comparative genomics

Two researchers working with the plague in Philippines, 1912. Credit: Otis Historical Archives National Museum of Health and Medicine/Flickr, CC BY 2.0

A Study of Human History Through the Lives of Disease-Causing Bacteria

A cluster of JCVI-syn3.0 cells, showing spherical structures of varying sizes. Each of these cells possesses Craig Venter's 'minimal genome' of 475 genes. Source: 10.1126/science.aad6253

What We’re Looking for When We’re Looking for the Smallest Set of Genes Essential for Life