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Mycoplasma laboratorium is a designed, partially synthetic species of bacterium derived from the genome of ''Mycoplasma genitalium''. This effort in synthetic biology is being undertaken at the J. Craig Venter Institute by a team of approximately 20 scientists headed by Nobel laureate Hamilton Smith, and including DNA researcher Craig Venter and microbiologist Clyde A. Hutchison III. ''Mycoplasma genitalium'' was chosen as it was the species with the smallest number of genes known at that time. The J. Craig Venter Institute filed patents for the Mycoplasma laboratorium genome (the "minimal bacterial genome") in the U.S. and internationally in 2006.〔"(Artificial life: Patent pending )", ''The Economist'', June 14, 2007. Retrieved October 7, 2007.〕〔Roger Highfield, "(Man-made microbe 'to create endless biofuel' )", ''Telegraph'', June 8, 2007. Retrieved October 7, 2007.〕〔US Patent Application: (20070122826 ) 〕 This extension of the domain of biological patents is being challenged by the watchdog organization Action Group on Erosion, Technology and Concentration.〔"(First patent claimed on man-made life form, and challenged )", ''World Science'', June 7, 2007. Retrieved October 7, 2007.〕 On May 21, 2010, ''Science'' reported that the Venter group had successfully synthesized the genome of the bacterium ''Mycoplasma mycoides'' from a computer record, and transplanted the synthesized genome into the existing cell of a ''Mycoplasma capricolum'' bacterium that had had its DNA removed. The "synthetic" bacterium was viable, i.e. capable of replicating billions of times. (The team had originally planned to use the ''M. genitalium'' bacterium they had previously been working with, but switched to ''M. mycoides'' because the latter bacterium grows much faster, which translated into quicker experiments.) Scientists who were not involved in the study caution that it is not a truly synthetic life form because its genome was put into an existing cell. The Vatican has not condemned the discovery, but claims it is not a new life. It is estimated that the synthetic genome cost US$40 million to make and took 20 people more than a decade of work.〔 Despite the controversy, Venter has attracted over $110 million in investments so far for Synthetic Genomics, with a future deal with Exxon Mobil of $300 million in research to design algae for diesel fuel.〔 ==''Mycoplasma''== (詳細はbacteria of the class Mollicutes in the division Tenericutes, characterised by the lack of a cell wall (making it Gram negative) due to their parasitic or commensal lifestyle (extracellular and intracellular). In molecular biology, the genus has received much attention. Apart from being a notorious and hard to eradicate (immune to beta-lactam and other antibiotics) contaminant in mammalian cell cultures,〔Young L, Sung J, Stacey G, Masters JR. "Detection of ''Mycoplasma'' in cell cultures". ''Nat Protoc.'' 2010 5(5): 929–34. Epub 2010 Apr 22.〕 it has also been used as a model organism: the second published complete bacterial genome sequence was that of ''Mycoplasma genitalium'', which has one of the smallest genomes of free-living organisms. The ''M. pneumoniae'' genome sequence was published soon afterward and was the first genome sequence determined by primer walking of a cosmid library instead of the whole-genome shotgun method. Consequently this species was chosen as a model for the minimal cell project, catalog the entire protein content of a cell. ''Pelagibacter ubique'' (an α-proteobacterium of the order Rickettsiales) has the smallest known genome (1,308,759 base pairs) of any free living organism and is one of the smallest self-replicating cells known. It is possibly the most numerous bacterium in the world (perhaps 1028 individual cells) and, along with other members of the SAR11 clade, are estimated to make up between a quarter and a half of all bacterial or archaeal cells in the ocean. However, this species was identified only in 2002 by rRNA sequences and was fully sequenced in 2005, being an extremely hard to cultivate species which does not reach a high growth density, Additionally, several newly discovered species have fewer genes than ''M. genitalium'', but many essential genes that are missing in ''Hodgkinia cicadicola'', ''Sulcia muelleri'', ''Baumannia cicadellinicola'' (symbionts of cicadas) and ''Carsonella ruddi'' (symbiote of hackberry petiole gall psyllid, ''Pachypsylla venusta'') may be encoded in the host nucleus as these endosymbionts are acquiring an organelle-like status in a similar way to mitochondria and chloroplasts. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Mycoplasma laboratorium」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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