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The annual Minimal Cell Workshop, hosted by the J. Craig Venter Institute (JCVI), is an international virtual seminar that brings together over 80 academic, industrial, and government laboratories. Researchers use the JCVI’s minimal bacterial cell platform to explore the principles of cellular life and integrate new chemical pathways. Since its creation in 2016, this platform has fostered global collaborations. The fourth workshop featured 26 talks on ongoing research with minimal cell strains, including JCVI-syn1.0, JCVI-syn3.0, JCVI-syn3A, and JCVI-syn3B. Topics included innovative imaging techniques like super-resolution microscopy and cryotomography, DNA replication assays, and minimal cell division. New approaches for ATP synthesis and the role of moonlighting proteins were also discussed. JCVI-syn3B applications explored its potential in understanding persistent pathogens and as an anticancer therapeutic. The workshop encouraged sharing techniques for cell culture and genetic manipulation, fostering collaboration and advancing efforts to develop genome-scale algorithms for understanding and manipulating cellular functions.
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A Journey to the Center of Our Cells
This article written in the popular journal The New Yorker takes a look at how the world's first minimal bacterial cell, which was made by a team from the J. Craig Venter Institute (JCVI) in 2016 has been used by both JCVI biologists and many other research groups to investigate the first principles of cellular life. The author, James Somers, writes much of the article using information obtained in his extended interview with JCVI scientist and minimal cell creator John Glass. The article introduces the public to ideas in synthetic biology, evolution, and the history of modern biology.
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- PAR ID:
- 10481499
- Publisher / Repository:
- The New Yorker
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- The New Yorker
- ISSN:
- 2163-3827
- Subject(s) / Keyword(s):
- minimal cell, synthetic biology, synthetic life, JCVI-syn3A
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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Abstract Minimal bacterial cells such as JCVI‐Syn3A provide a powerful system for uncovering the essential mechanisms of chromosome organization and segregation. Lacking canonical systems such as Min and ParABS, JCVI‐Syn3A relies primarily on structural maintenance of chromosomes (SMC) protein complexes for partitioning. Here, we investigate a four‐dimensional (4D; three spatial dimensions plus time) polymer‐based model of the JCVI‐Syn3A chromosome (543 kbp) that captures replication and partitioning dynamics across the full cell cycle. Our simulations reproduce chromosome segregation mediated by SMC‐driven loop extrusion and reveal how segregation depends on the number of SMC complexes, their translocation speed, and their dwell time on DNA. A systematic parameter scan shows that segregation is strongly predicted by the effective loop coverage, which represents the expected fraction of the chromosome extruded into loops. We generate contact maps for stationary‐phase cells to directly connect our simulations with 3C experiments, and for replicating chromosomes throughout the cell cycle to provide new, testable predictions for synchronized cell populations. Our results suggest that SMC protein complexes and topoisomerases can drive chromosome segregation in minimal cells without additional partitioning systems provided loop extrusion achieves sufficient genomic coverage.more » « less
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Accepted Manuscript
- Journal Article:
- The DOI is not currently available.
