The researchers built a synthetic cell that goes through the entire cell cycle

According to researchers, the first artificial cell assembled from inanimate materials has been made to grow and divide.

developed at the University of Minnesota From SpudCell among other things, a news site is told ScienceAlertissa. The cell went through a complete cell cycle.

“At issue is the most fascinating and important thing I’ve ever done in my work, and I only gradually realized that this is really happening”, the second leader of the project, biotechnology researcher Kate Adamala says.

“We have succeeded in imitating something in chemistry that was previously only possible in biology. That is, the entire spectrum of cell behavior.”

According to Adamala, the work at least shows that a system capable of many key functions of the cell can be built from inanimate chemical substances.

Activities include, for example, growth, genetic replication and division. And they do not necessarily require a living initiator, but they can also be created from chemical substances.

Synthetic the most important value of the cell is probably that researchers now have a model that can be used to test what the minimum requirements of life really are and how the different parts of the cell work together.

Since the synthetic cell is made of known materials, it is possible to study more transparently than usual how the internal regulatory networks of the cell work.

In a synthetic cell, it is easier to see which part causes which biological effect because it does not have the jumble of overlapping functions that a natural cell does.

Longer in the long run, such synthetic cells could be useful in at least two ways.

They can be used to build small bioreactors, i.e. biological production units that produce for example medicineschemicals, fuels or other useful substances.

In addition, they could be used as biosensors, i.e. biological detectors programmed to detect a specific substance or biological identifier.

When the biosensor recognizes its target, it gives a signal that can be measured. It can be a color change, a shimmer visible only in a certain light, an electrical response or another easily readable reaction.

Artificial however, the cell is still far from an independent, living cell.

The researchers added 36 genes to control key functions of the cell. Among other things, these genes were taken from the common E. Coli – from bacteria and a certain virus, says Smithsonian Magazine.

For comparison, it can be mentioned that the bacterium in question has about 4,400 genes. A real cell is much more complex than a synthetic one.

The synthetic cell cannot produce its own ribosomes, i.e. the machinery that assembles proteins, so the researchers had to add E. colin ribosomes. Still, protein production stopped already after 5–10 generations.

A synthetic cell needs a nutrient-rich environment and does not have the internal complexity or organelles of a natural cell. This is exactly what shows that the cell is not independent.

So it is not the first truly living artificial cell, but rather proof that cell-like behavior can be built from inanimate parts. The division makes it interesting.

The cell can be used to test what is really needed for the basic functions of life and how biological systems could be built in a more controlled manner.

Research not yet peer reviewed. Science journal Sciencen according to Adalena said that the study did not make it to the prestigious scientific journal Cell because one reviewer thought it was not real biology.