowing the researchers to construct synthetic chromosomes within the yeast cells.
Yeast has a long history of interaction with humans, being domesticated for baking and brewing purposes for thousands of years. More recently, it has been used for chemical production and as a model organism for studying our own cells. This extensive knowledge of yeast genetics made it the ideal candidate for this project.
2023-11-08 11:41:13
Post from phys.org