Deciphering the minimal cell

Ever wondered how many genes are essential for survival?

To help answer this question the scientists at the J Craig Venter Institute (JCVI) developed the first self-replicating synthetic bacterial cell in 2010. A "reduced" version of this bacterial cell was later introduced in 2016 and named Mycoplasma mycoides JCVI syn3.0. This is by far the smallest semi artificially designed organism with only 473 genes.