Venter's quest for M. laboratorium

Transplanting an Entire Genome

On May 21, 2010, the journal Science reported that the Venter group had synthesized the genome of M. mycoses and transplanted the synthetic genome into M. capricolum, producing a viable cell which continued to reproduce itself.

Promise and Peril of Synthetic Elements in Life

While the process of coaxing E-coli to produce insulin involved great human ingenuity and enormous effort, it pales before the task of producing the E. coli itself with its hundreds to thousands of coordinated systems. The success of the insulin effort made use of the ribosomes of the E. coli to produce the proteins needed. The inserted DNA segment had to be read and transcribed to messenger RNA and then translated by the ribosome. It also made use of the coordinated energy supply of the E. coli including glycolysis and the TCA cycle to produce the ATP fuel which powers all cellular systems. Such is the nature of "simple life".