Our Scenarios to Scrap and Build Bacterial Genomes by a Bacillus subtilis Genome Vector

All cells/microbes possess their own genome DNA. Besides their robustness in structure, recent technologies on giant DNA synthesis can reproduce existing genomes and related gene networks. These technologies seem to break the first step to produce novel chassis run by synthesized genomes. We have long developed a unique molecular cloning system that allows whole genome synthesis using Bacillus subtilis as a cloning host. In addition to the first successful case for a whole genome cloning of Synechosystis PCC6803 [1], many elaborate techniques have been under study to produce fully designed genomes and activate them in appropriate chassis. I would like not only to recap our original systems but also present scenarios with on-going works aiming at production of cells with designed genomes [2]. They might lead to new pipelines through which functional genomes are tested for novel synthetic biology fields.

References:
[1] Itaya, et. al., PNAS 102, 15971-15976 (2005).
[2] Itaya, M. In Synthetic Biology tools and applications (ed. Zhao, H), Academic Press, Elsevier Inc. pp. 225-242 (2013).