Journal
TRENDS IN GENETICS
Volume 29, Issue 5, Pages 273-279Publisher
ELSEVIER SCIENCE LONDON
DOI: 10.1016/j.tig.2012.11.001
Keywords
LUCA; minimal cell; minimal genome; synthetic genomics; chassis; xenobiology
Categories
Funding
- FWF (Austrian Science Fund) project 'Investigating the biosafety and risk assessment needs of synthetic biology in Austria (Europe) and China' [I215-B17]
- FWF (Austrian Science Fund) project SYNMOD [I490-B12]
- FP7 project METACODE [289572]
- FP7 project ST-FLOW [289326]
- European Commission FP7 project MICROME [222886-2]
- Austrian Science Fund (FWF) [I 215] Funding Source: researchfish
- Austrian Science Fund (FWF) [I215] Funding Source: Austrian Science Fund (FWF)
Ask authors/readers for more resources
A central undertaking in synthetic biology (SB) is the quest for the 'minimal genome'. However, 'minimal sets' of essential genes are strongly context-dependent and, in all prokaryotic genomes sequenced to date, not a single protein-coding gene is entirely conserved. Furthermore, a lack of consensus in the field as to what attributes make a gene truly essential adds another aspect of variation. Thus, a universal minimal genome remains elusive. Here, as an alternative to defining a minimal genome, we propose that the concept of gene persistence can be used to classify genes needed for robust long-term survival. Persistent genes, although not ubiquitous, are conserved in a majority of genomes, tend to be expressed at high levels, and are frequently located on the leading DNA strand. These criteria impose constraints on genome organization, and these are important considerations for engineering cells and for creating cellular life-like forms in SB.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available