In addition, the rational design of bacterial cells through synthetic biology, as is currently possible, requires an understanding of the minimal gene set for further advances3,36.
Our studies identify the minimal gene set required to direct the efficient synthesis of these fatty acids in transgenic seed oil.
These findings might lead to a better understanding of the organization of the minimal gene set, and to a novel explanation for the allometric scaling laws.
And we just asked the question, if one needs 1,800 and another 500, and the others need more, is there a minimal gene set that we could define life with?
The identification of essential genes in bacteria promises to (i) identify critical genes and pathways for controlling pathogenic bacteria by identifying potential targets for antimicrobial drug development1; (ii) reveal the minimal gene set for living organisms and to shed light on the origin of life2,3; and (iii) reveal bacterial relationships during evolution4,5.
Further comparisons to all available cyanobacterial genomes covering almost the entire evolutionary branch revealed a common minimal gene set for each of these cyanobacterial traits.
Since estrogen is a multifunctional hormone, we reasoned that the approach of seeking to identify a minimal gene set associated with adverse outcome in tamoxifen-treated patients and the binary nature of many of the resulting classifications might obscure some of the complexity of the underlying biology.
Instead of a minimal gene set, we computationally explored a minimal cellular-function set.
A practical example of the importance of minimal gene set characterization is in drug development.
Further investigation would be warranted to examine the minimal gene set that drives neoplasia.
Similarly, a minimal gene set to distinguish TB from LTBI and from HC was identified.
