Have we found the essentials of life? A team in the US has reduced the number of genes in a modest bug called Mycoplasma mycoides by almost half, creating the tiniest genome that can support vital survival functions (see page 6). The new strain is called JVCI-syn3.0, the letters coming from the name of the J. Craig Venter Institute in La Jolla, California. The institute is named after the charismatic biotechnologist who is almost as well known for his swagger as for his scientific achievements. The first human genome to be fully sequenced was Venter's own, and he has in the past drawn opprobrium for attempting to patent genes. His apparent grandiosity irks more buttoned-down colleagues. And his ambition prompts those averse to genetic engineering to invoke inchoate risks, frequently buttressed by the claim that it amounts to "playing God". This time, Venter's rhetoric has been reined in a little. The genome of JVCI-syn3.0, while put together on a computer and assembled by DNA sequencers, includes no new or artificial genes. If anything, its creation shows the limits of our power and depth of our ignorance: we have no idea what a third of the genes the team found actually do.
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