The MiniLife Project: Laboratory Creation of Minimal Synthetic Life Capable of Darwinian Evolution

Abstract

The most basic life is defined and assembled; it is among the most daring endeavours of synthetic biology. The MiniLife Project tries to oppose this by creating artificial beings, which exhibit the three features of life: self-maintenance, replication and Darwinian evolution. Unlike genome-reduction experiments which involve the use of natural organisms, in the MiniLife model it is a bottom-up model where lipid vesicle compartments, reduced genetic circuitry and catalyticreplicase systems are combined. In assembly of laboratories, encapsulated DNA/RNA templates containing replication and metabolic support genes are used, in combination with ribozymes and polymerases to maintain template-mediated synthesis. The evolvability that is brought about by error-prone replication allows the heritable variation to the face of selective pressures (nutrient scarcity and thermal stress). Experimental findings show that replication in synthetic vesicles is successful and variants that are more stress resilient have evolved during about 25 generations. Analyses Fitness landscape demonstrates Darwinian dynamics, variation, selection and inheritance, in a simple synthetic framework. These results have shown that simplified laboratory systems can support reality evolutionary processes. The extended meaning of the MiniLife Project is that it can be a model platform to study the genesis of life and assess biosignatures applicable to the astrobiology field and allow the adaptive synthetic beings to be used in biotechnology. The project has set a precedent of connecting theoretical models and experimental practice to the production of minimal life that can evolve in the laboratory and it has shown how even evolution itself can be used as a design principle in next-generation bioengineering.