Researchers in Japan have made a significant step towards making artificial living cells. 

Tadashi Sugawara and Koh-ichiroh Shoda of the University of Tokyo created a model cell in which DNA is copied while attached to the cell wall. Sugawara and Shoda say this is a considerable step towards a model of primitive living cells. 

 

                      

 

Sugawara and Shoda's synthetic cell has a cell wall made of lipids, some of which have a fragment of DNA attached. Longer strands of DNA and the enzyme DNA-polymerase are contained within the cell. The longer DNA attaches itself to the DNA fragment on the cell wall and the polymerase copies the DNA, giving long strands of DNA on the inner surface.

'The origin of life and creation of artificial life are the important scientific problems unsolved even in the 21st century,' said Sugawara. While the researchers admit that even simple bacteria are currently far too complex for scientists to create, they say that artificial systems can be used to investigate the relationship between elements within the cell. 'We expect to extract the essence of the living system,' said Sugawara. 

The researchers' goal is to create cells which will grow and divide, with each of the two new artificial cells containing DNA from the original, mimicking the transfer of genetic material when living cells divide. ' 

Laura Howes