Have scientists really made a living cell from scratch? Not quite
Get the Health newsletter
Daily health & science — research, biotech, public health, the studies worth knowing. Free.
- Kate Adamala at the University of Missouri and colleagues built SpudCell from 36 genes — mostly from E. coli, with phage virus additions and one jellyfish gene for fluorescence
- SpudCell can copy DNA and divide but halts after about five rounds — it cannot make its own ribosomes, which the team supplies externally and suspects is the cause
- Prior minimal-cell efforts in 2016 stripped a 901-gene bacterium down to 493; SpudCell's bottom-up start from 36 genes is unmatched by any other team
- The researchers packaged the genome into seven circular DNA pieces loaded into a solution of DNA and protein building blocks plus fatty molecules that spontaneously form cell-like bubbles
- Adamala declined to call SpudCell "living," saying it would qualify only with indefinite replication and Darwinian evolution — neither of which it has achieved
- The long-term goal is synthetic cells engineered to produce petrochemical replacements, designed to tolerate toxic chemicals that would kill natural cells
- SpudCell is being released as open source, with Adamala saying self-made ribosomes and indefinite division are 'achievable very soon'
Why it matters: If Adamala's team can teach SpudCell to make its own ribosomes — which she calls 'achievable very soon' — the result would be a fully engineered, controllable organism for producing petrochemical replacements, able to withstand toxic inputs that would kill natural cells.
Ask SkimNews
