{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"institution":[{"name":"bioRxiv"}],"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,26]],"date-time":"2026-09-26T05:19:55Z","timestamp":1790399995805,"version":"4.1.0"},"posted":{"date-parts":[[2026,3,14]]},"group-title":"Synthetic Biology","reference-count":30,"publisher":"openRxiv","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,3,14]],"date-time":"2026-03-14T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1773446400000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"http:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"award":["MCB 1840320"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["MCB 1840320"]}],"id":[{"id":"https:\/\/ror.org\/021nxhr62","id-type":"ROR","asserted-by":"publisher"}]},{"award":["MCB 1818344"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["MCB 1818344"]}],"id":[{"id":"https:\/\/ror.org\/021nxhr62","id-type":"ROR","asserted-by":"publisher"}]},{"award":[", MCB 1840301"],"award-info":[{"award-number":[", MCB 1840301"]}],"id":[{"id":"https:\/\/ror.org\/021nxhr62","id-type":"ROR","asserted-by":"publisher"}]},{"award":["MCB 2221237"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["MCB 2221237"]}],"id":[{"id":"https:\/\/ror.org\/021nxhr62","id-type":"ROR","asserted-by":"publisher"}]},{"DOI":"10.13039\/100000060","name":"National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","award":["R21 AI098057-02"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["R21 AI098057-02"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/100000060","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"crossref"}]},{"DOI":"10.13039\/100000199","name":"United States Department of Agriculture","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","award":["NIFA 2015-67016-23169"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["NIFA 2015-67016-23169"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/100000199","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"crossref"}]},{"name":"Ruggles Family Foundation"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":[],"accepted":{"date-parts":[[2026,3,14]]},"abstract":"<jats:title>ABSTRACT<\/jats:title>\n                <jats:p>\n                  We present a living, synthetic bacterial cell made by transplanting a complete genome into a dead cell. After killing\n                  <jats:italic>Mycoplasma capricolum<\/jats:italic>\n                  cells by chemically crosslinking their genome with Mitomycin C (MMC), we installed synthetic\n                  <jats:italic>Mycoplasma mycoides<\/jats:italic>\n                  genomes into the resulting dead cells using Whole Genome Transplantation (WGT)\n                  <jats:sup>1,2<\/jats:sup>\n                  . During WGT, a synthetic donor genome is placed into a recipient cell, thereby reprogramming that cell to adopt a new genetic identity\n                  <jats:sup>3<\/jats:sup>\n                  . WGT has only been demonstrated using species within one phylogenetic clade of\n                  <jats:italic>Mollicutes<\/jats:italic>\n                  bacteria\n                  <jats:sup>4<\/jats:sup>\n                  . A major barrier to expanding WGT to diverse bacterial species has been the inability to inactivate the recipient genome, leading to false positive transplants due to homologous recombination of antibiotic resistance markers from the donor genome into the recipient cell genome. Here, we address this key limitation by removing reliance on an antibiotic resistance marker to select for transplants; recipient cells are dead unless revived by the installation of a new genome. Our work demonstrates a general approach to fully inactivate the recipient cell genome, reports the first living synthetic bacterial cell constructed from non-living parts, and advances WGT for building engineered or synthetic cells for diverse applications.\n                <\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.64898\/2026.03.13.711674","type":"posted-content","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,3,15]],"date-time":"2026-03-15T06:35:11Z","timestamp":1773556511000},"source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":3,"title":["Selection-free whole genome transplantation revives dead microbes"],"prefix":"10.64898","author":[{"given":"Zumra Peksaglam","family":"Seidel","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"J. Craig Venter Institute, San Diego, CA 92037, USA"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Nacyra","family":"Assad-Garcia","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"J. Craig Venter Institute, Rockville, MD 20850, USA"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Vanya","family":"Paralanov","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"J. Craig Venter Institute, Rockville, MD 20850, USA"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Feilun","family":"Wu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"J. Craig Venter Institute, Rockville, MD 20850, USA"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Olivia","family":"Chao","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"J. Craig Venter Institute, Rockville, MD 20850, USA"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Elizabeth A.","family":"Strychalski","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, MD 20899, USA"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Eugenia","family":"Romantseva","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, MD 20899, USA"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Tyler","family":"Goshia","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"J. Craig Venter Institute, San Diego, CA 92037, USA"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"J.","family":"Craig Venter","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"J. Craig Venter Institute, San Diego, CA 92037, USA"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-3784-5301","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"John I.","family":"Glass","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"J. Craig Venter Institute, San Diego, CA 92037, USA"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"54368","reference":[{"key":"2026031706150657000_2026.03.13.711674v1.1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1126\/science.1144622"},{"key":"2026031706150657000_2026.03.13.711674v1.2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1126\/science.1173759"},{"key":"2026031706150657000_2026.03.13.711674v1.3","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1126\/science.1190719"},{"key":"2026031706150657000_2026.03.13.711674v1.4","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1093\/nar\/gkw688"},{"key":"2026031706150657000_2026.03.13.711674v1.5","unstructured":"Global Industry Analysts, I. G. Synthetic Cells - Market Research. 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