A team of scientists based in the United Kingdom has just achieved one of the greatest achievements in the history of artificial biology, after managing to develop for the first time a yeast cell, which is capable of surviving and multiplying like natural ones, but with more than half of its genome created in a laboratory.

The researchers, who have just published their results in the journal Cell Genomics, have managed to construct one of the 16 chromosomes of the yeast genome and insert it into a natural cell. Dr. Ben Blount, professor at the School of Life Sciences at the University of Nottingham, and one of the main signatories of the project, said that this discovery “will open up an enormous range of possibilities, from the creation of new microbial strains for a more ecological bioproduction, to helping us understand and combat diseases.

Yeast was the organism chosen for the project because it has a relatively compact genome, and the innate ability to join DNA, allowing researchers to build synthetic chromosomes within yeast cells.

The chromosome, known as 'Sc2.0', has seen the light after 15 years of work and the participation of teams from all over the world (United Kingdom, USA. USA, China, Singapore, UK, France and Australia), who have worked together to create synthetic versions of all yeast chromosomes.

Humans have a long history with yeast, researchers explain, having domesticated it for baking and brewing for thousands of years and, more recently, for chemical production or as a model organism for how our own cells work.. This means we know more about the genetics of yeast than any other organism, which made it the obvious candidate.

“A cell has not been created, what has been done is to synthesize an important part of the genome, which is already a merit in itself, and insert it into already existing cells,” explains Jordi García Ojalvo, professor of Systems Biology at Pompeu Fabra University of Barcelona. “It is important to note that, so far, we have not been able to generate cells from scratch. All the cells that exist on Earth come from a first primordial cell that appeared almost four billion years ago, which has divided an enormous number of times to give rise to each and every one of the cells of all the organisms that exist. in the planet. “We can create artificial genomes, but we cannot yet create artificial life, because the unit of life, the cell, is still out of our reach.”

The artificially constructed DNA sequence consists of around 660,000 pairs, which are the “letters” that make up the DNA code.. The synthetic chromosome replaced one of the natural chromosomes of a yeast cell and, after a thorough purification process, it was able to develop like a natural cell.

The synthetic genome will not only help scientists understand how genomes work. Instead of being a direct copy of the natural genome, the Sc2.0 synthetic genome has been designed with special characteristics, which give cells capabilities not found in nature. One of them forces cells to mix their genetic content, creating millions of different versions of cells with new characteristics.. From there, those with improved properties can be selected for a wide range of applications in medicine, bioenergy and biotechnology.. The process, the researchers explain, “is a supercharged form of evolution.”

The team has also shown that their chromosome can be reused to study extrachromosomal circular DNA (eccDNA).. These are free-floating circles of DNA that have fallen out of the genome and are believed to be responsible for aging, or the malignant growth and resistance to chemotherapy drugs of many cancers, including glioblastoma brain tumors.