US scientist J. Craig Venter and his team reported a few days ago the creation of first man-made DNA structure, a step towards the creation of artificial life. The researchers will attempt next to create a living bacterial cell based entirely on the synthetically made genome.

In a report published in the journal Science, the scientists at the J. Craig Venter Institute said they managed to synthesize and assemble the genome of a bacterium, Mycoplasma genitalium JCVI-1.0T, thus building a synthetic version of the genome of the bacteria M. genitalium genome that has more than 580,000 base pairs.

However, larger genomes, up to 8 million base pairs long, have already been assembled from existing DNA fragments, points out Drew Endy, Assistant Professor, Biological Engineering, MIT. There are also other issues:

“Venter is claiming bragging rights to the world’s longest length of synthetic DNA, but size isn’t everything. The important question is not ‘how long?’ but ‘how wise?’” says Jim Thomas of ETC Group.

“While synthetic biology is speeding ahead in the lab and in the marketplace, societal debate and regulatory oversight is stalled [...] In the absence of democratic oversight profiteering industrialists are tinkering with the building blocks of life for their own private gain. We regard that as unacceptable.”

The task presented a formidable challenge, the scientists said. Mycoplasma genitalium, a bacterium that causes a sexually transmitted infection in men and women has a simple structure because its DNA is carried on a single chromosome. Mycoplasma genitalium has about half a million base pairs, whereas Homo Sapiens have more than three billion, which means that artificial human life is nowhere in sight.

According to the JCVI team the copy is perfect, but they voluntarily have modified a gene necessary for the bacteria to infect people. The synthetic bacteria also contain DNA "watermarks" that the group added to identify its synthetic nature.

BP is an equity investor in Venter’s company, Synthetic Genomics, Inc, which has already applied for far-reaching patents that would grant it exclusive monopoly over key processes in the emerging industry of synthetic biology. ETC also reports that Solazyme teamed up with energy giant Chevron, the world’s seventh largest corporation, to develop biodiesel from synthetically altered algae, while Dupont already produces a commercial bioplastic using a synthetic organism.

What's next?