Scientists Have Created the World's Smallest Organism That Moves with Genetic Engineering
Say hello to artificial bacterium syn-3, now with "swimming" powers thanks to genetic tinkering. Motility—the scientific term for being able to move independently—is one of the most important features for living organisms on Earth. But where cells’ ability to move came from has been a mystery for many scientists. However, new research in which scientists created the world’s smallest moving organism provides one idea of how cell motility came to be. The study, which was published in Scientific Advances on Wednesday, is the result of a collaboration between graduate student Hana Kiyama, from the Graduate School of Science at Osaka City University, and Professor Makoto Miyata, from the Graduate School of Science at Osaka Metropolitan University. As the authors write in their paper, “motility is observed in various phyla and arguably one of the major determinants of survival.” According to the paper, cell motility is believed to originate from small move...