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Clyde Hutchison, III, PhD, is a distinguished professor emeritus at the J. Craig Venter Institute in La Jolla, California, where he is a member of the Synthetic Biology Group. He is also a consultant for Synthetic Genomics, Inc. In 1995 he was elected to membership in the National Academy of Sciences. He graduated from Yale University in 1960, with a BS in Physics. His graduate studies were in the laboratory of Robert L. Sinsheimer at Cal Tech where he finished his PhD in 1968. He was a member of the faculty of The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill from 1968 until 2005, where he now holds the title Kenan Professor Emeritus. He has worked on the molecular genetics of bacteriophage, bacteria, and mammals. In Fred Sanger's lab (1975-6) he helped determine the first complete sequence of a DNA molecule (phiX174). He developed site-directed mutagenesis with Michael Smith (1978). In 1990 he began work with mycoplasmas as models for the minimal cell. This led to collaboration with Smith and Venter, and his current work on synthetic genomics.
Research Priorities
Understanding the minimal requirements for life
- Determining functions of all genes in the minimal cell, JCVI-syn3.0.
Developing methods for genome design
- Extending the design of minimized genomes to simple eukaryotes.
Modeling the minimal cell
- Collaborating with other labs to build a predictive computer model of JCVI-syn3.0.
Publications
The journal of physical chemistry. B. 2022-09-15; 126.36: 6820-6834.
Toward the Complete Functional Characterization of a Minimal Bacterial Proteome
Cell. 2022-07-21; 185.15: 2708-2724.
Synthetic chromosomes, genomes, viruses, and cells
Cell. 2022-01-20; 185.2: 345-360.e28.
Fundamental behaviors emerge from simulations of a living minimal cell
International journal of molecular sciences. 2020-09-26; 21.19:
Gross Chromosomal Rearrangements in Kluyveromyces marxianus Revealed by Illumina and Oxford Nanopore Sequencing
Frontiers in molecular biosciences. 2019-11-28; 6.130.
Kinetic Modeling of the Genetic Information Processes in a Minimal Cell
Journal of bacteriology. 2019-10-01; 201.19:
Polar Effects of Transposon Insertion into a Minimal Bacterial Genome
eLife. 2019-01-18; 8.
Essential metabolism for a minimal cell
ACS synthetic biology. 2018-06-15; 7.6: 1538-1552.
Tuning Gene Activity by Inducible and Targeted Regulation of Gene Expression in Minimal Bacterial Cells
Cold Spring Harbor perspectives in biology. 2017-12-01; 9.12:
Minimal Cells-Real and Imagined
Scientific reports. 2016-08-04; 6.30714.
One step engineering of the small-subunit ribosomal RNA using CRISPR/Cas9
Science (New York, N.Y.). 2016-03-25; 351.6280: aad6253.
Design and synthesis of a minimal bacterial genome
Genome research. 2015-03-01; 25.3: 435-44.
Bacterial genome reduction using the progressive clustering of deletions via yeast sexual cycling
Nature protocols. 2014-04-01; 9.4: 743-50.
Transferring whole genomes from bacteria to yeast spheroplasts using entire bacterial cells to reduce DNA shearing
Frontiers in microbiology. 2014-01-01; 5.369.
Rescue of mutant fitness defects using in vitro reconstituted designer transposons in Mycoplasma mycoides
Journal of biological engineering. 2013-12-10; 7.1: 30.
Assembly of eukaryotic algal chromosomes in yeast
Nature methods. 2013-05-01; 10.5: 410-2.
Direct transfer of whole genomes from bacteria to yeast
Nucleic acids research. 2012-11-01; 40.20: 10375-83.
Sequence analysis of a complete 1.66 Mb Prochlorococcus marinus MED4 genome cloned in yeast
ACS synthetic biology. 2012-07-20; 1.7: 267-73.
Assembly of large, high G+C bacterial DNA fragments in yeast
Nature methods. 2010-11-01; 7.11: 901-3.
Chemical synthesis of the mouse mitochondrial genome
Science (New York, N.Y.). 2010-07-02; 329.5987: 52-6.
Creation of a bacterial cell controlled by a chemically synthesized genome
Nucleic acids research. 2010-05-01; 38.8: 2558-69.
Cloning whole bacterial genomes in yeast
Science (New York, N.Y.). 2009-09-25; 325.5948: 1693-6.
Creating bacterial strains from genomes that have been cloned and engineered in yeast
Nature methods. 2009-05-01; 6.5: 343-5.
Enzymatic assembly of DNA molecules up to several hundred kilobases
Molecular systems biology. 2009-01-01; 5.330.
A systems biology tour de force for a near-minimal bacterium
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. 2008-12-23; 105.51: 20404-9.
One-step assembly in yeast of 25 overlapping DNA fragments to form a complete synthetic Mycoplasma genitalium genome
Science (New York, N.Y.). 2008-02-29; 319.5867: 1215-20.
Complete chemical synthesis, assembly, and cloning of a Mycoplasma genitalium genome
Nucleic acids research. 2007-09-12; 35.18: 6227-37.
DNA sequencing: bench to bedside and beyond
Science (New York, N.Y.). 2007-08-03; 317.5838: 632-8.
Genome transplantation in bacteria: changing one species to another
BMC microbiology. 2007-07-02; 7.63.
Mapping phosphoproteins in Mycoplasma genitalium and Mycoplasma pneumoniae
BMC bioinformatics. 2006-01-19; 7.31.
Similarity-based gene detection: using COGs to find evolutionarily-conserved ORFs
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. 2005-11-29; 102.48: 17332-6.
Cell-free cloning using phi29 DNA polymerase
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. 2003-12-23; 100.26: 15440-5.
Generating a synthetic genome by whole genome assembly: phiX174 bacteriophage from synthetic oligonucleotides
Science (New York, N.Y.). 1999-12-10; 286.5447: 2165-9.
Global transposon mutagenesis and a minimal Mycoplasma genome
Science (New York, N.Y.). 1995-10-20; 270.5235: 397-403.
The minimal gene complement of Mycoplasma genitalium
Journal of bacteriology. 1993-12-01; 175.24: 7918-30.
A survey of the Mycoplasma genitalium genome by using random sequencing
Molecular and cellular biology. 1986-01-01; 6.1: 168-82.
The sequence of a large L1Md element reveals a tandemly repeated 5' end and several features found in retrotransposons
The Journal of biological chemistry. 1978-09-25; 253.18: 6551-60.
Mutagenesis at a specific position in a DNA sequence
Nature. 1976-11-04; 264.5581: 34-41.
Overlapping genes in bacteriophage phiX174
Nature. 1974-10-11; 251.5475: 536-8.
Maternal inheritance of mammalian mitochondrial DNA
Research Priorities
Understanding the minimal requirements for life
- Determining functions of all genes in the minimal cell, JCVI-syn3.0.
Developing methods for genome design
- Extending the design of minimized genomes to simple eukaryotes.
Modeling the minimal cell
- Collaborating with other labs to build a predictive computer model of JCVI-syn3.0.