Synthetic life: Difference between revisions
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Revision as of 04:52, 26 October 2011
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The creation of synthetic life is a goal of scientists working in the fields of synthetic biology or exploring the origin of life. The term has also been used to describe recent experiments [1] that transferred the chemically synthesized copy of a bacterial genome into a different (but closely related) bacterial host cell. However, the term Synthetic Life is usually associated to the creation of a living system "from scratch", that is from isolated building blocks. This has not yet been achieved.
These efforts are largely independent from the computational simulation of artificial life which is related to the discipline of robotics.
Synthetic biochemical life
Synthetic life is artificial life created in vitro from biochemicals and their component materials as opposed to the normally implied in silico when using the broader term "alife".
W. Wayt Gibbs suggests that synthetic life has three major goals: "One, learn about life by building it, rather than by tearing it apart. Two, make genetic engineering worthy of its name--a discipline that continuously improves by standardizing its previous creations and recombining them to make new and more sophisticated systems. And three, stretch the boundaries of life and of machines until the two overlap to yield truly programmable organisms."[2]
Synthetic life experiments attempt to either probe the origins of life, study some of the properties of life, or more ambitiously to recreate life from non-alive (abiotic) substances. An example of synthetic life might be an attempt to create self-replicating, self-perpetuating (autocatalytic) chemical reactions to simulate possible origins for life. Researchers involved feel that the creation of true synthetic biochemical life is relatively close and cheap, and perhaps easier than the effort needed to place man on the Moon.[3]
Mycoplasma laboratorium controversy
In 2010, the team of Craig Venter replaced the genome of a natural cell with a different genome created by gene synthesis [4] creating a new bacterial strain dubbed Mycoplasma laboratorium. In press conferences, Craig Venter described this work as the creation of "Synthetic Life". This statement was widely criticized[who?] on the grounds that:
- the chemically synthesized genome was an almost 1:1 copy of a naturally occurring genome and
- the recipient cell was a naturally occurring bacterium
The Craig Venter Institute maintains the term "synthetic bacterial cell" but they also clarify "...we do not consider this to be “creating life from scratch” but rather we are creating new life out of already existing life using synthetic DNA" [5]
See also
- Artificial related
- Biology related
References
- ^ Gibson DG, Glass JI, Lartigue C; et al. (2010). "Creation of a Bacterial Cell Controlled by a Chemically Synthesized Genome". Science. 329 (5987): 52–6. Bibcode:2010Sci...329...52G. doi:10.1126/science.1190719. PMID 20488990.
{{cite journal}}: Explicit use of et al. in:|author=(help); Unknown parameter|month=ignored (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - ^ W. Wayte Gibbs (May 2004). "Synthetic Life". Scientific American.
- ^ "NOVA: Artificial life". Retrieved 2007-01-19.
- ^ Gibson DG, Glass JI, Lartigue C; et al. (2010). "Creation of a Bacterial Cell Controlled by a Chemically Synthesized Genome". Science. 329 (5987): 52–6. Bibcode:2010Sci...329...52G. doi:10.1126/science.1190719. PMID 20488990.
{{cite journal}}: Explicit use of et al. in:|author=(help); Unknown parameter|month=ignored (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - ^ Craig Venter Institute. "FAQ". Retrieved 2011-04-24.