Technology or method
Synthetic biology
Designing and building new biological parts, circuits and systems.
Emerging researchOpen in Biotech Lab
Minimal cell
A cell stripped to the fewest genes it needs. One synthetic version runs on 473 genes, 149 of which had unknown functions.Source: Hutchison CA 3rd et al., 2016Source: Gibson et al., 2010
Also called synthetic genome, JCVI-syn3.0.
Idea or modelEmerging research
How Minimal cell connects
Minimal cell is an example of
Minimal cell describes
Level of life
Cell
The smallest unit that can live on its own. Every living thing is made of one or more cells.
Studied in
Your progress
Sources & further reading
The explanations on this page are our own summaries of these sources. Follow a link to read the original; if anything here disagrees with it, the original wins. How we choose and check sources.
Design and synthesis of a minimal bacterial genome (opens the original in a new tab)
Hutchison CA 3rd, Chuang RY, Noskov VN, et al. (2016). Science 351:aad6253.
Peer-reviewedPrimary researchCreation of a bacterial cell controlled by a chemically synthesized genome (opens the original in a new tab)
Gibson DG, Glass JI, Lartigue C, et al. (2010). Science 329:52-56.
Peer-reviewedPrimary research