The Synthetic Yeast genome project, or Sc2.0 (www.syntheticyeast.org), aims to design, construct, and replace the native 12Mb genome of Saccharomyces cerevisiae with a fully synthetic version. In doing so, researchers hope to learn more about questions such as genome organization, gene content, and the intimate relationship between genome structure and evolution. Additionally, yeasts are being used for industrial fermentation processes so optimization of yeast to maximize production of useful products such as various biofuels, including ethanol, is a high priority. This particular project aims to synthesize the left arm of yeast chromosome 4 (synIVL), which is about 500,000 bp.
PI: Jef Boeke, Johns Hopkins University