Scientists aim for ‘Darwinian evolution’ with artificial life project.

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European scientists have begun work on a project to create simple life forms from scratch in the laboratory, both theoretically and experimentally, in the fast-growing field of synthetic biology.

Starting with inanimate chemicals, the researchers aimed to produce metabolically active cells that grow, divide and exhibit “Darwinian evolution” within six years.

The €13mn “Minilife” project, funded by European Research Council And it includes biologists and chemists from several universities, the world’s first artificial living system can reach a minimum standard.

“Success is a significant achievement in basic science,” says Evors Szatmari, director of the Center for Conceptualization in Science. Parmenides Foundation In Germany, he is a principal investigator on an ERC grant. “Creating de-novo living systems is a long-standing dream of mankind.”

John Sutherland, who works on pre-life chemistry at the MRC Molecular Biology in Cambridge, said the project would join a growing international effort to “create small living systems”.

Sutherland, who is not involved in the MiniLife project, added: “It’s driven by a constant desire to understand how life originated on Earth and whether it could have originated elsewhere in the observable universe.”

Other synthetic life researchers are working with the building blocks of life on Earth, specifically ribonucleic acid, which contains nucleotides. The ERC project, in contrast, aims to start from scratch without using molecules that are themselves the products of evolution.

“We’re moving away from known life forms because they’re more evolved organisms and we’re simplifying them to get to a smaller form,” Szatmari said.

Minilife researchers are evaluating four systems that, individually or in combination, may be the basis for minilife. All are “autocatalytic”, the chemical reaction necessary for self-replication is created by its own products.

One candidate formose reaction. A process discovered in the 19th century turns the extremely simple chemical formaldehyde into increasingly complex sugar molecules. Because the reaction is fed by formaldehyde, the behavior of the droplets varies with the sugar content in them.

“Some grow faster and divide faster than others,” says Andrew Griffiths, a minilife investigator at the Ecole Supérieure de Physique et de Chemie Industrielles in Paris. “We end up with something analogous to fitness in biology, like a mixture of slow-growing and fast-growing bacteria, but in a much simpler chemical system.”

The system based on Formos should be able to show a reliable inheritance – the transfer of the acquired characteristics from one generation to another – possibly in combination with one of the other systems evaluated.

The six-year period is too long, says Griffiths, who hopes the project will “reveal the first Darwinian evolution.” It involves a system that can switch between at least two heritage states in different environments, similar to the famous pepper moth when its wings live in a clean environment with a white and black surface in a contaminated area.

Sijbren Otto, professor of systems chemistry at the University of Groningen and another member of the MiniLife team, said the main motivation was “a fascination with the nature and origins of life.” Although the molecules we develop may not be the same as those that began life on prebiotic Earth 3.8 billion years ago, the methods we uncover will be very useful for understanding what happened then.

Last month, an international group of researchers warned of an “unprecedented risk” in another area of ​​synthetic biology. “Mirror life” – bacteria that are a structural reflection of natural microbes – cultivated bacteria – can overcome the defenses of humans, other animals and plants.

Asked about the safety of the MiniLife project, Otto said the inventions were “very unlikely to have any viability outside of very uncontrolled laboratory conditions” and posed no risk to the public.

However, the group is working with experts to develop an ethical framework for research. “Now is the time to think a lot about where the research will lead,” Otto said.