Scientists Make First-Ever Computer-Generated Bacterial Genome

Based on the harmless freshwater bacterium Caulobacter ethensis, they called it Caulobacter ethensis-2.0.
Loukia Papadopoulos

Scientists announced this week that they had made the very first computer-generated bacterium. Based on the harmless freshwater bacterium Caulobacter ethensis, they called it Caulobacter ethensis-2.0.

The bacterium is the world's first fully computer-generated genome of a living organism. Its creation was quite a feat.

"The synthesis of these segments is not always easy," explained Matthias Christen, a chemist at ETH Zurich. "DNA molecules not only possess the ability to stick to other DNA molecules, but depending on the sequence, they can also twist themselves into loops and knots, which can hamper the production process or render manufacturing impossible."

What does all this mean? Lucky for us, the good people of SciShow are here to explain it all in their signature well-illustrated videos.

What we know for sure is that the creation of this bacteria is a huge step forward for synthetic biology. If you want to know why watch the video.

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