Synthetic Yeast Chromosome

Eighteen years after scientists sequenced the full genome of the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae, an international team of researchers has synthesized one of its sixteen chromosomes from scratch—the first time anyone has completed this feat for a eukaryote. The team heavily edited its synthetic chromosome, altering around one-sixth of its base pairs with additions, deletions, and replacements. Despite these changes, yeast cells that carried the designer chromosome—known as SynIII—were indistinguishable from those with the normal version. Read more.