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How did scientists assemble the synthetic Mycoplasma genitalium JCVI-1.0 genome?

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synthetic biology; Mycoplasma mycoides JCVI-syn1.0 — synthetic biology A scanning electron micrograph of cells of *Mycoplasma mycoides* JCVI-syn1.0—a synthetic bacterium.

In January 2008, scientists at the J. Craig Venter Institute (JCVI), led by Daniel G. Gibson and Hamilton O. Smith, successfully assembled the synthetic genome of the bacterium Mycoplasma genitalium, known as M. genitalium JCVI-1.0.12

Rather than using traditional gene-by-gene modification, the researchers constructed the genome from scratch by linking together 101 custom-made, overlapping DNA segments called "cassettes". Each of these cassettes was between 5,000 and 7,000 nucleotides in length, resulting in a total synthetic genome of 582,970 base pairs.1

The resulting genome was designed to be slightly different from the natural version to ensure it was non-pathogenic and identifiable as artificial. This achievement was significant in the field of synthetic biology, as the assembled genome was 10 times longer than any previously synthesized genome at that time.1