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LIFE, THE UNIVERSE AND EVERYTHING. "Genomics entrepreneur Craig Venter has created a synthetic cell that contains the smallest genome of any known, independent organism. Functioning with 473 genes, the cell is a milestone in his team’s 20-year quest to reduce life to its bare essentials and, by extension, to design life from scratch." https://lnkd.in/eFyYj-B View in LinkedIn

HITCHHIKER'S ANSWER. "While Douglas Adams’ answer to the ultimate question of life is 42; the real answer might be closer to 473 – the minimum number of genes required to sustain life under ideal environmental conditions. The smallest known mycoplasma genome (Mycoplasma genitalium; containing 525 genes) provided the most obvious starting point from which to determine the minimal genome." https://lnkd.in/dSXRRHt View in LinkedIn

MINIMAL GENOME. "Design and synthesis of a minimal bacterial genome. A goal in biology is to understand the molecular and biological function of every gene in a cell. One way to approach this is to build a minimal genome that includes only the genes essential for life." (Venter). https://lnkd.in/duQe9uW View in LinkedIn

MINIMAL CELL. "While the work by von Neumann established that artificial self replication is possible it left open the question of the minimal logical organization necessary for self replication." https://lnkd.in/dAx3RM7 View in LinkedIn

"CELLULAR AUTOMATA can be characterized as an array of identical processing units called cel ls that are arranged and interconnected throughout space in a regular manner. At each tick of simulated time each cell simultaneously changes state as a function of its own current state and the state of its immediately neighboring cells. In other words a cell makes a decision about its new state based on its four adjacent cells plus its own state." https://lnkd.in/dAx3RM7 View in LinkedIn

POLYKETIDE SYNTHESASES. "Single giant proteins with multiple catalytic domains, repeated in modules, oligomerize and transform small units to build up complex natural products. These varied enzymatic properties ensure overall catalytic plasticity in the world of natural products." https://lnkd.in/dEpJBda View in LinkedIn

BUT NOT QUITE RASA. "As with all genetic algorithms, there was work involved with designing the fitness function. The fitness function is equivalent to describing to the AI what you’re looking for. In this way, creating the fitness function itself, is a bit like programming (on behalf of the human). If it were possible for the AI to develop its own fitness function, this would be a step forward." https://lnkd.in/ddNuyJD View in LinkedIn

LACK OF EUKARYOTIC LOGIC. "One of the striking differences between this arrangement in prokaryotes and that found in eukaryotes is that typically, not only are the genes of metabolic pathways in eukaryotes not organized in clusters, but they are often located on different chromosomes. Thus, unlike the metabolic genes of prokaryotes, those of eukaryotes are not organized spatially." https://lnkd.in/dEpJBda View in LinkedIn

PROKARYOTE LOGIC. "Not only are the genes aligned sequentially...but they are also usually aligned along the same direction in the DNA strand." https://lnkd.in/dEpJBda View in LinkedIn

LOGICALAL PROKARYOTIC STRUCTURES. "In prokaryotes, the genes for metabolic pathways are typically organized into operons and, upon transcription, give polycistronic m-RNA. Such unidirectional, clustered, and organized genes would appear to make good engineering sense." https://lnkd.in/dEpJBda View in LinkedIn