Overview
- The University of Minnesota team reported on Wednesday that they assembled SpudCell from nonliving chemical parts and showed it can take up nutrients, grow, copy its roughly 90,000-base genome split across seven DNA molecules, divide, and pass on an introduced advantage.
- The authors deliberately added a mutation that raised production of a nutrient-uptake protein and observed that the modified variants grew faster and outcompeted others over several generations, demonstrating selection-like behavior in the system.
- SpudCell depends on externally supplied ribosomes and other components and most lineages lose function after about five to ten generations, which limits its autonomy and argues against calling it fully alive.
- Division in SpudCell occurs without a cytoskeleton through proteins that aggregate at the membrane until mechanical tension causes separation, and some laboratory interventions remain needed to sustain cycles.
- The team has launched Biotic, a nonprofit to share materials, methods and standards openly while the manuscript undergoes peer review and independent replication is awaited before broader use or claims about applications.