COMPUTER SICKNESS: Virtual Microbe

The first complete computer model of the whole living bacteria: in the future such systems will make changes in the genomes of organisms and evaluate their impact, without a long and complex experiments, but simply looking at a computer screen.





So far, however, to such a break away: first the body, fully simulated on a computer that was Mycoplasma genitalium, a bacterium responsible for the development of a number of infectious diseases. However, the choice fell on it for quite different reasons: it - the owner of one of the shortest genomes, which has only 525 genes (for comparison, E. coli has 4288 genes, and we have with you, according to various estimates, 20-25 thousand ..)

Mycoplasma genitalium

The authors found that the behavior of all 525 genes can be described by a combination of 28-base algorithms, each of which describes the behavior of a software module that simulates a particular biological process. The modules are interacting with each other, eventually exhibit the behavior is very, very close to the actual reactions of the genome, the physiology of the whole cell M. Genitalium
Established experimentally.

In short, the model works and shows high similarity to this bacterium, although it is very simple. However, in the future, when such models are able to build for other, more complex organisms, they will make a real breakthrough in biology and medicine. They will put the virtual experiments with the most severe in the bacteria to find out all the details of their operation and effects of certain precise actions. Especially useful it will be the study of pathogens - if only to keep in mind that any conclusions must be carefully checked by simulation in the laboratory.