Q1.
What is the future of the development of synthetic cells using non-living chemicals?
Answer
The honest answer is that a fully synthetic cell has not yet been built, and the chapter is careful to say so. What has been achieved, and what may come next, is this.
| Stage | What it means | Where we stand |
|---|---|---|
| Synthetic DNA | Chemically building a complete genome in the laboratory | Done — Venter's team synthesised the DNA of Mycoplasma mycoides in 2010 |
| Synthetic DNA in an existing cell | Removing a bacterium's own DNA and inserting the synthetic copy | Done — the cell grew and divided on the new instructions, proving that DNA controls a cell's structure and activities |
| A minimal cell | Stripping a genome down to the smallest set of genes that still supports life | In progress — it helps identify which functions are truly essential |
| A fully synthetic cell | Membrane, cytoplasm, ribosomes and DNA all made from non-living chemicals | Not yet achieved — in 2010 only the DNA was synthetic; the membrane and cytoplasm came from an already existing living cell |
If it is achieved, the possible uses are large: bacteria designed to produce medicines and vaccines cheaply, to digest oil spills or plastic waste, to fix nitrogen for crops, or to make fuels. It would also let biologists test what life actually requires, by building it rather than only taking it apart.
Why it happens: the hard part is not the DNA — chemists can already write a genome. The hard part is everything else. A cell must have a working membrane, the right internal concentrations, ribosomes ready to translate the instructions, and enzymes to start the first reactions. All of those are themselves products of a living cell, so the project has a bootstrapping problem: the machinery that reads DNA has to exist before the DNA can be read. That is precisely why the 2010 experiment had to borrow a living cell for the container, and it is why the Cell Theory's statement that all cells arise from pre-existing cells still stands.