Scientists revealed a breakthrough process that allowed them to create a synthetic organism that only possesses the most basic functions and the least number of genes to survive and reproduce, making this a true scientific feat, providing new insights about the nature of life. 

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J. Craig Venter and his team, who is also a pioneer geneticist, claims that this bacterial cell is created to become the "most simple of all organisms". For comparison, the human genome already contains more than 20,000 genes however, this artificial cell only has 473. 

Venter says that this new study along with Synthetic Genomics Inc can help further understand life's most minimal requirements to survive, but researchers say that even with this basic organism, understanding everything remains a challenge. 

Researchers revealed that even if this particular organism has only a few genes, scientists are still unsure if all the functions of the cell would work, where only one third of them only work even after more than five years of research.  

This new cell can help researchers develop new practical applications in medicine, biochemicals, biofuels and and even agriculture. According to vice president for DNA technologies at Synthetic Genomics Inc, Daniel Gibson, the vision of this study is to design and develop synthetic organisms on demand for specific functions in order to predict the result. 

Venter and his team helped in mapping the human genome and created the first synthetic cell in 2010. In this feat, a bacterial organism is created with a manmade genome, showing that these can be created using computer models, inside a laboratory and then transplanted into a cell to form a new, self-replicating life form.

Researchers's next step was to engineer a bacterium and remove unnecessary genes, making it a goal to use the fewest genes possible for the organism to survive and reproduce. Venter revealed that all their prior designs have failed when they removed too may genes where they had to restore some.

By creating a minimal cell that had the smallest genome of any self replicating organism, a cell with fewer genes is possible to live but it can reproduce at a most excruciatingly slow process. According to lead author of the study, microbiologist Clyde Hutchison of the J. Craig Venter Institute, their goal was to determine the all the functions inside the cell's genes and simulate a computer model to predict its growth and changes when it is exposed to a variety of environments or with different sets of genes. 

Hutchinson adds that, to date, there is still no cell that exists that we know all its entire functions of all its genes. Venter adds that this new research can shed light on how life began on Earth billions of years ago, how the most fundamental functions and mechanisms merged with the first primitive life forms on the planet.

This new study is published in the journal, Science.