Jale89
Jale89 t1_jbnh2q1 wrote
Reply to comment by FrostReaver in I just learned that the known shortest DNA in an “organism” is about 1700 base pairs in a certain virus. Is there a minimum amount of “code” required for an organism (or virus) to function in any capacity? by mcbergstedt
As far as I am aware, this is currently our best answer. I saw a talk by the Primary Investigator in 2015 - I recall that they were basically knocking out every gene. We had a brief conversation about an area they hadn't explored where they could potentially go even further, if there are genes sets where knocking out only single components was lethal, but knocking out the whole set was survivable, so there's potential to go even further.
OP, the virus mentioned doesn't really represent an organism because it requires the mechanisms of a cell to replicate. The organism that FrostRever mentions here exists in "axenic culture", which means there are no other species present at all.
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Jale89 t1_jbnneoi wrote
Reply to comment by RaptureAusculation in I just learned that the known shortest DNA in an “organism” is about 1700 base pairs in a certain virus. Is there a minimum amount of “code” required for an organism (or virus) to function in any capacity? by mcbergstedt
No: this is more like comparing a Raspberry Pi to a full modern PC - all the same modern bits but simpler. Comparing to the first life on earth would be like the first computers, with radically different components and operating principals to achieve the same functions.