Synthetic Genomics: From Synthesis of Prokaryotic Genomes to Synthesis of a Fully Functional Eukaryotic Chromosome

Synthetic genomics is a new area of research and had its origin with the report of synthesis of the gene for yeast alanyl tRNA by Khorana and his co-workers in 1970. This was followed by the synthesis of a number of protein coding genes during 1980s and thereafter. In 1996, the concept of a minimal genome was put forward, suggesting that the synthesis of a genome by eliminating all nonessential genes should be possible and needs to be tried. Synthesis of genomes of some viruses like poliovirus and PhiX174, and those of bacteria including Mycoplasma genitalium and M. mycoides was reported during the first decade of the present century. In parallel with these, efforts underway at JC Venter Institute (JCVI), a project called Sc2.0 for the synthesis of all the 16 chromosomes of yeast, took shape at John Hopkins University in USA under the leadership of Jef Boeke and S. Chandrasegaran. Under this project, the synthesis of two chromosome arms (VIL and IXR) was reported in 2011 and that of the first functional chromosome (SynIII) was reported in April 2014, which marked the beginning of a new era in the field of synthetic genomics. Many more eukaryotic chromosomes will be synthesized in future and will be utilized for a variety of purposes.