1. Creating living systems

2. It is easy to ask questions in biology It is difficult to answer
And we try to use words like
Conformation
Flexibility
Evolution
complexity

3. Living System???
More of a paradox!!!!

4. Chemical composition of cell (Can we design a Cell
Chemical composition of cell (Can we design a Cell?) Paradoxes in Living System

5. Assumptions!!! Can I create a Cell Reductionist approach
(Break a cell and see)

6. Chemical composition of a Cell

8. Give me my Cell Back!!!!

9. However Craig Venter was able to think out of the box

10. 1995
Can a complete genetic system be reproduced by chemical synthesis starting with only the digitized DNA sequence contained in a computer? Build a cell which contains only essential genes

11. Mycoplasma genitalium, a bacterium with the smallest complement of genes of any known organism capable of independent growth in the laboratory

12. Mycoplasma laboratorium or Mycoplasma JCVI-1.0
Craig Venter and Nobel laureate Hamilton Smith
partially synthetic species of bacterium derived from the genome of Mycoplasma genitalium called Mycoplasma laboratorium.
(smallest known free-living bacterium, and the second-smallest bacterium and also considered to be the organism with the smallest genome (482 genes and 582,970 base pair genome ) till 2002
There is speculation that this line of research could lead to producing bacteria that have been engineered to perform specific reactions, e.g. produce biofuels, make medicines, combat global warming, etc

13. SYNTHETIC BACTERIA MYCOPLASMA MYCOIDES MYCOPLASMA CAPRIOLUM
PUT IT HERE
SYNTHESIZED DNA IN A TEST TUBE

14. Mycoplasma mycoides JCVI-syn1.0 - the world's first synthetic organism
First truly synthetic organism created using four bottles of chemicals and a computer

15. Creating a synthetic cell

21. Applications
You can make cells with some genes for living and the other genes for
Biofuel
Biopesticide
Drugs

23. Advantages
We can make cells with few genes required for survival and few for making
Biofuels
Drugs
Biopesticides
bioplastic

24. Major risks
Bioterrorism

26. The synthetic cell theory again supports the fact that life did not originate in earth but life appeared from somewhere.

28. The other theory:
Life originated in earth RNA was the first genetic material (RNA world)

29. MILLER
UREY
EXPT
SPONTANEOUSLY
RNA
PROTEINS

30. Flow of Genetic Information
Reverse Transcription

31. RNA
PROTEIN
DNA
DNA
PROTEIN
RNA
PROTEIN
RNA
RNA

32. RNA can act as genetic material
HIV

33. RNA acts as Enzymes
“RIBOZYMES”

34. Life originated in water

37. .. Base D-Ribose -D-Ribofuranose residue in polynucleotide Chain P O
CHO
H2COH OH H 1' 2' 3' 4' 5'
CH2
Base 5' O H H 4' 1' H H 3' 2' .. O OH :B
D-Ribose
(open Chain Str.) P
-D-Ribofuranose residue in polynucleotide Chain

38. Explaining the Universe Without a Clue
Jack W. Szostak
Stepping back conceptually from our parochial water-dominated viewpoint, we can immediately see that water is really a noxious, toxic, corrosive and generally lethal environment for life. In fact given the well known properties of water one might almost be tempted to say that it’s a miracle that life ever began in such a solvent!

39. Life originated in ammonia