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danby t1_jbopbwg wrote

Reply to comment by ThorsTacHamr 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

Minimal genome experiments generate organisms that aren't free living so they aren't really aimed at generating something like the LUCA. Mostly these experiments are trying to discover the minimal set of house keeping genes that can maintain a living cell, there's no reason to believe the LUCA was like that, nor any reason to believe that the LUCA had a minimally sized genome.

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