Moss project takes step toward first artificial plant genome

Researchers have crafted synthetic genomes for several types of bacteria, and an 18-year-long project to do the same for brewer’s yeast is close to completion . Now, a group in China has tackled a multicellular organism, synthesizing part of the genome of a type of moss. The achievement, reported last week in Nature Plants , could smooth the way for creating artificial genomes for other multicellular organisms—and for turning the moss into a factory for medicines and other products. The Chinese team only reworked part of one chromosome in its chosen species, the spreading earthmoss ( Physcomitrium patens ) . But the work is “a necessary step” toward a fully artificial plant genome, says Ian Ehrenreich, a synthetic genomicist at the University of Southern California. It is also “a wake-up call to people who think that synthetic genomes are only for microbes,” adds synthetic biologist Tom Ellis of Imperial College London. By redesigning an organism’s genome, researchers can probe questions such as what sequences are essential and how its organization affects gene function. They can also bestow new capabilities on an organism, potentially boosting its value for agriculture, industry, medicine, or other uses. Instead of fashioning chromosomes from scratch, synthetic biologists have started with natural ones and made a variety of revisions and simplifications. The yeast project, for instance, has par...
Source: ScienceNOW - Category: Science Source Type: news