Phi X 174

The phi X 174 bacteriophage is a single-stranded DNA (ssDNA) virus that infects Escherichia coli. This virus was isolated in 1935 by Nicolas Bulgakov in Félix d'Hérelle's laboratory at the Pasteur Institute, from samples collected in Paris sewers. Its characterization and the study of its replication mechanism were carried out from the 1950s onwards. It was the first DNA-based genome to be sequenced. This work was completed by Fred Sanger and his team in 1977. In 1962, Walter Fiers and Robert L. Sinsheimer had already demonstrated the physical, covalently closed circularity of ΦX174 DNA. Nobel prize winner Arthur Kornberg used ΦX174 as a model to first prove that DNA synthesized in a test tube by purified enzymes could produce all the features of a natural virus, ushering in the age of synthetic biology. In 1972–1974, Jerard Hurwitz, Sue Wickner, and Reed Wickner with collaborators identified the genes required to produce the enzymes to catalyze conversion of the single stranded form of the virus to the double stranded replicative form. In 2003, it was reported by Craig Venter's group that the genome of ΦX174 was the first to be completely assembled in vitro from synthesized oligonucleotides. The ΦX174 virus particle has also been successfully assembled in vitro. In 2012, it was shown how its highly overlapping genome can be fully decompressed and still remain functional.

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