title: Construction of a minimal genome as a chassis for synthetic biology.
abstract: Microbial diversity and complexity pose challenges in understanding the voluminous genetic information produced from whole-genome sequences, bioinformatics and high-throughput '-omics' research. These challenges can be overcome by a core blueprint of a genome drawn with a minimal gene set, which is essential for life. Systems biology and large-scale gene inactivation studies have estimated the number of essential genes to be ∼300-500 in many microbial genomes. On the basis of the essential gene set information, minimal-genome strains have been generated using sophisticated genome engineering techniques, such as genome reduction and chemical genome synthesis. Current size-reduced genomes are not perfect minimal genomes, but chemically synthesized genomes have just been constructed. Some minimal genomes provide various desirable functions for bioindustry, such as improved genome stability, increased transformation efficacy and improved production of biomaterials. The minimal genome as a chassis genome for synthetic biology can be used to construct custom-designed genomes for various practical and industrial applications.
authors.affiliation: Cell Factory Research Center, Korea Research Institute of Bioscience and Biotechnology (KRIBB), Daejeon 3414, Korea.|Intelligent Synthetic Biology Center, Daejeon 34141, Korea.
authors.forename: Bong Hyun
authors.initials: BH
authors.lastname: Sung
authors.affiliation: Department of Biological Sciences, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), Daejeon 34141, Korea.
authors.forename: Donghui
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Choe
authors.affiliation: Intelligent Synthetic Biology Center, Daejeon 34141, Korea.|Department of Biological Sciences, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), Daejeon 34141, Korea.
authors.forename: Sun Chang
authors.initials: SC
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.affiliation: Intelligent Synthetic Biology Center, Daejeon 34141, Korea bcho@kaist.ac.kr.|Department of Biological Sciences, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), Daejeon 34141, Korea.
authors.forename: Byung-Kwan
authors.initials: BK
authors.lastname: Cho
mesh_terms: D003198:Computer Simulation; D020043:Genes, Essential; D016678:Genome; D058615:Synthetic Biology / Q000379:methods*
keywords: chassis genome; essential genes; genome synthesis; minimal genome; synthetic biology