"Defining the minimal genome is a very fundamental problem, and no one else seems to be approaching it experimentally," said Nobel Prize winner Hamilton Smith, who was a TIGR investigator when the work began.
A genome is the complete set of genes, or genetic blueprints, an organism contains in each of its cells. The human genome is about 5,000 times larger than that of Mycoplasma genitalium, which causes gonorrhea-like symptoms in humans. Scientists study it in part because it contains only 517 cellular genes, the fewest known in single-celled organisms.
"The prospect of constructing minimal and new genomes does not violate any fundamental moral precepts or boundaries, but does raise questions that are essential to consider before the technology advances further," wrote Dr. Mildred K. Cho of the Stanford University Center for Biomedical Ethics and colleagues in an accompanying Science editorial.
"How does work on minimal genomes and the creation of new free-living organisms change how we frame ideas of life and our relationship to it?" Cho said. "How can the technology be used for the benefit of all, and what can be done in law and social policy to ensure that outcome?
"The temptation to demonize this fundamental research may be irresistible," she said. "However, the scientific community and the public can begin to understand what is at stake if efforts are made now to identify the nature of the science involved and to pinpoint key ethical, religious and metaphysical questions..."
Hutchison was co-inventor of a technique known as site-directed mutagenesis, which is now used by researchers around the world for introducing designed changes into genes. His friend and colleague Dr. Michael Smith of the University of British Columbia won a Nobel Prize for the work in 1993.
TIGR is non-profit research institute f
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Contact: David Williamson
David_Williamson@unc.edu
919-962-8596
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
8-Dec-1999