Team:ETH Zurich/Project/Approach

Our Approach

We are following an approach based on random deletions a designed selection mechanism to reach our goal. As mentioned in the Motivation section, we postulate that random disruption of genes combined with an evolutionary approach will allow us to dramatically reduce the genome of an organism.

In order to prove the viability of the concept, we have developed a series of models and of biological experiments, that are introduced in this section. For details on the results of the single steps we refer to the specific sections in the Wetlab and the Modelingsections.

a) .. excision of genomic sequences by restriction enzymes can be performed within the living cell; b) .. fragmented genomic DNA can be ligated inside the living cell by simultaneous expression of T4 ligase; c) .. pulse generators that produce pulses of protein expression of variable length terminated by induction with a second compound can be devised both on the transcriptional as well as on the translational level; d) .. cells with optimized growth and reproduction can be selected by competition inside chemostat cultures.

Random walk towards a minimal genome