Overview
- The team published a preprint Wednesday describing SpudCell, a lab-made system assembled from purified chemicals that the authors say can take in resources, grow, copy its DNA and split to make daughter cells.
- SpudCell’s genetic instructions total about 90,000 base pairs spread across seven plasmids and the group reported a lineage persisting for roughly five generations before activity faded.
- The construct depends on externally supplied ribosomes and nutrient-containing feeder liposomes so it cannot make all its own proteins and is not an autonomous living organism.
- Researchers demonstrated selection by engineering higher production of a membrane-fusion protein, which gave variants a growth advantage that let them outcompete rivals after several generations.
- The team launched Biotic to share protocols and promote standards, and they say next steps are peer review, independent replication, building internal ribosome synthesis, consolidating the genome and extending generational persistence.