ReviewDie Naturwissenschaften2006
Approaches to semi-synthetic minimal cells: a review.
Review in Die Naturwissenschaften, 2006. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 107 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
107 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 405 citations in OpenAlex.
- Mapping the Emergence of Synthetic Biology.PloS one · 2016Pooled it
- Nature-Inspired Enzymatic Cascades: Emerging Strategies for Sustainable Chemistry.Molecules (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Review
- Template-Based Catalysis and the Emergence of Collectively Autocatalytic Systems.Entropy (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Autonomous biogenesis of all thirty proteins of the Escherichia coli translation machinery.Nature communications · 2025Article
- Biomanufacturing Potential of Streamlined Cells.Biotechnology and bioengineering · 2025Article
- Synthetic cells by the numbers.iScience · 2025Review
- Chemical Reactions in Living Systems.Advanced science (Weinheim, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany) · 2024Review
- DNA droplets for intelligent and dynamical artificial cells: from the viewpoint of computation and non-equilibrium systems.Interface focus · 2023Review
- A Role for Bottom-Up Synthetic Cells in the Internet of Bio-Nano Things?Molecules (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Article
- A Hitchhiker's Guide to Supplying Enzymatic Reducing Power into Synthetic Cells.ACS synthetic biology · 2023Review
- Cell-sized asymmetric phospholipid-amphiphilic protein vesicles with growth, fission, and molecule transportation.iScience · 2023Article
- Advancing synthetic biology through cell-free protein synthesis.Computational and structural biotechnology journal · 2023Review
- Synthetic cell research: Is technical progress leaving theoretical and epistemological investigations one step behind?Frontiers in robotics and AI · 2023Article
- Synthetic cells with self-activating optogenetic proteins communicate with natural cells.Nature communications · 2022Article
- Minimal Pathway for the Regeneration of Redox Cofactors.JACS Au · 2021Article
- Shaping Liposomes by Cell-Free Expressed Bacterial Microtubules.ACS synthetic biology · 2021Article
- Interfacing Living and Synthetic Cells as an Emerging Frontier in Synthetic Biology.Angewandte Chemie (International ed. in English) · 2021Review
- Interfacing Living and Synthetic Cells as an Emerging Frontier in Synthetic Biology.Angewandte Chemie (Weinheim an der Bergstrasse, Germany) · 2021Review
- Bioinspired Networks of Communicating Synthetic Protocells.Frontiers in molecular biosciences · 2021Review
- The Metabolic Building Blocks of a Minimal Cell.Biology · 2020Article
47 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Following is a synthetic review on the minimal living cell, defined as an artificial or a semi-artificial cell having the minimal and sufficient number of components to be considered alive. We describe concepts and experiments based on these constructions, and we point out that an operational definition of minimal cell does not define a single species, but rather a broad family of interrelated cell-like structures. The relevance of these researches, considering that the minimal cell should also correspond to the early simple cell in the origin of life and early evolution, is also explained. In addition, we present detailed data in relation to minimal genome, with observations cited by several authors who agree on setting the theoretical full-fledged minimal genome to a figure between 200 and 300 genes. However, further theoretical assumptions may significantly reduce this number (i.e. by eliminating ribosomal proteins and by limiting DNA and RNA polymerases to only a few, less specific molecular species). Generally, the experimental approach to minimal cells consists in utilizing liposomes as cell models and in filling them with genes/enzymes corresponding to minimal cellular functions. To date, a few research groups have successfully induced the expression of single proteins, such as the green fluorescence protein, inside liposomes. Here, different approaches are described and compared. Present constructs are still rather far from the minimal cell, and experimental as well as theoretical difficulties opposing further reduction of complexity are discussed. While most of these minimal cell constructions may represent relatively poor imitations of a modern full-fledged cell, further studies will begin precisely from these constructs. In conclusion, we give a brief outline of the next possible steps on the road map to the minimal cell.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.