J.
Five years ago, researchers announced in a high-profile manner that they had designed a streamlined microbial cell.
Kate Adamala, a synthetic biologist at the University of Minnesota in the United States, said that this discovery allows scientists to better understand which functions of normal cells are important and what many mysterious genes are doing.
Identifying basic genes also benefits synthetic biologists.
Genome sequencing pioneer J.
But this cell also has a quirk: Many of its descendants are malformed.
However, this mild treatment has no effect.
It is unclear exactly which gene deletions are responsible for this condition, but there is a clue in the refrigerator in the laboratory.
By adding a combination of genes to determine whether the resulting cells divide normally, the researchers reduced the required number to 19, and then further reduced it.
It is already known that two of these genes play a role in cell division, but the involvement of the other five genes is surprising-their role in microbial division is still unknown.
"The revised'minimal cell' can help clarify this still mysterious process.
Related paper information: https://doi.
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