A variety of structures have been observed in the cultures of JCVI-syn3.0, the first minimal bacterial cell. | Thomas Deerinck and Mark Ellisman/NCMIR
The pathogenic bacterium Mycoplasma genitalium has only 525 genes, the fewest of any living organism. The concise creation was a favorite with geneticists, and it was one of the first organisms to be fully sequenced, a feat achieved in 1995 by biologist J. Craig Venter and his team.
