Mushegian and Koonin

Let us now go back to the more familiar DNA world with the question of the minimal genome. This has been considered by several authors, for example, Mushegian and Koonin (1996) Shimkets (1998) Mushegian (1999) Koonin (2000) Kolisny-chenko etal. (2002) 2002) Luisi etal (2002) Gil etal. (2004) Islas etal. (2004). Table 11.1 gives an overview of some salient contributions in the field. 

Mushegian and Koonin (1996) calculated an inventory of 256 genes that represents the amount of DNA required to sustain a modern type of minimal cell under permissible conditions. This number, as indicated later by Koonin (2000), is quite similar to the values of viable minimal genome sizes inferred by site-directed gene disruptions in B. subtilis (Itaya, 1995) and transposon-mediated... 

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