A team of scientists from the United States and Europe, led by New York University (USA), has managed to create the first 100% artificial chromosome in history in a laboratory. The chromosome in question is from the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae , that is, from the fungus that makes bread, beer and wine.
This is the first time that synthetic DNA has been produced in a complex cell such as those of plants, animals and humans, which could help to produce industrial chemicals, new drugs, raw materials for food and even biofuels.
The eukaryotic brewer’s yeast genome comprises 12 million nucleotides , or genetic letters. The researchers focused on yeast chromosome III, which comprises more than 2.5% of these nucleotides. To do this, they used software to be able to make small changes to said chromosome; in total they made more than 500 changes, creating a synthetic copy that behaved almost identically to the original .
The results of the creation of the synthetic yeast chromosome, whose genome was sequenced in 1996, have been published in the journal Science and are the product of seven years of work and research.
“The next step we are going to take is to work with international groups to try to synthesize the other 15 yeast chromosomes and be able to see how the new one evolves to learn more about how its genome is ‘connected'”, adds Jef Boeke , director of NYU Langone Medical Center and co-author of the study.
Scientists hope to have synthetic versions of the 16 chromosomes of this yeast before 2017 .
