Toward minimal bacterial cells: evolution vs. design

Recent technical and conceptual advances in the biological sciences opened the possibility of the construction of newly designed cells. In this paper we review the state of the art of cell engineering in the context of genome research, paying particular attention to what we can learn on naturally reduced genomes from either symbiotic or free living bacteria. Different minimal hypothetically viable cells can be defined on the basis of several computational and experimental approaches. Projects aiming at simplifying living cells converge with efforts to make synthetic genomes for minimal cells. The panorama of this particular view of synthetic biology lead us to consider the use of defined minimal cells to be applied in biomedical, bioremediation, or bioenergy application by taking advantage of existing naturally minimized cells.