Big Bacterial Biology Breakthrough
Craig Venter has done it again. His team replaced the DNA of one bacterium with the DNA from another of a different species - and transformed the host into the donor.
The transplanted DNA took over its single-cell host in about three days. The resulting bacterium was indistinguishable from the donor species, the researchers reported in the online edition of the journal Science.
“This is the equivalent of changing a Macintosh computer to a PC by inserting a new piece of software,” said Craig Venter, a maverick geneticist and senior author of the study.
This is the first step in designing new synthetic lifeforms. As stated before, Venter’s goal is to build an organism that bioprocesses organic material and produces biofuel.
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