Is God really in for a competition from J Craig Venter? This visionary biologist of the 21^st century known for his contributions to genomic research, and the noted entrepreneur known for bio-prospecting for genetic gold in the depths of the oceans and deep in the rain forests, seems to be on the verge of creating the world's first free-living organism in his laboratory.

The J Craig Venter Institute—a non-profit research institute founded by the maverick biologist, J Craig Venter - announced on June 28, 2007 that they have successfully transformed the bacteria - Mycoplasma capricolum into another type, Mycoplasma mycoides LC, by transplanting the chromosome of M.mycoides LC in M. capricolum. The team first added an antibiotic selectable marker gene to the M. mycoides LC to facilitate the selection of living cells containing the transplanted chromosome. Then the purified DNA from M. mycoides LC was transplanted into the M. capricolum cells. After several rounds of cell division, M. capricolum chromosome disappeared, having been replaced by M.mycoides. This resulted in M. capricolum cells taking over all the phenotypic characteristics of M. mycoides LC. This success was tested using 2D gel electrophoresis and protein sequencing method which confirmed that all the expressed proteins are that of coded for M. mycoides LC. "We are committed to this research as we believe that synthetic genomics holds great promise in helping to solve issues like climate change and in developing new sources of energy," said J Craig Venter, President of the institute.

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